Is Ubuntu a bigginers Linux OS?

[FleetAdmiral74]

When I first decided to switch to Linux from XP, I chose Ubuntu because it was hailed as the easier there was, the Mac OSX of Linux. The thing was, I planned to use this as a stepping stone, just to get my feet wet, and I would move on to a different distro as I got the basics and what not.

Now that I have used it for a while, I am seriously wondering why I would ever leave. I have heard that a lot of distros don't have a package manager system quite as good as this one int. in ubuntu, and I LOVE ubuntu for it. I swear, package management is one of the best things for Linux, and I never even saw it coming.

So, if I want to continue expanding my knowledge of Linux, is sticking with Ubuntu just as good as anything else? Where does it sit compared to other OS's, just a beginners OS and move on, or something to stick with?

[Nekiruhs]

When I first decided to switch to Linux from XP, I chose Ubuntu because it was hailed as the easier there was, the Mac OSX of Linux. The thing was, I planned to use this as a stepping stone, just to get my feet wet, and I would move on to a different distro as I got the basics and what not.

Now that I have used it for a while, I am seriously wondering why I would ever leave. I have heard that a lot of distros don't have a package manager system quite as good as this one int. in ubuntu, and I LOVE ubuntu for it. I swear, package management is one of the best things for Linux, and I never even saw it coming.

So, if I want to continue expanding my knowledge of Linux, is sticking with Ubuntu just as good as anything else? Where does it sit compared to other OS's, just a beginners OS and move on, or something to stick with?
Really, Ubuntu has a lot of power. If you wanted to jump in head first, go to Gentoo, its calling you. If you like Ubuntu, stay, its as powerful as any other distro out there.

[AlexenderReez]

just try other os...like fedora or SuSe...if you feel it is more comfortable then just stick with it....

[starsky]

I moved to Ubuntu because I liked the user community binding it. Ubuntu is a good distribution especially if you look it from -end- user's perspective. The bugs are fixed fast, releases every 6 month and not to mention the huge huge huge user group from mailing list, to forums to irc to user groups based in lots of cities.

All i can say about Ubuntu is that it's a huge success at least for me and my friends.

It's a gnu/linux distribution that every one can use. :-)
That includes my 78 year old granny and my 13 year old brother. :)

On a serious note, it's a distribution that has the best of Debian universe and beautful community around it. And also, you won't have any problem later if you want to switch to other gnu/linux distribution because lots and lots of softwares, compilers and most importantly the linux kernel will remain -almost- same in all distribution.

well, that was a bit long now! isn't it ? ;)

[djhworld]

I don't think Ubuntu is "Linux for dummies" sort of thing.

It's more, Linux for everyone.

The developers have made it easy to use, but you still have that degree of control over your system should you require it.

[deadgobby]

Linspire is the easy of the ease as linux comes.
www.linspire.com/

[ron999]

Hi FleetAdmiral
I've been using Ubuntu for 1 year. I'm very happy with it. But recently I've been trying out different Linux distros by installing them on another hard drive.
I'm going to stay with Ubuntu, I haven't found another distro that's 'better' and they're all slightly different.
But there's no harm in trying them out.
Best place to go for information about them is Distrowatch.
This is the link:-http://distrowatch.com/

[bodhi.zazen]

When I first decided to switch to Linux from XP, I chose Ubuntu because it was hailed as the easier there was, the Mac OSX of Linux. The thing was, I planned to use this as a stepping stone, just to get my feet wet, and I would move on to a different distro as I got the basics and what not.

Now that I have used it for a while, I am seriously wondering why I would ever leave. I have heard that a lot of distros don't have a package manager system quite as good as this one int. in ubuntu, and I LOVE ubuntu for it. I swear, package management is one of the best things for Linux, and I never even saw it coming.

So, if I want to continue expanding my knowledge of Linux, is sticking with Ubuntu just as good as anything else? Where does it sit compared to other OS's, just a beginners OS and move on, or something to stick with?

Depends on what you want from your OS. If you want to learn a little under the hood so to speak, take a look at Slackware, Arch Linux, or Gentoo.

It is best to identify your needs and then find the OS that best fits those needs.

[smoker]

hi, download a few 'live-cd's', and you can try them out before even attempting an install. that way you can check other distros out without interfering with your present ubuntu install.

or, you could download 'virtualbox' from the repositories, and install a few vrtual machines of other distros to mess around with,

i will say though, that i have tried a few other distros since first coming to ubuntu, and have decided ubuntu is the one for me :-)

best of luck

[starcraft.man]

Heh, well I'm really happy with Ubuntu and still learning things from it even now. I don't think it's just for beginners, it's for whoever likes it's way of doing things. Just like Fedora user's like their way of doing things. I dunno if I can ever fully switch now, I might be addicted to how good apt is... other managers just don't feel right. Kinda the same way Firefox addicted me to my extensions, life just feels that little bit less interesting without them around.

This is a cafe topic btw.

[sad_iq]

Where does it sit compared to other OS's, just a beginners OS and move on, or something to stick with?
Well the first time I tried Linux(RedHat 5) every friend of mine would learn it (Red Hat)...because it was easy...then they would move on...to Debian...it was (and still is) harder...not very newbie friendly...but it was very secure...it was (where I Lived) the thing to learn...for it ruled as a server(again...where I lived)...had the most apps(still does I think)...and it was where skills were required to get a server up and running!!
I had to walk away from the open source(specialized in MS-Crap)...but linux has evolved a lot since then...now it's not the skills you have that will let you choose a distro...it's what you use it for, that matters...so if Ubuntu works for you...why change??? Well... to test...my advice...choose a distro that's not based on debian(so you can see the way package management works in other distros)!!!

[kknd]

IMHO, the only 2 distros that you will find better for specific needs os Gentoo (you must love compile things and have spare time) and Slackware (very good for servers and low resources pc). You can learn a lot of thinbgs from them.

Ubuntu is easy to use, but there isn't a thing you cant do with it.

[Dennis the Menace]

hi, download a few 'live-cd's', and you can try them out before even attempting an install. that way you can check other distros out without interfering with your present ubuntu install.

or, you could download 'virtualbox' from the repositories, and install a few vrtual machines of other distros to mess around with,

i will say though, that i have tried a few other distros since first coming to ubuntu, and have decided ubuntu is the one for me :-)

best of luck

I did exactly the same, I've tried a lot of them and always came back to Ubuntu.I've found it suits My pc and me.just try some and decide which suits you best.
good luck.

[daou]

At one point I almost switched to another distro. Ubuntu seemed a bit too *easy*. It didn't take long for me to come crawling back ;). Playing around with other distros that require more tweaking is definitely worth it, but at some point you realize you are wasting a lot of time doing repetitive things that you've done a thousand times over. This is why I started using Ubuntu again. You can go as deep as you like, but do tedious tasks quickly and easily.

Besides, if someone really wants to try the wonders of difficult compiling, get a Linux embedded system (Nokia 770/N800, or something more obscure) and start cross-compiling.

[HermanAB]

There isn't much difference between distributions - they are all Linux after all. most differences are purely cosmetic. Years ago, Mandriva was the clear leader, but now everybody basically caught up.

People friendly package managers started with Mandriva and blew over to Ubuntu and Fedora - now all distributions have nice package managers: urpmi, apt-get, yum and so on. Install something like VMware and then you can play with all the other Linux versions without blowing your present system away.

That being said, I think that Mandriva and Ubuntu are on par, followed by Fedora, Suse, RedHat and Debian, in that order, in terms of general user friendlyness, but the differences are getting less all the time as the various distributions improve their setup wizards.

Cheers,

Herman

[starcraft.man]

There isn't much difference between distributions - they are all Linux after all. most differences are purely cosmetic. Years ago, Mandriva was the clear leader, but now everybody basically caught up.

People friendly package managers started with Mandriva and blew over to Ubuntu and Fedora - now all distributions have nice package managers: urpmi, apt-get, yum and so on. Install something like VMware and then you can play with all the other Linux versions without blowing your present system away.

That being said, I think that Mandriva and Ubuntu are on par, followed by Fedora, Suse, RedHat and Debian, in that order, in terms of general user friendlyness, but the differences are getting less all the time as the various distributions improve their setup wizards.

Cheers,

Herman

Or Virtual Box (http://www.virtualbox.org/) for installing in VM. Just had to mention it, great project.

[Erik Trybom]

I think you're head on with your observations on Ubuntu. It's easy, but it's also not limiting in any way. There's nothing you can't do in Ubuntu that you can do in Slackware or Debian. I don't think Ubuntu qualifies as a beginner's distro, if by that you mean as a first step toward "real" distributions.

If you want to try something else for the sake of learning, Slackware and Gentoo might be good choices, or why not try a variant of BSD? Debian would probably be somewhat boring because most things are the same.

If not for the sake of learning, I mainly see three reasons to switch from Ubuntu:

1) Speed. Using Gnome, Ubuntu isn't the fastest distro on slow machines.
2) Stability. Ubuntu has newer packages and thus more bugs than many other distros.
3) Creating your own custom system.

I recommend you to try out a few other distros and compare them to Ubuntu. If Ubuntu wins, then by all means keep it.

[Arathorn]

Ubuntu is indeed marketed as and focussing on being a distribution that is easy to use for beginning Linux users. At the end of the day though, it's still a full featured Linux distro with a fully working command line interface, so you can make it as difficult as you want it to be.