I'm going to install Linux on the new computer I'm building. Whenever I've asked people which distro of Linux I should get, the response was either Ubuntu or Fedora. At the moment, I'm downloading Fedora, but I can easily change my mind.

I'm looking for something that can fit on a 700mb CD, isn't too hard to install and configure, is user-friendly, but it is also reasonably fast and powerful. I don't care much about good multimedia support, although it would be a nice bonus.

GO with ubuntu, most definitely. Fedora isn't what it used to be, and I don't hear much of people using Fedora or RedHat as much anymore

Ubuntu is currently the best for new users

being a former Fedora Core 4 and a current Ubuntu 6.10 user, I can say that I liked Ubuntu better. First of all, you get similar software on both, but the difference is disks is good. FC4 was on 4 disks, and the current version has even more. Ubuntu has everything on one disk, plus it is a Live CD also.

Usage wise, both default to the Gnome interface, and both can install KDE (I only do this so I can run KDE programs). The included base software is the same, but installing is a completely different approach. Fedora and Ubuntu both have precompilled programs, but they are completely different formats. Fedora is an rpm, Ubuntu is deb. In Fedora you use a program called Yum to download and install programs automatically, where Ubuntu use apt-get. Yum has a search feature, but apt-get seemed to be faster to me. If I remember correctly, there were issues if you didn't have all the dependencies installed with Yum, but I may be wrong. I know apt-get will detect that and download those also.

When it came to installing, Ubuntu has a GUI install (or a text based one if you don't have the RAM), where FC4 was only text based. I have not used the GUI one (haven't installed on desktop, lappy has only 128MB RAM, less than the 190 they want for GUI), but the Ubuntu text based was easier to follow and do.

When it came to support for figuring out something, I found the Ubuntu site infinitely easier to use for getting info than the Fedora Site, and the info was also less technical, and more technical (went both ways) on Ubuntu, so you got the info you need, for the kind of user you were. Both had the manual style, but Ubuntu's built in community/wiki is where it is at.

For your needs, Ubuntu all the way. Here's my comparison for your needs:

Fits on a 700 mb CD

Ubuntu: yes
Fedora: Unless you mean 5 700mb CDs

Isn't too hard to install

Ubuntu: An absolute cinch. It automatically takes you into a live cd when booted. Then there's an incredibly simple (and I mean simpler than Windows) install. Heck, you can even browse the web or work on documents while the OS is installing. I've installed it over 10 times (on different computers--don't get the idea that you'll need to reinstall...ever!) and it averages only about 10-15 minutes. Plus all the documents you create are carried over to the system once installed. Oh, and you don't even need a partitioner because Gparted is used to partition your harddrive while installing.

Fedora: I'll let this speak for itself. You will need to partition before hand (as unformatted space). No luck for a live cd. Heck the OS is 5 cds. Anaconda the installer is comparable to Ubuntu's, but it WILL take much longer (not a fault of the installer, but of the enormous size of the OS)

User-Friendly:

Ubuntu: Number 1 most user friendly Linux distro

Fedora: Heh, it's an intermediate to advanced level of Linux IMHO

Reasonably Fast and Powerful

I'd say they are fairly equivalent.

Multimedia Support

Ubuntu is a little lacking in this area. But with a quick installation of Automatix, all the non-free codecs can be easily downloaded and installed. It comes with default support for all free open source codecs like ogg vorbis.

Just remember if you can get it for Ubuntu/Fedora, you can get it for Fedora/Ubuntu

Just a random tidbit, the packages that Ubuntu uses are from debian (which is what Ubuntu is based off of), hence the .deb extension

Installing software on ubuntu doesn't require using apt-get at all, which if you are a noob, the command line might scare you. Instead, just use the excellent GUI interface for it, Synaptic, which will even help you edit apt-sources so that you can get the non-free packages (including MP3 support)

Note that NON-FREE refers to free as in speech, not as in beer (aka, it doesn't cost any money, but it isn't a 'free' license) For more info on this, see http://www.fsf.org/

Ubuntu also has an excellent (albeit oft overlooked around here) WiKi that can answer pretty much all of your questions - always go to it first

Of the friends I have shown/given ubuntu to, all of them have found apt-get to be much easier to use than synaptic. I think the gui to synaptic could be improved slightly, but nothing compares to the ease of use of apt-get. Being able to just type apt-get install program makes life so easy. Sure it occasionally requires a package search (built into ff) and doesn't always work, but when it does. Sweet! Plus Automatix 2 makes installing essential software a cinch.

OK, thanks for the information. I think I'm going to get Ubuntu because it seems to fit my needs (particularly user-friendliness) and it fits on a 700mb CD.

But why is Fedora so large? I would think that it would be packed with awesome features and would be better than Ubuntu if it's going to be about five times its size.

It is packed with awesome features. 90% of them, you don't need. Ubuntu is small to start with, but has an enormous amount of stuff you can get for it easily to fit your needs. Heck, it comes with an add applications tool as one of its default applications. The reason it's so small to start with is so that it can fit a 700mb disk and because it's used on very old and low end computers in poor areas of the world.

actually, why the 4 disks is that all kinds of software is included on the disks that are not installed that you install from disks and not downloaded (but can be downloaded if you want).

Oh, I use DSL on my low end comp. <50mb, but still extremely useful. Plus, it was going on 32mb of ram and a 266MHZ proc. I couldn't use firefox until I upped my ram a little, but everything else (including dillo) worked fine.

I'll be building a new comp pretty soon (probably a week or 2), and I'm going with Ubuntu. I've run the live cd of 6.06 on this comp and it seemed like a very capable OS. (450mb of 6.10 downloaded, just about 24 more hours to go!)

I feel sorry for you and your incredibly slow internet. Here I am getting dl speeds of 500kb/s and up. If I'd had known it was going to take you days, I would have offered to mail you a disk.

Haha, that's okay. I haven't even ordered the comp yet, so I have no immediate use for it.

What exactly is your official bandwidth? Because by simple math it's looking like you are downloading at:

250/(24*60*60) = .00289 mb/s or about 2.89 kb/s

That sounds about right. If I'm just downloading, and not surfing the net or instant messaging or anything, I can get up to about 5kbps. While surfing the net, I usually see around 3.1-3.5. The bad part is when I leave my internet on overnight, though. For whatever reason, when I wake up in the morning, I'm usually around 500bps or less.

http://torrent.ubuntu.com/releases/

I was told to get Edgy, but it seems like it is only availible for DVDs. Is there a version availible for CDs?

It seems torrent.ubuntu.com only has the dvd, but go here and you'll find anything you want, with torrents available.

I downloaded Ubuntu, but I saw live cd's at a local computer store, see if you can find one

Wow, you have a local computer store? That's awesome. The closest thing I have is a Staples about 25-30 miles away

The Tari: Thanks I already tried that though, and the download stoppped at 57% for some reason, and wouldn't continue. I'll try agian though.

Harq: If this doesn't work, the I guess that's what I'll end up doing. Wow, Ubuntu must be popular if CDs of it are common at stores (or maybe that's a dumb thing to say, but they can't have a CD for every distro out there...or can they?).

foamy3: Wow. There are multiple computer stores that aren't too far from where I live.

It's not a chain store (like staples or anything), it is a privately owned store. We were getting some ram there when I saw some disks there.



*sniff* I'm not a noob *sniff*sniff*