best linux distro for servers and desktops

[Deaths Aprentice 0]

SUSE Linux is best by far .Fairly easy to configure , has everything you need , and is compatible with allmost any program you can think off.Also , Fedora and Slackware are pretty good , but id go for SUSE .

[popac 0]

Somebody say that gentoo is best for beginers, but it is hardest linux, you must reed hundreeds of pages before you can install it. Like BSD, Gentoo have almost same way of upgradeing. All packages, portage etc are upgraded dayly on internet so you always have a neyest linux and neyest packages for it. Of course for something like that yuo need a stable network connection like servers have, but once you install gentoo you don't need to instal it ever again.... I think gentoo is best for servers becouse of it, and his stabilytu and speed. You can manualy optimize to get maximum performance so no eny linux can be faster and more stable. Of course, BSD systems are great for this, but they are not Linux, so ...For biginers I recomend Rad Hat server, or even Slackware.For desktop Gentoo & Slackware for experts and Mandrake or maybe SUSE for desktop. Why gentoo, again becouse of speed and stability. Why slackware, becouse of speed and easy way of installing on any pc.Why Mandrake, becouse of good performance combined with nice lok and many packages, tools etc. that will help anybody that is just started with linux.SUSE, well I don't like very much, but can't say it is bad. SUSE is for beginers and it is quite good.

[varalu 0]

I was just wondering what people's concensus was about this. What is the best distro for a web server, and why? I have heard people rave about Debian's stability. What about others?
What about desktops? SuSE is looking really good these days, but I haven't anything other than SuSE, Mandrake, and Knopix. Suggestions?

I do not think, you have to discuss servers and desktops separately. In linux, even desktops can be used for the purpose of a web server and It works quite fine. I have been working on such a set up, believe me, I have not faced any issues till Now. It also supports multiple simultaneous users and is quite stable. I you think you are facing some problems, you might have to install some extra packages, and that should solve the issue. As you know, you can get and install these extra packages very easily.

When it comes to distros, the core functionalities are the same... so , stability wise I will say, there will not be much difference.

Some of the best distributions I think are,
Debian - of Course...
Fedora - Here there is a company behind it and under active development... So, its very stable and the community is quite good.
SUSE - This is one of the distros that is getting more light these days, be it features or UI, these has some of the best ones in industry. - Again, Novell is behind this distribution. SO...
UBUNTU - Ubuntu is one of the best distributions and their community support is very good. I have seen so many people recommend UBUNTU. I would also personally recommend UBUNTU, because of the help available easily and have spent quite sometime on that.

Finally, it comes down to what you want to do with your machine, distribution to be precise.
There are specific distributions for different users/ uses. Say for example there is a educational verision from UBUNTU called EDUBUNTU.

[random truth 0]

Arch Linux is the best. If you can get through the complicated setup process.Pacman is much faster than aptitude (apt-get) and compiles the source based on your computer and os options, instead of a generic binary. Also Arch Linux will end up being the Fastest and Stablest distro on x86, AMD64 computers. Lastly Arch Linux follows a rolling release cycle so you are always running the newest system.

[tinoymalayil 0]

From My Opinion Opensuse is the best Linux Operating System that other Fedora,Ubuntu,Mandrake etc..The Control Center Yast of OpenSuse is awesome.There are many functionalities we can seen helps to love opensuse very much..
But the Internet Configuration settings of OpenSuse is still different.
Do You how to use the .Net Framework with Opensuse by using the Open Source utility wine.?
If you please reply how to install wine in Opensuse and How to run the .Net Framework in Linux.

From My Opinion Opensuse is the best Linux Operating System that other Fedora,Ubuntu,Mandrake etc..The Control Center Yast of OpenSuse is awesome.There are many functionalities we can seen helps to love opensuse very much..But the Internet Configuration settings of OpenSuse is still different.
Do You know how to use the .Net Framework with Opensuse by using the Open Source utility wine.?
If you please reply how to install wine in Opensuse and How to run the .Net Framework in Linux.

Edited April 21, 2009 by tinoymalayil (see edit history)

[mahesh2k 0]

Some of my favorite distros : Ubuntu, Mepis, Mandriva, Fedora.Mepis is one such distribution with easy learning curve, because of it's community support and loads of software shipped with it. Earlier they shifted to Ubuntu sources, but later they resumed back to debian. Mepis uses KDE as it's default window manager system. I find mepis much better in comparison to kubuntu, as it is loaded with more software than kubuntu.Mandriva was my favorite until i started to use ubuntu to the max. I'm still using mandriva on vmware, though not updated much. and for fedora i can say it is preety good and community support is good as well. My experience with Suse, Linspire is very limited. as i have very limited disk to add more virtual machines on vmware. so i'll test tehm if i get free disk space. Some of my friends use OpenSuse, and i heard evry positive things about that distro.