is fedora okay for people just playing around?

[David Curry]

David Curry wrote:

> Matthew wrote:
>
>> Hi everybody.
>>
>> I recently got a new computer and I’m going to use my old computer 
>> for trying out linux and generally experimenting on. Although I’m 
>> generally pretty handy and able to figure stuff out I have absolutely 
>> no programming or professional computer experience. Would fedora be 
>> way out of my league or are there other people out there that are 
>> just kind of tinkering around? (This is not a technical question - 
>> I’m sure my old computer could handle it – I’m not sure whether I 
>> can.) And if you think not – is there a good beginners’ basic linux?
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any comments
>>
>> Matt
>>
> You could probably install and tinker around with Fedora without any 
> problems as long as your "old" machine consists of fairly mainstream 
> components.
>
> An alternative you might consider is to download and install some 
> "LiveCD" distributions that are readily available. Two that readily 
> come to mind are Knoppix and MEPIS. These LiveCDs will boot your 
> computer and contain all the software needed to gain a little 
> familiarity with some of the applications available in the linux world 
> before installing the OS on your harddisk.
>
Correction:  should have read, "download and burn some "LiveCD 
distributions" .  (Assumes you have a CD-R or CD-RW drive.)

> If you choose to proceed with giving fedora a spin, besure to read the 
> release notes before hand. If you opt to try out linux through the 
> LiveCd approach, just Google for LiveCD linux distributions and follow 
> some of the links to download points.
>
>