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Which Linux is Best?

post #1 of 19
2/8/07 at 1:15am
Thread Starter 
Forgive me everyone, I'm about as n00bish as they get, especially when it comes to Linux.

Because of recent kernel errors with Windows (and general dissatisfaction with M$'s monopoly of the market), I thought Linux would be a great place to turn. Pretty much everyone I've talked to has encouraged me to convert, and I admit that the pro's they list seem endless. I'm curious if there are any con's to the Linux convert (currently I have Windows XP), aside from giving up some regular gaming apps. I hear that some versions of Linux are customizable to my hardware for better speed, almost no crashing (which itself would be a Godsend), and also more security. Now I'm not sure how much of that is true, but regardless, I think installing Linux would be a great learning experience.

Ok, here I go:
So which Linux distro is the best?

Perhaps that is poorly worded. More specifically, I'm curious for your guys' opinions on some of the more popular distro's to help me decide. The list seems infinite, and I honestly don't know which is suited for me. Since I'd be installing this on my old laptop, I won't need any gaming stuff (if that matters are all). My main use is photo storage, website development, and of course generally browsing the internet. Many have suggested Ubuntu (or even Kubuntu?), because it's a great starting point. Others have suggested that, since I'm in for the whole learning experience, I go ahead and install Gentoo (with someone's guidance, of course, to compile everything). And then I heard there's a Fedora? And Debian? I got lost in the list, and don't know which would be best suited. Wikipedia (which I have looked into, FYI ) has only encouraged the growth of my confusion with the added Linux-jargon.

Overall, I'm asking for opinions on each of the distros. I appreciate everything everyone has to say, so thanks in advance!
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post #2 of 19
2/8/07 at 2:18am
Welcome to the Linux world! You'll enjoy your stay here, we're a very friendly bunch of people!

You are right, your question is somewhat poorly worded. I think maybe you should have asked which one is best for you, since each distro has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

A distro thats can be specifically tailored for your hardware is Gentoo (among many others), but its pretty complex and isnt recommended for newbies.

A great learning distro would be Ubuntu or one of its many versions. Its easy and highly compatible with most hardware on the market. Theres also a LOT of tutorials out on the interweb for doing just about anything you can imagine on it.

Best of luck, come to us if you need anything
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post #3 of 19
2/8/07 at 8:45am
agreed with pretty much everything TV said.... stay away from gentoo for a little while, some of us have been using linux for years and STILL can't get that thing to work right. Ubutnu would probably be the best place to start b/c it JUST WORKS and there is a HUGE resource pool via wikis, forums, and 3rd party tutorials. PClinuxOS is one of my personal favorties b/c much like ubuntu it JUST WORKS...but the community is a lot smaller so there are fewer resources, thus you sorta gotta make it up as you go along if you feel like ever changing something. the benefit of PCLOS is that its quite a bit faster (more optimized) than ubuntu.

since you said you have an "old system" how old exactly? if you are trying to squeeze out most performance (out of a non-gentoo setup) i'd recommend Xubuntu more than ubuntu probably b/c whereas ubuntu idles @ 200odd mb, xubuntu only idles @ 100mb.
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post #4 of 19
2/8/07 at 10:42am
Ill toss out elive just because it is a good, and little known, distro. Hopefully things get sorted out with their hosting(The site is back up) and development continues to progress. In the meantime though the stable versions are worth taking a look at.

Seablade
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post #5 of 19
2/8/07 at 5:24pm
I'll say it again, I still think if you're comitted to learning linux, the "easy distro's" are NOT the best choice. They're not bad, but you wont be forced to learn nearly as much as with one of the "harder" distros. In the end, it matters more that you take the time and put in the effort to research, read and learn, than which flavor you choose to start off with. If you'll get frustrated by not being able to get things working quickly, then choose one of the easier distros already mentioned. If you have the patience to find the solutions to your problems, and dont mind getting your hands dirty then choose something like Debian, Gentoo or Slackware.

above all else read and try things for yourself first, then ask for help. I've found linux users to be a very friendly and helpful bunch (with a few real jerks thrown in for good measure), and they'll usually really go out of their way to help you learn.

One more thing, if someone ever tells you a particular distro is better than the others, they have no clue what they're talking about and you should ignore them.

Slackware is the best distro.
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post #6 of 19
2/8/07 at 5:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by drlouis
if someone ever tells you a particular distro is better than the others, they have no clue what they're talking about and you should ignore them.

Slackware is the best distro.

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post #7 of 19
2/8/07 at 5:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Juparis
Forgive me everyone, I'm about as n00bish as they get, especially when it comes to Linux.

Ok, here I go:
So which Linux distro is the best?

Perhaps that is poorly worded. More specifically, I'm curious for your guys' opinions on some of the more popular distro's to help me decide. The list seems infinite, and I honestly don't know which is suited for me. Since I'd be installing this on my old laptop, I won't need any gaming stuff (if that matters are all). My main use is photo storage, website development, and of course generally browsing the internet
Overall, I'm asking for opinions on each of the distros. I appreciate everything everyone has to say, so thanks in advance!

As a person new to Linux I will throw in my two cents worth. I tried many Linux Live CD's trying to find ones that would work well on my machine and then picking the ones that looked best to me. As a beginner who has no ideas of how to fix any install problems this really narrowed my choices down quickly. Linux live CD's are great way to start. They also help you learn some important things about your machines. I ended up using Puppy Linux and Kubuntu which I think are both choices for a beginner. Puppy will probably un very well too on an older machine since it doesn't take much RAM. I boot it up from a 256 MB flash drive when traveling. There are support forums for both Puppy and Kubuntu to help with many questions you will have plus they both have rather extensive how to guides.
Distrowatch is a good place to get info about various Linux Live CDs. Good luck. PS There are many great games that will run very well under Linux even on an old PC.
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post #8 of 19
2/8/07 at 6:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pegazuz
As a person new to Linux I will throw in my two cents worth. I tried many Linux Live CD's trying to find ones that would work well on my machine and then picking the ones that looked best to me. As a beginner who has no ideas of how to fix any install problems this really narrowed my choices down quickly. Linux live CD's are great way to start. They also help you learn some important things about your machines. I ended up using Puppy Linux and Kubuntu which I think are both choices for a beginner. Puppy will probably un very well too on an older machine since it doesn't take much RAM. I boot it up from a 256 MB flash drive when traveling. There are support forums for both Puppy and Kubuntu to help with many questions you will have plus they both have rather extensive how to guides.
Distrowatch is a good place to get info about various Linux Live CDs. Good luck. PS There are many great games that will run very well under Linux even on an old PC.


Dang I think we got another abf here

Seablade
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post #9 of 19
2/8/07 at 6:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by drlouis
... (with a few real jerks thrown in for good measure)....

Dang you can't even give me a chance to scare them off first can you?

Seablade
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post #10 of 19
2/8/07 at 8:30pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for all the responses so far!
Considering my schedule, I think it's safe to say that I won't go Gentoo, as much as I'd love to have the most optimization for this machine. And when I said old, it isn't all that bad--3 years old, I think, but it's had more of its fair share of viruses, worms, physical abuse, and a corrupted harddrive (since it overheats and crashes so often).

I'm curious: Can Ku/Xu/Ubunto be optimized (is this where the word "compiling" comes in? :P) for my machine (even if only a limited amount?)?
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post #11 of 19
2/8/07 at 9:15pm
Speaking of Gentoo, I just tried out the Sabayon Live disc and am pretty impressed. Do any of you know if there's a gnome version, or if the install lets you choose the desktop manager? I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade my laptop to Feisty when it's released or go the Sabayon route (assuming I like it).

The only package managers I like anymore are apt and portage so I really want to at least try Sabayon... but I won't bother if I have to use kde.
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post #12 of 19
2/8/07 at 10:42pm
i believe the DVD version of sabayon comes with kde, gnome, fluxbox, xfce, and e16 and you get to pick during the install. as far as i know CD versions are KDE only but i might be wrong.
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post #13 of 19
2/8/07 at 10:44pm
In general optomizations happen at compile time, but also how much benefit you will see varies. To be honest I had problems with stability in compiling with -O3 so I stuck with -O2 in most cases recently.

3 year old machine you probably shouldn't have a problem running Ubuntu, even the newer versions. Give it a shot. Or if it seems a bit slow try elive.

Seablade
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post #14 of 19
2/9/07 at 2:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Juparis
I'm curious: Can Ku/Xu/Ubunto be optimized (is this where the word "compiling" comes in? :P) for my machine (even if only a limited amount?)?

Yes it can. You'll have to ask one of the other geniuses here about that though.

And why does everyone say Ubunto when they say it wrong?

Quote:
Originally Posted by bigtrouble77
Speaking of Gentoo, I just tried out the Sabayon Live disc and am pretty impressed. Do any of you know if there's a gnome version, or if the install lets you choose the desktop manager? I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade my laptop to Feisty when it's released or go the Sabayon route (assuming I like it).

The only package managers I like anymore are apt and portage so I really want to at least try Sabayon... but I won't bother if I have to use kde.

Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
i believe the DVD version of sabayon comes with kde, gnome, fluxbox, xfce, and e16 and you get to pick during the install. as far as i know CD versions are KDE only but i might be wrong.

ABF would be right about your question BT. I've been using Sabayon for several months now, its a very nice distro and the DVD version comes with EVERYTHING. Literally. You can use Portage to put Gnome onto the CD version, however.
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post #15 of 19
2/13/07 at 7:50pm
I can't say it's the best, because it's the only distro I've used, but I love Fedora Core. Have run FC4 & FC5. It's a very easy adjustment to FC4/5 from Windows as a lot of things can still be done in GUI; I maybe use the command line 5-10x/week and that's it. I used to keep a dual-boot(FC4 & XP Pro,) but I've gotten to the point where I only use FC anymore, I don't even have a Windows installation at all. The last time I re-installed Windows I got so annoyed because I got some spyware the same day I re-installed; that combined with the infrequency with which I was using Windows made me decide to just get rid of it all together. The only times I use Windows now are at work and occassionally I'll jump on my so's desktop to play a game.
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post #16 of 19
2/13/07 at 8:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by abf
i believe the DVD version of sabayon comes with kde, gnome, fluxbox, xfce, and e16 and you get to pick during the install. as far as i know CD versions are KDE only but i might be wrong.

You're right, the DVD version comes with several desktops, however for the CD version (mini) it comes with KDE as well as fluxbox.
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post #17 of 19
2/14/07 at 12:09am
Just to throw my two cents into the hat, I'd probally start with unbuntu or xubuntu. Both of them are easy to set up and like others have said, they work. I've also looked at elive and its pretty cool looking. Right now I'm using fedora core 6 on my desktop but probally gonna switch back to sabayon if I can get a dvd to burn correctly. I've got ubuntu runing dual with xp on two laptops currently, and don't plan on changing that anytime soon.
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post #18 of 19
2/14/07 at 2:44pm
Can anyof you tell me how sabayon configures grub? My tentative plan is to install it over edgy on my desktop. I just need access to that machine's win partition for audio production work. So if Sabayon has an automatic grub config (and will detect my win partition) i'll go ahead and install it. On the other hand, if it's like Gentoo's manual setup then I'll have to pass for now. I just don't want the win partition down at all because I won't have the time to manually configure grub.
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post #19 of 19
2/14/07 at 3:41pm
Sabayon auto detects all OS's and partitions and sets up the GRUB accordingly.
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