Linux.com

Hi! I am new to linux and want a distro that is easy to install. I have already tried puppy, dsl, slax, and knoppix.

Yes, is there a particular reason you have tried small(er) distros? If performance isn't an issue, I would recommend Ubuntu or Mandriva.

[quote=nathan]Hi! I am new to linux and want a distro that is easy to install. I have already tried puppy, dsl, slax, and knoppix.[/quote] If you need a small distro, comparable in size to SLAX, I heartily recommend AntiX, part of the MEPIS community. It is available in two forms, a base version about the size of SLAX, but with better firmware support and excellent wireless support, or a complete version about 400 MB in size that has lightweight software and that same excellent hardware support. If you want a full featured, easy to install, stable, secure, reliable desktop system, then the number one distribution, even better than some of the really fine ones, in my opinion is SimplyMEPIS. It comes equipped so that you can try it out as a Live CD. You can install it to a USB drive (and the MEPIS Lovers Forum will help you if you have questions), you can run it right from the CD - and if you have enough memory, you can load the system into memory for a high speed system, or you can install it to your disk. In the long run, most people end up installing it to disk, but it is great to carry around on a CD or USB device as well. I know of no system that is more stable other than its Debian parent, but I know of no other system that is both stable and as easy as SimplyMEPIS is. PCLinuxOS and Linux Mint are definitely two other really easy to use systems that are worth considering, if for some reason SimplyMEPIS just doesn't suit you, but I'd really be surprised if that were the case, and I would like to know what the issues were, so that they could be corrected (I rarely see issues, so I don't even know what they would be). I hope you find what you like and I hope that my suggestions are helpful to you.

Brian Masinick

[quote=nathan]Hi! I am new to linux and want a distro that is easy to install. I have already tried puppy, dsl, slax, and knoppix.[/quote] By "already tried" do you mean you installed them and you did not find them easy to install, or you just tried the Live versions? Because your post is not clear it is hard to help you. No operating system is "easy to install". Neither is Windows or MacOSX. If you are used to buying a computer off the shelf with an OS pre-installed any OS install will be a bit difficult if you have not done it before. The key is to read the Installation Documentation of any distro BEFORE you start. Many people do not do this and then they wonder why they have problems.