New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

I have a N900 since march 2010 and i´m learning cool stuff about linux. So, i´ve decided to get more contact with Linux itself and want to have a dual boot Lunux/PC on my machine, but i don´t know wich LInux distribution is the best for me.

I read about it and decide beetwen 3 of them: Ubuntu, Debian an ArchLinux.
Ubuntu would be the best choice, cuz is easy to use and more like Windows.
Debian is practically the "same" as Maemo, the base, so if i install it, am i going to feel like "home"?
ArchLInux is powerful and need more experience to deal with it, but i´d give a shot.

So, you guys who is much more inside Linux World. Wich one you indicate to me?

Thank you!!! (and sorry for the english)

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

You are going to choose Ubuntu. Simple to configure and use, Debian based, big community to find help. Then you'll be ready for Debian - which is more ideologically oriented towards free libre open source only. Then when you are more experienced, dive into Arch which needs more tinkering.

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

^ what he said, but I'd encourage you to try them all. Ubuntu certainly has a "Live CD" so you can try before making any changes to your PC - other Linuxes have Live CD too..

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

What more can i say?? Sh*t, no "Thanks" button, anyway, +5 for this man! thanks!!

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

I love how you used jedi mind trick to direct his thoughts :)

ps: Yes, I agree Master.

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

I like also Puppy Linux - it's slick and fast: http://www.puppylinux.com/
This has a very special live cd - a live cd where you can actually write your files and mods and find them in next sessions. Also the whole system stays in RAM, and is blazingly fast. Great stuff.

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

I second Ubuntu as a first choice, although the new interface is different to what went before, and isn't that flashy. If you want something flashy, then try Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu but with KDE as the User Interface. I find Debian is best as a server OS where you need to tailor it from the ground up.

Download and try both of them from a live CD.

BTW the latest Ubuntu works great on my 6 year olf Toshiba A5 laptop with only 1gb of Ram, try that with Win 7!

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

I'd also go for ubuntu mostly because of the hardware support (almost everything works out of the box) and that it works easily with windows networks (I find configuration of samba tricky and ubuntu does it with one click the fist time you try to share a folder). I also happen to like the clean direction they are taking ui-wise. Plus it's based on debian so sure you'll feel at home. Finally it has more recent software than debian without having to dive into unstable.

I also had almost no idea about linux before the N900 and now I am a real fan. Because I still have some reasons to use windows, I have a partition with windows. and I have symlinked the Documents, Pictures etc folders in ubuntu on the windows partition so it's a breeze to switch. You have to edit fstab though to automount the ntfs partition and enable trash.

One other thing you should try is lili flash drive creator. Additionally to creating a bootable usb (try a e-sata drive, really fast) it sets up a virtualbox so that you can plug your flashdrive in any windows pc and run your linux (albeit a bit slower) without even restarting.

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

Puppy is super fast but you always run as root which is bad form.

Ubuntu is butt ugly now and Kubuntu, although nice to look at, feels as slow as Windows to me.

I'd suggest PCLinuxOS is a good choice, especially if you've got a broadcom wireless card because it'll work otb.

Re: New Linux User - Want to know wich one is best for me.
 

I would recommend to give a LiveDVD/LiveCD a shot first before tinkering with your harddrive. From there on then, if you like the distribution you choose, search for tutorials on how to repartition your harddrive (Resizing NTFS filesystems is in Linux due to the closed nature of NTFS not always working) and then install it. Google is your best buddy for a guide (If you have trouble understanding it you are welcome to ask around, but not everybody nows an answer to every problem ;))
For a small overview of different distros take a shot at www.distrowatch.com. Don't take everything they say as a general truth. Linux is much about your own preference. I myself am running Gentoo and couldn't go back to another distro.
Ubuntu is great to get a glimpse of what Linux can offer in regards of userfriendliness. After that I might suggest switching to Arch and skipping Debian completely. Old packages and not always fast important updates. Arch is a rolling release distro as well, so you don't have to think like "In 2 years this version won't be supported anymore. Damn!"
A rolling release means that there is no "Arch v2.3.1 e.g." only Arch Linux. They don't make stuff like Ubuntu does with "Ubuntu 10.10" (can cause major bugintroduction every new release btw.).
Apart from that, have fun tinkering around and enjoying what FOSS has to offer :)

Cheers,

mikki-kun

Ohhh, I nearly forgot to mention it. I would keep my hands of Fedora for a while. They seem to have trouble with the most up to date Linux Kernel, thus tinkering around with it badly...