I have a Dell Dimension C521 desktop, service tag is 9F1W5C1. It came preloaded with XP. I recently got the blue screen of death and I freaked out. I used my XP CD to use recovery console command chkdsk /R which seemed to fix the problem. As soon as I turned on my desktop after recovery console, I got a trojan horse without even doing anything. I'm thinking about changing my operating system to Linux. Which operating system is most user friendly and easy to pick up? Plus, I ask this because I need to know where to get the neccesary drivers needed for my desktop to work smoothly. On Dell.com, the drivers that they have for my specific computer are only for windows XP, and vista. Where do I get the drivers needed for Linux, if I install Linux? Mind you all, I'm a complete noob to Linux and I don't know a thing about it so please be nice.
Which version of linux is "easiest to pick up and most user friendly" is a question that if you ask 20 people you will get 20 answers. This isn't because anyone is wrong (though trolls will claim otherwise) but because user friendly is a complete matter of opinion. For example I consider windows to be very user UNfriendly which is one reason I no longer use it. Personally I recommend ubuntu if you're migrating from windows for the very first time. It's similar enough that most people can figure things out (especially with some help from the forums), without carrying over the bad computing habits windows teaches people. In regards to the driver issue, very rarely in linux do you 'go online, download a file and install it' like you do in windows. Generally everything you need is located within repositories which can be accessed by software pre-installed for you which downloads/installs everything you need. Many drivers simply 'work' without needing to do anything else. Some drivers, especially drivers for a few certain video cards, are not available in the repositories at which point it becomes harder and takes more work. That is where most posts on the forum reporting problems installing drivers come from. Before installing any OS I would recommend using the liveCD, it won't give you all the speed & capabilities that actually installing ubuntu will give you but it will give you a 'taste' to make certain it's what you want.
Last edited by donkyhotay; August 29th, 2009 at 09:18 PM.
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Ubuntu is very user friendly, and these forums are great for any problems you encounter. Quite a lot of drivers are built in by default, you won't need to do anything to install them! It's true style plug 'n' play. One thing you will need to do though, is install your graphic card driver, by going into System -> Admin -> Hardware Drivers. Good luck, and enjoy free, brilliant, safe software!
You posted in the forums of the most user friendly distro out there - where you advised or was it just blind luck? In linux, you don't need any drivers - everything's included in the installation cd. Download the Ubuntu cd (which is also a live cd), try it and post us if you have any problems.
Welcome to linux, Ubuntu generally has drivers built in to the kernel, best thing to do is download a ubuntu 9.04 cd / boot to your cd drive and see if your hardware works linux generally with hardware work or doesnt - there isnt much in the middle!! IF you install blue screen and virus will be a thing of the past! Your laptop isnt band new so it should work well in ubuntu a little tip, if your going to install, install ubuntu 9.04 and select manaul partition you need your / partition about 10gb AS ext4, swap space (basicly your virtaul memory in windows) as 1 gb, and your home drive the rest of your disk make sure you use ext4 file system Boot the cd and people on the forums will help you through your problems
hi! there is a good chance you don't need any drivers, as Linux tries its best to include them all in the Linux Kernel itself. you can test this theory out on your particular machine without making any changes to your computer. we will do this by booting your computer off of the Ubuntu Live CD instead of the hard drive. download the latest version from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download properly burn the .iso file onto cd: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto boot from the cd you just burned: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD select 'try ubuntu without making any changes', and take it for a test drive!
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Originally Posted by raujo37 I have a Dell Dimension C521 desktop, service tag is 9F1W5C1. It came preloaded with XP. I recently got the blue screen of death and I freaked out. I used my XP CD to use recovery console command chkdsk /R which seemed to fix the problem. As soon as I turned on my desktop after recovery console, I got a trojan horse without even doing anything. I'm thinking about changing my operating system to Linux. Which operating system is most user friendly and easy to pick up? Plus, I ask this because I need to know where to get the neccesary drivers needed for my desktop to work smoothly. On Dell.com, the drivers that they have for my specific computer are only for windows XP, and vista. Where do I get the drivers needed for Linux, if I install Linux? Mind you all, I'm a complete noob to Linux and I don't know a thing about it so please be nice. Well, what is easy for one person may not be easy for another. This is not a blow off but comes under the "facts of life". First, you must be open to a new operating system that is not Windows, although it looks like Windows. If you are a beginner, I would recommend Ubuntu because of the support here in the forums. There are two distributions of Ubuntu, Kbuntu and Ubuntu, each uses a different interface or windows manager. Kbuntu uses the KDE interface and the Ubuntu uses Gnome, these will mean nothing to you right now. I would suggest that you might want to buy a book on the operating system and get a basic understanding of the OS before you commit. Research before install and you will find life easier. There are several other distros that you might find friendly: PCLinux, Mint, Xbuntu, and some others. When I first started out from Windows to Linux, I used PCLinux and found it more "Windows-like", but in someways that is not a good thing, you then begin to expect the OS to be Windows and it is most certainly not. Ubuntu has the advantage of a very large user base in the Linux world. It is especially easy to get up and running so that you can surf the web and do email. Do some outside reading and then give it a try. Before you install any new OS try to save all of your documents! Whatever you choose to do, I might suggest that you install a new hard drive but keep your old hard drive around. This way you know you have no rootkit or other malevolent piece of software. You can always put in the old drive after you have installed Linux and try to recover documents from that drive. At least with Linux, you will not have to worry about viruses. Sorry I am not being more specific but choosing an OS is something that you must figure out for yourself.
I switched over from XP to Ubuntu about five months ago. It a pretty smooth transition. I've got a Dell Optiplex Desktop. Drivers went smooth ( nvidia ). It takes a little getting use to but you can always come here for help.
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