Installing Linux for first time.

      I usually try to keep my posts short but this might get bigger, probably because of images that I am going to include in this post. screen-shots from installation. In last post I had introduced used to some basics and underlying things about Linux, we had also spoken about file-system hierarchy so we are going to use that knowledge over, I would like to tell readers, that what ever we discussed about in last post was not complete in many aspects, but what ever teaching experience I had in my previous job tell me to go go short and simple, understand same thing little by little every day. It's as simple as over eating, if you eat too much you have digestion problem, same goes with knowledge, if you have too much at a time you will find it trouble some in comprehending and understanding, so I chose to feed the readers with little knowledge in every post. It's good to start slowly but it's also important to continue same along the way. Revising old list of directories discussed once again. Just for small exercise try to recollect what is significance of each directory mentioned in below list.
"/"
"/boot"
"/etc"
"/home"
"/tmp"
"/dev"
"/bin"
"/lib"
   If you don't remember you can always go back and check it there. Now that you have rough idea about what each directory is meant for, you can plan/decide your partitioning scheme. What scheme? sounds confusing? Don't worry, we are simply going to decide how much space we are going to allot to what partition when installing Linux. Can't Linux do with single partition? this question will hit minds of most of windows user. well to answer this I would say, Linux can be installed on single to multiple partitions it all depends on your needs. Many usually create posts/blogs about installing Linux, but most of them miss out the most interesting part about installing Linux, is what I feel. doing a plain installation would is simple enough to explain, but I would like to explain little bit about different partitioning schemes, some DO's and may be DON'Ts, I am usually little reserve when passing on DONT's as it stops many from exploring, and trying out new things, and ceases them from possibility of understanding things from their point of view, Any ways What I've planned for you guys is 4 partitioned layout, probably most common practice among Linux users, just before you read  ahead what you can do is try to quickly write down three important partitions which you could think of. Confused? what partitions? Well in last post we had discussed about different important directories found in Linux file-system hierarchy, yes!! I am referring to those directories as different partitions. In terms of Linux, directory on which you map your partition is refereed as mount-point / mounting-directory, whatever you call it, it doesn't matter much here, simple thing to understand is that partitions don't appear like C: D: here they are mapped to different directories (even if you happen to see some thing like that it's actually mapped to some directory, I may explain comment in this bracer later if you still feel like knowing you can ask me :D) Hope by now you must have understood that we are going to map three partitions to three of above given directories(list we revised earlier in this chapter). if you think you've, Stop!! you are wrong, we are going to map 3 of the created partitions to 3 of the above directories, or rather I would say we are going to mount 3 partitions under 3 of directories. so which three partitions? any guess write them down now and try to reason your choice, if not I will tell you .

   First one we are going to take is "/boot" you can get it with size ranging from 100MB upto 1GB (paralytically you can give it as much size you want, but won't make sense) recommended is 500MB, whatever gets installed in this would be 100MB, so why such a big partition? why separate partition?, one thing is keeping separate boot partition makes it easy to install multipal distorts/ flavours of Linux at same time. It also make recovery simple and easy.

   Second one would be "/" This is the most important mount point of Linux as every thing else resides under this, if you are want to push every thing in single partition you simply can have this one as partition, and move on, installation may not be possible without having this. There are many thing that are yet to be discussed, understood, about file system hierarchy which will be residing under  inside this.

   Third one  would  be "/home" you may want to keep your personal data intact and separate from everything else. So this one would be a at least recommendation. When you are installing Linux on personal machine, Keeping this separate makes it easy to backup data and also helps in between upgrades and trying different distros without disturbing your personal data.

   Fourth one is Swap!! what swap? we never talked about it before, why not? well it would make more sense when talking about installation, well this is a special type of file-system we use on Linux, If you are aware of page file on windows, this does the same job here, so why not make swap file?, well making swap partitions is always advisable as it gives better performance as compared to swap file. So What is swap?,  In simple words swap is raw volatile file system, used as an substitute to your computer's memory (ram). Whatever data stored on swap is lost after power cycle (reboot/shutdown) Also this file system will is not mounted, you just turn this on and off to put it to use.

   Next question, one might face would be how space to be allotted to all of these partitions, it depends on needs try to understand What purpose you want your computer to serve?, it can be decent data storing, it can be use maximum space available, it can be maximum security, it would be consistence. if you understand the file-system hierarchy you would be in very good position to make these decisions about installation. when planning this layout one must consider future requirements too and not just current needs. So when allotting space to these partitions don't make it to tight, unless you know better way of solving this other than re-installing. There is actually a solution for those who stick to tight configuration, but it's not relevant immediately over here, as post is meant for those who are going to do this for first time. Although I believe many would really understand and find this post more useful after doing few installations and actually using their systems. So once again I am going to throw some recommendations here for those readers who find it difficulty to figure out their plan. So for and average user it would be good to go with 10-20 Gb for "/" and may be rest all to "/home" but we are still missing how much space for swap, well for that it depends if you want to have it or not, if you have very high memory like 4gb-8gb and you may not need it for average desktop usage  you can skip using it,unless you are a web-browser forker (opening hundreds of tabs on web browser) Those who are using Laptop I would recommend them to have at-least amount equal to that of ram or at-least 1 gb more than total size of ram on your system, this is somewhat related to some of features like hibernation / suspension, this works same way with desktop too.

    If searched online one would find numerous guides/ demos for installation of Linux bla bla, so I never intend to actually create another similar "how to?" But I am going to present some walk through snaps of installation, so that one could find all things under one place, on the other hand I've always encourage users to use Linux, guiding them to this would make my life much more easier :P LOL any ways there is also mysterious fun and pleasure in sharing knowledge and this is one of the best way to connect to peoples so I am going ahead with this. Here I am going to show steps involved in installation, with the help of screen-shots. I am going to install Linux mint 17.2 over here. you can download image from here :-  http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

   Simply download and burn the image on dvd and boot it.

Your desktop should look like this when it completely boots-up, You can explore around if you  if you like. click CD like icon to start your installation.

   Next you can see installer window like this. Here you will be selecting language.

   Click on Continue button after selecting appropriate language. Next dialogue will prompt some recommendation about disc space and show if your are connected to internet, It's best to disconnect internet connectivity to speed-up the installation process. You can simply click continue.

   Next step would be about partitioning. Here you can Either chose first option "Erase disk and install Linux Mint" This will wipe all the previously installed Operating system softwares partitions, and install mint with defaults settings over it.

   I am going to select "Something else" the last options, then click on continue, this will lead to create a custom layout of partition. Then you will see some thing like give below, here you can see it is showing "/dev/sda" inside window which represents your hard disk if you have multiple hard-drives it can show some more options in list like "/dev/sdb", "/dev/sdc"... and so on. So select appropriate Hard-drive on which you want to install Linux Mint. In the given below image you can see some thing like "/dev/sda1", "/dev/sda2", "/dev/sda3".. and so on These are the partitions on your respective hard disc. Select "/dev/sda" or appropriate  hard drive if you have more than one then click on "New Partition Table",  Again this will wipe all the data on your Hard disk and create fresh partitions on it. you will be prompted with warning which will display some message saying your data on given disk will be lost. you can click on continue button. 

   Once you clear partitions you will see a Clean Layout like this.

   Now select the free space and click on "+" button on bottom-left corner of installer window. This will prompt a new partition dialogue, here you will be adding the partitions as discussed earlier "/boot" then "/" then "swap" if then lastly all the remaining space for "/home".

   Enter the size of partition in MB, next radio buttons are for selecting type of partition you can just ignore them if you don't know much about it. Location should be "Beginning of this space" at the bottom the last thing you can select is Mount point, this specific one is for "/boot" as I have given 500MB of space. Next thing to chose would be filesystem.

   Click on "Use as:" field to choose file-system type, in windows you have options like "NTFS", "FAT32", etc.. Here we are going to use  Etx4, type of file-system, If you want to try other options you can go ahead and be adventurous, but remember one thing Always choose only "Ext" type of file-system for '/boot" if you chose some fancy options your system may not boot in some case. for any other mount point you can always be adventurous. Next thing we will be going for is "swap".

   Having swap would be optional thing, if you have hube amount of RAM. Again there is no mount point needed for swap.

   Well Next partition you may choose would be "/" size to allocate to this has already been discussed, still as a reminder, any thing around 10-20GB would be more than sufficient. Next comes your Home "/home" here I will be giving rest of  the available space to home. After finishing your partition layout it may look some thing like this.

   If you are sure you can go ahead with the given partition Layout, you can click on Install Now, if you thing some thing is not right, you can revert and start over again by clicking "Revert" button next to "New Partition Table" button. Before you hit "Install now" you may also explore "The "Change" and minus "-" buttons, I will not tell you what they do, for many it would be apparent. Finally When you hit "Install Now" button there will be final dialogue displayed on your screen which will confirm if you really want to make modifications to your Hard disc.

   This dialogue show in above screen-shot is is showing you the information about new partition table that will be created, You can choose to go back or if you are confident enough you can go ahead. It's ok even If you don't understand everything in this dialogue as it is just showing you the partition changes made to your hard-disk and part one may find missing is the mount-points to which these are mapped. If it is confusing you, you can go back and review what ever thing you've done you can find more about partitioning if you search online,(Hint: if you are searching online about partitioning, we are using IBM partitioning here.) Next window of installer will ask you about time zone settings.

You can simply choose appropriate time zone and click on continue over here. Next one will be about keyboard layout.

Here you can select Keyboard Layout based on language. Next step would be about user creation.

   Here I've created a user named as test, also you give a host name to your computer, If you don't know what a hostname is, I would simply put is as Name give to computer to identify it over network. If you don't know much about networks simply think of it as something simple like for example in office you would give hostnames like "reception computer", "managers computer", hope that makes some what sense to you. You will also find other options here  like "Log in automatically" (never recommend) "Require my password to log in" I would always recommend to use this options for better security practice. Once you click continue you would see window like this.

   You are almost done with the major installation part over here, here the installer would be copying necessary files to your system's hard disk, if you want to see what is happening,  you can simply click on arrow before "Copying files.." that would expand a little console of logs below it and display  what is happening in installation. Towards bottom right corner of installer window, you can see  skip button, which is not activated her, this would get highlighted mostly when installer would be trying to pull the files from over internet, you can simply hit the skip button if you don't want installer to do so, as it also makes installation process very lengthy and time consuming depending on your internet speed. I personally always skip it to make installation process faster. Any ways what ever you skip here can be upgraded later over internet so choice is again yours. Once installer is done copying necessary files it will prompt you with a dialogue asking if you want to restart/reboot your machine or continue testing. Choice is yours. This ends the installations of Linux Mint.

   Finally I would like to confess that there was lots of stuff which could be explained in details over here but, everything can't be explained at once nor it could be understood at once, so I've skipped some parts. I will try to explain it in future. I hope you have enjoyed this installation session, wish you have a great adventures ahead and lots of fun with Linux. Will try to put of some basic thing one might want to do soon after finishing their installation next time. Here I am closing my conversation  with you guys  see you next time.

Basic things to know before installing Linux

    Before I take you on the ride of installing Linux, I would like to tell you some basics of Linux about installing an Unix like operating system. There are few thing I want to pass on to user as they can better understand what exactly happens when you boot-up your computer, I will try to keep it as simple as possible, don't expect much of geeky stuff here as the goal is introduce use to some basic and not blow their minds with loads of technical stuff, when I mean getting started I mostly consider it would be those who may not know much of underlying things like what hardware it's way of functioning etc. So what happens in general scenario when you press that power button to start your computer, It simply start an power circuit and starts an hard carved application on core of your computer's chip which is generally referred to as BIOS (Basic Input Output System) This is like blueprints to basic components on your computer. This program also starts the operating system booting program referred as boot loader. This could had been more detailed explanation from technical point of view but that is not immediate goal here. I am just trying to give some rough idea to those who are not aware about all these things, any ways back to boot loading, In simple word when you install an operating system information related to operating system is stored on Hard Disc, when you power on computer it refers BIOS to find appropriate device from where it can load operating system, to make itself useful and functional for the user. I guess many user here might be from either windows user of may be mac, mac users might have little bit idea about all this but, many may still not know these things. next thing that comes up is initial-ram-disc which is minified version of basic components of operating systems like device drivers etc, which helps in booting kernel with required drivers. after this operating system does mounting of file-system and starts loading services/applications, after which you can find your desktop in usable state.


   Basic architecture of Unix like operating systems, now that you know some what about booting process, lets talk about architecture of the system of your system, Well if you think it's going to be some rocket science calm down, that is not what we are referring to but it's just the information which is going to help you in solving you most of the problems in future, If you are already an windows use you will find this all new, We are going to talk about file-system hierarchy. If you have questions like what the hell is that now? It's nothing great, just the overview of how files are stored/kept on Linux system, unlike windows files are kept in distributed manner in Linux based on their purpose, which all come under single directory denoted by "/" generally referred as "slash" or "root" beneath this directory you can find several directories like "/etc", "/bin", "/boot", "/home", "/lib", "/dev" etc. so what are these? Why so many directories?, well this is the architecture I was talking about, here things are spread out based on their role and isolated from others by putting them in separate directory beneath "/", so how does that help? It helps in keeping files organized and makes finding them easy, other advantages are it helps in securing things by defining strict roles of every zones (directories beneath "/" are referred as zones), like users are given privileges only in certain areas(directories) which they might need to access any where else they are not allowed to do much, This prevents things from getting in the way of each other, rather prevents from things interfering each others, so this keeps the things in their place which makes Linux secure operating system. I am going to present here a short list of some of important directories below "/" and give their purpose in short.


"/"           :- Top most directory in hierarchy everything lies under this.
"/boot"    :- Meant for keeping files which are used to bootup system.
"/etc"      :- You will find most of the configurations files here, you can edit them to configures various services on your operating system almost all of them will be text files.
"/home"  :- Used for keeping personal files of user, you should directory named after name of user beneath this, which will be personal directory of those respective users.
"/tmp"     :- Used for creating temporarily files etc. may be by user or applications
"/dev"      :- Contains files associated with various devices available on your system.
"/bin"      :- This directory contains the binary files( executables) with reference to windows files inside this directory are like start.exe used to launch applications run commands.
"/lib"       :- This contains library files in simple word supporting files used by application.

(I am stopping here, even though I can given details of many more including above, I just want to give you idea, I will leave rest upto you to explore and discover.)


   What would a user do with above information? well this is basic difference between windows and Linux which I think a user must understand, as this is going to help them in many aspects and on their way ahead, All though many thing are un-explained in this post but this would be a good start towards understanding Linux, How would this help user? It makes it easy to classify these directories into different areas/zones by understanding their purpose, one can simply know where to find things and where to do certain  things and where not to do certain things, this is very important for a beginner to keep himself/herself from breaking things, although I would suggest you to go in there and explore things if possible try to break them on purpose to understand your operating system in better way. But it's best to learn few basic thing before you star the roller-coaster ride. Well all of these directory can be mapped to separate partitions which you create on your hard disc, So windows users!! we no longer have concept of "c:" and "d:" here, so understanding this will help you to plan how to partition your computer when using Linux based on the purpose and usage. So simply  during installation we can choose to keep operating systems data on different partition and personal data on separate partition. This can be used to secure operating system as well as make it flexible for recovering data in case. Not only installation but this will also help you in pointing out problems and solving them in future. In terms of completeness this is not a very good document, but this will help those who are not aware of these thing, also telling everything at a time takes away the fun part of exploring, since I've learned most by exploring them my self I don't want you to miss the fun either. So I am closing my conversion here, next time we will possibly see how to do an installation, If you want me to write and post about specific distro please comment your request, I will try to post as per your requests provided I get enough time to download and finish writing down a post about it.

Before you begin!!

    Hello everyone once again. Before you begin your adventurous journey with Linux, I would like to suggest few things to make sure you don't end it, before even getting it started. It's like insuring your journey, I guess everyone does, so why not do it before you begin yours with Linux ? Insurance? do they have different policy for Linux users? will I get more benefit? will I have to pay extra premium? if all this questions are hitting your mind after reading the word insurance then just relax, So what exactly are we going to insure here? Very first thing I am trying to achive here is to prevent the readers from hating Linux. I am trying to prevent the users from experiencing un-necessary pain just on their first start, preventing them from un-necessary frustration. In many cases that I've came across are users trying to get started with some  new things, are turned down due to some silly reason. What I am trying to do over here is take away that fear from users. Is that so? well!! the first fear is about lack of knowledge. fear of new things many of us are often afraid to try new things, if you try to see this exercise beyond Linux, this will also help to built up some self confidence. That is total different area, let me take you back to the topic, so what else is left out? well biggest one for many is not knowing the consequences, well If I try to kick that out of you, I many endup give you some management lecture, but that is not the immediate purpose to write down this post , so I am stopping my self once again from distraction(:P). So what exactly I will be trying to convey in this post is some thing like list of thing you go through before you pack your bags. so what do we have one list? Umm packing bags for journey! get those pair of jeans, get my favourite  trawlers jacket, .. !! WAIT!! that's not the thing on list here, let me put down the list. Insurance plan, return tickets, knowing destination... this can become big list but I am trying to keep it short.

   Insurance plan? does one really need to get insurance before starting Linux? does Linux kills one using it? NO!! when I say insurance plan I literally never meant your General insurance, What I am trying to convey here is the plan to Insure your data. Do you intend to get rich by losing data? no that is not happening here, we are simply going to discuss some methods of saving you from losing data. if anyone of you have ever tried any things like installing windows etc with your computer, you must be aware of what I will be some what talking, first thing you need to figure out what is important data that you have on your computer, this one area is all upto user where he/she keeps the data, if the computer is shared. To me any data that can't be regenerated by again is important of course, so what does counts in this? I was lucky in my initial days of computing that I only had mp3s and and movies and games when I use to do crazy things with computers, thoe they were precious to me like diamond back then specially games :D, as we didn't had internet. So what data is important? or not recoverable? for me it is something like pictures and videos of my friends and family. etc, in some cases it may be emails stored on your computers local folder. you can take backup of these all data. I would suggest as many copies as you can, how can I take backup? I believe almost everyone knows how, in case you don't have much idea keep a copy of your personal videos  and pics on cloud storage provided by many, for something with legal importance like documents, emails I would recommend you to keep a copy on flash drive(pen-drive) or burn them on cd-rom or may be external hard-disk may be a good option. Get a through list of documents, files  check with it twice or thrice, try to ensure your backup is good and can be recovered when required. Now if you want to prevent other users from accessing your data, all through it is not full-proof you can put all the data into zip archive and protected with strong password. Again improper handling of data my lead to corruptions of backups (specially archived zip can lead to losing bulk of data at a time), so if your are doing this for first time best way to try out things with some junk data, with all the suggested possible method and then delete this junk data and try to recover it again. try this few times may be, it might be tedious exercise for many of you but trust me, this will save you from lot of pain in future, I would suggest you to make this an habit to keep backup of important data.


   return tickets! it was, huh? what? well that's the next item I've mentioned on the list, so what is return ticket, simply it's the way back to your home, Yess!! I know you are already home, but when you are trying out fancy things with your computer you may not feel yourself home in sometimes as lot of un-familar things on it  or may be some mishap, or software gone wrong situation, well science I've been doing a lots of fun things with my computer I've sometimes ended up in a mess, my recent fedora installation took me something like 12-15 attempts to properly install it, please don't bother with the numbers I've mentioned, It's just I was trying to achieve some thing which was not happening the way I wanted so I had to keep on trying it for some time. If same things happens to you, and you don't know what to do then again you may find yourself in trouble so better know how to get back to original state, in case of windows, you may most-likely have some tools like norton ghost, windows recovery disc, windows installer disc, etc. back then when I was windows user, after couple of tries we had used simple solution wipe and re-install on "C:". if you don't know how-to's  in this area? try to gather some information is first place before you end up getting into trouble(to me it is exciting experience, lol, but that's me, I know n number of ways to get back my data ans stuff) , I don't want to get your work get hampered again or you getting stuck with nu-usable pc(it's actually good opportunity to learn but you must know where your adventure ends and reality is going to kick you hard) this is second most important thing one must know before getting themselves into trouble. With situation you are stuck in between nowhere to go, many simply give-up(I suggest them to just keep on trying), so if you know how to restore thing to normal, here is where you can end your vacation and go back to work and give it a try on another weekend.


   Destinations? well here I would like to tell you some things about what all you are going to face in this journey, It's basically simple to classify into two types i.e. good or bad, but I leave that upto you. Personally It's all good for me as every trouble/ challenge you face teaches you some thing new and more that that it's fun, to over come these things at-least for me. Here good part can simply be achieving the goal of successful installation and we may have many things on other side things like, losing data (this is common) may be with successful / unsuccessful installation, broken pc, no longer booting any operating systems, if you achieve this then congrats, you have reached one milestone in process of understating your computer little more, try to find out why it is not booting in possible way (if you have another computer may be ) or if you are person with singe pc and have lot to lose, I would suggest to be very sure about your return tickets and insurance  of your data at-least. If you don't have return ticket here,  you will be facing various challenges!. In that case better do your home work, to me it's fun to try out new thing but still I need few things in there place, like scripts etc which I use to reduce my manual work. don't worry too much about scripts, they are  not relevant in here.

   I would like to put up a short summary of what I've been trying to convey over here is taking out fear of users of losing and possible chances of hating Linux because of losing some personal data, This conversation could have been more elaborative or might be omitted completely but for the fact everyone don't know every thing and everyone don't think the same way I wanted to put some awareness about some challenges one may face when they try out things with their computers, I've learned all these from my personal experience with computer I would like to the users to have it first hand like me, without knowledge, but all may not think same way and might lose their courage to step ahead in journey with Linux for them I wanted to at-least save them some important data. Finally simple Advice. One should not be afraid of takings risks, as falling and getting backup up is part of learning to walk, one Just have to keep trying till they succeed, think back then when you were child if you had not taken that risk of falling again and again and getting hurt you would never be able to walk and run, This is no different thing, only difference as grown-up is you are more worried about out-come and that stops you from trying, so let go that fear and you will discover journey full of fun is awaiting for you. This things are not just limited to learning Linux but failure, success are just the part of growth process ,if just want to hug and not the other you will never actually grow to your fullest. I am closing my conversation over here hope you will find your way through this journey, do let me know what you feel about this :).

Flavours of Linux

     Very first thing that would generally hit most of you when trying to begin with Linux would be, getting your hands into it. Well trying to get a feel of your first Linux distro. Distro? what is it? is that question is bothering you? I believe many of you might be knowing what a distro would be, but for ones who are new to this. For them I would like to share little bit about the community culture of Linux which has emerged from strong ideas of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). I don't want to discuss much about FOSS over here but I will attempt to explain what Open source is about? So what is open source? It's a type of licensing under which Linux has been published, these license allows the an individual to copy modify the code freely on the condition that you have to pass the same benefit to others in simple words what ever you create from open source will remain open source, you cannot hide or close down the source of your software just because you made changes to it. You were benefited because someone has freely distributed the software code now you modify and made it better so is it yours ? NO!, you were able to make it better because someone shared it first. well I will try to narrow down the discussion about open-source here as the intent is to just give and idea. So how does that affects Linux and what are distros? these questions are still in their place. Yes!! very well they are so why above explanation? it's because of the open-source nature of publishing and distribution of Linux it has gained a huge popularity among many curious programmers/ students around the globe, to be frank it is not just limited to programmers or students its' from many individuals who share common vision and interest have came together and put their efforts in development of this piece of software. There are some non-profit organizations commercial organizations who are also participating in development of such software. so all these communities / organization they bundle such open-source software into a package which we generally refer to as distribution or distro. So is every distro different operating system? Umm some what yes! some what no!!, huh ? confused? to explain this in simple words. Basics of Linux come for it's kernel which is core piece of software for any operating system this remains same as regardless what distro you use, so what are the  changes in distro?  its most likely the look an feel and the content of package. In simple words regardless of manufacturer what ever cell phone you use, basic functionality cellphone is always going to remain same. I know some genius can prove x phone is different from y, but to me basic functionality of cellphone is to be able to make and receive call and text, without which one would not be called phone.

    There are several distros available nowadays, it's really hard to keep track of them these days. Any way I've been asked by may which is the best distro to get started with? I simply reply them try and find out!, I may do same here to but I would like to tell you little bit more bout them and may be list few and try to tell you little more about their features, may be this might help you to chose one that suite your needs for starters. Although  I know a lot of distributions I've chosen few of them over here. I will try to explain little bit about their features whichever I know.

1) ubuntu:- This is one of the well known distribution available, this comes with flashy interface something like what you might expect on your smart phone (unity interface), if you don't know what is "unity interface"  just ignore don't want you to confuse with those things in this post. What you will get here is latest and the most hot developing piece of software available on Linux platform, this one has a good support for gaming stuff etc, very large forum, most of the things are easily available on this distro, I personally don't recommend this as I feel it's way too easy for me LOL!. Many software are  officially supported on this, so if you are kind of person who is looking for lots of support you may go along with this, remember support on Linux may not be some thing as in windows click here click there even tho it is officially supported. over all good support for gaming and medial applications.
OFFICIAL PAGE FOR UBUNTU http://www.ubuntu.com

2) Linux Mint :- This is one the most recommended distribution by me to beginners, Although this is derived from ubuntu itself, the feel and features of this distribution are pretty much like that of classic Linux Graphical Desktop. This would be Ideal for those who are looking for a Linux distro with simple interface and neat graphics and easy availability of things. Most of the things an average desktop user might need are available over here, better stability availability of new things. Some times latest releases may not be available on this distro but with small tweaks almost all the ubuntu software will run on this. over all good support for media applications.
OFFICIAL PAGE FOR MINT http://linuxmint.com/

3) fedora :- This might be a tiny bit of different step towards usage of Linux on desktop, there is participation of commercial organisation in development and planning of future path of this distro so there is a bit different touch in this distro. I would say this might be a little advancement over other two distros mentioned earlier in terms of usage and getting things done, this distro would be ideal for performing task like office work more inclined towards workstation and server. you may not always find the latest flashy desktop applications working on this but there is way to get them work here. over all design is suitable for good stable desktop/work desk environment.
OFFICIAL PAGE FOR FEDORA https://getfedora.org/

4) Open Suse :- I would say this is one of the most polished and thoughtful work desk you may find, design and feel is simple elegant and classic, availability of things may be a bit limited in some areas although you can make things available yourself, this distro fits a typical office work desk. I've not use much of this but I would say installation process itself is so well polished and so much well thought  about, that makes me feel this is one of the good distro. many of you might find it too confusing due to it's tweaklity and availability of lots of modification options. Overall stable and rich featured workstation.
OFFICIAL PAGE FOR OPENSUSE https://www.opensuse.org/en/

5) puppy Linux :- This is a small and fast thing. one of my favourite distribution ideal to run your old and less capable hardware, this is fast and lightweight. availability of things may be little less but you can easily have some decent day-to-day applications available on this. Over all lightweight fast distro good one to utilize old hardware.
OFFICIAL PAGE FOR PUPPY http://www.puppylinux.com/

6) Debian :- This is one of the classic Linux distributions, If good stability and classic feel of Linux is what you are looking for this is what you might be need to check out, this belongs to classic community move little slow in terms of development but this is one good distribution you can find, you will get to know bit more about Linux when you are using this, may not be first recommendation for newbie although there is no such thing like you can't. over a stable distribution latests thing might not be easily available.
OFFICIAL PAGE FOR DEBIAN http://www.debian.org/


   Here I am closing my list of distors and their explanation, I admit what ever given here is not complete for most of the cases, idea is just to keep it simple for first timers and get hang about ditros and helping them find one suitable for themselves , when it come to make things available in 95% of the cases what runs on one distribution can be made running on most of the other distribution running but things may not be straightforward in all the cases, but remember there is always way of doing thing when it comes to Linux. I 've omitted some of the distros from above list like Arch, gentoo, LFS , centos kali , which many might want me to add here but idea behind the post is for user to get started with his/her routine day-to-day usage in place without much hassle in some cases debian might be too much for a beginer but some times I find it simple in terms of usage. regarding availability of things. you can try any/many/ all of them you want. This post has been written to introduce the reader to idea of different communities their origins and different tastes and flavours available in Linux many things are not complete but I never intend to put entire encyclopedia in small three paragraphs. I am ending my conversation here and let you explore the and understand ideas about Linux distribution and it's communities I've added some links this time to help you getting on their official page. next time we will try to come up with some essentials about installation.

Getting started with Linux

          It's been quite long now since I've been asked about learning Linux. In the light of same numerous requests, I've decided to scribble-up some thing to help readers to understand and get started with Linux. This one is specially written for some of my close friends who always ask me how to get started Linux, Many generally ask me which book should I refer. And I keep telling them there is no such thing as book for learning Linux, I would like to say this might as well imply to any kind of learning process. I would specially like to ask those impatient peoples to slow down their gears who are just impatiently wanting to do some thing. Many individuals which I've came across usually have misconception about learning Linux, they often see it as memorizing commands, if you are one of them, then you are darn wrong about it!. Linux is simple to get started, but what I am trying to convey might be bit much more than just being able to use an operating systems with help of some commands. I believe Linux is much more than being able to run some fancy commands. Linux introduced me to idea of open-source, prior to which my world of computing was pretty much tied up with windows, where I was using things that were given to me in the way they are presented by some propitiatory organization with their own mindset about it, now when I think back about it I feel more like I some jack-ass who is given a sliced tomato when apple is demanded, this might be an bad example in simple word you often are given thing which someone wants to sell, may be there is a way to do things you want but it will always be the seller who will be deciding how and what for you. Linux offered me much more than that, freedom, flexibility to changed it to suite my requirements, I didn't had to wait any more for anyone do it for me, instead it gave me power to change thing for my betterment and also opened me to endless possibilities and ideas shared by many others.

          In term of being able to do thing on Linux I can pretty much manage do everything on Linux which average person does on his desktop workstation etc, so what difference does it makes on Linux? this a good question, one might ask, well to answer this, might be as simple  as It just let me do things I want it to do. next one coming would be "how come so?" well to answer that I would say I've always known more  than one way of doing same thing does that satisfies anyone no!. fun fact is you can always chose the way of doing thing, the way that you understand the best. If things don't work go and ask help in community, you will get a very good feedback(WARNING: many Linux communities don't encourage spoon feeding.) Initial phase of getting reply might be tough, but once you get the hang of it, you will find them much friendly and helpful in some time and by the time you reach there you will nothing you are better understanding your challenges. I've matured my Linux skills in relatively much friendly forum community but I too had my difficulties earlier, It's not just the Linux but to start any thing new you will always face difficulties, but thing keeps on getting better as more time you spend with it. Often people turn their back to Linux due to unable to succeed in their first attempt or may be two or three, many say it is hard! it's difficult! actually it is not about It's simple or hard fact is you don't know much about it, so how to know more? simple ask questions! to whom ? Linux community is very huge one and many of them definitely take out some time to help  each other. These days google and youtube is good friend, in most cases finding " how to?" is easily available  on these but, that may not be always enough doing thing, learning is no fun unless you share it with someone, so you can participate any or many communities over internet or around your. If your are afraid Linux is very big to learn  or too much to learn, and feel like "I can't do it", or "I don't have time" well In that case I would like to tell you learning is a continuous process one never stops learning new things, quantity doesn't matter one should try to get quality and that can be achieved by simply understanding things rather than memorizing way to do them.

          Many might end-up on this blog expecting to get some sort of command, or may be some cool download which will do the magic for them. But one may not find any such thing in here at-least on this post, as told earlier getting started with Linux is not about know n number of commands or being able to do some freaking stuff over commands, Getting actually stared with Linux is about understanding what is happening  beneath, it about freedom its about transparency it is about being part of something you like, it about sharing, it about being able to see the things from your own point of view and able to perform them on your computer, for me this has not just limited to the world of computing but  has opened new way of thinking openly and much broader scope. Getting started with Linux is about participation in development for everyone, understanding things happening in computing and guiding it with your vision up-to fulfil your requirements and it's also about having fun at same time while doing all this, those who are not much into computing can simply see to it as flexible way of doing thing with better understanding about it same time.  well how will you participate in above thing? first thing get handicap your daily computing. doesn't mean to break your computer by hitting it with hammer or throwing it away from window, instead remove your regular operating system and install Linux on your pc try doing usual routine things on it. it's only when you will push yourself to do things and take your steps in understanding what is that running on your pc. Next thing would be joining community, join some forums ask for helps, use google etc and that should get started. Final word for the post don't wait for some holy book  or some one else to guide your way instead start finding your one way to do thing and then you will actually get started with Linux. I am closing my little conversation over here and Let you guys decide your own path of learning Linux.