is fedora okay for people just playing around?

[David Curry]

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.

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.