A Neowin Guide to Linux Distributions

[sengork]

Niceli done Keldyn !

:)

[EnCrYpTeD]

Well I must say, I have been using *nix for a long time, and I like Gentoo, Im on RH 8 box now cause Im lazy :p

Great article though Keldyn !

[Zippo]

eh... dont forget FreeBSD :D

Http://www.freebsd.org

[EnCrYpTeD]

Yeah forget the BSD's Open, Free, and Net BSD, also completely free and easy to install, tons of ports and good stability :)

[EnCrYpTeD]

well,

a much nicer gui + blue curve.

and very very nice font rendering.

True that, I ain't seen better font rendering in even Windows without a little bit of tweaking... hell it even renders fonts better out of the box than Windows with Windows own fonts :laugh:

[[idkfa]]

Caldera Openlinux

http://www.calderasystems.com

Developed by Caldera Systems, OpenLinux is marked as being easy to install, with a business focus. It goes a long way to bringing ease of use and user friendly functionality to Linux. It is strongly orientated, therefore, toward the non ? technical user. Included in the distribution is the simple installation tool ?Lizard?. This graphical interface is very user friendly and the installation can be started from within the Windows environment. Hardware installation, for the most part is automatic with good detection of most peripherals.

for some reason i think you can remove caldera from the list :shi:whistle:istle:

[Keldyn]

Thanks Evil. If you have any other distros you feel can be added to the list submit their details to this thread please.

[Argonaut]

mini distros like knoppix, and demolinux boot straight from cd, they are great for having a taste of what is like without needing to have a spare machine, partitioning, or geting a new HD. they are also fantastic recovery tools!

[[idkfa]]

good idea Argonaut

Linux Live Systems (Knoppix, Gentoo LiveCD, ...)

http://www.knoppix.net , http://www.gentoo.org

This kind of distro will completely run from CD, so you don't need to install it and maybe waste your partitions or something. It's a great way to see linux running on your system. There are many different distros, each with different goals. If you just want to "see linux in action", i'd suggest you go for a full-featured distro like Knoppix.

Many people also use these distros for recovering data from PCs or repairing their Linux/Windows installation.

Here's a big list of these CD-based distros: http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd

There are even complete games on Linux live-CDs for free: http://www.gentoogames.com/

[Keldyn]

Thanks Argonaut and Evil2000. I have added your contributions.

[xmr]

SmoothWall Linux

http://www.smoothwall.org

A very lightweight and easy to install linux distro aimed soley for router boxes. It's only a small download (~20megs) and yet can be configured as a DHCP server, transparent cache, dialup server (automatically dialup when any PC on the network requests a net connection), broadband server (supports many ADSL modems and ISDN), has a firewall and is easy to configue after the initial install via SSH or it's web interface. Definately recommended for serving a net connection for a LAN. :cool:

[dewy]

Hey DO U Wan't Me To Like Compile This Into A PDF once a month or so on and we can redistribute it

[xplatinum]

Hey DO U Wan't Me To Like Compile This Into A PDF once a month or so on and we can redistribute it

What for ? :huh: Most people don't even have Acrobat installed...

I suggest you make a nice html page with all the info and then link the addy to a .tk (ie:linuxdistros.tk)

[archish]

There is a linux based on Knoppix customized for Indian Uses:

http://www.linuxforu.com/LiFY.htm

[Tek]

If you're doing Live distributions as well, don't forget SuSE's Live Distro.

http://www.suse.de/en/

[rezza Veteran]

I'd add a link to http://www.linuxquestions.org in there, too - an absolutely fantastic board, not just for newbs, but also for more experienced *nixers too...

[dewy]

What for ? :huh: Most people don't even have Acrobat installed...

I suggest you make a nice html page with all the info and then link the addy to a .tk (ie:linuxdistros.tk)

i shall do that i have a bit of spare web space and bw

[dewy]

i have made this into a page and will update with pic soon and weekly update from this thread if any changes

Click link in my SIG

[CaKeY]

Nice job Dewy! Thank you!

[dewy]

can people pls addthe link to there sigs so we can help all us neowinians and promote the list i will do more work (eyecandy)but not a lot of pic when i have a tab more time

[Danrarbc]

Might want to tweak the RedHat and Mandrake descriptions.

They're up to 9 and 9.1 respectively, with Mandrake hitting 9.2 in a week.

Not a big deal, just a nitpick ;)

[dewy]

k i will when 9,2 is out and i will do sum other stuff 2

[Sav]

You can also go to Distrowatch.com and add a few distro from there, and to match the distro Smoothwall you can add Clarkconnect (http://www.clarkconnect.org).

[dewy]

ok

[Keldyn]

dewy: It would have been nice had you contacted me before "publishing" my guide on your personal webspace. I am flattered that you found it to your tastes but I do not appreciate you claiming part-authorship of my work. I have noted in the below passage that you have removed Configures name and replaced it with your own email address.

If you would like to contribute to the cause either post in this thread on Neowin in which this was started or e-mail either myself ([email protected]) or Keldyn on the Neowin.net forums via PM.

This was a guide I put together for neowin members to aid them in getting started with Linux. You were not involved in its creation and I would very much appreciate it if my guide remains exclusive to neowin unless permission is otherwise given.

Thankyou.