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Linux Distributions


Eggman
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Linux Distributions  

960 members have voted

  1. 1. Which is the best and why?

    • Ubuntu Linux
      404
    • Mandriva Linux
      24
    • Fedora Core
      61
    • SUSE LINUX
      132
    • Debian GNU/Linux
      62
    • Gentoo Linux
      124
    • Slackware Linux
      43
    • Knoppix
      5
    • MEPIS Linux
      6
    • Xandros Desktop
      4
    • FreeBSD
      28
    • Other
      67


235 posts in this topic

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  • 1 month later...

Good thing "freeBSD is not linux" has been mentioned seven hundred nine forty-two thousand times...

 

Ubuntu 8.04 is amazing. It got my vote, although I plan to move onto more complex distros with time.

 

I really wanna get my OSx86 going ><

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This poll should be zeroed and started again. No way that it reflects the present situation of Linux distros.

Gentoo second? Maybe in 2005. Mandriva 2.39%? No way, it is more. Mepis 0.80%? Preposterous.

And probably Fedora and Debian fare better than a 6%.

By comparison, here is a more recent one, with more voters:

 

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/20...he-year-610201/

 

Notice that in the above poll Slackware is second and Debian third, which probably means that LinuxQuestions.org user are geekier than Linux users here.

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  • 1 month later...

People actually use Xandros? Hm. I would never pay for a Linux distro, personally.

 

My personal favorite is Ubuntu. Currently running 8.04, can't wait for 8.10! Just runs real nicely without issues.

 

I've tried others such as Mandriva One 2008 and Fedora 9. I thought Mandriva was weird with the Control Panel mixed with the System menu. Maybe I'm just used to Ubuntu. I dunno. Fedora is really nice, but it had real issues switching between KDE<>GNOME. Didn't like that.

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  • 4 weeks later...
openSUSE is the best distro for home desktop users.... ;) P E R I O D

 

Lol, that is what I used to think/say, until I tried Ubuntu. IMHO, after extensively playing around with both Suse Linux and Ubuntu, I found issues in Ubuntu easier to resolve, Ubuntu to have much more support, and Ubuntu easier to tweak and fine tune with re: things like codecs.

 

I don't claim to be any Linux expert or anything and can only speak from my experience FWIW. After monkeying around with Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, Slax(kill Bill Edition), Arch Linux, Suse Linux, and PC OS linux. Slax Kill Bill Edition was my favourite for the longest time when I came across an interesting tutorial on installing it on hard-drive. It worked flawlessly on my HP ZV5000 laptop - no incompatibilities at all and with a little tweaking and fine tuning everything worked perfectly. After the LCD screen went on that laptop and was not worth fixing, I bought two computers: a Compaq c762NR laptop and an IBM T30 Laptop. I have tested various Linux Distros on both computers, and I always find my self coming back to Ubuntu Linux - easier to tweak and fine tune, greater support, less if any unresolved dependency issues, support to issues more easily discovered, just more programs for Ubuntu overall. Suse Linux looks the prettiest of them all that much I have to say about Suse Linux, but way too......many unresolveable dependency issues when attempting to install new programs or even plain updating to the next Suse Version, LOL......time and time again......when I have tested it. LOL, it wouldn't even be so bad if the solutions proposed in the popup box when dependency issues are detected, actually worked.

 

IMHO, Linux Distros are a lot like testing OSX 86, You have to first get/find the computer with hardware that is the best supported instead of looking for a distribution and trying to force it to work with your computer hardware. Trying to force a distribution to work with your hardware when your hardware is not supported is like trying to place a square peg in a round hole - GOOD LUCK! Check to see if your laptop/hardware is actually posted as being compatible with the particular distro that you are interested in installing. If not, don't waste your time and look for a distro that fully supports your computer/hardware, plain and simple. If you don't, you won't even make it past first base.

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IMHO, Linux Distros are a lot like testing OSX 86, You have to first get/find the computer with hardware that is the best supported instead of looking for a distribution and trying to force it to work with your computer hardware. Trying to force a distribution to work with your hardware when your hardware is not supported is like trying to place a square peg in a round hole - GOOD LUCK! Check to see if your laptop/hardware is actually posted as being compatible with the particular distro that you are interested in installing. If not, don't waste your time and look for a distro that fully supports your computer/hardware, plain and simple. If you don't, you won't even make it past first base.

 

I disagree. OS X is made to work with a limited range of hardware. Linux is made to work with as much hardware as possible.

Unless you have something very unusual, Linux will have a driver for it.

The only possible exception are ATI binary drivers, which are {censored}.

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Linux is made to work with as much hardware as possible...

Unless you have something very unusual, Linux will have a driver for it.

The only possible exception are ATI binary drivers, which are {censored}.

 

Lol, not to sound confontational or anything, but If that were a fact, then there would be no reason that distros like Suse and Ubuntu would create hardware and computer compatability lists for new users to consult prior to installing Suse or Ubuntu.

http://en.opensuse.org/Hardware

http://www.ubuntux.org/linux-hardware-compatibility-list

 

If you review that information, you will see many tested laptops that are listed as not being fully compatible. Everything does not work out of the box like OSX when you install it on a incompatible computer. And in many cases there is no fix posted for that. I am in no way singeling out Suse Linux but just using it as an example. The same holds true for Ubuntu and other linux distros. The biggest PITA seems to be modems, printers, and some wireless cards (where you are lucky if the ndiswrapper method works). As far as printers, try finding an All In One Printer(latest one sold in stores) that is fully compatible with Linux. I am not talking anything ancient but the most recent printer model being sold. Modemwise, there are still some people, like my sister, who don't and cannot get access to high speed and are forced to use dialup for internet but like Linux over Windows. They pretty much have to get a compatible external serial modem(and here again not all external serial modems are fully compatible with Linux you have to know what you are looking for ahead of time) to avoid headaches.

 

Now, please don't get me wrong I am not dissing Linux, I love Linux, I believe it is the wave of the future, but it is in no way fully polished and not quite ready for prime time. It has come a very long way but has some ways to go, in lieu of the hardware incompatibility challenges posted. Of course, this will likely change in a hurry given that IBM, Hewelett Packard, and Dell are committed to open source. Lol, if you buy a Dell with preinstalled Ubuntu, you likely would not have any hardware compatiblity issues. For me, it just makes more dollars and sense to seek a Dell computer that is fully compatible with whatever flavor of Linux you decide to install rather than paying for an overpriced Dell Computer with Ubuntu pre-installed. Even with Dell, IBM, and HP jumping on the bandwagon of open source, the sad thing is that development of MS operating system drivers will always take priority over the development of open source drivers as vendors are paid large sums of money by MS to develop MS specific drivers(vista based) for new hardware, not to mention that the vendors may be bound by legal contractual agreements to MS to do so. For equivalent open source drivers for Linux, we are often forced to wait and pray that some volunteer developers take it upon themselves to develop the open source drivers.

 

Peace

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Lol, that is what I used to think/say, until I tried Ubuntu. IMHO, after extensively playing around with both Suse Linux and Ubuntu, I found issues in Ubuntu easier to resolve, Ubuntu to have much more support, and Ubuntu easier to tweak and fine tune with re: things like codecs.

 

I don't claim to be any Linux expert or anything and can only speak from my experience FWIW. After monkeying around with Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, Slax(kill Bill Edition), Arch Linux, Suse Linux, and PC OS linux. Slax Kill Bill Edition was my favourite for the longest time when I came across an interesting tutorial on installing it on hard-drive. It worked flawlessly on my HP ZV5000 laptop - no incompatibilities at all and with a little tweaking and fine tuning everything worked perfectly. After the LCD screen went on that laptop and was not worth fixing, I bought two computers: a Compaq c762NR laptop and an IBM T30 Laptop. I have tested various Linux Distros on both computers, and I always find my self coming back to Ubuntu Linux - easier to tweak and fine tune, greater support, less if any unresolved dependency issues, support to issues more easily discovered, just more programs for Ubuntu overall. Suse Linux looks the prettiest of them all that much I have to say about Suse Linux, but way too......many unresolveable dependency issues when attempting to install new programs or even plain updating to the next Suse Version, LOL......time and time again......when I have tested it. LOL, it wouldn't even be so bad if the solutions proposed in the popup box when dependency issues are detected, actually worked.

 

IMHO, Linux Distros are a lot like testing OSX 86, You have to first get/find the computer with hardware that is the best supported instead of looking for a distribution and trying to force it to work with your computer hardware. Trying to force a distribution to work with your hardware when your hardware is not supported is like trying to place a square peg in a round hole - GOOD LUCK! Check to see if your laptop/hardware is actually posted as being compatible with the particular distro that you are interested in installing. If not, don't waste your time and look for a distro that fully supports your computer/hardware, plain and simple. If you don't, you won't even make it past first base.

 

 

If you haven't tried Linux Mint yet, try it now. I hope you'll like it. It is Ubuntu with added flavor and of course prettier (than Ubuntu).

It has built-in gnome-do which is similar to OS X's Spotlight (same shortcut ;))

Mint comes with all restricted codecs/plugins, you'll get out the of kind of "everything works" environment on first boot.

 

In case of hardware, my Acer aspire 4715z's everything works OOB except wifi (which works with ndistwrapper). My PC's everything works OOB. :lol:

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The biggest PITA seems to be modems, printers, and some wireless cards (where you are lucky if the ndiswrapper method works). As far as printers, try finding an All In One Printer(latest one sold in stores) that is fully compatible with Linux.

 

Yes, most dial-up modems will have problems, I can't deny that. I have never had problems with printers, but you should be careful what you buy. I used to buy Epson, but now I bought a HP Officejet j5780 (all in one) and everything should work fine (I haven't tried every function yet). Wireless works fine by now (at least in my experience) with NDISwrapper

 

Now, please don't get me wrong I am not dissing Linux, I love Linux, I believe it is the wave of the future, but it is in no way fully polished and not quite ready for prime time. It has come a very long way but has some ways to go, in lieu of the hardware incompatibility challenges posted.

 

I have owned 6 computers since I use Linux. I have only had problems with dial-up modems (but Windows 64-bit OSes don't support them either) and with an ATI card in some distros.

 

Even with Dell, IBM, and HP jumping on the bandwagon of open source, the sad thing is that development of MS operating system drivers will always take priority over the development of open source drivers as vendors are paid large sums of money by MS to develop MS specific drivers(vista based) for new hardware, not to mention that the vendors may be bound by legal contractual agreements to MS to do so. For equivalent open source drivers for Linux, we are often forced to wait and pray that some volunteer developers take it upon themselves to develop the open source drivers.

Yes, binary drivers are mainly written for Windows, but not always. See for instance NVIDIA. Even so, I don't have many problems, as I already said.

At the end of the day, if you really want to use an OS, you buy only compatible hardware. Same with OSx86.

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Yes, they do, but they are (normally) not of high quality.

 

Yes they are now that AMD owns ATI and forced them to open the source code. The way to go with Linux is AMD/ATI now. Crossfire works perfectly where as SLI has some real issues.

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  • 1 month later...

Always been a Fedora person.

 

I like the idea of Fedora and OpenSUSE more than Ubuntu, I like the community, and I like the design. I did use Gentoo exclusively for 3 and a half years before I even bothered trying anything else though. After you use Gentoo or something like Slackware for that long, Linux is Linux for you and you really just want something easy to manage that stays out of your way. Fedora is the best in that regards for me.

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The way to go with Linux is AMD/ATI now. Crossfire works perfectly where as SLI has some real issues.

 

It will take a long time before I change my mind. Intel/NVIDIA for me. I can't wait for the Nehalems to become available and I recently bought a XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog.

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PCLinuxOS or Kubuntu i like KDE GUI ...

Yes, Kubuntu GUI is very nice, although I've switched to Ubuntu half year ago and I've noticed much stability improvement. KDE4 looks great but it's more buggy than Windows ME. KDE3 is better, but still can't beat GNOME in stability.

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I've tried Ubutnu and Fedora, mostly. While Fedora was fairly nice, I found Ubuntu to be more along my style. Toyed with installing Kubuntu instead, but KDE just doesn't have the right "feel" for me. GNOME is great, though!

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Yes they are now that AMD owns ATI and forced them to open the source code. The way to go with Linux is AMD/ATI now. Crossfire works perfectly where as SLI has some real issues.

 

This has to be the most misleading statement in this thread.

 

On recent cards the actual ATI driver is still garbage on the Linux side, open source or not.

 

And my SLI rig disagrees with your claim that it has "real issues", never has.

 

If you're an open source zealot and you're going to recommend something then recommend Intel because it's the only one that's not only open source but actually works.

 

If you're not a zealot then grab an Nvidia card and avoid the ATI headaches, at least till they manage to get their act together. Yeah, you can't modify the Nvidia driver but you also won't wish you could or be scared to run an update.

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Linux Mint all the way for me - It's based on Ubuntu, so it's got all the good things from that...

 

But it also includes essentials such as flash, support for MP3s and DVDs OOTB, and has a much classier theme.

 

I'd recommend it over Ubuntu any day for beginners (And even seasoned Linux users) because I think it gets rid of many of the complaints that they have.

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