New to Linux, where to next?

[chamber]

I'm quite new to Linux (8.04 being my first stab at it) I absolutely love it and can't go back to windows now.

I have recently acquired an old laptop of my fiancée and was considering trying out Arch and openbox on it, is this a good idea? Is Arch difficult for a modest noob like myself or would I be able to use it as a good learning curve?

I would be interested in finding out what people think, would anyone recommend another direction?

Just for a bit of info the laptop is a 3/4 year old dell inspiron 1200, I am going to add more RAM and a larger hard drive to it as at the minute it's running like a 90 year old asthmatic in a 100m sprint.

[damis648]

I think for a beginner Arch is probably not the best option. There's a lot of configuring and other things that can be a challenge for beginners. If you want to explore more of the linux world, have a look at maybe OpenSuSe, PCLinuxOS, Fedora, or maybe just an Ubuntu derivative.

PS. Welcome to the community!

[Yes]

I would read through the Beginner Guide on the Arch wiki to see if you understand it. If you do, I would just try Arch. Worst comes to worst you give up and put something easier on it.

[Rokurosv]

If you're comfortable in a terminal and now how to navigate the directories you'll be fine, the beginner's guide is very handy and is also included in the installation CD.

[Pogeymanz]

I'm quite new to Linux (8.04 being my first stab at it) I absolutely love it and can't go back to windows now.

I have recently acquired an old laptop of my fiancée and was considering trying out Arch and openbox on it, is this a good idea? Is Arch difficult for a modest noob like myself or would I be able to use it as a good learning curve?

I would be interested in finding out what people think, would anyone recommend another direction?

Just for a bit of info the laptop is a 3/4 year old dell inspiron 1200, I am going to add more RAM and a larger hard drive to it as at the minute it's running like a 90 year old asthmatic in a 100m sprint.


Go for it. Everyone says that Arch is not for the beginner, but that isn't true. It's for anyone who wants to get hands on. The documentation is incredible and the setup is actually easy. It is time-consuming the first time, though.

People really need to stop saying Arch is difficult. It's just designed for someone who is enthusiastic about their OS.

[RATM_Owns]

I use Arch. Once you get Xorg and a DE set up, it's smooth sailing from there on.

It might not be the best for a new Linux user though.

[Tom--d]

I've used Arch. Very fast onced set up. If you want to know more about Linux, Arch is the way to go :) Then Gentoo >.>

[albinootje]

As far as I'm concerned, with Arch Linux it matters a lot that you read carefully during installation, and during configuring things afterwards.
The Arch Wiki is very useful for that.

Xubuntu or CrunchBang Linux (Ubuntu + OpenBox) is another idea for that laptop.

[forrestcupp]

Arch is just a distribution where you have to start from scratch and work your behind off to get it to end up being as functional as a clean install of Ubuntu. If that's what you want, then go for it. But if you just want to be a good Linux "user", then stick with Ubuntu. The benefits of Arch are that you are forced to learn how Linux works and that you don't end up with bloat that you don't want.

[mips]

Just for a bit of info the laptop is a 3/4 year old dell inspiron 1200, I am going to add more RAM and a larger hard drive to it as at the minute it's running like a 90 year old asthmatic in a 100m sprint.

Is that the one with a 1.3GHz Celeron CPU & 256MB of ram? Arch will be very fast depending on DE.

I have a HP with 1.4GHz Celeron with ram upgraded to 1.25GB and Arch runs just fine on it (KDE4 but things like Openbox are lightning fast). You don't need 1.25GB of ram but hey it was cheap so I got a 1GB module and replaced an existing 256MB module with it.

[MikeTheC]

No, no, you guys have got it all wrong.

Gentoo is the best distro for Linux n00bs evar!!11!!

</sarcasm>

[chamber]

Is that the one with a 1.3GHz Celeron CPU & 256MB of ram? Arch will be very fast depending on DE.

I have a HP with 1.4GHz Celeron with ram upgraded to 1.25GB and Arch runs just fine on it (KDE4 but things like Openbox are lightning fast). You don't need 1.25GB of ram but hey it was cheap so I got a 1GB module and replaced an existing 256MB module with it.

Yeah thats the one.

Only thing is the battery has crapped out on it as well so I'm going to have to take care of that.

Thanks for all the advice folks, think I'll do some more reading on Arch and then give it a whirl. I also like the look of crunchbang so may move to that at some point too.