What linux version to pick

chara33 · 05-15-2009, 10:46 PM

Hi, I really haven't used linux since my Red Hat days and that has been a while. With so many different flavors of it, I wanted to get some feedback on what you guys thing is the easiest to learn/ use for everyday use? I most likely use it on my XP / Vista / Win7 PC so it will be the last OS installed. Will this cause issues for me upon bootup?

Thoughts on which one to use?

thx

Mak213 · 05-15-2009, 10:52 PM

Easiest to Learn? Ubuntu. It is catered almost toward the Windows people now that it is almost a seemless transition from Windows to Linux with that distro now.

Everyday use?

PC-BSD. while it doesnt like my hardware, it is very good.

As for the boot isuue, if you go with Ubuntu you can easily repair the BCD loader to get back the Windows loader then use EasyBCD to add ubuntu to the list. Or you can just leave GRUB on.

PC-BSD's loader is ancient and stinks....i had issues with that myself and was forced to reinstall Vista/Win7. So you might want to steer clear of that till they fix the loader.

oldskool · 05-16-2009, 12:23 AM

Also, PC-BSD is Unix-based, but is not Linux.

chara33 · 05-16-2009, 12:32 PM

More opinions are welcomed. Thx Mak. As always, much appreciated.

kmote · 05-16-2009, 01:01 PM

Ubuntu and opensuse are both good. Great thing about linux and other free OSs is that if you don't like it you can easily get rid and try another

oldskool · 05-18-2009, 05:13 AM

I have tried Ubuntu, Fedora, Puppy.

Ubuntu is the most friendly to Windows users trying Linux out for the first time.

Fedora is a bit more technical, not so user-friendly to first time Linux users but a really good OS as well.

Puppy is one I like because it runs on relatively low system requirements, so for older machines it does very well where other distros wouldn't.

Other very popular ones are Knoppix and Mint. But my suggestion would be Ubuntu until you get more familiar with Linux, then you can branch out to some other distros (distributions) that may or may not have already been mentioned. Good luck !

Jayce · 05-18-2009, 08:07 AM

I like Ubuntu and will always stick with Ubuntu because of its popularity. That grants me a higher chance of technical support on the forums if I run into an issue. It's still linux at the core, like other distros, but I just like the way debian distributions are set up - and considering Ubuntu is debian based, and has a huge forum... why go elsewhere?

I've tried so many distros, easily 15 different versions. I came back to Ubuntu.