DEFINITIVE: Which Linux Distro? (poll)


Which Linux Distro do you prefer?  

773 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Linux Distro do you prefer?

    • Slackware (or derivatives)
      33
    • Debian
      56
    • SUSE Linux (or derivatives)
      99
    • Fedora Core (or Redhat, or RHEL)
      120
    • Gentoo (or derivatives)
      86
    • Ubuntu
      273
    • Other Debian Derivative (Mepis, Kanotix, etc)
      25
    • Arch
      19
    • Linspire
      22
    • Mandriva
      40


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Hello.

I have been wanting to change over to linux for a long time now but have kinda been overwelmed by the veriaty out there. I have done some homework and I think I am going to go with Ubuntu. It looks like a pop pick also.

Well being new would you recomend it for me?

Also Befor I change over I am very much so adicted to Final Fantasy 11 and I would like to know if I would be abill to play it?

I also have a nice top of the line Notebook( clevo D900T). So hardware compatibility would be nice specs listed below.

CPU = Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with MMX (virsion 630 if you wondering)

CPU Speed = 2998 MHz

No. of CPUs = 2

Main Memory = Capacity: 1022MB :

Graphics Card = ATI MOBILITY RADEON X800

Sound Card = Realtek HD Audio rear output

Network Card = Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC

Network Card = 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless Network Adapter

Motherboard = D900T

^^

well you want to do some daul booting. windows + linux

and I would say ubuntu if you want to begin but I just recently met a noob that went straight into the tough stuff which I wouldn't recommend. So go with ubuntu or suse (if you want kde) try to leave fedora alone I think it coded kinda yucky

I voted in the poll, but this post hasn't really anything to do with it :p

I (and others i am sure) just wanted to say a big thanks to markjensen for his linux related posts. Most others you read seem to be from people who will laugh at you, call you an idiot and be deeply unhelpful to new users of linux (in any of its forms) completely driving some people away altogether. Most of markjensens post counter that altogether and to a degree inspire people to give it a try. You've done the linux world a great service. :p (Y)

^for sure I've seen him do that :yes:

Now its time for you guys to give me some advice!

I am currently downloading SUSE linux 9.3 to give it a try, but how do you guys recommend I install this?

I got two harddrives a 160gb and a 40gb, The windows xp pro installation is on Drive C: which happens to be the 160gb one. So i was wondering if its safe to install this to the same drive or should i try it out on the D: drive (40gb) And how will the dual boot work? I heard talk about Lilo and Grub but I always found it easy the way the Nt loader did it with you just selecting what to boot ! Like if you have a xp pro and xp home installation :) I hope that makes some sense!

There were only four distros of Linux I tested, which were Mandrake, Knoppix, Slackware, and Fedora. So here's my verdict on those so far:

Mandrake: This was my first distro I tested. 8.0 needed a lot of work. 8.2 was an improvement, but still needed some work. 9.0 was the first version I could use without Windows. However, Mandrake became crap when it came to installing NVidia drivers and I had enough since Mandrake 10 was released.

Knoppix: Very reliable, but I'd only use it for the times when a Windows machine fails. (STD 0.1b and 3.4)

Slackware: A bit difficult to use, but once I got the software and hardware drivers I wanted installed, it runs very smoothly. Much faster than Mandrake, for sure! (tested 9.0 and 9.1)

Fedora: Had a few problems the first time with Fedora Core 2 Test 1, but it appeared to be promising. When I got Fedora Core 3 DVD for my laptop, I had to do some tinkering with the Framebuffer settings before installation, but after the tinkering, the rest was a piece of cake. Performance is all right and oh, I couldn't believe how much hardware it supports! It's easier to use than Slackware and I seem to find it a bit better than Slackware 9.1. Still, I'd have to test the latest version of Slackware (10.1) before I can make a final conclusion. But for now, my vote goes for Fedora.

I (and others i am sure) just wanted to say a big thanks to markjensen for his linux related posts.

585984798[/snapback]

There are a LOT of helpful members here. Each with different experience areas/levels and with different styles of assisting. Some will 'click' with the way you learn, and other styles not-so-much. Either way, if I were the only source of *nix knowledge, everyone else here would be in a world of hurt! :rofl:

But, thanks for the compliment, anyway. :)

P.S. Which was the PayPal account that I was supposed to transfer the agreed-upon amount into? :ninja:

Simply Slackware. Having tried loads of other distros, I always come back to Slack.

It's the original and the best :D .

divineSW.gif

586016367[/snapback]

Have you tried arch linux?

I used slackware before I found about arch linux.

Archlinux is a i686 distro (also ports for i586 and x86_64)

It is similar to slackware but there is a package manager and all the packages are optimized it is sweet you gotta to try it one day. It takes a bit more configuring than slackware but it da bomb

Mandrake: This was my first distro I tested.  8.0 needed a lot of work.  8.2 was an improvement, but still needed some work.  9.0 was the first version I could use without Windows.  However, Mandrake became crap when it came to installing NVidia drivers and I had enough since Mandrake 10 was released.

585986002[/snapback]

Hmmm.. I've used most of the "easier to install" distros and I must say that Mandrake has come a long way since your experience. I love 10.1 Official, and now Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition (LE) rocks. Drivers galore, fantastic hardware recognition, great speed, and ease of use!

I should also say that there are others that ROCK! Fedora is good (except Up2date), but SuSE 9.2 Pro, Kanotix, Libranet, and Xandros are all worth a look. Ubuntu is also a rave fav these days!

Barney

Have you tried arch linux?

I used slackware before I found about arch linux.

Archlinux is a i686 distro (also ports for i586 and x86_64)

It is similar to slackware but there is a package manager and all the packages are optimized it is sweet you gotta to try it one day. It takes a bit more configuring than slackware but it da bomb

586021454[/snapback]

I did try Arch Linux a good while ago, but didn't really play around with it much. It's most certainly changed a lot since I tried it, so I might give it a go when I get a moment.

At the moment I'm experimenting with Slapt-Get (supposedly APT for Slack), but I'm not exactly bowled over with it. It's useful that I can get a lot of the software I use through Dropline Gnome which is one of the advantages of Slack :D .

I've installed Arch yesterday and I love it so far. Seeing as I'm a complete noob in Linux without a GUI I'm pretty impressed how easy pacman is and how good it works.

"pacman -S nvidia" ftw! :D

586022838[/snapback]

yeah other arch converter

I did try Arch Linux a good while ago, but didn't really play around with it much. It's most certainly changed a lot since I tried it, so I might give it a go when I get a moment.

At the moment I'm experimenting with Slapt-Get (supposedly APT for Slack), but I'm not exactly bowled over with it. It's useful that I can get a lot of the software I use through Dropline Gnome which is one of the advantages of Slack :D .

586026097[/snapback]

It seems like everything you looking for is in archlinux. I installed slackware to see how it would do for a server was using slack foomatic didn't work so I said **** slack. I installed slpat-get and imo pacman ( archlinux package manger worked better). Just give it a try. It looks for dependency to. So if package foo requires package foo2 it would download both providing you say yes but there an option not to download dependencies

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