Mint? Is is best for noobz?

WARNING: I'm a total and complete Linux noob.

Someone on here recommended that if I wanted to get started with Linux that Mint would be a good distro for me to start with. I trust this users opinion, so I downloaded this "live boot" or "live session" thing and it seems pretty good. But before I dedicate some of my precious HHD space to a duel boot with Windows XP, I would like to hear from the crowd. What is the best Linux distro for noobz?

NOTE: I have never used anything except Win XP.

 

Mint is based off of Ubuntu which is known as "noob friendly". My mom preffered it over XP lol. I like mint's gui better than Ubuntu, so I say go Mint!

 

Mint and Ubuntu are both excellent distros, and easy on beginners. I have each dual-booted on separate machines. I'd suggest you make Live CD's of each and give them separate test drives, and then decide which to install.

 

Check out the link below. It might help you or anyone who wants to get their feet wet with Linux. I personally will recommend Ubuntu though it's very easy and there are tons of resources available to really learn Linux.

Link is here. http://desktoplinuxathome.com/distro.html

 

Mint is great for beginners who want everything to work out of the box and don't want to do anything else but install and have it work. I really recommend both Ubuntu and Mint but it really depends on what you want more. Ubuntu is more up to date than Mint and gets fixes faster, it also has a much larger community and is liked by a large majority of the Linux community. I suggest you try both Ubuntu and Mint and try to see which one you like more.

 

^ I agree with Calvin. I prefer Linux mint, but Ubuntu is just as easy to use and understand; along with being the most-popular Distro for new Linux users. Before committing to a Distro, try it in a Virtual machine first. I would suggest that you learn all 'the basics' of the Distro in the VM before trying to duel boot. A good VM is virtualBox, http://www.virtualbox.org/, which is easy to setup and use in XP.
Other than that, good luck and enjoy.

N.B If someone says 'arch', run!

 

Started out with Mint Daryna myself and it's real n00b-friendly distro.
It comes with codecs for your audio/video needs and it has a very easy way of updating and installing other programs.

When you are about to install your Linux distro of choice (whether it's Mint Elyssa or Ubuntu 8.04) just do some reading on how to make a separate partition for your " /home" directory, besides the " /" partition where the actual OS is installed.
'/home' is roughly like your 'documents and settings' linux equivalent.
That way you can keep all your personal data when changing to another Linux OS.
Cheers.

 

I'd have to advocate Ubuntu over Mint just because Ubuntu has the biggest support community out there. But definitely settle with whatever you're most comfortable with. That's the joy of using Linux!

 

Mint is ubuntu with a windows-like bottom bar and loaded with some proprietary drivers/codecs. You can use the same tech support. The Mint live CD also only comes with English, whiile Ubuntu's comes with everything languages

 

No definately not, I recommend gentoo

 

Just so you know, he's kidding. Arch and Gentoo are furthest from what you're looking for.

 

^^^ Oh, I don't know about that.... LFS, anyone?

 

Hehe, that's pretty cruel advice to a linux novice.

 

gentoo?
Your being to easy on the blighter.

The novice needs to start on FreeBSD! That's what I recommend. FreeBSD is by far the easiest OS to get-into from Windows. *sarcasm*

 

Gentoo for a beginner . . . what a great idea!

 

LOL 'rob. I recommend Ubuntu for a beginner....Mint is fine though, but Ubuntu will be easy, and force you to learn a little bit about the package management system when come here because a plugin or Codec isn't installed Find a good 'first things to do after a ubuntu install guide' and follow it....getting the fonts installed to make your system look nice is a biggie, and the win32 Codecs. I use Xubuntu btw, love it.

 

If the documentation were fixed in Gentoo (which I believe it has/is being), then it would be very easy to install if you just followed the commands in the handbook. Back when Gentoo first came out, it was all the rage because it would pretty much just work (tm) if you followed the instructions exactly as they were written. Now, that only matters if you actually want to go through the whole manual install process, but if you do, Gentoo would be great.

 

I have to agree with everyone else and say Ubuntu, because the community is fantastic. http://www.ubuntuforums.org will become your second favorite site.

 

Thanks for all the responses guys! It's been very enlightening for me! *Gives Rep* It seems Mint is a good program that I will run in a duel boot with XP pro. Is there anything special Is should know before I install? I think would like to dedicate about 30GB or my 100GB HHD to Linux. Is that about right?

LOL, I'm assuming "Gentoo" is some kind of super hardcore version?

 

First, just run it in live mode from the CD (no installation reqd). Play around with it in live mode. Its like booting into an OS right from the get go.
Ethernet should definately work out of the box. Wireless may work, dunno.
Have fun with it on the CD for a day.

You should allow for 7.5GB for linux OS (just to be comfortable). Another 2GB for swap (page filing).
The rest will be your home directory where you can store stuff. However much you want.
As has been mentioned before, do make seperate partitions for your home directory (/home) and the main directory (/).
That way, when you reinstall, you wont delete the date in your home directory.

For installation, back up imp data you have on windows. You will be taking space from windows, and it does not like that. Defragment before installing.
And be careful not to erase any "hidden" partitions. Some laptops come with factory partitions for backup.restore, and if youd delete them, the retsore utility will be lost.

 

Not really lol. It just makes you compile everything yourself (according to your hardware and needs).It does make for a superfast machine tho

 

Also, if your laptop came with XP pro pre-installed, you should create a windows install disk from the i386 file in your root directory (normally c), just search Google to find out how. Some computers even have a utility pre-installed which does this for you. This should be done even if you have a restore disk, the 'new' XP installation would have all the updates and service packs pre-installed. This is just in case you muck up your 'mint installation and obliterate your windows partition.

Moreover, I would suggest that you create an account with http://www.adrive.com/, which gives you 50GB worth of free online storage. I would not recommend uploading any personal files on the site, but upload all those downloads, films and config files which seem to accumulate onto a system.

Other than that, enjoy LinuxMint!

 

I would try Mint, its very user friendly.