Best Linux Distribution's ? ...

[TheJeffsta 0]

What distribution of Linux is the best - has the best/most useful features and offers the most compatibility of normal Windows everyday sort of programs? That Wine program is a bit confusing at times and is a bit too complicated for me lol.

Edited August 27, 2005 by microscopic^earthling (see edit history)

[yordan 10]

Hi, TheJeffsta,
There are already several posts on that subject. If you read them, you will probably find a lot of interesting answers.

What distribution of Linux is the best

You are asking here a very interesting question. And you will see something really funny. We are here right inside of the open-system world. here you ask the same question to two Linux gurus, you will have two completely different answer. And probably both answers are correct.If you ask your question slightly differently, you will be able to understand the differences between all the answers you will receive.
Let me answer to a slightly different question. Instead of "what is the best Linux", I woud rather ask "What Linux distro do you prefer ? Why do you prefer it ?"
So, I will tell you which Linux distro I prefer, and I have two answers, depending from what you intend to do with your Linux.

1) If you want a Linux system for professional use, I would recommend Linux RHEL3. It's a supported version, if you find a bug you may ask this bug to be repaired. And it works on most of the systems, including the brand new IBM Power5 multi-partitionned systems.
2) If you want a Linux for your howe, in order to play around, having a nice windowed environment with a lot of windowed tools but able to perform high-level console commands, I recommend you Mandrake 9. Mandrake 10 is newer, but the full version 9 is still free, so if you want to add open-source self-compiling project you will be able to do this. I did not test the new 10.3 Mandrake free version, maybe it's again fully free, maybe not, that's why I suggest you using the older Mandra 9 version.

And let's play a funny game. Let's wait a little bit her, and you will see several people talling you other versions are far better. Why ? Because the question was "the best one". So, I simple answer the question "your preferred one". I used Red Hat paying version and Mandrake free version and Suze also, and I prefer the comfort and the look and feel with Mandrake.
By the way, the most confortable way of doing the full install is the following way :
1) Create partitions on your hard disk.
2) Install Microsoft Windows (XP, 2000, what you want) first, in the first partition, NTFS or FAT32.
3) Create the other partitions as FAT32 (not NTFS). Let a little bit unpartionned space (I suggest 10 or 20 gigs).
4) Mandrake will install itself on the free space, install Lilo as multi-boot manager, and will mount all the Windows FAT32 partitions as Linux filesystems.
So, you will see Linux filesystems named /mnt/windows1, /mnt/windows2, /mnt/windows3, etc...
If /mnt/windows1 is a NFTS filesystem, you will be able to read the Microsoft files but not to write. If /mnt/windows2 is a FAT32 filesystem, you will be able to read and write. This is a very agreable way of communicating between Unix and Windows : you write things on the Microsoft G:\ disk, and you read them under Linux in the /mnt/windows3 fileystem, and if you Linux writes files on this filesystem booting on Windows will allow to to read/write them using Microsoft Word. Isn't life beautiful ?

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

You can NOT ask that question because there is NO "best". Best is what the user describes, therefore, you must try the ones you think you like.xboxrulz

[abhiram 0]

You can NOT ask that question because there is NO "best". Best is what the user describes, therefore, you must try the ones you think you like.

The perfect answer. <CLAP, CLAP, CLAP>

[qwijibow 0]

Plus, each linux distro is the same thing put together differently.All Linux distro's use the same kernel (Linux)All Linux DIstro's use the same Operating system ( GNU )

[unimatrix 0]

going to show my age and geekyness here:Everything since Slackware 3.....SucksBeing Flames......Now!

[hazeshow 0]

Everything since Slackware 3.....Sucks

Sounds good! I'll try to get the 2.9 Beta version
The best Linux distribution is the one that best hits your needs. The best glove ist the one that fits.

GreetingZ

[yordan 10]

Nice bunch of answers. So, no way of asking for the truth. The best Linux distro is the one you will like, you will want to use, you will want to install on your friend's computer. And this depends from your own feelings. The only way to have the answer is try one : if you like it, keep it. If you don't like it, try another one.And you are a lucky man : most of linux distros are free ones, you only need to spend time until you find the one you need.By the way, nobody answered your question about most compatibility of normal Windows everyday sort of programs. I expected more people reacting when reading that way of ofense. No real Lunix guy could imagine doing his everyday work with what you name "normal Windows". Except if Linux is your normal windowing operating system ?

[qwijibow 0]

Slackware 3.. ay...Lets See how Linux Kernel 1.3 handles my AMD-64 machine... do you think it has drivers for my nForce-3 motherboard.. LOL

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

lol, anyways, not all distros use the "same" kernel, there are different versions of the same kernel, but I won't go too deep into the details.xboxrulz

[hatim 0]

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ is a good place to look.

Ubuntu seems to be getting alot of attention lately