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Best Linux Distro ? 1
- Thread starter phpdude
- Start date
Not again!
Flughs answer is good. The bottom line is that you can never go wrong with a popular distro. Most have good hardware support and will fulfil your needs. Have a look here:
If you are going to attempt Debian, have a good read and do some research, 'cause it will most likely catch you out if you are unprepared.
I doubt you will run into any problems with something like Red Hat or Mandrake. If you want to challenge yourself, try Debian. It will also provide you with some more hands-on learning.
Just for the sake of it, my favourite distro is for personal use is Vector SOHO 3.2. Comes with KDE, IceWM, XFCE, and auto istall of nvidia drivers. Uses 1.6G install space and is has the stabilty of Slackware, with improved flexibilty. And yes, we know that it has an inferior package management system to Debian, so don't post back saying it is inferior. I have been a Slack user for a while, and this distro had been very good, well behaved and runs ultra fast.
Flughs answer is good. The bottom line is that you can never go wrong with a popular distro. Most have good hardware support and will fulfil your needs. Have a look here:
If you are going to attempt Debian, have a good read and do some research, 'cause it will most likely catch you out if you are unprepared.
I doubt you will run into any problems with something like Red Hat or Mandrake. If you want to challenge yourself, try Debian. It will also provide you with some more hands-on learning.
Just for the sake of it, my favourite distro is for personal use is Vector SOHO 3.2. Comes with KDE, IceWM, XFCE, and auto istall of nvidia drivers. Uses 1.6G install space and is has the stabilty of Slackware, with improved flexibilty. And yes, we know that it has an inferior package management system to Debian, so don't post back saying it is inferior. I have been a Slack user for a while, and this distro had been very good, well behaved and runs ultra fast.
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1
- #4
May I suggest,
Knoppix is a Debian distribution that runs from a bootable CD and runs from your cdrom without having to install it on your hard drive. If you don't like it, remove the cd and reboot. No change to your hard drive occurrs. It also makes for a super-easy hard drive install of a very modern Debian system. The best part is Debian's package manager, APT. The worst part is that Knoppix takes about 2gig to install the base knx-hdinstall 0.037.
SuSe has a bootable evaluation disk that runs like Knoppix.
SuSe will give you a pretty good idea of what the distros based on RPM are like -- Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSe.
I don't know of any others that run from a cd -- maybe morphix, another Debian distro. I haven't had much luck with there versions -- kind of buggy.
Maybe try setting up an extra partition on your HD to install and experiment with different distros untill you find what works best for you. That's what I do. Big hard drives are great for that activity. I usually keep about a 5 gig partition for testing and do fresh installs each time.
Good luck, Chris
Knoppix is a Debian distribution that runs from a bootable CD and runs from your cdrom without having to install it on your hard drive. If you don't like it, remove the cd and reboot. No change to your hard drive occurrs. It also makes for a super-easy hard drive install of a very modern Debian system. The best part is Debian's package manager, APT. The worst part is that Knoppix takes about 2gig to install the base knx-hdinstall 0.037.
SuSe has a bootable evaluation disk that runs like Knoppix.
SuSe will give you a pretty good idea of what the distros based on RPM are like -- Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSe.
I don't know of any others that run from a cd -- maybe morphix, another Debian distro. I haven't had much luck with there versions -- kind of buggy.
Maybe try setting up an extra partition on your HD to install and experiment with different distros untill you find what works best for you. That's what I do. Big hard drives are great for that activity. I usually keep about a 5 gig partition for testing and do fresh installs each time.
Good luck, Chris
- Thread starter
- #5
Thanks 
Well i just put another 80 gig drive in for storage so i might set a 20-30 gig partition and give it a go.
Ive used Mandrake and RedHat befor, Mostly Mandrake thogu and found a few things i didnt like mainly internet downloading seemd very unstable and the mouse movement wasnt very good then again that was mandrake 8 and i just finished downloading Debain and Mandrake 9.1
Well i just put another 80 gig drive in for storage so i might set a 20-30 gig partition and give it a go.
Ive used Mandrake and RedHat befor, Mostly Mandrake thogu and found a few things i didnt like mainly internet downloading seemd very unstable and the mouse movement wasnt very good then again that was mandrake 8 and i just finished downloading Debain and Mandrake 9.1
80 gig -- cool!
If you are serious about installing Debian and want to try it from scratch then check out this walk through posted on OSNews:
After installing edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list and place these lines in:
deb unstable main contrib non-free
deb unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
Comment out these lines:
#deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main non-free contrib
#deb-src ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main non-free contrib
#deb stable/non-US main contrib non-free
#deb-src stable/non-US main contrib non-free
From the command line (as root) issue this command:
apt-get update
You will see a lot of activity, and after that you will have available most of the more modern packages available.
Read up on how the apt package handler works. It can save you a lot of hassle with program dependencies. There is also a version called apt-rpm that works with Red Hat, mandrake, and other distros still using the rpm packages.
Apt works pretty good and is well behaived mostly. If you want to install a program just type, for example:
apt-get install gimp
Apt will download, configure, build, and install "The Gimp" program solving all dependency issues at the same time. Cool! No dependency hell!
Have fun playing, Chis
PS: you might consider making several smaller partitions for several different distros. You can alway move things you want to save from one to the other (like files in your "home" directory) and then wipe out that partition to install something else. I have five different Linux distros and Win98 installed on my HD.
If you are serious about installing Debian and want to try it from scratch then check out this walk through posted on OSNews:
After installing edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list and place these lines in:
deb unstable main contrib non-free
deb unstable/non-US main contrib non-free
Comment out these lines:
#deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main non-free contrib
#deb-src ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main non-free contrib
#deb stable/non-US main contrib non-free
#deb-src stable/non-US main contrib non-free
From the command line (as root) issue this command:
apt-get update
You will see a lot of activity, and after that you will have available most of the more modern packages available.
Read up on how the apt package handler works. It can save you a lot of hassle with program dependencies. There is also a version called apt-rpm that works with Red Hat, mandrake, and other distros still using the rpm packages.
Apt works pretty good and is well behaived mostly. If you want to install a program just type, for example:
apt-get install gimp
Apt will download, configure, build, and install "The Gimp" program solving all dependency issues at the same time. Cool! No dependency hell!
Have fun playing, Chis
PS: you might consider making several smaller partitions for several different distros. You can alway move things you want to save from one to the other (like files in your "home" directory) and then wipe out that partition to install something else. I have five different Linux distros and Win98 installed on my HD.
SuSE first won my favour by offering a free copy of their distro on
one of those magazine-cover CD's. (I think it was version 5.4)
In the course of bouncing back-and-forth between "Linux is just too hard!"
and "Windows is just too lame!" I also tried various releases of RedHat,
Slackware, and Corel/Debian.
The Corel distro went a long way in convincing me that Linux could indeed
be as user-friendly and feature-rich as Windows, but their tech support left
much to be desired - they basically told me that all my modem troubles would
magically disappear if I would just purchase a copy of WordPerfect for Windows.
{ huh ??? }
Eventually I found the answer to my modem problem in SuSE's extensive online
support database, and I have been sold on SuSE ever since.
So for me, the #1 issue with installing Linux has always been setting up
internet access. Somewhere on the net, there is probably an answer to any
problem you run into, but all of that information is pretty useless if
you can't get connected!
That is where the boxed distro's really come in handy, not just in the time you
save downloading everything and burning it to CD, but also the fact that they
usually include pretty good documentation on getting everything set up.
SuSE also offers 30 days of free telephone tech support when you buy the boxed
distro. So the $30 or so that you spend initially may save you LOTS of headaches
down the road.
There are lots of other software options that may affect your overall Linux
experience a lot more than the particular distro you choose, like which
Window Manager, File Manager, EMail Client, Web Browser, Text Editor, etc, etc, etc...
Take a deep breath and dive in !!!
one of those magazine-cover CD's. (I think it was version 5.4)
In the course of bouncing back-and-forth between "Linux is just too hard!"
and "Windows is just too lame!" I also tried various releases of RedHat,
Slackware, and Corel/Debian.
The Corel distro went a long way in convincing me that Linux could indeed
be as user-friendly and feature-rich as Windows, but their tech support left
much to be desired - they basically told me that all my modem troubles would
magically disappear if I would just purchase a copy of WordPerfect for Windows.
{ huh ??? }
Eventually I found the answer to my modem problem in SuSE's extensive online
support database, and I have been sold on SuSE ever since.
So for me, the #1 issue with installing Linux has always been setting up
internet access. Somewhere on the net, there is probably an answer to any
problem you run into, but all of that information is pretty useless if
you can't get connected!
That is where the boxed distro's really come in handy, not just in the time you
save downloading everything and burning it to CD, but also the fact that they
usually include pretty good documentation on getting everything set up.
SuSE also offers 30 days of free telephone tech support when you buy the boxed
distro. So the $30 or so that you spend initially may save you LOTS of headaches
down the road.
There are lots of other software options that may affect your overall Linux
experience a lot more than the particular distro you choose, like which
Window Manager, File Manager, EMail Client, Web Browser, Text Editor, etc, etc, etc...
Take a deep breath and dive in !!!
- Thread starter
- #8
Thanks for the info Bigchris, i also downloaded a few other distros so i can test quite a few then find the one that works for me at this time 
ppc386 fixing the problems you get in any OS is fun so as long as i dont get a OS thats so hard that i cant get past the boot screen *lol* im sure i will get used to it
*/me runs off to mess with partitions*
ppc386 fixing the problems you get in any OS is fun so as long as i dont get a OS thats so hard that i cant get past the boot screen *lol* im sure i will get used to it
*/me runs off to mess with partitions*
The best Desktop Linux Distro for the everyday user is Xandros.
They picked up where Corel/Debian left off and have done quite a nice job. Imagine, a Debian flavor that is easy to install. They back it up with the Xandros Network. There is the fastest cleanest update/add programs I have seen in Linux.
They picked up where Corel/Debian left off and have done quite a nice job. Imagine, a Debian flavor that is easy to install. They back it up with the Xandros Network. There is the fastest cleanest update/add programs I have seen in Linux.
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