Since you’re using a VM, you can try a few out. I’ve used Ubuntu and Fedora, and they’re both fine.
I’ve used Slackware and Ubuntu. Both are great. I think these days Ubuntu is the “gold standard” for ease of installation.
I’ve used Slackware and Ubuntu. Both are great. I think these days Ubuntu is the “gold standard” for ease of installation.
Ubuntu by a considerable measure, but you have to know a little bit about LINUX to appreciate the differences. The thing which really makes Ubuntu is the synaptic package manager and the near infinite store of good free software which can be quickly accessed with it. This eliminates the grief which used to be involved in unwinding strings of dependencies for software packages. As I hear it several European countries have pretty much standardized on Ubuntu.
ubuntu is easy
If you opt for Ubuntu:
Ubuntu is in some ways built to act like a Mac. Run tabs, clock and other controls are on the top of the screen, which includes both top and bottom panels. Recycle bucket in on the bottom panel - on which open windows display.
Kubuntu (another flavor of Ubuntu) is organized much like Windows. One panel on the bottom, and the equivalent of a “start” button on the bottom left, from which pops up your menu options - if you’re currently on a Windows version, it will be almost instinctive to use.
There are a couple other more specialized versions - something called “Xubuntu” and also a netbook version.
If you’re installing any of them, on an older machine with more limited resources, there’s an alternate install version available at the download sites, which can install even if your system has limited RAM.
ubuntu
Mint 8 for me, love it.
I’d suggest using Linux Mint which is an offshoot of Ubuntu. Out of the box, all kinds of media (audio/video) just work which isn’t the case with other Linux derivatives. It’s easy on the eyes as well. I’m using it on physical hardware and in a VMWare Fusion virtual machine as well.
I’ve run RedHat and Ubuntu on a Virtual PC 2007. I think Ubuntu is probably easier. However, unlike the 20 or 30 minutes it takes to install a Microsoft OS on a virtual machine, Linux systems seem to take way longer and go through several strange graphics screen gyrations. I actually did a re-install of Ubuntu about a week and a half ago, after 15 minutes of occasionally asking me about preferences, the machine just sat there and loaded byte after byte (with a blank screen) for about 4 hours before it completed. After the exceedingly long install, the system boots fine and is as fast as any Microsoft system.
ping
I just installed CrunchBang this morning and got a lot of stuff working pretty easily in the VM, even Sopcast to watch soccer games. I set up some server stuff in it pretty easily, too. It's an Ubuntu based distro.
The good and the bad is that it doesn't have a 'heavy' desktop environment, just a graphical right click menu. If you grew up with DOS it might be OK.
Otherwise, Ubuntu is OK if you want something to setup and use without playing around with it. Ubuntu doesn't do updates/upgrades well, IMHO.
The distros I mentioned above are all based on Debian, which means it has the pros of Debian's stability and installation program (APT). The negative side is that it adds a 'middle-man' layer to Debian.
I would suggest looking at Linux Mint. The reason for that is that it has Ubuntu based versions and a new, Debian-only based version. You will be able to test out Ubuntu or plain vanilla Debian and try different desktops to see which one you like best.
They all boot as Live CD's and once running there is a menu item so you can do an install to the VM hard disk.
HTH
I would use Ubuntu. I downloaded it to a thumbdrive and booted it from there....but I can’t get the wireless to work. Anyone have any ideas?
I recently got a new Imac. I was going to get a Linux system but do not know enough about computers. I love the Imac and kept my old PC for using windows.
Ubuntu or its even more user friendly (but less cutting edge) variant Linux Mint.
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A couple of comments:
First, I’ve been using Oracle’s “Virtual Box” instead of VMware. Its easy to set up, and I’ve used both the Linux and the Windows versions.
That is, I’ve run Linux as the major system with XP running inside Virtual Box, and more recently, I’ve run Windows 7 as the main operating system (which is the way I think you want to do it) and both Fedora and Ubuntu as the guest OS.
I’ve been a long time Fedora user, but I’ve got to say that the latest version of Ubuntu (10.04) is a bit easier to get started and customized. I’d also second the comment that the Synaptics/APT update in Ubuntu is a bit easier to use than the YUM updater provided in Fedora, but YUM works very well also.