Linux for people who dont know linux (me!)

[Y2J]

whats the best? And for an old laptop, are there any specific (mandrake, slackware, redhat) which are better than others with battery life, etc?

[hapoo]

for someone that doesn't have much experience i'd highly recommend Mandrake. Its the most user friendly version. I'm not sure how it handles battery life on a laptop but i was very dissapointed when i discovered that it didn't auto-shutoff my hard drive.

[cruelpupet]

Slackware, is the hardest to learn...but its what i suggest you start with, its what im going to start with this summer.

Once you know slackware, all the other flavors are easy (from what i hear)

[hapoo]

Originally posted by chosenfool
you prefer to auto-shutoff your hard drive? isnt that worse than keeping it spinning at all times? or does it even make a diff?


When my servers left running for 24 hours a day, and at least 20 hours of that time the hard drive isn't being used... yes its bad.

[aglio412]

depends on how much learning you want to do.

i started with slackware on an old 386, with a trusty book beside me, and i learned ALOT. but if you just want something to mess around with and don't feel like getting into the nuts and bolts, use mandrake or redhat.