Whats your favoriet Distro and why?
- Thread starter Breman
- Start date
linux_0
Splendid
- Dec 18, 2005
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I love them all. Once you know Linux / Unix you can work with any distro.
The consensus is Ubuntu is great for beginners.
Other distros include CentOS, Fedora, SuSE, Mandriva, Xandros, Linspire, Debian, Knoppix, Gentoo, Slackware and many more.
Check out:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/software/User-friendly-distributions-ftopict230699.html
and
http://distrowatch.com/
Good Luck :-D
I'm a relative noob (about a year) but I've been using SuSE since 9.1 Pro. I've upgraded with each offering (now 10.0) and I like it a lot. It's friendly enough to get up and running quickly and with it, you can be productive in no time. I prefer StarOffice to OpenOffice though the former must be purchased where the latter is free.
I have one box that I dual boot with XP when I wanna play games but rarely do I. I'm typing this one a Linux only box networked to the other via wireless router. I'm sharing files, a printer and secure all at the same time.
I've tried the old RedHat (prior to Fedora) and even Corel Linux many years ago. This one I like and it's good enough to virtually get me off Windows entirely!
I have one box that I dual boot with XP when I wanna play games but rarely do I. I'm typing this one a Linux only box networked to the other via wireless router. I'm sharing files, a printer and secure all at the same time.
I've tried the old RedHat (prior to Fedora) and even Corel Linux many years ago. This one I like and it's good enough to virtually get me off Windows entirely!
linux_0
Splendid
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No redhat ??? Man you missed one of the biggies. Linux_0 u r slipping. 😛
BTW can Apples OS 10 be considered a nix distro since it is BSD ?
Hehe :-D
Fedora is Redhat's community distribution and official Redhat products are now mostly for enterprise environments -- I also said "and many more". Anyway :-D
Apple OS X is Unix, modified but it's still Unix... I'm not sure if it's officially POSIX or conforms to the Unix specs but it is still Unix.
My guess is they are not bragging about it because Unix tends to scare people.
choknuti
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- Mar 17, 2006
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A little offtopic but recently I was looking at a machine with RedHat Enterprise ver 3 and guess what???? No MC. True it was setup by a friend who is a linux beginner at best but he said that he did a “standard install”. Man they are starting 2 look like a MS.
Ease of use rules... even more so in the corporate environment. Businesses want productivity; if the employees are stuck figuring out how to use their computers... they won't be very productive. It's important to ensure your software is as easy to use as Windows (or more so) if you're going to convince business to hop on your bandwagon.
I love the games myself... the freeware stuff that you can get for Linux is tons more fun than Minesweeper and Solitaire.
I agree... it is very easy to use... but you've got your stubborn employees (or even employers) that get used to Windows and are very unwilling to use anything else... no matter how easy-to-use it may be. I suppose I can understand the mentality somewhat... especially if someone has been burned in the past trying something new.
I agree... it is very easy to use... but you've got your stubborn employees (or even employers) that get used to Windows and are very unwilling to use anything else... no matter how easy-to-use it may be. I suppose I can understand the mentality somewhat... especially if someone has been burned in the past trying something new.
I got tired of being burned with all of the security holes in Windows. It seems that I'd need to fdisk and reinstall everything every 6 months to a year and that's after spending too many dollars trying to plug all the holes with aftermarket utilities like Norton Antivirus, Internet Security and Black-Ice Defender.
Now, I just use SuSE Linux and Star Office. I've everything I need and most of what I want (XP still rules in the games department).
Of course there's a learning curve. There was a learning curve going from DOS to Win3.1, then to Win95, 98, FU (I mean ME), when I finally gave up and went to NT4.0, then 2K and finally XP. Too insecure. Forget it. I'll stick with SuSE.
Now, I just use SuSE Linux and Star Office. I've everything I need and most of what I want (XP still rules in the games department).
Of course there's a learning curve. There was a learning curve going from DOS to Win3.1, then to Win95, 98, FU (I mean ME), when I finally gave up and went to NT4.0, then 2K and finally XP. Too insecure. Forget it. I'll stick with SuSE.
linux_0
Splendid
- Dec 18, 2005
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The problem is M$ has everyone brainwashed and people are actually afraid of computers and are afraid to try something new.
They do not realize there is more than one way to do something.
I've been a computer person for over 20 years and I can't figure out where M$ stashes things sometimes.
I've used just about every single version of DOS, Winblowz [(C) 2006 Anoobis] and Unix and a few other OSes but to this day I have to fight with Winblowz [(C) 2006 Anoobis] just to get it to do simple things.
The only thing I use it for is playing some games that do not run on Linux yet and I can't even get it to do that without crashing, often several times a day
Granted the crashing can be attributed to M$, the game developers, the hardware/driver developers and possibly some user error but it is thoroughly annoying and a colossal waste of time.
Well said! Here here!
:-D
I hear ya both... but I'm still primarily a Windows user... Linux is just something I play with in my spare time. (Which I don't get a lot of these days). I have very few problems with Win XP, so that's probably why I've stuck with it for the most part.
Now, don't get me wrong, I do love Linux too... I don't know why I picked Fedora over any of the others... but now that I'm used to it, I really don't feel like trying another. Mostly it's due to time constraints... sometimes it takes me a while to get everything the way I want it; once I do, I don't want to try it all over again with another distro... lol.
Now, don't get me wrong, I do love Linux too... I don't know why I picked Fedora over any of the others... but now that I'm used to it, I really don't feel like trying another. Mostly it's due to time constraints... sometimes it takes me a while to get everything the way I want it; once I do, I don't want to try it all over again with another distro... lol.
linux_0
Splendid
- Dec 18, 2005
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The kewl thing about Unix, Linux and BSD is that once you understand the fundamentals it is actually very easy to go back and forth between different versions :-D
Sure you might have a few annoyances here and there but overall it is quite painless.
It is also quite easy to migrate software and settings once you know how :-D
people want computers to act like toasters, it's as simple as that, plug it in turn it on and it works
don't get me wrong but the majority has the vote
the majority does not want to mess with alot of advanced settings just to get something that you call *simple* to work properly
the simple truth is that, aside from security and stability, windows has gotten alot closer to a toaster than anything else
most people use the keyboard for typing a document, not for setting up a device driver or running a program
linux has its place - for those that don't care how pointy clicky it is
personally i run Debian 3.1 testing, i like the package management thats built in with apt-get
words like *simple* and *easy* are completely and totally subjective though
it litterally took me a couple weeks to get all my devices and hardware to work, with direct online help via IRC and google (thank god for google), and this was was my first install of linux, even now things arent running as i would like them to, floppy drive totally refuses to work, my multi function scanner/printer only scans, doesn't print, can't get any type of duplex sound to work (only 1 program can use my onboard sound)
anyway. i'll stop complaining about that - my games work great with WINE, im not playing any newer releases, ive tried a few demos, Doom3, BF2 (those 2 only work in windows) ive managed to get my digital cam to work with digicam, mp3 player can be mounted, after i figured out how, so far so good =)
don't get me wrong but the majority has the vote
the majority does not want to mess with alot of advanced settings just to get something that you call *simple* to work properly
the simple truth is that, aside from security and stability, windows has gotten alot closer to a toaster than anything else
most people use the keyboard for typing a document, not for setting up a device driver or running a program
linux has its place - for those that don't care how pointy clicky it is
personally i run Debian 3.1 testing, i like the package management thats built in with apt-get
words like *simple* and *easy* are completely and totally subjective though
it litterally took me a couple weeks to get all my devices and hardware to work, with direct online help via IRC and google (thank god for google), and this was was my first install of linux, even now things arent running as i would like them to, floppy drive totally refuses to work, my multi function scanner/printer only scans, doesn't print, can't get any type of duplex sound to work (only 1 program can use my onboard sound)
anyway. i'll stop complaining about that - my games work great with WINE, im not playing any newer releases, ive tried a few demos, Doom3, BF2 (those 2 only work in windows) ive managed to get my digital cam to work with digicam, mp3 player can be mounted, after i figured out how, so far so good =)
bmouring
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- May 6, 2006
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I find that to be truer everyday 😀 I though that installing and getting to learn FreeBSD was going to be a whole new world but in reality, it's very much the same as the various distros I've used over the years. The most I've learned by doing so is finally getting off my ass and learning to properly install and config a fluxbox desktop.
As to those saying that Linux needs to be easy to use in order to be successful, with proper administration and setup (which, guess what, corporate windows pc's require the same thing!), a Linux box should be no harder to use than a Solaris box than a Mac box than a windows box. Any current-day computer can be made as user-friendly as needed. In some cases, it's easier to make them userfriendly with some OS's over others, but this depends on not only the end user, but also the level of "user friendlyness" you want to take the machine. believe it or not, the more user-friendly you want to make a machine, the easier it is to do with Linux. This (along with the nice scalability of the beast) is why Linux is showing up in cellphones and PDAs.
So true... however, getting to the point where it's easy to use is the trouble in most cases.
😉
I have no problem using Linux once it's set up... it's the setting up part that gets me most of the time. Most things are just fine, but as you've mentioned, having an ATi card makes things interesting. If installing drivers were as easy as it is under Windows, then I think a lot more people would jump on the Linux bandwagon.
😉
I have no problem using Linux once it's set up... it's the setting up part that gets me most of the time. Most things are just fine, but as you've mentioned, having an ATi card makes things interesting. If installing drivers were as easy as it is under Windows, then I think a lot more people would jump on the Linux bandwagon.
bmouring
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Agreed, but I will qualify with a "but the driver installation is, for the most part, getting much, much better". I still remember when driver modules meant downloading source and manually compiling, then tweaking the source and Makefiles to fix a few problems, try again, repeat until it either builds or you give up. Even if it does build, this of course doesn't guarentee that it will work well if at all...
Once you've gotten a few installs under your belt, the annoyances about getting things setup are either already known about and as such not an issue or superceded by a fix somewhere or an improvement n functionality. I have a feeling udev, as it becomes more mature, will do just that for many things.
Once you've gotten a few installs under your belt, the annoyances about getting things setup are either already known about and as such not an issue or superceded by a fix somewhere or an improvement n functionality. I have a feeling udev, as it becomes more mature, will do just that for many things.
MU_Engineer
Splendid
- Feb 18, 2006
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Well, that VERY much depends on you, your equipment, and especially your uses. The Linux kernel and GNU userland and utils are very modular and configurable, and so is the X graphical system and all of the desktop managers. Linux is like a set of Legos- you can put the pieces together how you wish to make a totally different OS than the next guy using the same parts.
But here are my favorite distributions for the following scenarios:
1. Running a large computer lab full of Linux machines:
I'd suggest an "enterprise: Linux like Red Hat Enterprise or its derivatives (CentOS, Piebox, Scientific Linux) or SUSE Enterprise Linux because of their centralized package/update management system and the fact that these OSes are very mature, well-tested, and stable.
2. Giving to my mom to install on her machine:
I'd give her a Linux that she could install from a LiveCD and has a graphical package manager. I can't be there to support 24/7, so an "easy" and fairly intuitive for a new user distribution such as MEPIS or Ubuntu would work well.
3. Installing on a few computers that I admin personally (i.e. a few family computers):
Now this can vary as I can support whatever I want to and I'd be the only one that does admin work. If it borks, well, I can fix it. I'd lean towards my personal favorite distributions of SUSE, Gentoo, or one of the Ubuntu versions. But really any Linux with a full DE would fit the bill if it runs all the hardware and I'm comfortable with it.
4. Installing on an older machine:
I'd suggest Xubuntum DSL, and maybe Gentoo if I get it set up and can admin it (or teach the user how to admin it properly.) It's more a function of not having a huge multi-GB install of a full Gnome or KDE desktop and keeping services to a minimum than any Linux distro having some black magic tweaks that make them lighter or faster than the others.
5. Installing on machine with no Net or dialup:
I'd suggest getting the boxed set of OpenSUSE here as the dual-layer DVD has one huge assortment of packages on it and you can install thousands of apps without having to hit up online repositories. Alternatively, you could download all 12 Debian CDs. SUSE also has good winmodem support too. I did just that when my folks had only dialup service and I was able to go about my business just fine, considering. Running apt over a dialup connection would be awful.
But here are my favorite distributions for the following scenarios:
1. Running a large computer lab full of Linux machines:
I'd suggest an "enterprise: Linux like Red Hat Enterprise or its derivatives (CentOS, Piebox, Scientific Linux) or SUSE Enterprise Linux because of their centralized package/update management system and the fact that these OSes are very mature, well-tested, and stable.
2. Giving to my mom to install on her machine:
I'd give her a Linux that she could install from a LiveCD and has a graphical package manager. I can't be there to support 24/7, so an "easy" and fairly intuitive for a new user distribution such as MEPIS or Ubuntu would work well.
3. Installing on a few computers that I admin personally (i.e. a few family computers):
Now this can vary as I can support whatever I want to and I'd be the only one that does admin work. If it borks, well, I can fix it. I'd lean towards my personal favorite distributions of SUSE, Gentoo, or one of the Ubuntu versions. But really any Linux with a full DE would fit the bill if it runs all the hardware and I'm comfortable with it.
4. Installing on an older machine:
I'd suggest Xubuntum DSL, and maybe Gentoo if I get it set up and can admin it (or teach the user how to admin it properly.) It's more a function of not having a huge multi-GB install of a full Gnome or KDE desktop and keeping services to a minimum than any Linux distro having some black magic tweaks that make them lighter or faster than the others.
5. Installing on machine with no Net or dialup:
I'd suggest getting the boxed set of OpenSUSE here as the dual-layer DVD has one huge assortment of packages on it and you can install thousands of apps without having to hit up online repositories. Alternatively, you could download all 12 Debian CDs. SUSE also has good winmodem support too. I did just that when my folks had only dialup service and I was able to go about my business just fine, considering. Running apt over a dialup connection would be awful.
MU_Engineer
Splendid
- Feb 18, 2006
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Oh, I know exactly where you are coming from. Going from Windows 98 to Windows XP just about killed the IT staff at MU as they had 5,000 clueless and upset users who wondered where $THINGIE had moved to and were NOT happy it moved and wanted to know where it was RIGHT NOW. The same was true with Office 2000 -> Office 2003.
God help them if (maybe when, hopefully, there ARE more and more Linux boxes popping up around campus) the computers are moved to Linux. Or even Vista- I put Vista Beta 2 into VMware and once my hard drive with 6GB swap striped across both HDDs settled down to a tolerable 1K pages/sec and load average of 12 (down from ~10k pages and load of 19!!!) Vista looks like it'll be a pain to migrate people to as it moves things yet again. The poor IT guys will be harassed with "What's this damned popup!?!" and the like. People memorize a certain setup and get VERY upset if it changes at all.
I had an experience like that in one of my classes. I was in a comm class and we had to give a speech. I had my trusty old boat anchor of a laptop running SuSE 9.3 and a freshly-released OOo 2.0.0 Impress to give my speech. It worked flawlessly for me, I gave a good speech on how to change a flat tire to 18 girls and one guy, and I went back to sit down once I was done. The other guy had to speak next, but he was having some trouble with his brand new laptop and could not bring it in, so he burned his slideshow to a CD. The professor had an old PIII machine that had a dead battery, so again, no go. They looked at me and asked if they could use my computer. I (foolishly) said yeah, sure, go ahead. Of course it was an Office 2003 .ppt slideshow, but Impress ran it fine- until he had to edit an embedded OLE spreadsheet. It's on a CD-ROM, and it was opened by him directly from a CD-ROM as read-only. When he could not edit it and the "would you like to edit a cached copy" popped up, closed Impress and FREAKED- and I mean FREAKED!!!!!! once he realized what the computer was actually running when he saw the desktop. He thought that I had just reskinned XP and ran OOo instead of MS Office. The professor gave me about the oddest look I have ever gotten when this guy calmed down enough to say what his problem was with the slideshow. He ended up just quitting his speech right in the middle even though I told him to just click "yes" when it asked about the cached copy and then he could edit it. I did okay in that class, but I think that the professor docked me a few points for "ruining somebody else's speech by pulling a nasty surprise on them." Surprise? I think not. He should have not assumed- you know what you get when you assume, although it was the "me" that got made into the ass more than the real ass did. It's my computer, am I supposed to have to run an OS and programs that other people use just in case they someday want to use my computer? I don't think so...
7H4_D00D3
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Dunno where, cant remember, but I saw how to run DIII on linux, about BF2 I think cedega handles it, not sure if wine can 😛
Yeah, but remember: no matter how user friendly it may be, if it doesnt has an start button and micro$oft office then ppl will try to burn you for the crime of witchcraft
And to MU_Engineer, yup, that guy is well......let's say he lacks processing power, it's "ok" to ignore what to do, but if someone else (who happens to know the guts of what you're using) tells you to do something as simple as click YES and you can't accomplish that, you shouldnt be on a college, more like either an asylum or a kindergarden
MU_Engineer
Splendid
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Well, he was an accountancy major, so maybe the shock of the unpredicted rattled him a bit too much...
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