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Well, I`ve said a few times in some other my posts...that i`ve used somewhen in the past Slackware but it was very difficult for me to understand it. I made this topic to help people like me who don`t have an idea about linux to decide what distro to use, which depends on that what their needs are, for exapmle are they`re goin` to be a network administrator, web programmer, wed desigher, gaming, and so on..and finally the question is ' What distro for what kind of purposes is used or is appropriate?'

Well, I think that all distros (that are better known) could be used for administrating, programming and so on.But if you have an old machine, but you want to use it for administrating of something, you have to choose an old distro that can be run on your pc or some version of slackware that has maybe the most minimal requerments. For gaming first you have to use a pc that can run the choosen game and of course emulator (without it, you cant run the game).

If one plans on gaming a lot, go with windows.
Emulation is a pain.

krod wrote:If one plans on gaming a lot, go with windows.
Emulation is a pain.

Yep, allthough I definitely aint a fan of Windows, for real gaming it's the only option!

Personally, I recommend Ubuntu for a Desktop OS (or any one of its branches: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc... I use Ubuntu, but I install XFCE4 beta 1 for my Window Manager anyway).

For a server, I recommend Debian. It's a really nice and secure OS that is built for servers (although you could use it as a Desktop OS, but the stable repositories are outdated...).

However, everyone is different. My opinions are not the same as everyone else's. You must be the final judge in what Linux OS you choose.

And, yes, I recommend that you dual boot with Windows so you can play games. If you install Windows XP first, and then install Ubuntu or Debian second, both installers will add Windows XP to your GRUB menu automatically (Grub is the bootup manager. Every time you boot up, it asks you what OS you want to use. After a certain amount of time, if you don't select any of them, the default OS will be selected).

Of course, I spend considerably more time in Linux than Windows. There's just an occasional Windows game that pops up from time to time that forces me to use the OS I dislike.

SWEF

Pete wrote:Well, personally, I think you should start out with a newbie friendly distrobution.

Here is a small list of distros that you might want to try:

1) Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu
2) Mandriva
3) PCLinuxOS
4) MEPIS
5) SUSE

All 5 distro's have are geared toward the new user. Actually there is more than 5; but the first listing is made by same company; the only difference is that the graphical interface has been changed between each distro. This list is in no particular order. Give them a try; and see what sticks / works for you. On a side note; I have seen more people take well to the Ubuntu / Kubuntu.

Here is a site where you can get a quick idea what each distro is about:

www.distrowatch.com

Regards,
Pete

Thank you Pete, I`ll definetely use one of the linux distros u offer me...Thank you again[p]
Will somebody tell me what are the system requirements, because I cant find them [my pc is a little bit old] that`s why i`m asking

Your best bet is to get a live cd from the distros you wish to try and see what happens when you boot from one

I'd recommend [(k)/(x)]ubuntu for a desktop OS, especially for a new user.

Samppa I`ve used one bulgarian livecd version everithing seemed to me to be easy, but after that i thought to use mandriva2006 but one my friends told me 'use slackware' i`ve read some pages about slack and i realised that it`s very complex for beginner, but my friend still saing me 'get slack' i said 'ok' ...and finally i realised that i`ve made mistake....i shouldn`t hurry so much...now i`m downloadind ubundu..i`ll try it soon ....but I`ll listen u Samppa and i`ll get kubuntu..10q for the advice

Some distros like Ubuntu (that I prefer) ship only a small subset of packages on CD, but provide big remote package repositories. That's only fun, if you are connected with good bandwith. Are you? If not, e.g. Debian is distributed completely on many CDs (I think the number of CD's is about 13 in the current version).

Thomas

You can try Tilix. It's made by Bulgarians, it's in Bulgarian and it's based on Knoppix. You simply run it from a CD (you don't have to install anything).

I find Fedora Core pretty good too.

Take a look at enlightenment for your wm. It's awesome. I have no idea if it will work well with Ubuntu though.

*hugs his Linus From Scratch system*

uzunov wrote:Will somebody tell me what are the system requirements, because I cant find them [my pc is a little bit old] that`s why i`m asking

System requirements? This isn't Windows I've run Linux just fine on a PII 400 mhz.

Ubuntu DOES utilize a LiveCD install, though. I think that requires at least 128 megs of RAM. If you have a computer that is low on RAM, they offer the alternate installation.

Also, for older PCs, they have Xubuntu, which utilizes the lightweight XFCE4 window manager. I use XFCE4 for everything. I've never installed Xubuntu; I install Ubuntu and then install the XFCE4 window manager from there.

Xubuntu is available here: http://www.xubuntu.org/

It utilizes a Live CD install too, so if you have less than 128 megs of RAM, use the alternate install CD.

I hope this helps. XFCE4 is definitely one of the best window managers for older systems. I use it on this pentium III computer, and I plan to use it on faster computers as well. It's nice and lightweight. Gnome will also run on older systems, but it's not as fast as XFCE4!

i say ubuntu becuase of its stability and good documentation and repositories its also user friendly and it has a very friendly community at the forums

uzunov read this too

eMKy wrote:I realy receive enormous attempt from this forum
and question on "frankst0" i think you have to see http://forums.phoenix-hosting.org/viewtopic.php?t=2048
there you can find some interesting link`s

pugrit wrote:
Linux Distribution Chooser

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php