[Trance]

Well, we all know Linux is very secure and whatnot, but I've been wondering. . .

Which OS of Linux would you say is the best? I mean, there's Linspire, SUSE Linux, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xandros, etc.

It'd be mainly for desktop use ('net browsing, music playback, word processing, IMing, etc.).

Ever since the past few incidents I've had with XP, I'm becoming very impelled to move over to Linux.

[saikee]

Why not have all of them? Then you will know will you not?

Don't think a law has been passed to hang a Linux user installing more than one distro in the box, otherwise I would have been dead meat in the first month into Linux.

[CouchMaster]

I'd go with the top 10 hit ranking at http://distrowatch.com

[BanditFlyer]

Great thread

I'm betting certain ones are best for certain uses. Havent' kept up much, myself, so I'm really intereseted to see where this thread goes

[Trance]

Well, in recent events with Windows, I'm just about fed up. I think I'm gonna try using ubuntu for now. It seems friendly enough. Either that, or I'm gonna try Kubuntu.

[Old Bob]

Trance,

The "best" anything is going to be a matter of opinion !!!

Check out this Forum -

http://www.desktoplinux.com/cgi-bin/board/UltraBoard.pl

And ask questions there.

Right now I have Red Hat 8.0 and Xandros 3.0 OCE installed and I'm looking at SuSE 9.2 and PCLinux-OS.

[Trance]

Of course it's opinion. But I want to see what others like/dislike about certain ones before making a final decision, ya know?

Thanks for the link.

[saikee]

I run the 100+ systems in my box and try a different distro every time I boot. I am using Linare (a Red Hat) to reply. All the distros mentioned in this thread so far are all in the box. Couldn't tell which one is the best. Some boots fast, other have comprehensive software, many can't be installed beyond 137Gb, a few have simple and quick installers and the list can go on for ever.

In the main Suse and Mandriva are pretty up to date but many find Suse's installer tough going. Debian family (ubuntu, Knoppix etc) still have issues with high number partitions and do not support root log in to GUI. Red Hat family is possibly the most popular. Slackware family sticks with older kernel whereas Slax family moves with time.

Since none of them cost money to acquire and a mere 5Gb hard disk storage (cost less than a pint of beer!) can store a distro I do think every PC user should help themselves to a few. Lilo can boot 27 images and Grub can do more than 100 so why not get the information from the horse's mouth and experience the distro yourself?

[gotrootdude]

I've never had any problems with CentOS. It's speciallized for enterprise use. Doesn't install a lot of junk, so you can customize it with just what you need. I find most distros are way to bloated.


Tried to switch to Gentoo, because it's supposed to be better optimized, but it lost me at the install.

[Trance]

Well, I'd be using it for net browsing, word processing, IMing, and, using Wine, maybe gaming. It would have to be simple.

I just have to save all of the info I need onto a storage device so I don't lose it.

[Michiba]

Trance,

I started using Ubuntu about a month ago, I had limited Red hat and Fedora experience before that.

Ubuntu found my windows based network connected to the internet, found all hardware, made my day.

As far as begginers goes its a solid easy package, lets you work GUI while comming to terms with bash.

Oh, by the way I don't do windows any more

Michiba

[engti]

I tried ubuntu first, but my problem is that i have a really slow net connection, so downloading a lot of the packages which the default ubuntu disc does without was a pain for me.

Now, I'm on Suse 10.0, and I couldn't be happier. Though as with all Linux distros you need to configure it to play your mp3, windows media, dvds etc. But took me only around 2 mins to do that. And I'm a total newbie.

And Suse installers are one of the best out there right now, but that's just my opinion.

[Michiba]

As long as it works. You are right without broad band broad can be painful on with down loading there should be a better CD distro. I understand Dapper Drake will be the same 1 CD install format we wait and see.

I have room on my harddrive, might give Suse a whirl.

Michiba

[FF103]

PCLinuxOS is a really good distro for someone just trying to migrate to linux. It's a live CD and uses the KDE desktop, and programs are installed from a repository via synaptic so there are no dependency problems. But as one poster said earlier, try them all, thats whats so great about linux, I've probably installed 20 different distros in the past 5 years. And I have favorites just like everyone else, my two current favorites are PCLinuxOS and Mepis.

[rob.rice]

Have you ever used DOS ?
There are distrous for the kind of linux user you are and what you want to do .
There are newbe distros that are vary forgiving and newibe friendly .
There are also distros that demand that you know what you are doing.
(but these distros are the fastest,smallest,and most controllable distros )
and all shades in between these .
to start out with I would have to say Red Hat
ubuntu has too much protection from your self built in to it to seriously learn linux with it BUT it would work for getting your feet wet
then move on to Red Hat