Recommendations

[ph0bYx]

Hi guys!
I need a few recommendations on which linux version to use, because I use Windows XP Black edition which causes frequent system restarts, also I can't run xampp nor wampp on it because I think that it doesn't support servers.
So what I need is a list of few linux versions with a quick description.

Thanks in advance

[computathug]

Hey ph0, well with linux, each distro is down to the personal user. I know we could just say well try and see which suits you best but to install each just for a trial seems quite a waste of time....unless you find one you like the feel of.

There are quite a few to choose from but if you are not too familiar with linux and want a starting point then first try a live cd and get a feel for it before doing a full install.

A few live cd's off the top of my head
Knoppix
DSL
BT3

Take a look here for a list

Code: Select all

http://www.livecdlist.com/

Once you feel you can give a linux OS a full install then thats down to you as well. I hear Ubuntu has massive support but others in here will say try etch or lenny, myself included. The best way with anything to learn is jump in at the deep end. This is what i did with linux and have never looked back.

Which ever way you go good luck

[bad_brain]

I recommend (you can guess 3 times ) Debian, best Lenny because it has a newer kernel version (better support for up to date hardware) and Lenny will replace Etch as "stable" branch anyway this year. right now it Is still the "testing" branch but it is very complete and already has the "frozen" status (which means no new packages will be added until the release as stable version, this shows how complete it is already).
you can get the iso images here:
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

[Stavros]

If you want something that you can just put up and go I'd go with either Debian or Ubuntu.

PCBSD, Linux Mint, and SimplyMEPIS would be a couple others to think about.

[lilrofl]

Mandrake was my first linux distro, I picked it because it was advertised as designed to help people switch from Windows. Mandrake is now Mandriva... and while I still like it I'm evaluating Mint just because I thought it'd be fun.

I've noticed a trend in these forums towards Debian and Ubuntu, but I have not tried them... I know that when I do though there is an ample knowledge base on the subject contained here.

As for live CD's, Slax is awesome... why anyone would try DSL as a first linux distro is beyond me... I would strongly recommend against it, being that DSL was designed for size not usability. It is ugly and efficient at what it does... but user friendly it is not.

so I guess my ordered suggestion would look like

1) Mandriva One 2009 KDE
2) Slax
3) <whatever sounds good here>
Last) DSL

That looked a lot more humorus in my head... but I'm gonna leave it lol.

[pseudo_opcode]

Apart from usual Debian/Ubuntu...
Multimedia lovers and gamers would like Sabayon,

you can even play games on live cd..

OpenSuse isnt that bad either, it supports virtualization right out of the box and now it already comes with KDE 4.2

[uid0]

Since everyone is going to give his/her favorite distro as answer, I say go with gentoo!


Well, not really, although gentoo is great

The thing is, as you should have (or you're going to) noted, every answer will be based on the experience in everyone's favorite distro which isn't necessarily good for you because everyone have different interest and needs thus a distro will be good if it feels those interests and needs.

Go to distrowatch.com and grab a couple of liveCD and play with then to see if they have what you expect from the operating system to do

Also, there are quite a few [reviews on linuxquestions] and should be a good place to read about what different distributions have to offer

[skip]

Debian lenny on kde 4.2 is super awesome.

You might wanna look at this, it includes Creators, Producers, First public release etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... tributions

[Lyecdevf]

I recommend (you can guess 3 times ) Debian, best Lenny because it has a newer kernel version (better support for up to date hardware) and Lenny will replace Etch as "stable" branch anyway this year. right now it Is still the "testing" branch but it is very complete and already has the "frozen" status (which means no new packages will be added until the release as stable version, this shows how complete it is already).
you can get the iso images here:
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

I am using now Debian Lenny 5.0 now. Before that I used for over a year suse. I liked suse because it had nice eye candy for gnome and KDE but eventually I got tired of using suse as well as gnome graphical interface. Once I started using Icewm as a graphical interface there seemed no point in using Suse any way since Icewm looks good and the same on any distro.

Any way a good place to start is with Ubuntu or Mandriva. If you are still confused why do not you take this test here and it can help you out with the choice:

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