Need help choosing a distro
I am not new to computers and windows, but I am new to Linux. I am planning on starting a non-profit within this year. What my organization will do is not important for this post, but if you are interested go to our website http://avoidd.org/
Obviously given the economic climate most people think I'm nuts for wanting to start a non-profit at this time, but I never did say I was sane. I have been told by several people in government and other organizations that when I start this it will probably get big fast. With that said my reason for this post is pure economics. I have several computers P3 and up that I will use when I start the organization.
I have tested a couple of distros in Virtualbox and have found that Ubuntu was by far the easiest to get up and running. It was the easiest for accessing shared windows printers and folders, however I do not like the fact that any user can install, remove programs, and install or remove hardware. I know that this next question is very subjective but I will ask anyway.
Can anyone recommend a Linux distro that is simple to install, and simple for people familiar with windows to use? Is very simple to configure to access windows shares. A distro that I will not have to constantly maintain and monitor, but one that requires root control to change anything.
Any input will be very appreciated.
Thanks
Comments
-
I don't know the best distro for what you need, and I'm sure some people on here will be in to offer some helpful advice, but I just wanted to note that when you create users you can create users that need root authorization to do much of anything but use the desktop. Ubuntu should even ask for root authorization for program/hardware installation. To edit those settings, go into the control center and go into edit users, where you can adjust their permissions.0
-
If you like the feel of ubuntu then you can modify it to exactly fix your needs.
You can modify the menus in gnome to hide the software center option to keep users from thingking they can install software.
If a user is not part of the sudo group then they cannot access administrative functions without knowing the root password, so the control is in place.
As for setting up windows shared, you can easily add entries to the fstab file to automount windows/samba shared directories when the computer starts up.
As for emulating the appearance and feel of windows you can modify the gnome appearance to look and feel more like windows. Or if you are seeking a more familiar interaction then you might want to consider trying out opensuse or mandriva, both are using the KDE windows manger which is very similar to windows and they are geared more toward enterprise use so they should have many tools to simplify your administration.0 -
I have to add a quick note about Linux Mint. It's based off of ubuntu 9.10, but it's a little bit more windows friendly with a bottom menu bar. It's great if you really like ubuntu. I'm a KDE fan myself despite mint using gnome though.0
-
First, not just anyone can install or remove programs or hardware in Ubuntu. When you install Ubuntu, the first user account created (you) is granted sudo (admin) privileges. Other users you create are not so enabled, unless you add them to the sudoers list.
So, for ease-of-use and general hardware support, you really can't go wrong with Ubuntu. I run Ubuntu on my laptops, but I run CentOS (community version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux) on my workstation. Ubuntu is a lot better in supporting wireless and other such hardware like web cameras than RHEL/CentOS. I don't need that on my workstation, but I do on the laptops, hence the different systems.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 219 LFX Mentorship
- 219 LFX Mentorship: Linux Kernel
- 793 Linux Foundation IT Professional Programs
- 354 Cloud Engineer IT Professional Program
- 179 Advanced Cloud Engineer IT Professional Program
- 82 DevOps Engineer IT Professional Program
- 147 Cloud Native Developer IT Professional Program
- 138 Express Training Courses
- 138 Express Courses - Discussion Forum
- 6.2K Training Courses
- 47 LFC110 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 71 LFC131 Class Forum
- 42 LFD102 Class Forum
- 227 LFD103 Class Forum
- 19 LFD110 Class Forum
- 38 LFD121 Class Forum
- 18 LFD133 Class Forum
- 7 LFD134 Class Forum
- 18 LFD137 Class Forum
- 71 LFD201 Class Forum
- 5 LFD210 Class Forum
- 5 LFD210-CN Class Forum
- 2 LFD213 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 128 LFD232 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 2 LFD233 Class Forum
- 4 LFD237 Class Forum
- 24 LFD254 Class Forum
- 697 LFD259 Class Forum
- 111 LFD272 Class Forum
- 4 LFD272-JP クラス フォーラム
- 12 LFD273 Class Forum
- 151 LFS101 Class Forum
- 1 LFS111 Class Forum
- 3 LFS112 Class Forum
- 2 LFS116 Class Forum
- 4 LFS118 Class Forum
- LFS120 Class Forum
- 7 LFS142 Class Forum
- 5 LFS144 Class Forum
- 4 LFS145 Class Forum
- 3 LFS146 Class Forum
- 3 LFS147 Class Forum
- 1 LFS148 Class Forum
- 15 LFS151 Class Forum
- 2 LFS157 Class Forum
- 30 LFS158 Class Forum
- 7 LFS162 Class Forum
- 2 LFS166 Class Forum
- 4 LFS167 Class Forum
- 3 LFS170 Class Forum
- 2 LFS171 Class Forum
- 3 LFS178 Class Forum
- 3 LFS180 Class Forum
- 2 LFS182 Class Forum
- 5 LFS183 Class Forum
- 32 LFS200 Class Forum
- 737 LFS201 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 3 LFS201-JP クラス フォーラム
- 18 LFS203 Class Forum
- 134 LFS207 Class Forum
- 2 LFS207-DE-Klassenforum
- 1 LFS207-JP クラス フォーラム
- 302 LFS211 Class Forum
- 56 LFS216 Class Forum
- 52 LFS241 Class Forum
- 48 LFS242 Class Forum
- 38 LFS243 Class Forum
- 15 LFS244 Class Forum
- 2 LFS245 Class Forum
- LFS246 Class Forum
- 49 LFS250 Class Forum
- 2 LFS250-JP クラス フォーラム
- 1 LFS251 Class Forum
- 153 LFS253 Class Forum
- 1 LFS254 Class Forum
- 1 LFS255 Class Forum
- 9 LFS256 Class Forum
- 1 LFS257 Class Forum
- 1.3K LFS258 Class Forum
- 10 LFS258-JP クラス フォーラム
- 119 LFS260 Class Forum
- 159 LFS261 Class Forum
- 42 LFS262 Class Forum
- 82 LFS263 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 15 LFS264 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 11 LFS266 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 24 LFS267 Class Forum
- 24 LFS268 Class Forum
- 30 LFS269 Class Forum
- LFS270 Class Forum
- 202 LFS272 Class Forum
- 2 LFS272-JP クラス フォーラム
- 1 LFS274 Class Forum
- 4 LFS281 Class Forum
- 9 LFW111 Class Forum
- 259 LFW211 Class Forum
- 181 LFW212 Class Forum
- 13 SKF100 Class Forum
- 1 SKF200 Class Forum
- 1 SKF201 Class Forum
- 796 Hardware
- 199 Drivers
- 68 I/O Devices
- 37 Monitors
- 103 Multimedia
- 174 Networking
- 91 Printers & Scanners
- 85 Storage
- 758 Linux Distributions
- 82 Debian
- 67 Fedora
- 17 Linux Mint
- 13 Mageia
- 23 openSUSE
- 148 Red Hat Enterprise
- 31 Slackware
- 13 SUSE Enterprise
- 353 Ubuntu
- 468 Linux System Administration
- 39 Cloud Computing
- 71 Command Line/Scripting
- Github systems admin projects
- 93 Linux Security
- 78 Network Management
- 102 System Management
- 47 Web Management
- 63 Mobile Computing
- 18 Android
- 33 Development
- 1.2K New to Linux
- 1K Getting Started with Linux
- 371 Off Topic
- 114 Introductions
- 174 Small Talk
- 22 Study Material
- 805 Programming and Development
- 303 Kernel Development
- 484 Software Development
- 1.8K Software
- 263 Applications
- 183 Command Line
- 3 Compiling/Installing
- 987 Games
- 317 Installation
- 97 All In Program
- 97 All In Forum
Upcoming Training
-
August 20, 2018
Kubernetes Administration (LFS458)
-
August 20, 2018
Linux System Administration (LFS301)
-
August 27, 2018
Open Source Virtualization (LFS462)
-
August 27, 2018
Linux Kernel Debugging and Security (LFD440)