Best Distro of Linux?

[imported_brad]

For a home user, what would be the best version of linux to play with. i was thinking of either trying to have some kind of dual boot win/linux system or getting an old junker of a box and running something off it with a KVM switch.

Its been a while since ive looked at it, but i did just see that Red Hat 8 is not supported. Ive heard good things about Fedora.

Comments/Suggestions.

ps-is there a way to create and read MS office documents. Ive heard of open office, but im not sure if it just reads or what. thx.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Open Office will work with most Microsoft formats, but it might not handle them perfectly.

Most of the distros are fine. With the right hardware Fedora or SuSE would work perfectly. Or even Mandrake. I prefer Debian or Slackware.

 

[ColKurtz]

Depends on how technical you rate yourself. Nocmonkey suggested Debian, which has a large and dedicated base (which also means good community support), but is also less user-friendly than some other distros. If you just want to run Linux, Mandrake is a good choice - it's famous for its ease-of-use . If you want to learn Linux, maybe Debian is a good choice after all.

Keep in mind there's not *that* much of a difference between them.

 

[imported_brad]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Open Office will work with most Microsoft formats, but it might not handle them perfectly.

will it both create and read(open) them in their original format?

After col's suggestion, and reading up on mandrake, i think ill try that.

 

[KoolDrew]

I thought Mandrake was terrible when I tried it. It is easy to use, but so is Ubuntu which is based off Debian, just easier to use.

 

[quique55]

wit open office I have not had any problem opening, reading, or crating docs or excel spreadsheets. I assume you will run into problems if you created macros and such in word or excel but to be honest i dont know since I only use those apps for basic uses.

 

[duragezic]

Some documents don't view quite correctly in OpenOffice as they would in Word, but it's not a big deal. Pretty damn good package for being free, IMO.

As far as distros, I've used Fedora 2 and 3 most because we use Fedora 1 in the CS labs @ school, but I've used Ubuntu and it is good for starters. I would try one of those two or Mandrake for starters, with the possibility of trying Debian or something more intense later.

 

[Ahkorishaan]

Try Mepis, or yoper, I have found both to be easy to use and well stocked with pre-loaded software. I lean towards Yoper, a little more difficult, but the speed makes up for it, as well as the multitude of options.

 

[Davegod75]

ubuntu or mandrake

 

[Nothinman]

Ubuntu because it's based on Debian.

 

[Spydermag68]

How about Knoppix?

This Linux distribution runs entirely from a bootable CD. Data on the CD is uncompressed on the fly, allowing them to fit 2 GB worth of system and programs on one CD, including a complete X server, KDE, and large packages like OpenOffice and The Gimp. Since it runs solely off the CD, Knoppix makes an excellent portable Linux demo or system rescue disk, but its completeness makes it a good general purpose distribution as well.

 

[Slappy00]

mandrake

 

[R3MF]

Gnome = Ubuntu
KDE = SUSE

OpenOffice 2.0 should be ace and will be packaged with the new Ubuntu Hoary in April, probably SUSE 9.3 in the same time frame too.

 

[robisc]

SuSE and Lycoris are very nice too

 

[OffTopic1]

I tried several releases of Yoper & found that it is not any quicker than other distros, however the bundled soffware is great. Yoper also is weak compare to Kinoppix/Kanotix/Gnoppix, Debian, RedHat/Fedora, Mandrake, ELX, Arch, Ark, Lycoris, and Libranet for hardware detection (tests were done on a Celeron 500mhz & 512 ram).

I'm currently dling ProMepis 2005.04b.iso to see what the hoopla all about.

 

[daveshel]

Ubuntu and SuSE are so easy to set up they won't force you to learn anything they way Debian will. Ubuntu even has a 64-bit version, but it did not detect my nvidia MAC.

 

[tsmori]

Been using SuSE for a couple of years now. Rock solid. I rarely use a linux desktop though. I use linux solely for the servers.

 

[OffTopic1]

I just installed ProMepis, and it turn out to be quite a good distro. Live CD is just as fast a Knoppix, however Mepis is more refine. IMHO, Mepis has the best layout of KDE that I have seen (not as much of the eyes candies as Fedora/Mandrake, or ELX), and the hardware detection is very good, Xconfig still needed to tweak for monitor refresh rate like every other distro, and CUPS still seemed to be a bit slower than Fedora/Mandrake.

It look like Mepis is going to be the new default OS on my test drive till the next version of Mandrake/SUSE/Fedora.

Test were done on a Sempron 2400+ and 512meg of ram.

 

[OffTopic1]

Just installed SUSE 9.2, and IMHO, the desktop is the most refine out of all distros that I have tried (the last time that I tried SUSE was about 4-5 years ago). The install is fast (about 30 min with updates) from a download able 3GB DVD, which is much faster than ProMepis (3 hours install ++ update, but the plus side of ProMepis is that it have a nice graphical interface for apt-get).
SUSE also alow the detail mode when install so you know which packages that are installing even in auto install mode, which is nicer than Mepis. Networking is flawless employing the same auto connect to Windows shares like ELX over a year ago. Printer detection is very smooth with my HP Laserjet 4P (auto detect & mount prior to first logon), however Samba server need to be config to share out the printer to other Windows clients (ELX have the option to auto Samba server share in a Windows network during install, however the interface weren't as clean).

Overall SUSE 9.2 have to be one of the best desdtop that I have tried, and a slick install interface Yast. And, I feel that it isn't much behind Win2k/XP.

I'll come back with a report on the new ELX distro when I have a chance.

Test were done on a Sempron 2400+ and 512meg of ram.

[edit] Mepis come with Win4lin & CrossOver Office as default install.

 

[Dragonbate]

Funny how people sse things so differently. I've bben experimenting with different Linux distros alot lately. The easiest to run has been Xandros... alotta windows knowlege translates directly. It remians installed as my server which you can visit through my sig. That said I'm currently installing Debian as I've had the best experiences with debian based distros. Fedora 3 wouldn't work out of the box with my test machane (an old pii). Knoppix is great and can be installed on an HD but its not made for that and it shows. I had problems with Suse and Ubuntu was just ugly. I guess I could have played with it awhile to make it to my liking but that's like dating a fixer-upper. You might as well start with a pretty girl at least. Tried Mepis a while ago but wasn't happy with it I don't remember why. And Mandrake was good but not as easy as Xandros.

 

[calyco]

From my limited experience I would go with Fedora for a desktop or Suse for a laptop.

 

[OffTopic1]

Originally posted by: quique55
wit open office I have not had any problem opening, reading, or crating docs or excel spreadsheets. I assume you will run into problems if you created macros and such in word or excel but to be honest i dont know since I only use those apps for basic uses.

I ran into miner formating problems with OpenOffice several times in Excel (no macros), however OpenOffice employ better connectivities with all of its packages & I love the ability to connect to a nice database backend with out the bloat of Access & MS so-call bundle SQL.

 

[Ahkorishaan]

Just began playing with vidalinux, pretty sweet deal there, it's gentoo, without the tedious install.

 

[superkdogg]

I'm a Linux noob myself, and Lycoris is the easiest I've tried. It has My Computer and My Network Places equivalents. In this case, easy means "Like Windows" which I know is not always good, but for those of us who know Windows fairly well and want to switch it's really frustrating to no longer be able to do simple things like installing Seti.


Not that it's happened to me or anything

Especially not on my dual-boot Win2K and Fedora C1 machine

:thumbsup:

 

[KSmith]

Just like OP, I'm looking for a home distro.
Everyone is givintg their opinio, but folks arent saying why they prefer their choice.

For me, a smooth, Mac-like or Windows-like user shell is really important.
The biggest votes for a home system will come from the less technical family members.
Right now, I'm leaning toward Novell / SUSE, but I really have nothing to base that on.

The primary tasks will be office work (with Open Office), web browsing (with Netscape 7 and Firefox), and photography (with Gimp 2). I will want to put these packages on all of our home machines, dual-booting in some cases.