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What is the best version of Linux?

S

Superpabs13

Member
What is the best version of Linux? I have heard about redhat, mandrake, ect and i have no idea what is best....b/c of the fact that i have never really loved windows, and i hear great things about Linux, its only logical to test it out. Thanks alot for all of your help! maybe the penguin will be my new love.
 
Hi,
I asked the same question about three months ago and guess what? No one will agree. I am still a beginner and I'm still using RedHat. Why? Because it was the easiest for me to setup. I have Pogo, Mandrake, Debian, Slackware, Caldera and Suse as well, but haven't really tried any of them too much. You will probably get a more accurate answer to your question if you tell us what you are looking for. I assume you want a win98/2K replacement? And this is basically for a home system? Then start with either RH, Suse or Mandrake. They are so similar for the first time user, it will take you a while to figure out which one is best. Heck, I still don't know which I like the best. Hope this helps.
As Always.
D
 


<< Hi,
I am still a beginner .
D >>



Doens't look like your such a newbie to me... that was a good answer you gave him.
 
well. I dont know which is the best but I am in week 2 of my run with Mandrake 8.0 . I am still trying to get my sound to work and I still cant get online with it. But the rest of the install went great and the KDE and Gnome desktops both look great. I'd say the best thing to do would be to go to a bookstore , browse around the Linux section find a book you are comfortable with and install whatever comes with the book. I have just done that myself. I got the sams teach youself Linux-mandrake . I wish i had done that before then I would have been more prepared. Linux file systems and making things work is MUCH different than Windoze and Dos. I still have trouble with the fact that there are no file extensions (8.3) like in dos.
 
suse blows. Bought it and first thing fell out was a notice saying &quot;You can't boot w/out a disk&quot;. Took it back and got Mandrake. Now I just put in the Hat 2nite.
 
I have played around a little with Linux, but I am not an expert.
I have installed SUSE 7.0, 6.4, and 6.3 all from CDROM without a problem. And never found a notice of must use a boot disk. I have also installed Kondara, Slackware (I would not recommend Slackware for people unfamiliar with XFree86), Linux Mandrake 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2. The installs of SUSE and Mandrake where done on both my laptop and desktop. The others where only done on my desktop.

Before installation decide on whether you want the entire disk to be used for Linux or not. If you want to partition your Drive go out and buy Partition Magic by PowerQuest. This will save you a major headache and is very easy to learn.

Only thing is you have to make sure that your CDROM drive is setup to boot before your C drive.

Both SUSE and Mandrake are simple enough to learn. And both come with extensive documentation. My only problem with Mandrake 7.1 and 7.2 is when you in install it and select complete you have to go back to the RPM manager and install everything that Mandrake did not install the first time around. Such little things a Vi editor and games and other packages. I don't think 7.0 you had to do this with. With SUSE it installs it the first time around without the redundancy.

SUSE website (www.suse.com) has the best hardware support database by far of any installation. Just type in the component and it will tell you if supported or not.

Make sure to check if the distro you installing is compatible with your system. Otherwise you will start to have some serious headaches.

If you want to try out all the flavors of Linux you can check out www.linuxmall.com and see if they have their bundle packs. It is a cdrom collection of the many distros, each on a different cdrom. These are just the distro with no books or warranty.

Hope this helps. 🙂
 
I installed Linux-Mandrake8.0 it detected all my hardware which includes an ISDN modem. I was up and running with an internet connection in 30 minutes, the 30 minutes include the installation 😉
 
Hehe, I remember getting RH 6.1 and not understanding anything for 2 months. I just kept changing the GNOME theme and other trivial things. I think it's nice if you have a goal for Linux. That way you can feel you accomplished something and not end up a month later saying, &quot;Linux sucks, I'm going back to Wintendo.&quot; Some goals I found useful: set up an ftp server so I can upload my work from school (no more floppies), learn to program, set up a firewall/masquarade (like Windows ICS) for your other computer, and run Unreal Tournament / Quake 3 (this actually used to be hard b/c Nvidia's drivers conflicted with another library).

Mandrake will baby you (relative to other distros) but it's ugly (this purple and yellow theme, you have user &quot;icons&quot; on graphical login, looks like AOLinux to me).

Red Hat is a step up but the compiler acts funny if you try to compile a 2.2.x kernel. If you don't know what this means, don't worry. You can eventually replace it after you install if you want to. IMPORTANT!!! Never ever install Red Hat's FTP or Bind (name server) servers. They are the buggiest pieces of junk and were responsible for the Worm a while back. Chances are you don't need Bind and proftpd is a much more secure replacement for RedHat's wu-ftpd.

SuSE is a mix between Drake and Red Hat. Drops the ugly stuff on Mandrake and drops RH's weird compiler. It's a very distro. I heard it actually installs the GeForce properly but I'm not too sure. Nvidia released some new drivers so you'll have update them anyway.

Whatever you do, the first thing you should do after installing is: turn off unnecessary services (in RH, run &quot;setup&quot; from the command line, run man <command> to see if you need to be running it, you do not need to run portmap or NFS; I don't know about other distro's), create a firewall (try firestarter, it's a GNOME app that builds firewalls for you), patch stuff (esp ftp, bind, Apache, and other services that you are still running).
 
Actually there is no &quot;BEST&quot; version of Linux. There may be a best version for this person or that person, but all around best would be tough to keep Everyone happy.

For beginners that want it to work/look like Windows while you learn Linux, then Mandrake 8.0 would be an excellent choice. The latest version is a breeze to install. (history/and previous threads show that most people that &quot;tried Linux and gave up&quot; had installation troubles)

For those that learn more through the struggle, and want to be command line pros, Debian or Slackware would be an excellent choice. (beginners may want to avoid a pure command line Linux for a few months though-it can be frustrating)

Most other Linux versions fall somewhere in-the-middle of the ones listed above...
 
I like Slackware, but it's harder than most. Redhat and Caldera are also nice. If you're really a newbie I'd say go w/ Redhat, and if you want a bit of a challenge try the XFS install disks from Sun.
 
Conectiva Linux 6 (my brazilian distro)... no, never! Just kidding!!!
When I bought it and installed for the first time, I discovered a bug in the &quot;Xconfigurator&quot;. When running it and changing the resolution of the desktop, the &quot;XF86Config&quot; became corrupted and the graphical interface could not enter again. They tweak the system more than necessary...
 
Linux for home system? Why?

*puts on his flame resistant suit*

Actually I say this because of my frustration. Linux is too hardware dependent. If you have this and if you have this and if you have this you can run this os which does not run near as many programs as the other os that works with all your hardware.

 
If you want to learn linux and be able to use it...Install Slackware on a computer that you dont really care if it's working. I first installed slackware on an old 486...just messing around with installing it right. then i upgraded that to a celeron 400..this being my second computer i could just keep messing around and if i goof up...format/reinstall...learned some cool commands. Slackware is awesome! =).
 
If you like banging your head against the wall slackware :0) (also my distro of choice btw) Debian also can be a challenge, however I broke the wall before I ever even managed to install it...

As for RH, I strongly advise staying away from it right now since it ships a development version of gcc. If you try to compile anything (very common in linux) it is a crap shoot as to whether it will actually compile. If you want hand holding go with Mandrake.
 
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