Opinion in choosing which Linux.

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Kaze105

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 2, 2009
Messages
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Im hoping to dual boot vista and Linux eventually. The problem though is that i am curious in what options there are in choosing Linux. I used to use red hat Linux, but that was quite some time ago when i received it free. Now Red hat is discontinued and it costs a bit to purchase it.

Fedora and Ubuntu are my current options, but would anyone suggest other free ones?

I would be thankful for any of your opinions.
 
What are you wanting to do with the OS? Are you wanting something that is bleeding edge or uses older packages that are well tested to be robust? CentOS is Red Hat without the support and branding, but since it is based for enterprise, program versions are not as new as in Ubuntu or Fedora. Also look at what software you are wanting to run.

I personally prefer to stay away from RPM based distributions like Red Hat and Fedora, but there is some software like Labview that can be very difficult to install on anything but RPM distributions.

I also prefer KDE over Gnome, so on my computers I run Kubuntu. KDE 4.3 is very nice to use. In order to install 4.3, you will either have to run the alphas of Kubuntu 9.10, wait for 9.10 final in October, or enable the experimental repositories in 9.4.
 
Apparently Gentoo is very good. Mandriva also has a very good reputation (some say it's even more user-friendly than Ubuntu), and SUSE as well.
 
I would rather have a newer version os, since i stuck to red hat for some years. Im actually hoping to see for linux versions that can be done just by cd instead of full install so that i can just test it out before using.

I dont mind using kde or gnome, but a lot of programs i will may require rpm package.

@siliconnerd, may i ask why you prefer to stay away from rpm? Im still in the process of checking over the things i will require on linux.

Mandriva kinda looks like vista with a twist haha.

Thanks for your opinions though, will look through them
 
pcbsd.org (I've not tried)
....
You could try a live cd of freesbie
...
Or check the freebsd.org website (and forum) (freebsd-questions mailing list, etc...)
I read a "running linux" book before using it, learned a lot for the install.
Many who run bsd after linux eventually go pure freebsd... Some stay with
only linux, some use both...
 
I personally stay away from rpm's as well, but that is just a preference.

Ubuntu is pretty decent for a basic desktop system. Linux Mint I just recently installed on my desktop and I actually like it a lot. has a finished off feel.

I used to absolutely love slackware. Still do like it, but I haven't used it much in a long time.

A friend of mine and I have been talking about how annoying it is that there are so many different distro's that are all trying to do the same thing. New and different projects are cool, but when there are probably hundreds of different distro's trying to make a desktop ready platform it makes it seem like a mess. It's really all the same thing just done in different colors.

You can get live CD's for pretty much any distro out right now.
 
MINT is an excellent starting point for those interested in learning more about linux semi painlessly
 
If you remember a lot about your Red Hat days and want its successor, try CentOS (repackaged/rebranded RHEL) or Fedora (Community-based Red Hat successor). If you want something very user friendly and good for new users, go for Ubuntu or one of its derivatives (like Mint).
 
Why not use a virtual machine inside your windows.
Then you can try them all without leaving windows.
vmware server is free and so is Sun Microsystems virtualbox.

Of course only the elite among us use this:
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
 
I use Ubuntu, and I love it. It's been about 6 months since I've used Windows for my main OS and man oh man am I one happy camper! I started off just using the add/get remove to install programs, and eventually I found programs that I had to build from source. Slowly by surely I am learning power of the shell.
 
I recently installed Arch Linux after using both Debian, Ubuntu (+KUbuntu and XUbuntu), SimplyMEPIS, SUSE and others, and I am not looking back.

Maybe if you are new to Linux it is not the right distro, but otherwise I really like it. It's simple to configure, fast (way faster than my previous Ubuntu installation), you only have the software installed that you want to use, it uses rolling releases, so you always have the latest version without the need to reinstall or upgrade the entire OS.
 
I just installed zenwalk, and so far i do like it. I have used fedora and ubuntu recently, but they just seem to bloated / take half the fun out of running linux in the first place. If i do re install, ill likely go with arch
 
Don't worry about which distro you use - just pick something with a decent package system & relatively current package support and move on with your life. You might have a different installer, KDE instead of Gnome or different themes but It's all pretty much the same experience when it actually comes down to using/learning Linux on the desktop.
 
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