

Which distros to start Linux with - rohshall
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/09/linux-guide-slackware-arch-linux/

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xqyz
Honestly, the article seems rather pointless to me. The kind of people who
don't know what a bootloader is should probably not be using Arch Linux or
Slackware. Not to mention that at least Arch Linux has a far more detailed and
better official documentation, so experienced users who like to try out Arch
would probably be much happier with that.

~~~
astrodust
They lost me at LILO. What year is this, again?

Oh, right. It's 2012 and uucp is still an essential part of Linux and BSD.

Doesn't anyone ever take out the trash?

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moe
LILO is actually still in considerably wide use in datacenters because Grub,
after all those years, still hasn't stabilized (frequent issues with software
RAID, GUID misdetection, etc.)

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akurilin
Haven't tried Slackware, but I thought Arch was a great intro! Still remember
my first "Wait, it's fully installed now? Where's the UI??". We did have the
setup menu at the time.

Haven't gotten around doing Linux From Scratch yet, but I hear it's a good
experience, from a dev perspective at least.

~~~
nnnnni
LFS is good for learning why package managers are great -- especially if you
move to BLFS.

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angrycoder
Some Engadget readers are going to be in for a bit of a shock. Arch dropped
the menu driven install interface in the latest release. You have to do
everything from the command line, including partitioning, creating, and
mounting your file systems.

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rohshall
Yes, I hope it is temporary though. They dropped support for menu-driven
installation script because of lack of contribution. Hope somebody steps up to
the plate.

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hristov
I would rather keep my hands clean with Ubuntu :)

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keithpeter
I would expect to see coverage of one of the RHEL based distributions in an
article like this, CentOS say as it is popular on servers.

Some may be aiming at some kind of certification, or may be looking to add
Linux admin skills to their CVs.

~~~
oofabz
I agree, CentOS would make a great beginner's Linux. It is stable, standard,
and user friendly.

I don't understand the Arch approach to Linux. It's like they fetishize the
drudgery of system administration and want to spend more time doing it.

~~~
rohshall
For some people, it is not a 'dudgery of system administration' but an
opportunity to get to know Linux closely.

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zalew
who is it written for? people who are to jump into slackware don't need an
explanation 'what is linux', and the ones who need it will have no clue what
to do after reading this post.

btw <http://hackerne.ws/item?id=4378972> from a few hours ago (and originally
from a few years ago). a rewritten pointless post about arch and slackware -
coincidence?

~~~
rohshall
There is no great mystery behind it. I am the one who posted both these
articles. I am thinking of trying out another distro after trying (and loving)
arch linux and Slackware seems like a good distro to try.

~~~
zalew
Ok, but I don't get these tutorials for the sake of writing a tutorial, with
no specified target group. It's like I've written "comparing python vs ruby,
getting dirty with dynamic languages" and started it with "a computer program
is a set of instructions... the source code is written in something called a
programming language..."

~~~
rohshall
He is not comparing distros. He is just recommending to newcomers which
distros to start with. But yes, I agree that the introduction is too basic
first. Maybe, he just want newcomers to know the 'real distros' they should
try out after knowing the basics.

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VMG
Outdated - the newest default arch installation iso doesn't have a graphical
installer

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gitarr
Why editorialise the title? It's very misleading this way.

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drucken
Agreed. This is an extremely misleading title.

1\. It bears no relation to the content of the article nor its title, which is
only an introductory guide to two specific distributions, Slackware and Arch
Linux.

2\. It is plain wrong (and outdated) when compared to other Linux
distributions specifically created to be strongly breadcrumbed and newbie-
friendly.

