Linux distro's

:confused: hey I'm taking a class on unix this sesemter and was thinking of installing linux .

but the local computer store only has mandrake, suse, redhat and freebsd. the school has solaris and I know that suse, mandrake, and redhat are good distro's for newbie's but I kind of like slackware and was thinking of trying FreeBSD or Debian. Slackware 3.0 was harder to install and configure, but it was fun installing. Before someone stole my computer I install it on a 486machine with only 16meg of ram and a very small hard drive:-* after trying several days I finally got it to install all but X cause my system didn't have enough mem to run X. I was justing wanting your opinion about different distro's besides mandrake, suse, or redhat that a newbie like myself could run on my new system. That would give me a challenge or help me learn more about Unix-like OS'es.

Thanxs in advance for your opinions. :D

What Unix or Unix-like OS did U learn first!

[shadow]OpenSource software the worlds best solution[/shadow]

I'd have to go with FreeBSD, as far as i know: it has more support / docs out of the BSD family... I really like- although at times can be both frustrating and fun :-) As far as making the switch from M$, make sure to read as much documentation as possible...

Here are some of my fav links:
http://www.freebsd.org
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ook/index.html
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...k/mirrors.html

Newbie Links:http://www.freebsd.org/projects/newbies.html
Un*x Help for Users: http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/unixhelp/
X Windows User's guide: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/LDP/users-guide/
The Complete FreeBSD: http://www.freebsdmall.com/cgi-bin/fm/bsdcomp
Unix Int. Course: http://www-wks.acs.ohio-state.edu/unix_course/unix.html

Thanks for the links!
Lets see what others think.

Just so you know, www.linuxiso.org is a great place to download a variety of Linux distributions from. They have a ton of them.

I would also reccomend a form of BSD. My choice is openBSD. I have it running on a 350Mhz with 32 Megs of ram. Xfree is the x I'm using, and it still needs some work to get fully operational. Its great for those older and slower machines. www.openbsd.org is the place to go to learn more about it. I plan on using it as a gateway/router/firewall for my home LAN. I just need to get a monitor switch before I can get it going.

xmaddness

I first used IRIX. But I would not say that I really learned it. Just enough to do my work.

I have used many distros and find Mandrake to be the best for my purposes. I learned with Mandrake 6.0 and used them ever since. A lot of people make fun of me for using it, but that's OK. I like it anyway :)

As for the BSD's, I think I might get my feet wet in OpenBSD like xmaddness said, but I am too chicken to try it.

I hope you find what you are after.

Cheers,

albn

If you want to go with a BSD type then go with OpenBSD. It is the most secure variant of the
BSD'S right outta the box imho.

Well, the first one i actually installed was cladera Open Linux, i was at school in computer class and they were teaching office and that bored me so i deleted most of the stuff on the 2 gig HD nd partitioned it and installed Linux (not bad for the first time doing it) then i had caldera at home, then i bought ad used mandrake, Free BSD, Red hat, and right now im using Suse 8.1 Professional and alo i bought BeOS 5.0 power pack, i gotta say, id recommend playing with every one of them, BSD is hard to get going but its a brick wall, Linuc mandrake, cladera open and Suse are easier than red hat in my opinion, what i would recommend is buying the BSD, mandrake and suse and starting from there, there awesome man.

This seems like a good thread to ask this question then, I have minumum contact with linux and have only used it for creating shells and IRC botnets. What are the differences between all the different forms of linux and aside from prefrence why pick one over another, I am a avid windows user and want one of my boxes to be a dedicated firewall I was thinking BSD, and then I want one for practicing different skills and learning the OS in depth. Please help me :)