Beginner's Linux

[Xenogil]

I recently got a P.C. from a relative, and I'm putting version 7.1 on it. I'll probabally have quite a few questions about the OS, and if any of you could help out, I'd gladly appreciate it. Here's one:

--- I've been looking for multimedia programs that are Linux compatible that can play media player files and whatnot. MPlayer seems like a good program to use. If anyone here as ever used MPlayer, or uses a different one, please let me know how it performs.

If you have any other advice to give to me about using Linux, please let me know.

[Ninjavenom]

Why are you putting Linux on it?

[executioneer]

linusx is the first operating system written by fat people, for fat people

[soundtest]

I weigh 130 lbs. wet and I think Linux is great! I started using it about 6 months ago and haven't looked back. I can't even remember the last time I booted into Windows on my home PC. As long as you're not a gamer, Linux is a fantastic alternative to Windows and Mac OS.

When you say version 7.1 though, which distro are you talking about? Red Hat? Unless you absolutely have to, I'd stay away from Red Hat and install something Debian-based like Ubuntu. Ubuntu is just as good and possibly even easier to pick up for beginners than RH, and it also has the benefit of being truly free.

As far as multimedia goes, I recommend VLC for video: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

MPlayer is good too though. For music, XMMS is a nice little Winamp clone, but amaroK is fantastic. I seriously think it's the best mp3 player for any platform.

[Xenogil]

I'm using SuZE 7.1, and I'm loving it so far. There's just so much more that you can do with it, so many ways that you can customize it. But it's a real pain having to go through model numbers for my ethernet card, monitor, printer...unlike Windows, it doesn't automatically recognize this stuff when you plug it in.

And thanks for the reccomendations, soundtest.