What flavor of Linux?
- Thread starter bkribbs
- Start date
Ubuntu will give you the closest experience to Mac OS X - supported for up to 3 years. (They just released a long-term support version.)
Linux Mint is Ubuntu (completely compatible) with some added refinement. It gets very good reviews. I've not tried it yet though.
Opensuse is quite nice. I don't remember how long each release is supported for, but it's a decent amount of time.
Mandriva is okay, but I haven't spent much time with it.
Fedora is good, but often things don't work right. (They use all the newest stuff, which sometimes is good and sometimes is not.) Each release is only supported for one year. (I actually like Fedora a lot, but it's not the best for new users yet.)
I would recommend those in that order. There are many others, but these are easy to use and are all popular enough that finding help should not be too difficult.
Linux Mint is Ubuntu (completely compatible) with some added refinement. It gets very good reviews. I've not tried it yet though.
Opensuse is quite nice. I don't remember how long each release is supported for, but it's a decent amount of time.
Mandriva is okay, but I haven't spent much time with it.
Fedora is good, but often things don't work right. (They use all the newest stuff, which sometimes is good and sometimes is not.) Each release is only supported for one year. (I actually like Fedora a lot, but it's not the best for new users yet.)
I would recommend those in that order. There are many others, but these are easy to use and are all popular enough that finding help should not be too difficult.
xzimppledink
Member
I like Ubuntu but am more familiar with the desktop look of SuSE. I"m dual booting SuSE 11.1 with windows XP now and have ordered the SuSE 11.2 disk. it's suppose to have a lot if improvements. the two more difficult parts of changing to linux is installing new programs and connecting wireless to broadband, wired broadband connects automatically. A commercially burned disk will include all the software you will probably need as free add on's. You will receive free open office, evolution e mail handler, draw, video, and photo manipulation software plus about 1000 other open source programs to choose from.
jarlmaster47
New Member
what about kubuntu or shark? I like both of those. in fact kubuntu is probably my fav linux flavor
Kubuntu is probably alright now (they had some issues in the past). If I were to use KDE, I would probably use Opensuse over Kubuntu as I found Opensuse to be very polished. However, for me, KDE uses too many resources to run well on any of our machines (granted they are all old).
Most of the things Canonical adds to Ubuntu are only available from GTK based environments (Gnome, Xfce, Lxde) and not QT based environments (KDE). So you lose a lot of Ubuntu's customizations if you don't use a GTK based desktop environment. That said, I don't use most of Ubuntu's customizations anyway.
Most of the things Canonical adds to Ubuntu are only available from GTK based environments (Gnome, Xfce, Lxde) and not QT based environments (KDE). So you lose a lot of Ubuntu's customizations if you don't use a GTK based desktop environment. That said, I don't use most of Ubuntu's customizations anyway.
I prefer to stick with Ubuntu, but then again, I'm not one of the flavor-of-the-day people with 50 Live CDs.
If you only get 1000, you're doing it wrong
Unless for some reason the disc they send is it's own Repository?
If you only get 1000, you're doing it wrong
Unless for some reason the disc they send is it's own Repository?
tlarkin
VIP Member
Ubuntu is very light weight and out of the box has very little installed. So, if you don't mind installing tons of packages after you load the OS then it may be for you. However, Ubuntu also has several already compiled distros of Ubuntu + tons of packages. I can't think of all the ones off the top of my head but they would be maybe a better start.
Unless you are a do it yourself kind of person, which I kind of am, but at the same time I can really appreciate everything just working and everything I want with out third party.
Unless you are a do it yourself kind of person, which I kind of am, but at the same time I can really appreciate everything just working and everything I want with out third party.