How to choose?

How do you decide which linux distro to use?

Any favorites out there?

It is sooo personal. Really it is what ever works for you best. I started with Deadrat (erm... RedHat), moved to Debian, then to Slackware, then to Linux from Scratch (LFS) and finally to Gentoo (in mid 2002). Personally, I like Gentoo the best, but that is because I have been using it since 2002 and know it inside and out, even helped to maintain some of the packages for awhile. I would suggest doing some reading on some of the bigger names and see what strikes you. You can always change.

Hi, if you have the data allowance, I would go to somewhere like The LiveCD List and download a few distros to try out.
As they're mostly LiveCDs they boot into a live system which is totally usable but won't alter your Mac until you choose to actually install.

PCLinuxOS, Mint, Suse - all quite simple to use and configure.
I hear also the new version of DreamLinux is pretty good, and looks quite like OS X.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Hugh

I've been through Debian and SUSE 11 in the past 2 weeks and haven't fallen in love with either. I'm thinking of FreeBSD next. Nothing really seems to be doing it for me. Point being... the nice thing about Linux is that you can try different flavors until you find one you like.

I would suggest you choose based upon what you want to put into it. At the "hard" end of the scale you have Gentoo. Difficult in that you have to compile it completely but when you finish you have a system you have designed for your needs. At the other end of the scale is Linspire - 10 minutes flat for install (or less) and you have a complete OS that you have nothing else to do.

PapaNoHair said:

I would suggest you choose based upon what you want to put into it. At the "hard" end of the scale you have Gentoo. Difficult in that you have to compile it completely but when you finish you have a system you have designed for your needs. At the other end of the scale is Linspire - 10 minutes flat for install (or less) and you have a complete OS that you have nothing else to do.

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I agree that Gentoo is definitely hard for a beginner, but in the end not only do you have a fully customized system, but you also learn A LOT in the process. But for a total beginner, it would probably be a little much, unless you like to really dive in head first.

lifeafter2am said:

I agree that Gentoo is definitely hard for a beginner, but in the end not only do you have a fully customized system, but you also learn A LOT in the process. But for a total beginner, it would probably be a little much, unless you like to really dive in head first.

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You know that is a very good point! When I started with Linux I didn't have any choice - all the ones had to be compiled, but I really did learn a lot. But boy oh boy did I have some frustrating times!

PapaNoHair said:

You know that is a very good point! When I started with Linux I didn't have any choice - all the ones had to be compiled, but I really did learn a lot. But boy oh boy did I have some frustrating times!

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At least with Gentoo the community is really big and you can almost always find an answer in the forums. Soooooo many long nights in the forums, but, like you said, I learned a ton!

txstchmike said:

How do you decide which linux distro to use?

Any favorites out there?

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A late reply. My favorite is Ubuntu 8.10. It's simply the easiest Linux distro to install and use. The latest version (8.10) recognizes and installs hardware drivers for a much wider range than I have ever experienced with any Linux distro I'm familiar with.

An example is my old (2003) Toshiba Satellite notebook. Ubuntu 8.10 even had drivers for the wireless card. It was also perfect with the graphics and power saver features.

Regards.

Plus 1 for Ubuntu. Very simple. If you are looking for ease of use, minimal mucking about with the command line, lots of packages and support, and wide hardware compatibility, Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) are very easy. I am a total Linux newb and it was a snap to install, simple to use and very easy to find answers to my questions.

Of course, more complex distros do different things and require more learning, but for getting your Linux feet wet, I think Ubuntu is great.

Good luck!

Thus far I can say that Fedora Core 10 runs well in Parallels, but is a bit too easy if you like to geek around in the CLI. Everything works like it should on my late 2008 MBP.

Ubuntu!!!!!!

jhawk2 said:

Ubuntu!!!!!!

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I'll second that. Ubuntu is probably one of the most popular Linux distros and for good reason. It's very refined, easy to set up and works on a large variety of hardware right out of the gate. It's very rare that you'd have to dig into the depths of Linux unless there are driver issues. The Ubuntu community is very active too, there's tons of resources out there.

Since I started running Ubuntu, I've rarely tried any of the other updates to popular distros, but when I have, I've found them all lacking.

It's funny, but I hate Ubuntu with a passion. Probably because I like doing everything by hand, digging into the kernel, working from the command line etc. I know a lot of people that use it, but I am too much of a purist to let my Linux OS make that many decisions for me. If it gets more people to use or even just try Linux, then thats good by me, but I can still hate it.

lifeafter2am said:

It's funny, but I hate Ubuntu with a passion. Probably because I like doing everything by hand, digging into the kernel, working from the command line etc. I know a lot of people that use it, but I am too much of a purist to let my Linux OS make that many decisions for me. If it gets more people to use or even just try Linux, then thats good by me, but I can still hate it.

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I can respect that, but I would offer this...

One of Linux's biggest strengths (the ability to customize and tweak to your heart's content and the endless variety in distributions and variants) is also its biggest weakness in terms of mass appeal. Ubuntu, by virtue of its standardization, refinement and large installed base, goes a long way toward giving Linux some credibility to the masses. And if you really want to tweak it, you can still get into its guts.

cwa107 said:

I can respect that, but I would offer this...

One of Linux's biggest strengths (the ability to customize and tweak to your heart's content and the endless variety in distributions and variants) is also its biggest weakness in terms of mass appeal. Ubuntu, by virtue of its standardization, refinement and large installed base, goes a long way toward giving Linux some credibility to the masses. And if you really want to tweak it, you can still get into its guts.

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Yes you can, but you still have a base system that could or could not have hundreds of packages that you don't want in there. Not to mention that it is not as optimized. I completely agree that it does help the masses get into the OS, which is always good because that means more software for the rest of us, but I still hate it. Even in OSX I use the command line a lot, because I want to know exactly what is going on, and to me that was why you used Linux in the first place, because you didn't trust Windows to just do stuff for you.

Plus, I am kind of an elitist, especially when it comes to the command line. Your not a true Linux user if you can't run a whole system (install, configuration and all) from the command line in my opinion. lol.

I agree Ubuntu. Especially since you re new to Linux. Ubuntu has very streamlined over the years to be one of the nicest, easiest to install and use Distros. It has a lot of design features that make the migration to Linux for non-users very simple.

So yes, I too must pull for Ubuntu!

Make an old laptop into a Net Book with D (hold back lake)Small Linux.

Ubuntu is a good choice, although I don't like it.

If its not a toy, look what you do and then choose

Its so easy to become a linux freak, trying one after another, just because you find new sides of it.

I started with Ubuntu. Then I bought an Acer Aspire One with 8 Gb SSD and it started my minimalist period, as Ubuntu with Firefox was... slowish.

Now I have in my profile XFCE but without Xubuntu-desktop - thats possible, too. And the browser is Kazehakase.

I juts want to browse the net, watch the videos and listen to radio write decently with spell-checking and thats about it.

So, perhaps the stripped-down Kuki Linux will do it all. I'm tired to fight with missing video codecs and unreliable WLAN. So I may soon be too old to play these adventures... I just want something which keeps on working, and does it well.

But you asked how to choose? I dont know. But start asking yourself what exactly you want to do with it, and what kind of tin can you have to run the OS.