Linux Distribution Recommendation Thread

[Zaireeka]

I started on Debian/GNU Linux and still use it to this day, but this definately isn't the best distro to learn with. Debian is great but the installation is enough to drive anyone crazy (best using FTP to install the base system) and I get nothing but trouble from it about my GeForce graphics card.... but what the hell, it's FREE!!

I tried SuSE at one point, the YAST installer has a nice GUI which is pretty much idiot-proof. The OS its self seemed fairly simple and I believe since its a non-free distro (the pro version at least) the company provide support. For these reasons I'd say SuSE would be a fairly decent distro to start out on.

 

[macdude425]

Quoth:

SuSE is RH based, so it uses the RPM system. The GUI setup is OK; YaST (Yet another Setup Tool is what it stands for, I believe) is nice, but can be unreliable; I've had it randomly crash for no reason. Also, GNOME and KDE don't play well together. It lacks several packages everyone should have, like gcc and whatnot.

In a nutshell, you love it at first, then hate it. So I don't recommend it.

Did I mention it's crashed twice in the last three years? The first time I hit the wrong button and the second time I hit the wrong button, KDE collapsed, and X refused to start!

 

[huck_finn]

Debian would be my recommendation

Years ago I started off trying to learn Linux with Suse Pro, I couldn't get it. I had absolutely no luck figuring out how to install anyting on it and soon gave up.

Just recently I had a friend recommend FreeBSD to me, which I installed with his help and was soon editing files and installing other programs for it. But it didn't recognize much hardware, and it was taking forever to figure it out.

While searching for help for the BSD I kept coming across Ubuntu forums and help sites. I downloaded and installed it and was VERY impressed! I'm a complete newbie... and this was a fantastic find for me. However, I was following the tuts and howto's to enhance this and speed up that, and finally the system wouldn't boot for me anymore without giving me a HAL error. Granted this is probably my fault, but I did follow the tut's carefully.

Now I'm running Debian 3.1 Sarge, I've made the same mods to my config files and I havent had one problem with it.

Ubuntu is great... and that's how I learned my way around the file system, but if you like to tinker, I would recommend Debian since it seems to me a more solid OS.

 

[Iron_Cross]

My main recommendation: Ubuntu Linux

This Debian-based distribution is excellent for the new user, yet something a more advanced Linux user would be happy with. Its installation is extremely simple, and it's put together with an approach that keeps things simple (not bloated), yet functional. Excellent hardware detection. The wonderful APT system of Debian, with a Synaptic for those who don't want to use the command line to download and install their software. It's a relatively new distro, but is extremely fast-growing, and the community is huge. The Wiki on the site is helpful.

Not only all that, but they'll actually send you FREE CDs with cover art and all, shipped free of all charges, without jumping through any hoops or filling out anything but a mailing address and making a username/password. I know...not so significant in making a good distro, but it's a nice touch.


My second recommendation: Gentoo Linux

This is a distribution with the idea that the user chooses everything. It's centered around Portage, which is essentially the package management tool. People who want to push their computer to every possible performance limit ("ricers") supposedly use Gentoo because everything Portage doesn't download prebuilt binaries like most distributions, it downloads the source and compiles it with specific options set by the user, which results in a more efficient and often smaller binary, since you can choose not to compile support you don't need. "Ricers" are also the reason Gentoo users get made fun of a lot. The effectiveness of such "optimization" is arguable. The installation is a lot more tedious than most distros (well, maybe not Linux-From-Scratch ), since you essentially have to download and compile the major components of the system yourself, and configure everything yourself, choose all hardware yourself, etc. The result is the system is tailored specifically to your needs. The other thing, is that for a new Linux user with a lot of time on their hands (as in several days, as well as leaving the system compiling things like KDE/GNOME overnight which take ridiculous amounts of time), can learn a LOT about Linux and become more familiar with how to do things, and how to troubleshoot, by going through the installation. The detailed Gentoo Handbook on the website can teach a lot, as can solving the issues that are sure to come up when going through the installation.



I currently use Gentoo, but if I had to do it over again, I'd probably be lazy and go Ubuntu, because of how long Gentoo takes to get installed, despite how awesome it is once it's done. Despite slowness of compiling and all, I really love Portage.

I could not have put it any better myself. I second this post 100%

Also, for those interested in Ubuntu, but are more inclined to use KDE (vs gnome) there is Kubuntu which is exactly like ubuntu in every way except for it uses KDE as the default WM, rather than gnome.
Just so there's not any confusion, Kubuntu is not a fork of ubuntu, it's by the same team and is actually a part of the ubuntu project.

 

[GameGURU]

Blah, I like my SuSE 9.1 Pro (even though it has problems with my newer hardware) oh well. I have heard wonderful things about SuSE 9.3, so as we speak I am downloading it. I have also heard great things about Mandrake 10.1, but it doesnt recognize my 6800 GT so I can't even startX...

Those are the only two I have used though.

 

[straightv6]

i've been running slackware 10.1 for about 4 months now. i've had my share of problems but i've been able to solve all of them through this forum or the use of google.
i tried out freebsd xx.xx before this but i've found more support for slackware so i stuck with it

 

[charles@pcfix]

I have tryed several distros over the years and have found strengths and weaknesses in most.
My preference is Red Hat (not Fedora). I first used RH 7.2 and still use 9.0 on my web server. I also have RHE 4 running which is what we use on the Job.

There are alot of distros out there, what you use depends alot on what you want to do with it. Just use it!!! and learn to love it.

 

[Nitestick]

fedora core 4- a bit oversized perhaps but includes a hell of a lot of applications: the gimp2, open office for a start. based on red hat (of course). i love the installer

Damn Small Linux (DSL)- knoppix based mini-live-cd. about a 50mb download. functions brilliantly and all from a cd.

Puppy- not as attractive looking as DSL but includes a lot more apps. this is another mini live-cd coming in at about 60mb. incredibly it includes a C compiler, at least two html editors and some office apps. i think it comes with about 2 or 3 web browsers. it seems to be based on debian.

 

[JoeTheOdd]

For someone new to UNIX/Linux, I would definatly suggest Ubuntu. Its installer is about as easy as it can get. The *only* hard part would be configuring your network (can't remember what the name of the thing is, something like DCMP?) and your partition table. The network thing is autodetected, but in my case it didn't work. As for the partitioner, it has an option to autopartition, but I didn't use it. After its installed, it copys the entire CD to your hard drive, so that you can later install its aditional packages through apt-get, which is also set up to download programs from massive repositories, with a single step. sudo apt-get install package. After its set up, you're prompted for a username and a password (or was that before its all copied?). You do not get an option to set the root password (foolproofing, according to the tech support channel when I was discussing it with them), but its simple to set it. The account you make (and all the rest?) is automatically a sudoer. sudo passwd root. Using sudo will place you as root, and allow you to change your own password.

For experienced UNIX/Linux users, I personally believe the most powerful distro is Slackware. I used it as my first distro, yet I have a friend who works as a security.. whatever.. for the Canadian government, and who is also an experienced Linux user. But enough about me, if you don't have someone to hold your hand the first few days, I don't think it would be too easy. X11 needs to be configured manually, as opposed to Ubuntu. The upside of Slackware, IMO, is the slapt-get system (an apt-get clone for slackware, I believe?) and the fact that it has basically every single library you could ever need. It ships with curses, apache, glib, and many others. I'm running Ubuntu linux right now, but I'm waiting for some Slackware CDs from a friend of mine, which are immediatly (well, after I back some stuff up =p) getting installed.

 

[macdude425]

fedora core 4- a bit oversized perhaps but includes a hell of a lot of applications: the gimp2, open office for a start. based on red hat (of course). i love the installer

Anaconda (RH installer) is the BEST installer I've ever used. If only the rest of the OS was as nice...