Hello all, I was hoping that I could get some help. I am building a pc for my girlfriend and I wanted to put linux on it. I have only really used 2 different versions of linux and they were pretty confusing. Could anyone help me out and give some names of some really simple linux distros?

SUSE was pretty good, large stock of RPMs and good hardware compatability. Plus it was quite easy to set up and use. I'd recommend it over most others at the moment.

PCOSLinux looks to be quite interesting, I've used the gaming live DVD version, but that hasn't got as much support as something like SUSE as it's stil relatively new and small.

I used to like Mandrake, but since becomming Mandrivia trying to find their free download from their site has become harder and harder. I wouldn't go for them anymore.

i gave pcoslinux and I did like that. It was pretty simple, but didnt seem to support alot of things. Ill give suse a try.

SUSE Linux is brilliant. I also like Ubuntu Linux.

I agree with Bunsy's comment on Mandriva.

Mmm, Ubuntu's not bad but it seemed to be much harder to install drivers and the like. Could've just been me though.

ive used Ubuntu for 2 years now, it was kinda hard to handle since im used to mac os/windows, but i just started to understand linux a bit and feel home in the terminal :)

I got suse up and running now, I must say that I am impressed. Not quite as scary as I thought it was going to be.

Wait until you try to update your graphics card drivers :p

Wait until you try to update your graphics card drivers :p

That depends on the graphic card, not on the distribution... ôô

There is only one linux (www.kernel.org), btw.
What you are talking about it's called a distribution.
That makes a difference.

You've lost me as to what point you're actually trying to make.

I was merely making a humourous refernce to my experiences with nvidia drivers over the years. Normally worked, but probably a bit off-putting to a new user.

Hmm, you've already installed SUSE so this is probably irrelevant now, but i'd have recommended Mandriva. My reasons:

It's just as easy a user interface as any other Linux distro, as they all come with KDE/Gnome. The difference is with install packages, assuming you are relying on them (unless you want to compile your own binaries from source code). There are different types of packages depending upon which distro of Linux you use. RedHat/Fedora and SUSE use RPM packages (.rpm), Debian has its own (.deb). Mandriva supports both.

As for it being hard to find the free version download, it took me all of about 2 minutes:

http://www.mandriva.com/en/download/free

find your nearest mirror, and you need:

Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-CD1.i586.iso
Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-CD2.i586.iso
Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-CD3.i586.iso

OR

Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-DVD.i586.iso

They are identical, other than the first is on 3 CD's and the second is on 1 DVD.

Here's a few tips if you are used to the Windows file system:
The administrator account with full access permissions is called "root"
The equivalent of My Documents is /home/<your username> (except the root user, who's documents are in /root)
The equivalent of Program Files is /usr
/usr/local - For programs/files intended for local use only. If the machine is networked, the main /usr directory may be accessible from other machines.
/usr/doc - documentation for installed programs
/usr/share - configuration files for multi-user programs
/usr/src - source code for system software, including the kernel
/usr/X11R6 - everything for the X-Windows GUI (config files, programs, etc)

The equivalents of Windows/System32 are:
/bin and /usr/bin - important system utilities
/sbin and /usr/sbin - system administration utilities (generally need to be root user to use these)
/lib - Shared Objects (.so), which are the Linux equivalent of Windows DLL files
System settings and configuration files are in /etc and are generally editable in text editors
Boot settings are in /boot, as is the Linux kernel, which is a file starting with "vmlinuz"
Variable information that changes as the system is running is kept in /var
/var/log - log files, the most recent logs are the ones without number extensions.
/var/mail - incoming and outgoing mail queue
/var/spool - files queued for some process, such as printing
The equivalent of the Windows temp folder is /tmp or /var/tmp
All devices the system currently has drivers for are in /dev.
/dev/fd0 - floppy drive 0
/dev/hda1 - IDE hard disk a (primary), partition 1
/dev/hdb1 - IDE hard disk b (secondary), partition 1
/dev/cdrom - CD ROM drive

Those that are storage devices (floppy, usb, etc) are usually auto-mounted in /mnt.
Info about running processes is in /proc.

sounds interesting, I will try installing it on my other pc to see which I pefer.

As for it being hard to find the free version download, it took me all of about 2 minutes:Mabye they've got better again then, there was a time when it really was damn near impossible. I might re-consider mandrivia when I get a spare hard disc back again in that case.