Recommend a linux for a desktop

Hi. I've been a long time windows user, and have a windows desktop. Since getting my linux AAO, I'm rather enthused by the idea of switching to linux (well, probably dual booting) on my desktop. I've done some googling, and it's clear that there's a world of linux choice out there. Would anyone recommend a good linux distro for someone with minimal linux knowledge, but willing to learn. No particular special requirements, just bog standard office and browsing use, on a desktop that currently runs XP reasonably well. A bonus would for it to be fairly similar in look to Windows, for the all-important task of selling the other members of the family on it (I've seen Ubuntu mentioned as having this quality, for example).

Thanks in advance, Mark

 

Mandriva ONE 2009 - is probably the most user friendly of all the Linux Distros. So easy to install via it's live CD. FREE download too. www.mandriva.com

Plus, it's the distro that works best on our Acer Aspire One.

 

I'd agree with tamrac's recommendation of Mandriva for the new Windows 'convert'; I started with Mandriva some years ago. However, you will find that most Linux distros now come as Live-CDs - so you can play with them before deciding which to install, provided you don't mind downloading a few CD images to do so! It's certainly worth looking at Kubuntu (the KDE version of Ubuntu - see below!), Suse, and Mint (a multi-media enhanced Ubuntu-based distro) as well.

One thing I would suggest: most of the major distros come in KDE and Gnome 'flavours'. KDE is probably better for the Windows convert; but KDE is currently undergoing a big change from its 3.5 to its 4.x version. I'd recommend using KDE3.5 at the moment (again, most distros will have this on the Live-CD by default) - KDE4.x is wonderful but as yet takes a bit of manual work at the console to get it working as you'd like it! Also, rememebr that running off a CD is far slower than running from HD, so make allowances for the read time of the CD when assessing how well anything works.

Linux distros will usually install from the Live-CD (so boot using the Live-CD and choose 'install' from a desktop icon or menu), and in the course of installation will give you the option to dual-boot with Windows. Before getting to this stage you are best to have a think about how much space on your hard disk you want to allocate to each system. Bear in mind that whilst Linux will see your Windows drive space, Windows probably won't be able to read your Linux space - so if you have (for example) a lot of mp3 files on your C: drive you might as well leave them on the Windows space until you decide to ditch Windows entirely.

 

Thank you both for some excellent advice. Mandriva is rather tempting now, not least because I looked at their main apps list on the website, and it's identical to what I've decided to use on my AAO. I may well take your advice of trying a few live CDs before fixing on anything - Ubuntu looks like it's worth a play.
And thanks for the drive-space tip, I'll bear that in mind. Any recommended forums for Mandriva? I find taking in the attitude of a forum tells you something about the product (hence why I got an AAO!)

 

Mandriva have their own forums - there are even some AAO related threads in there!

 

My first reccomedation is Linux Mint. It is Ubuntu with the codecs.

http://linuxmint.com/

Other good choices are:

http://www.linux4one.it/
http://www.geteasypeasy.com/
http://kuki.me/
http://crunchbanglinux.org/blog/2009/01 ... -released/

All of these choices are based off of Ubuntu 8.04 or 8.10.

 

I found Ubuntu 7.10 to be easy to learn. 8.04 LTS/8.10 is good too.