Linux distro recs?

[blnchflr]

I've been using Ubuntu as my primary OS since May last year, and while I'm extremely happy with it, I would like to become more Linux-savvy.

I'm looking for another newbie-friendly/newbie-semi-friendly distro to dual-boot with Ubuntu, to see what the differences are, etc. - any recs?

(P.S. I've been giving OpenSolaris - I know it's not Linux - a couple of goes over the last weeks, but in the end, I just could not get it to play nice with Ubuntu, so I gave it up. Very shiny OS, though!)

Comments

[aphenine]

My suggestion to become more Linux savvy conflicts with your specified requirements, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway, because it was the way I became Linux savvy and it wasn't too arduous.

My advice would be to stick with Ubuntu (or go to Debian) and try installing the system from base without an installer or using only the Debian network installer as a good first step.

My reasons for suggesting it is that you are already familiar with Ubuntu, so it builds on something you know. Installing the system from scratch, with a little care, makes you aware what is actually important to run a Linux system, what's window dressing and which packages you install give you what (like graphical interfaces and gnome). It's educational in the extreme to do it once and it was how I learned about the Linux system. Also, the Debian netinst system can guide you through the process once in a way that a not-quite-newbie should be able to cope with. Using the Debian netinst takes away part of the educational quotient, but severely lessens the learning curve, so I'd recommend it. The final, proper way to understand that you understand what is going on is to use a debian-based boot CD and use debootstrap to create a new system from scratch.

I wouldn't recommend Free-BSD as someone has done. A friend of mine installed it after using Debian and informed me that the installation required some advanced command line knowledge, which he acquired (among other ways) by getting comfortable with the command line on Linux over a year (and, among other things, fixing broken Debian installs...).

I would think that Gentoo would be a good choice if you are looking for something very different to Debian based (like Ubuntu) distros. I can't actually think of anything which is fundamentally different enough to be interesting to try to use.

[blnchflr]

Installing from scratch sounds scary, but I get how it would teach me things I'd actually like to know, like what is needed to run a system. It just seems so daunting, since at this point I don't know what is needed. But the Debian netinst sounds like the place to start, then.

(It also may be better than trying a completely distro in that after trying a couple of distros, I'm wondering if I aren't actually completely and utterly happy with Ubuntu and how it works.)

Thanks muchly for the advice!