On Monday 17 March 2008, OSA wrote: > Hi there, > > My son had his Windows Vista down and he's looking for a Linux OS to run on > the same system so he can boot either OS when the need arises. > > He's looking for a (dummy) user friendly English/Hebrew Linux version. > > Can someone please come up with a suggestion, >
Well, hoping that this doesn't start a distribution flame-war, I'd give my recommendations. My favourite distribution is Mandriva Linux ( http://www.mandriva.com/ ), and as a general rule I'm very happy with it. It has bi-annual releases, but I'm using Mandriva Cooker which is what is the bleeding edge that's going to be the next version. Mandriva aims to be suitable for beginners, and as far as I can tell it generally is, but obviously I'm not a beginner by a long shot. Hebrew in Mandriva apps works very well, but I'm using an English interface. Other popular distributions for beginners include Ubuntu. I'm using it at work, and I guess it's OK, but I still prefer Mandriva. Ubuntu and Mandriva use different package formats (.deb vs. .rpm) and so packages from one will not work natively on the other. There's also MEPIS which is another .deb-using distribution aimed for beginners. Fedora is another .rpm based distribution, endorsed by Red Hat Inc.. I worked with it at several workplaces. It's not too bad, but has some warts. CentOS is an open-source re-packaging of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which in turn is taken from Fedora, but with long-term support offered. I haven't worked with CentOS extensively. Note that all the distributions I mentioned are also suitable for many experts so they can grow with you. There are many distributions that are much less suitable for beginners, like Gentoo, which is source-based, and Archlinux, which requires explicit tweaking for everything, and Slackware which is relatively minimalistic. I wouldn't recommend to start with them. (They do often provide more flexibility and/or power, but that's besides the point). Can you expect your son to be able to contact an expert for help in case he has some trouble? Is he net-savvy enough to search-the-web and ask in forums and IRC channels? I recommend having either for both Linux, but I personally don't think the situation with MS Windows is any better in this regard. Regards, Shlomi Fish --------------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.shlomifish.org/ I'm not an actor - I just play one on T.V. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
