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Which Linux distro do you prefer??

G

Glitchny

Diamond Member
the topic basicly says it all, i want to set up a dual boot of Xp pro and linux. i dont know what versiojn of linux i should i use? I want to play around with some Hacking stuff (nothing malicious or illegal mind you, so dont shut my thread off please) i jsut want to knwo what distro is best for me.

thanx

and any help on how to set up the dual boot will be welcome as well
 
This gets asked alot.

Linux is Linux. Which distro? Depends on what you are looking for. It all comes down to packages available in each distro. Do you want an easy install? Do you want KDE or Gnome as the default windows manager?

Your best bet is to research the various distros and decide what YOU want out of a distro.

Personally, I run SuSE simply because I like it.



 
what is the difference between KDE and Gnome?
and i am thinking of using mandrake 9 because i have heard it is easier to get started with adn then after i get the hang of it try out somethign else.. is this a good paln or is their a better option?
 
Just for the record, there are a lot of topics on "what version of linux should I use," but, you said prefer...

I started out with Mandrake and hated it. I really only used it for a week, and learned a haldfull of commands. A friend turned me on to FreeBSD, which I used for a few months. Then about a month ago, a friend of mine wanted me to burn him Debian, and I did. I also converted my workstations from FreeBSD to Debian, and I love it.

For me, and a lot of other people, I find that I learned a great deal more from getting a distro and working from the ground up. You get a feel for what you're doing, and that way, if something breaks, you actually might know how to troubleshoot it. You just have to make sure you read, something a lot of people won't admit to not doing.

My vote is for Debian, www.debian.org (never trust a distro who's website ends in .com 😛 ), trust me, it'll pay off in the future.
 
You can get more info on those by doing a search on them. Basically, they (and 20 or so other window managers) dictate the look and feel of the desktop. No worries though. If you don't like what you selected, you can always change it later. I mention those two because they are more prevelant in most distros.

Omega is right that Debian is a good distro. Is it the one for you? Maybe not, but only you will know that. It could be that Linux isn't for you. I disagree with the .com comment for a number of reasons, but that's another topic all together.

I have never used or install Mandrake, but alot of people like it. Check around the forums (this and others), check out various linux sites and just read up on it a bit. There's reviews of different distros here and there, so you may want to check those out as well. If you have no *nix experience, you might want to get a book and read up on the different commands and formats, etc. It's not like windows at all. It's stable! LOL 😀

Good luck

 
Just get something and play with it. If it doesn't work out, reinstall it or find something else. Same with dual-booting - just back up your important stuff first.

People are really overthinking this stuff. Linux is not like buying a motherboard. You don't need to research and stay up at night pondering. Just get an ISO and dig in.
 
LOL, Clever.

Try this link, it'll let you download ISO's or get opinions on different distros from their forum

linuxiso.org

*opps, forgot to hyperlink the url 😱
 
thanx guys im downloading debian, mandrake redhat and freeBSD ill jsut burn themn to cd and if i dont like it ill try a different distro, also thinkign about getting suse.
 
why dont you be a bit more specific -- the only thing you've told us is that you want to play with hacking, there is not really any linux distro more suited to hacking over another, so its hard to recommend anything. keep in mind there is no "best" distro, its like cars, there is no 'best', only pros, cons, and opinions. also try using the search, this exact thread gets posted at least once a day.
 
Answering the question that was asked, the distro I prefer is Linux From Scratch, although it's not really a distro as much as it is a HOWTO and some patches. I run Slackware on my server and laptop, simply because the former would be beyond my ability to set up correctly, and the latter would take a decade to compile everything.
 
When I fix my dual p3 (new mobo should hopefully be on the way and if I can find a video card somewhere 😛), and if I decide to installl linux on it I will go with RedHat. Yes, thats something most of you would not have thought I would go with. But my only reason for choosing redhat will be the fact it will help me out in possible jobs in the future.
 
Another vote for both LFS and Slackware....

And btw Slackware is a .com and there's nothing wrong about it!!!
 
Originally posted by: thornc
Another vote for both LFS and Slackware....

And btw Slackware is a .com and there's nothing wrong about it!!!
Click to expand...

RedHat is a .com to me. I basically refuse to go to redhat.org
 
Why hasn't anyone really mentioned Red Hat as an option? Is there something about it that isn't great?

I'd like different ppl's prefs too... I'm thinking about installing Linux on the next PC I get (hopefully within a month).

Andrew
 
debian was a no go for me....I had a debian user over who used it for over 5 or 6 years and he couldn't get it working with my matrox video card. I'm sure it's great and all if it supports your hardware. That was a year ago. So maybe woody has better support. But I believe we tried sid, woody, and potato and none of them could start up X. Anyway things might have been different had I had a good experience with it but now I'm running Red Hat on two home computers and at work Red Hat is on our mail server, one of our file servers, our printer server (actually it's e-smith based on redhat), and one for our Intranet server.

I'm glad Red Hat is despised with a venegance with hardcore hackers. More power to them. To me linux isn't a religion although many worship it as it is. Red Hat sticks with GPL...unlike SUSE, Caldera, TurboLinux, etc. I like how all those Gentoo users think they're elite now. Geez I thought that too when I took a week course and learned Slackware, Linux security, etc. back in 1998 from Jericho at attrition.org. Anyone willing to spend the time on nearly anything can become rather good at Slackware, Gentoo, Debian and I admire all those who do. Just don't emanate the elitist attitude. Problem I see is new users coming from windows and people telling them to try out slack, gentoo, linux from scratch, etc. Problem is they do and then they either get it or they don't. Those they don't most likely will never come back. I have friends who think Red Hat is too hard, etc. so I'll start them off with e-smith all web-based interface just to get them started.
 
well i am runnign Redhat 8.0 as of right now, seems to be working fine, had a few problems trying to install debian so ill wait till i know mroe about it to try again. thanx for the input guys.
 
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