Which version of linux??????

Guys, need your opine.

I’m sick and tiered off my winbox. Once in a while I get that *BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH* with no cause. So my mind is set to install a unix system.
I’ve already several threads regarding operating systems. Now I believe that most of you run your box under unix. My question to you all is which OS I should start with. Must say, have no knowledge of unix whatsoever. Many of my friends advice me to start with Red Hat 8.0. But I’ve also heard of Mandrake and SuSe.

Please let me know what to choose. :D

Greetz to you all

I started out with SuSe 8.1. So far, I like it, I'm still working on learning it. It's definetly different. Good luck to you!

This is a question that can start flame wars of near religious zeal.

The right answer is......whichever one works for you.

There are a couple of ditro's which are more newbie friendly than others, but the fact of the matter is......they are all essentially the same.

So now the question becomes which bells and whistles do you want and why? www.distrowatch.com has reviews of all the major distros. www.justlinux.com has had debates about 'which distro is best' more times than I can count.

To give you something concrete though, my recommendations for the total linux newbie:
Lycoris, Red Hat, or Mandrake.

I haven't tried all the ditros out there though.

well, im not exactly a Red Hat fan, im a SuSe kinda guy, Buying SuSe 8.1 professional was cool, i love it, and also, for stuff like this, check out some Linux sites and read threw them and see wich one seems to be more your style, me id say get SuSe

http://www.suse.com

its one you can grow with, its easy enough for a beginner and has advanced tools for the GURUs.

well, for me the better one is Suse 8.1
but to start Mandrake is a very good one...
I've also tested the Knoppix.... it's wonderfull....
and the connectiva .... but it's all in brasilian...
well i leave for last slackware it's very difficuoult to use it at the beginning.....
red hat form me isn't the better you can found but all depend by your tastes

Personally I have been on Redhat since the first time I used linux although I have had some exposure to Suse. I think you can start with any. Make sure that you get to see others too cos if you want to learn much, you cannot afford being a "fanatic" of 1 distro.
Have fun..linux is great(I think)

woohoo! SuSe is winning, lol they should start payin me for promotion....naa

Haha, well, I started out on Mandrake, because it is very, very user friendly, I am thinking about moving to either SuSe, UnitedLinux, Trustix, or Slack, but I suggest you give an easy to use and easy to install distro a shot, I've seen suggestions about Mandrake and RedHat, they're easy, but it all depends on what you want, and how much you already know. Good luck with Linux.

-MicroBurn

yeah it's all really a pref anymore. There are so many flavors, and this looks like this, this does that, you are better off to find out by just reading about each one and thne going for it from there. Or do what I do, use Virtual PC and install each one on it's own "hard drive" and run them like that. Sure you need a fast system, but they really work on anything. Plus that way you can stick with Windows until you decide what you want and get use to it.

Plus if you become hardcore, you'll just get a 486 and run everything command line.

If you REALLY want to learn Linux, and have a highspeed connection, you should consider, http://www.gentoo.org/

best distro I've ever used, I've used RH, slackware, Mandrake, Debian, knoppix, etc...
It takes a long time to install, but once it's working, you'll have a better understanding of how everything works and you'll have a very fast, stable box...

Don't consider this the 'definitive' answer, but here's my 2 cents:

Mandrake 9.0 -- extremely easy install and use
Slackware 8.1 -- more for the linux power-user
Red Hat 8.0 -- very good support, large user base, lots of distro-specific linux apps are written for it
Debian 3.0r1 -- giant distro (7cds), large user base
Knoppix 3.1 -- good bootable cd distro, great if you want it copied to the hd
OpenBSD -- not really linux, but based on the BSD kernel. outstanding security, performance... amazing for webservers
FreeBSD -- similar to OpenBSD, has arguably the fastest TCP/IP stack

All of the isos for these can be found on www.linuxiso.org except for the OpenBSD one -- they usually sell the cds but you can find unofficial (still legal) cd images via google.

I agree to what thread_killer said concerning flame wars and religious zeal. Because of this I will not recommend any distribution.

Personally I've startet with Linux in 1994 using SuSE and I'm still using it on my private computers. At work I use Red Hat on several servers since a couple of years. Although there are some differences both distris are satisfying for me. Once they are up and running, you won't see any big difference. They are both just GNU/Linux systems.

In the next time i plan to try out the Debian distribution for two reasons:

1. Debian is not as commercial, as the two distris mentioned above.
2. It is said, that because of its packet management system it shall be easier to preserve an actual system over *years* including all security updates. I'm curious about it.

h@rdb@ll just as a tip: If you want to see how Linux works on your computer without installing it, have a look at http://www.heise.de/ct/ . This magazine contains a CD-ROM containing a completely configured Linux called "Knoppix" (http://www.knoppix.de) able to boot and run completely from CD. It should be available in the netherlands too. But you should hurry - on monday a new c't edition will appear.

Uhu

P.S. After I've seen the many intermediate posts while I've been writing I want to point out: Knoppix is not a distribution. It is a highly preconfigured Debian GNU/Linux. Anyways it is ingenious!
... just to avoid misunderstandings. :p

I've tried most linux systems over the years, FreeBSD too. I liked Slackware and FreeBSD the best for most ot the last five years. About 6 mos. ago I built a new computer around a K7S5A motherboard, which has a built in internet connection and sound. But, I can't get either Slackware or FreeBSD to work with my new system; incidentally Window$xp wouldn't work initially until I got some updates; good thing I had my old computer to get the updates. I then decided to try SuSE 8.0. It worked great and recognized all of my hardware automatically. The only problems I've had are burning CDROMS and the fact that the C stuff didn't support fortran 77. I fixed the C problem by downloading the latest GNU C compiler; now I have two C systems installed with no problems. By the way SuSE 8.0 cost me $40 as opposed to M$ xp for almost $100. I think that upgrading SuSE every two years at a cost of 20$/yr. is where I'm headed.

Thnkx guys for all the response. I think I’m gonna try several distros on my box.
Probably starting with Redhat 8.0 and Mandrake (Dual Boot) Hoping that I’m finally get rid of that annoying blue screen.


Anyway thnx to you all!!

well if you don't feel like learning linux there's also Lindows....which is supposed to be like Linux on Wine (no really, wine is an emulator to run Windows programs).

Only downside is it's like 99 buck or something....just a thought...

-Mike

Thnx Uhu,

Yesterday went directly to the store and bought the magazine. Must say its
" it is ingenious! ". I also will buy a SuSe version. LOL
Anyway thnx to you all!!