a newby question

[skarosi]

Dear all,
its been a long time that i wanted to switch to linux from the lousy windows i have been using almost all my computer life.
I got some very bad tries at the past, installing some linux OS on my computer in an other partition along side with the XP and things were very bad, let me tell you.

anyhow, now i have got a new pc i thought it is time to give a new try to linux.
So, i have 2 questions for you,
1) what is the best linux OS for complete newbys? Ihave tried some, and let me tell u, i had some problems installing new software on it. I am a programmer so i know about the C compiler and all that, but it just didnt seem to work
and
2) my new pc is with AMD 64bit CPU, so, i was wantering what OS there are that support 64bit cpu.

I was looking around at some of the OS providers, like mandrake, or whatever the new name of them is, and it appears that they do have a 64 bit version, but they charge you to donwload it! whats this storry? linux is supposed to be fee, right? thats the whole beauty of it! could you explain to me whats this please? if you know anything about it anyway

cheers, Ilias

 

[RhythmAce]

You might want to take a look at Fedora Core 4. It will work with both AMD64 processors, the Athlon64 and Opteron. You can check it out for yourself at

http://fedora.redhat.com

 

[IPGuru]

Linux is free as in free speach, you are free to modify it in anyway you like (provided you lallow others the same freedon to your code). It does not mean that someone cannot charge for there time & efort in providing a distribution for you to down load.

Of course there are many distributons that are free to down load (such as the above mentioned Fedora) & no reason why you should not vote with your wallet.

 

[skarosi]

i will give fedora a try and see how it goes

i just thought that all linux versions were free to download. i know that u can buy them but when it comes to download i thought is was just free.
anyhow thanks for the tips.

 

[Chacalinc]

I recommend ubuntu. It is debian-based.

Cheers.

"Avoid virus, boil your PC 1 min. before use it