Building and deciding on a linux box?

[Technical Ben]

If I wanted a really cut down (simple) but featured (it can browse the internet ) Linux box, what distro would you recommend? Something good for playing videos and DVDs and a bit of internet browsing is all that is needed really.

(Something idiot proof would be even better)

[D-Dan]

For idiot proof, I would go with (much as I hate to say it) Ubuntu, though you may find Linux Mint more to your taste. If the box it's going on is lower powered, go for something like Linuxmint xfce, which needs fewer resources (for a low powered machine avoid the main Ubuntu altogether - it's turning in to a real resource hog).

Better still, if you have the confidence, install a minimum Debian system, your desktop of choice and vlc, firefox and possible open/libre office for starters. This will give you much less baggage resulting in a leaner, more responsive system.

Even better, if you have both confidence and experience, look at arch (my current distro of choice for several months), though be aware that it takes more knowledge to set up and maintain. Having said that, the Arch wiki and forums are excellent (well, in the case of the forums, they are excellent provided you've done some legwork yourself. They kind of frown on "How do I do this" type posts when the poster has clearly not made an effort to find an answer themselves).

I would probably say the minimal Debian option would be the way to go for anyone not scared of a bit of work in setting it up.

[Technical Ben]

Thanks. I'll give Debian a try over the weekend. I'll trial it on my PC right now, but am thinking of a little media PC (barebones really) with just linux on it.

[nowster]

Debian is in a freeze preparing for the "wheezy" release at the moment. If you want recent versions of software, you'll want the "testing" netinstall CD image.

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/wheezy_di_alpha1/amd64/iso-cd/debian-wheezy-DI-a1-amd64-netinst.iso
for 64 bit

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/wheezy_di_alpha1/i386/iso-cd/debian-wheezy-DI-a1-i386-netinst.iso
for 32 bit

In the interests of full disclosure: I'm a Debian developer.

[Technical Ben]

Debian seems way out of my league. Downloading a tar (Firefox) gives me no indication of how to install it. The instructions are as varied as their are flavors of Lunix (which is no help as none of the instructions mention which linux to use them in much). So I followed the instructions to "apt get" or whatever, and ended up with a german version that just gave an error prompt when I tried to load it up (in german).

I think I'll stick to LinuxMint for now. I really only need like 4 or 5 preinstalled programs (Firefox, VLC some open office and an email client etc). Any versions which come up just like that?

[D-Dan]

Firefox is a breeze - it doesn't need installing. Just extract it (best place is to /opt) and then run with /opt/firefox/firefox. Same with thunderbird.

However, a better option would be

Code Select Expand

sudo apt-get install firefox in a terminal

EDIT: To address your immediate need:

Code Select Expand

sudo apt-get install firefox thunderbird vlc openoffice

EDIT2: If you want a media centre machine you probably also want to think about MythTV (horrible to set up) or xbmc, too. xbmc is a nice, simple media player with support for audio, video, dvd, TV etc. and a skinable interface.

[Technical Ben]

Yeh, Sudo get just returned "not found", as I think the list of search locations (online of cause) did not include the ones for mozilla.
So I added them manually, and it still messed up.

That, and even downloading and extracting manually, I'd need to set a shortcut/launch icon for Firefox. I tried typing firefox/firefox and it gave me nothing. :/

Might have better luck if I can get it up on a second machine, as I can tinker with it a bit more than on this box.

[D-Dan]

Ok - easy way. I'll need to know the exact archive type to be sure (tar.gz, tar.bz etc.) but I'll make an assumption for now.

Open a terminal and navigate to the location where you downloaded the FF archive (e.g. cd ~/Downloads if it's in "Downloads" in your home directory. "~/" is a shortcut for /home/yourusername - you can use the shortcut in the terminal)

Code Select Expand

sudo cp firefox.... /opt #replace "firefox.... with the actual name of the archive
cd /opt
sudo tar xjvf firefox..... #Again replace with the actual archive name
cd firefox #assuming it creates a directory called firefox
firefox #or possibly try ./firefox

If that fails, try making the last

Code Select Expand

/opt/firefox/firefox

If that gets it running, post back and I'll try to talk you through creating a launcher for it. Been a while since I used Debian, so I may be rusty. I'll also need to know what desktop you are using (gnome, kde, xfce etc.)

[nowster]

In Debian, because of trademark problems, Firefox is called "Iceweasel". Similarly Thunderbird is "Icedove".

Debian is not complicated at all nowadays, certainly no more than Ubuntu.

[Technical Ben]

Ohhhhh. It's default browser (seamonkey or similar) was useless. Iceweasel is on there (I see the pun now!!!) and ran smoother. Both did crash on occasion though.
So rather than trouble shoot the browsers in an OS I have no knowledge on, I'll try again with Mint (worked better on my hardware last time I tried it) and see if I can get a second box together over the week out of spares to give a it a real go.

Thanks

[Technical Ben]

Got to scrape together a PC out of spares and a motherboard (that I probably paid way too much for ). Tried Ubuntu on it, and it's a much better layout for me to cope with. It even has things like "system settings" as a label on the, well system settings.

So from there I can learn as I go. I don't think I'd do well with everything being in a terminal (without access to a massive guide book or an on call Linux Techy).

I might even decide to make a custom case for it (sans CD drive etc).

[D-Dan]

I dare say that after a while, when you become more familiar with the Linux way you will outgrow Ubuntu, but it's fine as a starter system.

You will almost certainly come to appreciate the terminal more, too. Whilst on a modern Linux system most things can be done via the GUI (much the same as Windows and MacOS), I usually fire up a terminal simply because it's faster and easier. Having said that, you abolsutely do not have to, if you don't want to. The GUI is fine, too. I hate when I go to Windows now, personally, simply because a GUI seems just too clunky when doing housekeeping tasks, like extracting archives, copying/moving/deleting files etc, but each to their own.

[Technical Ben]

Thanks, but well, nope. I'm me. Not other people. I don't do terminals, I do gui. I'm a visual information person. My mind practically refuses to take in things like reference numbers and abstract programming codes (Like the ones quoted above for Lunix).

If it's not "println" but "xyzn" instead, it's probably too much for me to cope with. It was a real chore at work using our keyboard only, randomly shuffled together 4 code activated back office software. Our front office software was GUI based (same commands, but a gui so customers saw it looked nice). Granted touch typing is much quicker. But for anything that I did not do 100 times a day, it was just impossible to find where the action or option was in the randomly arranged numerical lists. The GUI though was in plain english.

An example being, making a transfer might be "type 4356, then the amount, then W, then account number, then 3456 then the amount then D then E then Y to confirm" in the terminal. If your touch typing, yep its super quick. But for the GUI it's "click transfer, type amount, type account no's, click confirm". I'd not need to remember the random numbers or letters to get into the menus.

Oh, and I love GUI for moving files. Not for entire drives or directories... well actually, even then. I'd easily get my concept of "drive E" and "drive D" back to front (I'm dyslexic). But "the drive on the left" and "the drive on the right", will not get an alphanumeric swap in my head.

I wonder if I can get a doctors note to exempt me from windows 8 (it hides too many tiles and features, so it's a worse GUI possible for me)! 

[D-Dan]

Not a problem, you can still get along with linux just fine without needing the command line.

Oddly, I can understand your aversion. I used to have a similar problem with linux and the cryptic commands for doing stuff, but then one day things just kind of fell in to place. All of a sudden those cryptic command names made sense (fsck=filesystem check, ls = list, sudo=super user do etc.) but until you hit that eureka moment they may as well be written in Martian with a hint of Venutian thrown in for good measure.

Fortunately for many, unlike the bad old days, using the terminal is no longer a pre-requisite for productive use of Linux systems.

[Technical Ben]

Yep. Besides, it's not hard to make a parser to turn "list" to "LS". That's what most programming suits do anyhow (it is not written PrintLn in computer code! ).
My spare windows key got used on another box, so the install of XP will just be a practice in how to dual boot. Putting Mint Gnome on it now, as I've not got a Ubunto distro to hand.

Once I'm happy with installing (I've tried enough distros! ) I'll settle down and learn the commands or just play with the  open software. Besides, I'd not have to worry about bricking the OS, as I'll be able to reinstall in a breeze. 

[trophymick]

If you want a really easy to use system, have a look at Zorin.

I have been using this version for a while now.

http://zorin-os.com/zorinos5.html

[Technical Ben]

Thanks, that actually looks snazzy and has simple features in built. It's probably exactly what I'm looking for. I'm still confused why the linux installers cannot offer users a prompt on "insert folder location" or "type in dynamic link location", then ask for root password if required. Having to manually type all the details (and figure out which install needs root, which needs links, which needs monkeys) is a real pain when I'm use to a few prompt boxes on a OS install or Software install. It also saves no end of time when the install details match the requirements (Javas install instructions were half missing on their site and the other half wrong).

I'm looking to stick on Ubuntu for now for myself and use open Gimp and Inkscape. Then it can be used to tinker with and do some art if I feel like it.

If I make a linux box for friends, family or customers, Zorinos5 could be a good alternative to introduce them, other than Ubuntu.