new linux user

cryptogirl

I agree with my colleagues on different distributions that could help you. My experience is:

* Wanted to learn commands, administration through command line, installation, system management, programming: Trust me, any distribution from the top 15 on distrowatch will work.

If I were in your position, I would begin with Fedora Core 4 or 5.

That said, in the past when I

* Wanted nice GUI, recent product and what people around me used the * Wanted system to do changes for me with control-panel-kind-of-GUI * Wanted a 1-CD Linux distribution that people were using more these again until I am on vacation)

All groomed Linuxes come with decent GUI (graphical desktops) like KDE-GNOME and lightweight GUIs can be installed downloading of the net. Common services like http-ssh-ftp-file-print servers etc, databases, programming environment and languages are all bundled, so it isnt that one is more powerful than the other. Its just how well one could use the power of Linux.

Since you are already good with computers, I'd say that you install any distribution with bare minimum packages and then determine what you want to do with that box. Achieve your goals one at a time. Reading manuals is a good way of self-learning but if you are stuck somewhere, you know where to go get answers.

Good luck.

Chirag Shukla.