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#1 2012-11-13 03:09:51

ryanmichaelmcclure
Member
From: Cloudsdale, Equestria
Registered: 2012-10-26
Posts: 44
Website

Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

I am going to be presenting for my Fundamentals Of Speech class in a few weeks a presentation on how Linux can be a great alternative operating system for most students at my school. After I present, I am planning on giving away CDs of various Linux distros for them to try and see for themselves if they would like to use a Linux-based operating system. I want to come up with some that are able to fit on a CD, preferably, but a DVD would also work if needed. I have a large spindle of CDs but no DVDs, so spending $0 would be nice. wink

I was thinking about Ubuntu 12.04 and variants, but I don't know about other good distros for beginners. What do you all think?

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#2 2012-11-13 03:14:56

Perfect Gentleman
Member
Registered: 2012-10-25
Posts: 222

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

- Linux Mint
- CinnArch
- Manjaro
- Mageia

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#3 2012-11-13 03:53:32

andjeng
Member
From: Indonesia
Registered: 2012-08-30
Posts: 148

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

i think ubuntu shall be deleted from your list. because its last version require dvd.
my sugestion = BlankOn. --> indonesian debian based distro that has alot of cute thing. (at least in its developer point of view) smile


just looking around. wink

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#4 2012-11-13 03:59:52

WonderWoofy
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From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

I think that the least shocking of a change would be with Linux Mint.  Its menu positioning kind of mimicks the windows environment.  The last time I tried Ubuntu (11,04 I think), I kind of remember there being a cd and a dvd, where the dvd simply had all the non-free stuffs that is available as a download anyway while installing.  This was a while ago, and I am not sure that it is how it is now... in fact andjeng says otherwise.

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#5 2012-11-13 10:59:22

dolby
Member
From: 1992
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1,581

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

opensuse and/or mageia for desktop
system rescue cd which could be used to demonstrate that linux is perfect for specialized tasks like this
maybe other specialized distributions like the ones that provide anonymity out of the box


There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

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#6 2012-11-13 11:19:17

Šaran
Member
From: Bosnia
Registered: 2011-09-03
Posts: 407

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

Something KDE based. OpenSUSE maybe.

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#7 2012-11-13 16:36:58

Inxsible
Forum Fellow
From: Chicago
Registered: 2008-06-09
Posts: 9,183

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

I would say it depends on your target audience. If they are adept at using computers, they wouldn't mind an Openbox based distro either. It also depends on what quality/feature you want to impress them with when they first use it. If speed, performance & customizability are important, then use a light desktop or WM. If look n feel and "cool factor" then use a DE like Gnome or KDE.


Forum Rules

There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots !

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#8 2012-11-13 17:19:27

hadrons123
Member
From: chennai
Registered: 2011-10-07
Posts: 1,249

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

Did anyone try scientific linux live CD?

I would certainly vote for that before Mint or fedora live CD.


LENOVO Y 580 IVYBRIDGE 660M NVIDIA
Unix is user-friendly. It just isn't promiscuous about which users it's friendly with. - Steven King

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#9 2012-11-13 18:21:15

bgc1954
Member
From: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Registered: 2006-03-14
Posts: 1,160

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

I would recommend Mepis lInux.  The newest release is DVD-sized but some of their older releases are on CD.  A very polished looking live KDE desktop environment.  If you're looking for eye-candy then Bohdi Linux is quite good.  It combines enlightenment on an ubuntu base.  That is available on a CD-size.


Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

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#10 2012-11-13 18:34:36

2ManyDogs
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-01-15
Posts: 4,642

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

Any LXDE or Xfce distro will most likely still fit on a CD, and both DEs are a little bit like Windows XP (they have panels, start buttons, and desktop icons). Lubuntu. Xubuntu, Debian LXDE, WattOS, Bridge (Xfce or LXDE), Porteus LXDE. Lots of choices.


How to post. A sincere effort to use modest and proper language and grammar is a sign of respect toward the community.

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#11 2012-11-13 21:12:53

Iranon
Member
Registered: 2011-06-11
Posts: 146

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

I'd pick a selection so there's something for everyone.

Ubuntu (consumer-friendly rather than just user-friendly, shows off the most innovative mainstream UI. 12.04 LTS if fitting on a CD matters.)
Archbang (nice preview to the more technical side without being scary)
OpenSuse KDE (Very professional, should appeal to Windows power users)
Puppy 5.4.1 (lightweight, focus on being useful as a live medium)

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#12 2012-11-18 03:42:54

speedyx
Member
From: Italy
Registered: 2008-09-05
Posts: 100
Website

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

for my wife's and my mother-in-law's laptops I installed the OpenSUSE kde Tumbleweed.  I enabled. ssh and vnc control.  No worries for me, because it's a distribution so simple to upgrade... no admin intervention required in the lasts months.

Last edited by speedyx (2012-11-18 03:44:19)


I love archlinux: the last STABLE kernel release + the last STABLE DE release + the last STABLE apps releases. The upstream developers decide what is STABLE.

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#13 2012-12-13 20:11:05

16bitkernel
Member
From: Beirut
Registered: 2012-12-05
Posts: 3

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

hadrons123 wrote:

Did anyone try scientific linux live CD?

I would certainly vote for that before Mint or fedora live CD.

I used SL for 2 years , it was easier than Ubuntu , media codecs support, gnome 2,  RHEL clone (rock solid)

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#14 2012-12-26 06:14:32

White girl
Member
Registered: 2012-12-24
Posts: 34

Re: Recommended Distros For Beginners That Have Live Environments?

I would recommend Xubuntu, XFCE is great.

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