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I have found fedora Core to be a simple install process until fc3 came out. Using 4 hd and install different partition sections for the linux os was difficult to get running because of boot record... after 5 installs i figured it out. Ubuntu or whatever yall called it. What makes it great?

I suggest the use of Fedora Core 4. For a home based system, the use of Fedora Core 4 helps to find many peripherals that other distros leave out.
Notice that the use of other wonderful distros, as Ubuntu, Knoppix or Mandrake are really graphical exciting. Cheers!

Hi everyone.

Well, as asked before, it does really depend on what you need/want it for.

First off, my favourite distros are slackware, gentoo, freebsd. At work we use slackware for our servers, and sometimes even gentoo depending on our customer's needs.

At home, i run slackware 10.1, suse 9.3, and gentoo linux.

If your a total n00b to linux, and are interested in really learning the OS, i would recomend slackware or gentoo (note that gentoo needs a fast internet connection for package installations). Fact is, that if you know your way around slackware, then most Linux distros will be simple for your, and you might even find your way around some unix distros a bit easier.

If you just want to get your work done, and use applications and not bother too much with the OS, then i would recomend SuSE Linux, as its very easy to use, and comes along with a ton of packages, and a helper application called YAST to help you configure and install most things. Keep in mind though, that although SuSE can be used for professional server use, (and does work well too) you will not really learn much about the OS, since SuSE is sort of a system of its own. It uses its own paths many times, upgrading the kernel by hand can get messy at times with suse, and alot of default software that you download will not work without tweaking, since like i mentioned above... SuSE does have a mind of its own sometimes.

From a security point of view, it would NOT depend on the OS you choose, but rather on how well you maintain it. SuSE can be made very secure since it comes along with its own custom made security aplications, aswell as some security for its kernel, and is easier to setup and configure than on slackware, but like i said, its not the OS that secures a system. A weakness in SuSE is that its too heavy, and totally overbloated. If you really know your way around security, then slackware or gentoo are cool since their 'minimal' installations are truly minimal.

I dont like redhat or fedora, since in my opinion, its just like creating windows all over again (lets not argue about what i say here, its just the way i feel). Redhat or fedora are nice OSs, but in my opinion have nothing todo with linux. Its too much a product of its own, and is often a pain in tha ass.

Debian is a very nice distro too, but i never found the time to actually go into it, but i will in the future. The bsd familiy is awesome if you really want stability and security, but alas its a very unfriendly OS. I have a freebsd test box, just for apache and postfix, and i have an open bsd test box for an ircD. Both of them are just for testing purposes. I really wish i knew more about the OpenBSD OS, since its posibilities are almost godlike, but my knowledge on it is very low.

Offcourse if you have windows at home already, and just wanna take a peak at linux to see, you can try out one of the live cds that exist, such as knoppix for example. It will give you a little preview of what you can expect from linux without acutally installing anything to your hard drive.

Maybe take a look at linux.org for lots more info, also if you wish to try out some other distros, you can download alot of them from linuxiso.org

I hope i have been a little bit of help here.

Cheers.

I use gentoo because of its portage tree merging of apps. you simply type emerge nameoftheapp and it will calculate the dependencies and download the newest versions from the internet

ciny wrote:I use gentoo because of its portage tree merging of apps. you simply type emerge nameoftheapp and it will calculate the dependencies and download the newest versions from the internet :)

Most distros have something along those lines:
Gentoo - portage
Debian based os' (debian, ubuntu, knoppix, etc) - apt
Slackware - apt, though its not quite as brilliant as it is on debian because its a debian app.
BSD - ports collection
Suse - Yast
Red Hat Based (redhat, fedora, rhel) - yum, but its really a piece of shit, slow as hell

And thats all I can think of off the top of my head.

Hi.
I've been working on Linux since 1996. It is indeed my only home OS, or at least my favorite. I tryed so many distros, and I can easily say this:
Its is a matter of pure choice. At the core, they are all the same. It just depends on
your scope of usability, and proficiency in configuring your box.
For example, xBSD are strong, reliable for net services, but they lack a hell lot of user flexiblity. So I don't see why having it as a "home OS" for newbies.
Linux ditros such as Ubuntu, Gentoo and RedHat, are very easy to work with, configure,... But they turn out to be not well "robust" as slackware. Especially Fedora, since the development team is kind of a enthusiasts contribution, and they produce about 2 releases/year. It is a test ground for new crazy stuff.
My opinion is that Slackware is the best home OS one can have. You can make anything out of your Slackware box, and while learning how to get things done with it, you will be improving alot faster than other distros.
But again, thats only my choice.
Peace

try ubuntu..

As many have said before me, it totally depends on your needs.
But if you want my advice, here it is...

If you want stability, security and performance and does not need bells and whistles and spoon-feeding wizards for everything, go BSD. Which one depends on personal favour, alltough I would recommend you start out with FreeBSD and perhaps move on from there. If you are paranoid, go with OpenBSD, they take security to a whole new level with every release.

If you decide on linux, I recommend debian or slackware. Slackware is probably the most BSD like of the linux distros, and may require a bit more learning, but its worth it. Whatever you do, stay away from Red Hat and Fedora.
I hear many great things about Ubuntu and Gentoo, but I have only used them briefly, but so far they seem like nice desktop distros.

Personally, if given the choice, I use Free- or OpenBSD for most tasks. The learning curve might seem a bit steep, but once you get over the initial horror its an amazing experience.

I like linux, I like FreeBSD...
I like FreeBSD's ports a lot... I do an

Code: Select all

[root@somewhere]# cd /usr/ports/editors/nano
[root@somewhere nano]# make install clean


and it downloads sources, downloads libs, compiles everything, installs and clears the source dir... amazing...

but I can't use some hardware, the user interface is not for newbies and I think it is too rigid in some ways...

In home I use linux, in my server I can install FreeBSD, but leave the firewall with OpenBSD... In security it can't be beated by no other OS...

Red Hat has one major drawback: it is an american company, which means they are subjected to software patents. For example, you don't get support for patented encodings like MP3. Read the official statement from Red Hat.

Also Red Hat is a bit slow. You're better off with something like Debian or Ubuntu.

mm_freak wrote:Red Hat has one major drawback: it is an american company, which means they are subjected to software patents. For example, you don't get support for patented encodings like MP3. Read the official statement from Red Hat.

Also Red Hat is a bit slow. You're better off with something like Debian or Ubuntu.

lol ... just attended Sun's Scott NcNealy seminar ... in it he mentioned abt Redhat vs SunOs ... and he touch pt the pt that you've just brought on .. redhat is slower than sun ...

All in all .. Its a v v intresting seminar ..

mm_freak wrote:Red Hat has one major drawback: it is an american company, which means they are subjected to software patents. For example, you don't get support for patented encodings like MP3. Read the official statement from Red Hat.

Also Red Hat is a bit slow. You're better off with something like Debian or Ubuntu.

Agreed, but thankfully there are lots of people out there that have packaged up just such stuff for Fedora/RH/etc. Livna.org comes to mind.

Ubuntu is a good choise.
Its based on debian so its quite userfriendly.
It has loads of software pre installed.
Doesn't take mutch space, isn't resource hungry at all.
It boots in less then one minute here.
(while i need to wait 5 minutes till i can 'use' my windows desktop )

bart416 wrote:It boots in less then one minute here.

Then there's something odd. Boots in 20..25 seconds on my second computer, which is a Pentium II with 400 MHz. Measured from the LILO message up to the login screen. The login itself takes another 3..4 seconds. Standard Ubuntu with Gnome, not Kubuntu.

mm_freak wrote:

bart416 wrote:It boots in less then one minute here.

Then there's something odd. Boots in 20..25 seconds on my second computer, which is a Pentium II with 400 MHz. Measured from the LILO message up to the login screen. The login itself takes another 3..4 seconds. Standard Ubuntu with Gnome, not Kubuntu.

BIOS: AMI BIOS (not know for its speed but for its nice configuration options )
CPU: Intel Celeron 1.1ghz (this sucks)
356mb ram
radeon 7000 saphire 64mb edition (1vga, 1dvi, 1tv; the vga and tv output are used )
20GB Maxtor 5200rpm 8mb cache

And don't underestimate a Pentium II.
They were realy powerfull
The amount of L1 and L2 your cpu has is higher then mine.

But anyway, why is ubuntu great:
its a great all around desktop and a nice media desktop.