Linux - DistributionsThis forum is for Distribution specific questions.
Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, Novell, LFS, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Fedora - the list goes on and on...
Note: An (*) indicates there is no official participation from that distribution here at LQ.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
For me, it's so much Linux, so little disk space.
Hey, after all, I only have 320 GBs of hdd space.
I use SuSE.
SuSE is great for every Linux user- At first, you can go the easy way and go with the default install and almost never have to access the command line (although, with Linux, you WILL to install just about any program). And once you are getting bored, you can take advantage of the development tools that are installable from the DVD/CD.
I'd just say this: if you are new to Linux, go with a GUI, and don't use Ubuntu (Yes, I know I'll get blasted for this, and this is where I make my point). Ubuntu's ONLY (and I mean only) up is that it has a lot of device driver. SuSE if the only distro that doesn't need the Vesa driver for my video card, anyway. Ubuntu doesn't let you choose what to install, and they don't even offer Firefox for autoinstallation. What's the point of Linux without Firefox? The kinda go hand-in-hand... Never hae I found what I was looking for in Ubuntu's download repositories. Sure, it was the first distro I used (not including Knoppix, of course. Isn't that everyone's first distro?) because I didn't want to wreck my Windows partition and I used VMware- back in the day of Player. There was a free image available, so I used it. When it didn't evven have TiMidity, I gave up on it. I can't survive without proper devel tools and good apt servers. Where else would I get my KDE headers and kernel sources?
I have never used Gentoo, but I'm planning to install it- and Zenwalk- sometime in the next two days if I can find the disk space. Most of the time I install through VMware 'cause I'm out of partitions.
To make my final point, I tried SuSE and enjoyed it. My current uptime with SuSE is 2 days and seven hours, which should continue to grow. SuSE is able to offer the programs everyone will need, no matter what there experience with Linux is. I even have some 10 WMs installed. I run VMware in SuSE so I can continue to gain more Linux experience, and through VMware, I've installed more Linux distros than I can remember. The latest Linux distros I've used are Slack, SuSE 10.1, and SuSE 10.2 RC2 (and ReactOS, but that doesn't really count...). Why am I saying this? I just want to say that I'm not saying this, and that's it's NOT the only distro I've installed, and I can say from experience that SuSE is probably the best distro I've used, and I an not basing this off the fact that I think the one distro I have used is better than all the distros I haven't even tried- or heard of.
Distribution: Debian Sid, SourceMage 0.9.5, & To be Continued on a TP
Posts: 800
Rep:
From the list and depends on your skill level. I would choose Mepis, its one of the best on the list being Debian based. Suse would be my second choice.
I'm a newbie but its a live cd, an installer, looks cool and It detected my linksys wifi out of the gate. If you want to install outside packages just install kpackager from the repositories. Worse comes to worse your out a blank CD.
On the Poll I voted SUSE. OpenSUSE has an install from internet image (It's tiny) If that works great. Otherwise go with the set of CDs or the DVD.
Last edited by Dimplewidget; 08-31-2006 at 09:07 PM.
Okay, PCLinuxOS, Gentoo, and SuSE like ones I'll try. FreeBSD, and FC5 in second, and Mepis and Mandriva last. Mandriva never looked like I'd want to try 'cause I gotta download like 5 CDs... meaning it must be overloaded with crap. I'll try PCLinuxOS, etc in that order
Update: I just finished using PCLinuxOS... I love it. Still cant get the wifi to work, I'd probably have to play around w/ that later... but over all, really nice. I got the about 700mb file from their website, 0.93a "Big Daddy" version... it took about 30min for me to download, a snap to burn, and ran ok off of a CD drive on a Celeron533, 160mb RAM. I had a 40gb Dell harddrive laying around w/ a not working windows XP, and like 3 other dell partions taking up like 10gb of the drive. Wiped that, got a 1gb swap, used up the rest w/ ReiserFS(SP?)(I had lots of others to pick too, Ext3 being another). Install took awhile... but it installed like a charm. Looks just like the CD, but runs better. I got a choice between LILO graphical, a not graphical version, GRUB graphical, and a not graphical version of that. I choose LILO graphical, it being the default. I was able to (while using the distro) open up a nice little setting thing, that lets me pick which image to use, how long for it to automatically pick it (0 will not pick anything, 1 sec being fastest... no problem), and to put other distros, etc a option at that menu. It comes with all the programs I need, also has a tool to download more programs and updates thru the internet. Comes with (looks like) the newest version of KDE, also 2 other WMs (Im using KDE). It also lets me logon automatically, so I dont have to put my password every time. I'm very happy w/ PCLinuxOS, I havent tried any of those others yet, but rightnow, PCLinuxOS is very nice.
My only problem so far has be getting 32bit color for gaming(stupid 32bit only games) and I'm still banging my head against Cedega but thats a seperate issue. I may still go back to SUSE to try zen.
Yeah, I installed the newer PCLinuxOS a while back (two weeks, maybe?) and I found it to be quite a bit better than the older .92 which I had installed. Until now, I didn't think that anyone was brave enough to have 5 partitions with an OS on each (plus the three Dell partitions).
2 Windows installs, three Linux installs...
I found PCLinuxOS to have the best server support (only bested by Fedora). But I just going to warn everyone: do use the MySQL autoinstaller. It doesn't install correctly and most of the exectubles are missing. Just use the RPM from mysql.com
PCLinuxOS was the first distro I actually installed, and I found the install to be pretty easy. I think the only problem with it is that it's Mandrake base is really showing off in .93a. Most of it is just edited graphics and menu text (and I know- I've done it myself). Maybe it will be improved further in .93 final.
Until now, I didn't think that anyone was brave enough to have 5 partitions with an OS on each (plus the three Dell partitions).
2 Windows installs, three Linux installs...
Are you talking to me? If you are I don't understrand. There where 3 partitions on the drive originally. One w/ Windows XP, and two small Dell ones that, one I'm guessing a reload windows thing, and another for their Register XP thing that comes up, when you first turn on the Dell.
Anyway, w/ linux I just deleted all of those, and setup a swap and linux partition. Their are only 2 partitions on it right now. But, I have on other computers, setup lots of partition for lots of OS's. Once I had XP, Xandros, SuSE, and a swap all on a 20gig-er. But I've also used lots of other distros, but I usually just wiped the drive and made the distro take most the drive, and some for swap.
I picked MEPIS (even though I dont like it), just because it is the only one based on Debian...
Honestly, use what I use:
KUBUNTU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://images.linuxquestions.org/que...s/confused.gif
I cannot believe anyone would pick MEPIS. I have 17 Distributions and it is the only one that can't seem to locate my wireless card or my sound card. That wouldn't be all that bad but the configuration for each is about as tweaky as it gets.
I'm sold on SuSE because its the most complete, most powerful, auto-updates, is a true 64bit distro, and has never had a problem locating and configuring any peripheral.
But if I couldn't have (we discover that Microsoft really does own all of SuSE's pattents) SuSE then I'd leap at Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Its a well rounded distro and you will never top their support or their attitude toward the community!
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.