In search of a Linux OS...

I'm over windows and in search of a good free linux based OS for my laptop. I am not much of a gamer so all I really need is something basic and good for the browsing the web. Also for web security, any suggestions on what browser?

Any suggestions?

Ubuntu and Mint I found very easy to use. I'm a gamer though so that's really the reason I stick with Windows. I like Mint the best however. It felt the most "Windows-like" that I tried.

specs of machine? do you like fancy UI's? quite a few do live cd's/usb bootable so you can have a play and see what its like, it will be slower but if you like the look of an UI you can at least make sure your distro of choice supports it without the hitting of the command line very seriously and it wouldn't be pretty for someone who's not used to linux

Ubuntu UI is geared more towards Mac users, while Mint is geared more towards Windows users. All of them are free and most have live-cd options so you can try the distro out before installing it to a hard drive.

I also recommend Mint if you're coming from Windows.

I recommend Linux Mint.
There's always at least one Linux machine in my house, and it is always Mint.
Once gaming on Linux becomes much more mainstreamed, Windows is gone for me.

a reply to: jrod
If you are entirely new or barely familiar with Linux I would advise Mint or Ubuntu. You can try either of these as a "live" system before you format your drive and install it so you can get a fell for how you like it.

The website Distro Watch has information on each distro and goes over pros and cons.

GENTOO
Good for gaming.....

DEBIAN
Good for all most everything else...

a reply to: AllSourceIntel
I should add you not only have a lot of distro options, but you also have desktop environment options with each distro. If you search switching or new to linux you should find ample information to help guide you.

I have mint on my fiance's laptop. On mine, I use Debian with KDE destop (lots of personalization and tweeking).

Arch Linux

I'll get flamed for this, but I wish that I had just started there instead of f-ing around.

Arch with KDE.

I have been using Kali but Ubuntu is a very good place to start, learning a CMI is very important and there are lots of tutorials out there to get you started. My best advice would be to just grab a distro on a live CD and see ow it feels for you.

I have Ubuntu, 12.04 on a desktop system and 10.04 on a decade old laptop.

Annoying thing about Ubuntu is that not all the GUI controls for networks and servers seem to work correctly. I ended up stripping out all the unused server services and took control of the network services setup and shutdown myself. Couldn't stand all that geo-location guff - why on earth does anyone need to know the physical location of my desktop system or even when it is being switched on/off.

I'd recommend Linux Mint to fix these problems.

I should say before going ahead and installing linux backup anything that you consider important, might be worth grabbing an external drive and even image your current setup as at the worst its 10 mins to restore everything back to how it was before you started

LinuxMint also. Most simple and user-friendly distro I've used.

a reply to: jrod

Use Novell's openSUSE ... it's the most "painless" of the Linux distro's. Ubuntu is nice for "windows haters", or "apple haters". Haven't tried Fedora or RedHat ... since RedHat is commercial mostly.

originally posted by: Aldakoopa
Ubuntu and Mint I found very easy to use. I'm a gamer though so that's really the reason I stick with Windows. I like Mint the best however. It felt the most "Windows-like" that I tried.

I second exactly what this guy said...ubuntu and mint...windows feel so you can slowly get into linux.

a reply to: jrod
First decide on what kind of desktop you like :
A. The menu bar at the top, apple like - Gnome (although that's the default!)
B. The icon bar at the bottom, windows like. - KDE (although that's the default!)
Some distros have both Gnome and KDE flavours but most tend to be one or the other. I like the KDE flavour.

My distro is PCLinuxOS which comes in both 32 bit and 64 bit. I have found it very easy, slick, stable. Mind you Linux does tend to be very stable these days, hence why it's used for servers, set top boxes, TV menus etc.

I have tried and liked : Linux Mint and OpenSuse
I did not like Ubuntu, I was seriously frustrated with it and felt like my hand was tied.
I had problems with Fedora.
Rosa was curious , quite neat, worked well. An English russian sourced distro....oooo.
Luna, very interesting, a Mac look alike. And it really is !

what you can do is try almost all distros as a "livecd" to check out which feels right for you and whether it recognises your hardware cleanly. You can either download the distros or get them on magazine DVD's.

Welcome to the world of Linux, the water is lovely, perfect temperature and free at the point of use for all your apps.

Thanks for all the insight.

I'm more of a nuts and bolt kind of person, so the simpler the OS the better.

I've recently changed my browser to something a little more secure. So far I am liking what I have in front of me. I just really have the urge to throw my windows OS in the trash.

My laptop is an old ACER emachine. It's even been swimming in salt water yet still seems to work ok.(with the exception of windows).

a reply to: jrod
Which browser and how secure?

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

The onion...not really sure about how secure. I'm guessing they call it the onion because of the layers of security, like an onion.

I've been slacking and a bit behind the geek world in terms of computer stuff. I've had enough of windows and issues I really dont like about it. I like to be in control of my machine.

a reply to: jrod

Theres nuts and bolts and theres making your own taps to put the threads on the nuts shall we say, give us some details such as make/model and how much ram/size of the hdd. With tech the devil is in the detail so the more you can tell us the better we can help