I am wondering if you can point me in the right direction. At work I have been assigned to work on an IPC with openSUSE build installed. The variant is just CLI only, no GUI. This has inspired me to learn it properly in my own time.
I current have a Windows 8.1 64-bit architecture with 8GB RAM and what I would like to do is to create a bootable USB with a Linux variation build so I can boot from my laptop everytime I want to use it.
What size USB drive should I buy? This should be large enough for the install itself and possible enough so i can try and install programs. Also what is the time difference from booting between a USB 2.0 and a USB 3.0; is it worth me buying a USB 3.0 drive?
What Linux variant should I look to create a live CD from? If possible I would like this variant to be CLI only without the full GUI that seems to be the default.
What website could you recommend so I can learn how to do some simple processes? (launch a browser, copy and paste, install a program, network configurations etc…)
Minimum size I’d got for would be around the 8GB mark. A typical Linux install is around the 5GB mark and you’ll need some space for your home directory.
Not sure about the differences between USB 2 & 3 - obviously 3 is faster.
Slackware defaults to command prompt on first boot (you have to edit /etc/fstab to get a GUI on boot). The issue you might face is that the distros are gradually diverging. If you’re going to be using a distro with systemd in it then Slackware won’t help that much as it doesn’t have it and there are now quite serious differences emerging in how run levels are controlled and if you’re going to learn the CLI then you’ll need to get the hang of runlevels. Any distro can be told to boot only to the CLI so to be honest, if you’re going to be using Suse then stick with Suse (a headless Suse install is quite easy - it must be because I managed it and I am not that technical a sort of person). The openSuSE forums are well populated and extensive in their scope.
www.linuxquestions.org is a great place for highly technical help and probably has links to more educational resources.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “Linux var”, but if you’ve used openSUSE before, I stay stick with it. There should be a CLI/server edition…that said, I can’t find one :-[
Ubuntu definately has a server edition, and that’s a decent bet. Be aware that the command line will be different between SUSE & Ubuntu - commands that work on SUSE may not work on Ubuntu, and vice versa.
When I say ‘var’ I mean ‘variant’; perhaps I should’ve said ‘flavour’ or ‘distributor’
I suppose what I’m trying to ask is which Linux distributor is the most universal? One that I can learn the most of. If there is such a distributor of course.
There is no “universal” distro … that said commands tend to be “fairly” universal … so start with whatever suits, then learn the differences.
Ubuntu (server edition) is as good a starting point as any, and if you’re starting from scratch maybe better than most simply because of the volume of available assistance/tutorials/articles/etc, and that 99.9% of what you learn will also apply to the plethora of other Debian/Ubuntu based distros out there … a downside may also be the volume of available assistance and having to sift through it all for a consensus on the best solution for a given problem.
But as has been pointed out, if the intent is to end up using Suse … why not learn on Suse, just to save confusion at the beginning.
(other than the package management stuff, by far the majority of what you learn on Suse will transfer directly or with only slight modification to any other distro)
Point is, by the time you’re comfortable in the CLI on one distro, you’re not going to be baffled by any of em, and should be able to figure out the differences without too much trouble.
I don’t think there are many variants (or “spins”) of openSUSE.
In terms of the most “vanilla” of Linux distros, you’re looking at Slackware, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a first Linux distro until you are A) very determined, B) a total nerd, and C) slightly unhinged. Slackware’s mission is to remain as true to “Unix principles” as possible, and as true to the way Linux was when it first emerged 20 years ago.
For someone new to Linux, I’d have to recommend Ubuntu server edition. It’s a CLI-based distro, but you can easily install a GUI from the command line
I fail to grasp what is it you are trying to achieve here.
Is it a challenge to see if you can get by just using the command line?
You can achieve that by using the Terminal (in any distro with GUI) and issue commands in that instead of using the GUI.
Once you mastered enough cli-kung fu then by all means go sans GUI.
You can get the feel for how to go about using the command line here
Yes the main thing for me is to get to grip with the CLI side of things. But every now and then I would like to switch to the GUI.
I think I will go for Ubuntu Server Addition, ensure it boots as a CLI and get started from there. My intention of using the GUI is to get a feel of the modern Linuux and see how it compares to Windows out of curiosity
I think what SeZo is saying is it may be easier to just install the desktop version of Ubuntu, and drop to the command line when you want.
That would certainly be easier that installing the server edition, then having to install a GUI desktop environment on it (which pretty much leaves you with the desktop edition anyway).
And if that is indeed what he’s saying, I’d tend to agree with him … if your plan is to turn the server edition (no GUI) into the desktop edition by installing a GUI desktop, you might as well start with the desktop edition
Essentially Linux CLI running on your Windows box … (?)
('s bin around since forever, if you’re really keen you can also spin up an X server, but you don’t need this to play with the shell and tools)
