Which Linux? Which Linux is the best in your view?

[cerion 0]

Which Linux is the best in your view?I was just woundering what linux you all like better and why even if you give me a few you like and the pros and con of each and the one you recommend for me to use.I have had a look at alot and i just cant deside on which to get. Im also looking at a free version of linux i noticed some you actually have to pay for but you can then distrubute but i dont want to pay just download an .iso.One more thing can you also give me links to infomation about each one and / or were i can download them.Thanks in advanced and i hope you can help me out here

[warbird 0]

I realy like RedHat, if you are a pro you should try RedHat Enterprise, else you can have RedHat Fedora Core 3.

You can download RedHat Fedora Core 3 here:

Click here

This is my oppinion, maybe other people more like another linux version.

[qwijibow 0]

if your new to linux, you may want to have a look at the following thread http://forums.xisto.com/topic/82096-topic/?findpost=1064290457

For reviews on Linux disto's have a look at distrowatch.org

look at the top page hit ranking on the right hand side of the screen, although there are too many linux distro's to count, those are the top 100. Im not saying you should be a sheep and follow, but its always easyer to get help for the well knows distro's if you have a distro specific problem.

from that link you can read distro reviews, and find links to home pages where you can find download links, and more documentation.

To my knolegde, all distro's are free except Xandros, Linspire and Redhat Enterprise Edition.

All the best linux distro's for newbies wanting to learn are in the first link.

but if you want to dive in at the deep end... continue reading.

distro's ice used...

Fedora (took over where redhat desktop left off).
PRO's
* a very common distro, very large community.
* fast release cycle, approxamatly eery 6 months a bew version is available.
* uses the very popular RPM package to install software... their will almost always be a pre- compiled RPM for whatever you want to install, you wont have to compile anything yourself (unless you want to)

Cons:
* RPM hell. sometimes porgram A, requires you to first install Program B, which in turn needs program C D and G. (also known as dependency hell..) Although in recent years, porgrams which can auto instyall packages, solving dependency's automatically are a great help.

* Personally, i dont like the way the boot scripts are set up, its a little harder to tweak boot sequence than in other distro's, but if you are planning on tweaking too much, you probably dont want this distro.

SLACKWARE
Pro's
* Very configureable.
* Makes a great Desktop OR server
* Great package management, virtually no dependency's to solve.
* Great for tweaking.
* popular distro for the experts, and not too difficult for the newbs to learn too.

Con's
* the installer is command line only, although its still an easy to use installer, it may scare you if you are not comfortable with command lines.
* All configureation is done by editing config files, Again, only a con for those not comfortable with command lines.


Linux From Scratch
PRO's
* Lightning fast !!!
* 100% customised to you.
Con's
* No package management, compile, uninstall / upgrade is all manual.
* Took me a good 2 days to install last time i did it.

basically, with this distro, you start with a floppy disk and a network card driver, and a blank hard disk, and built linux yourself.


Gentoo !!!!!
My faveortie distro EVER...

PRO's
* Lightning Fast !
* No version's. for example with fedora, when version 3 comes out, you will need to download version 3 and install it. With gentoo there is no version, when i want to update all the software to the latest version i simply type "emerge --sync && emerge --update world"
and my system is brought up to date.

* the package management ROCKS ! virtually any program you could possably want to install is listed in whats called a pportage tree. to install it i run "emerge <porgram_name>"
the the computer will automatically download the souce code from its home page, extract and install it. fully automatically.

* Optimisation. everything you install is automatically optimised for your exact processor. most distro's are optimised for i686 cpu's. mine is optimised for my AMD Athlon x86 +3400.

* Gentoo is the most up to date linux distro. and always will be because of the package management i mentioned.

* securety features such as glsa-check. this program will download a list of securety holes from gentoo, and check to see which ones m computer may be vunerable to.. if it finds a securety hole, it can automatically dooanload a newer version / patch, and automatically fix the hole.

Cons...
* Probably the second hardest distro to install (after Linux from Scratch)
* You have to compile everything, meaning slow installs, especially for slow computers... for example, it took me 15 minutes to compile firefox.
* configureation mostly done my command line.


thats it... Please Note, that i am EXTREMELY biased towards Gantoo

basically, everyone has to try several distro's before they find the one that suits them.

[jipman 0]

Isn't this posted a few times already?

about Linux, fedora is the best in my opinion.

The con qwij says

Cons:* RPM hell. sometimes porgram A, requires you to first install Program B, which in turn needs program C D and G. (also known as dependency hell..) Although in recent years, porgrams which can auto instyall packages, solving dependency's automatically are a great help.

does not exist because I have the almight YUM... That automaticaly searches for depencies and stuff

[MunichKangaroos 0]

I like using SuSE 9.2 it is rather big about a 4.7gig full install but it comes with everything. if you are starting out in linux i reccomend SuSE that or redhat and both of wich have good readme's and tutorials on how to use their systemSuSEPros: Simple to setup (everything prettymuch is preconfigured)comes with everything (except 3d Nvidia drivers!!!)can repair from the cd/dvdhas alot of server programs (pr0-version)comes on one neat dvd YAY!! Cons:is annoying to install non SuSE marked RPMSis rather big..... well that is how i begain learning-----------------------------------------------------------------YAY.... ~.~"-desu

[qwijibow 0]

does not exist because I have the almight YUM... That automaticaly searches for depencies and stuff

ive tried yum, its got the right idea, but its got along way to ge before it reaches emerge portage grade of kick-*bottom*-ness.

plus last time i used yum, it was missing huge rpograms... you needed to manually google for seperate repositories if you wantde mpleyer, or quake... and god help you if you want to install Unreal-Tournament 200X or Doom3 with yum.

But lets not get into distro wars.

What other distro's have you used ?
i often find that users who prefere fedora have rarely tried a very wide range of distro's.

i think everyone at the very least should try fedora, debian and slackware. top get a good view of all the different distro's.

[jipman 0]

Well, you need to set up the yum.conf good, like the repo's

[jipman 0]

Damn forgot to add this:I've tried the following- Suse 7 and 9- Ubuntu- Red Hat 7It's not really a wide selection I guess.

[the empty calorie 0]

My advice on a Linux distro would be...well, this shouldn't be a surprise, but slackware. Yes, the installer is text-based, and I don't see how that scares some people, but I guess it can. My first distro was Red Hat, and...I thought it was okay, but it was a little slow, and clumsy. Yeah, I could click around and such, and they were nice enough to include a sticker in the box that told me like 25 commands or something, but you will need WAY more commands than just those...but when I had Red Hat, I learned a little...but not enough. My advice is to dive in the deep end head first, and go with Slackware. That was my nex distro after Red Hat...and after a week, I learned a great wealth of knowledge. If you're into this sort of thing, it's nice to have this knowledge down early-on, especially when it comes to configuring scripts.. Also, i FINALLY learned how to complie source code in Slackware.. I had all these programs I wanted when I had Red Hat that weren't available in RPM (which I was dependant on until Slack). These days, I refuse to use RPMs anymore, and everything out there under the sun has a tarball (.tar.gz). But, I understand some people don't want to get underneath the GUI and mold Linux into shape, and if you're one of those, I propose another..Option B: SuSE Linux. This distro is great if you're just a point-and click person, But isn't completely crippled to more advanced users (Like Red Hat and ESPECIALLY Lycoris Desktop/LX/) Very solid, stable system, plenty of bells and whistles, if that's what you like...Not the most customisable, though...I don't believe it includes Gnome, though...One warning about SuSE: You may find yourself dependant on RPM packages...Option C: Now, Unless you're specifically married to Linux, another good option I have come across is Solaris. But, a lot of things you might want to have you will have to add yourself.. compliling source can be a bit more complicated than Linux, and your choice of software is more limited than linux (although, Solaris still has several buttloads of software vailable). Sun's packaging system is quite nice, although text-based. But Solaris packages, like RPM, aren't available for everything. with even less packages available than RPM. But if all you're looking for is just the basics, Solaris is a great choice. If you want more of the "goodies", like emulators, and such...Linux would be a better choice.Now, here's an option that I recommmend against... Lycoris Desktop/LX, formerly Redmond Linux. This distro aims to be the most friendly for Windows users migrating to Linux, and while I do appreciate their goal, part of the way they do this is by SEVERELY crippling the distro. No compiler, little RPMs available, plus, the only software I could actually get to run in the stuff from Lycoris' library of programs. Avoid this distro at all costs.Now, generally, I don't recommend anything I haven't used myself, but it's worth mentioning that I've been hearing lkots of great things about Gentoo Linux, so that could be worth checking out. I've also heard great things about Debian as well, but I am completely unfamiliar with both of these...I know debian has it's very own packaging system, but I've never played with debian, so there isn't much I can say..Well that's my two cents...I hope you find the right one for you. Remember though, if you don't like one, there are many other distros. There's one out there for everywhere. Mine just happens to be Slack. But, that tends to happen when you got comfortable with a text-based interface before you could walk more than ten steps Ah...8-bit computing...the good old 6502...those were good days.

[Tweak37 0]

This has been here so many times now... If you search a while, you'll learn that i like debain the most

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

A new version of Ubuntu is supposed to come out in about 2 days. It looks pretty awesome. People who are new to linux or like debian should check it out.

[xnrevolution 0]

Which Linux is the best in your view?

 

I was just woundering what linux you all like better and why even if you give me a few you like and the pros and con of each and the one you recommend for me to use.

 

I have had a look at alot and i just cant deside on which to get. Im also looking at a free version of linux i noticed some you actually have to pay for but you can then distrubute but i dont want to pay just download an .iso.

One more thing can you also give me links to infomation about each one and / or were i can download them.

 

Thanks in advanced and i hope you can help me out here 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Linux distros I have used.. are:

 

1. Tomsrtboot (linux on a floppy.. great rescue companion)

2. Turbo Linux (Euro-linux.. I tried ver 7.. and wasn't too impressed, but it was a loong time ago too.)

3. Mandrake 7,8,9,10 (I really liked this until I ran into some problems w/ the configuration GUI)

4. SuSe 9 (I tried, I liked, KDE as default.... very well updated, good for newbies and businesses)

5. Redhat 7,9 (Was the de-facto standard a while ago, that is until they broke it up into two)

6. Fedcore Core 1,2,3 (And soon 4.. my current version is 3, and I love it.. you get some good control but it holds back a bit.. doesn't quite know wether it's a power user or a newbei user distro)

7. Gentoo 2004 ( I tried... takes a looooong time to install do to compiling EVERYTHING from scratch, I liked the control tho.. mua ha ha ha)

 

And I'm sure I've missed a bunch but those are the ones that stick right now.. I would recommend Mandrake to the newbie, and fc to the inbetweener, and possibly gentoo to the power hungry such as myself... note: i haven't used mandrake in over a year so I could be wrong about it currently.. maybe they've turned a new leaf?

 

Either case good luck.. i hope this helps!