What Linux should I install

spighita

Hello:

I've been working with windows for many years now and I would Like to install Linux on my machine, but I do not have any idea where to start from.

Which Linux should I install, the main purpose of this is to program in php, mysql and ssurf the web.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for anyone who helps.

Roger_Ramjet

Well, I'd say Red Hat for a personal machine. You do know you can use the PHP/MySQL/Apache set on windows don't you? There is even a complete installer around for them as a set. Search these forums for the link, I've seen it in several posts.

spighita

At home I have WinXP, and I use it for programming PHP.

I would like to learn more about Linux. I got a bit tired of microsoft stuff.
A friend recommended Fedora Core 3, what do you think about that one?

Roger_Ramjet

Don't know it.

LordShryku

Fedora Core is what Red Hat has become. They've split off their products, where Red Hat is the enterprise name and Fedora Core is the free distrobution. It's good for a beginner linux, considering it has a lot of GUI tools for the people coming from Windows who are used to having everything in GUI. As you get more advanced in linux, you may find it lacking though.

Anyone serious about learning linux will install one distro and play with it a bit until they find something they don't like. Then they may try another distro. Personally, I've tried most of the major ones and have come to the conclusion that I like Gentoo the most since it gives me the most flexability. If I were you, I'd install Fedora, just to get my feet wet. Then, once you've had some time with it, you may want to try something a little more advanced, like Gentoo or Debian.

Roger_Ramjet

Ah, so I do 'know' Fedora. That's good to know.

planetsim

If your not keen on Installing it first you can use Knoppix as a little demo type linux over Windows, also helps learn Commands.

If I were you, I'd install Fedora, just to get my feet wet. Then, once you've had some time with it, you may want to try something a little more advanced, like Gentoo or Debian.

Ive seen both the debian and gentoo install, and I think a little is quite exaggerated when you compare to the Fedora Install (which is so easy a Windows user could do it 🙂 )

LordShryku

There is a GUI installer for Debian that you can get, and it is planned in the next Gentoo release, so it's actually not all that far off...

spighita

I installed it but I cannot install the modem.
So for now I decided to buy a book and went to Barnes and Nobles and the books were like 50 dollars.

So I went home without the book, it was to expensive.

I then went online and I saw the book much cheaper and bought it right away.

This is the book I bought. It's on its way.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=l30c1DnAvP&isbn=0672327082&itm=2