best linux distribution

I have to recomend http://vectorlinux.com/
as the best 'distro' in my opinion for home use.

Not as well known, but really well thought out
tweeks and more have been made to a slackware base.

Quote: VL 4 Download Edition - OSNews

"Basically everything the average user would need is catered for with a great quality specific application. There is no application redundancy - and although some users may prefer more of a choice, I like the fact that there is one great application assigned to a particular task, rather than a whole load of not so good apps."

"Vector's speed has been very impressive, the system boots in about 20 seconds, and X starts up in less than 5 (it was slightly faster before installing the nvidia drivers as I haven't disabled the splash screen) and applications take next to no time to start (abiword takes about a second). The speed reminds me of the responsiveness of BeOS, which is never a bad thing."

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5009&page=1

This question always seems to come up and always grabs a whole bunch of attention. Let me clarify this to you and all -if it hasn't been said already.

** There is no best operating system.

Its all about preferences and opinions. There are so many very well done distros that are very different and the only way to find that sweet spot is to try a whole gang of them.


SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora, Yoper, Knoppix, Gnoppix, The BSDs, Debian, Gentoo, Connectiva, SOT Linux, LuteLinux, Slackware, Stampede, TurboLinux, VectorLinux, Lycoris, Xandros, Linspire, Mepis and the list goes on !!!

If you go to libranet.com , they'll let you download ISO's which you then burn to CD-R disk. The Distribution is based on Debian,and they have some really nice people on their forums.There's no time limit or number of computers you can put libranet on, as long as it's not for commercial use.Even then, it is cheap.I think they're letting everyone use the program free because they're due to release another version.

If you have a burner, this is worth a try.

Mine is Mandrake-Linux.
I find Mandrake's ability to detect and configure hardware very good. Since version 7.2. Though in my country (India) most haven't even heard of it.
If you are willing to pay you could also try Xandros which makes it easy for Windows users. Though I've had some trouble with it detecting hardware. I use the free version on one of my machines.
I am also told that Mepis is another one to try for new users of GNU/Linux

Check this one out, also check forums!

http://libranet.com/roadmap/

Hi
I would reccomend Fedora Core 3! Seems much cleaner then core 2, and in my opinion it is the best linux distribution going right now!

Want something good to play with and robust. Use Redhat 9.0. It comes with everything you need and is easy to install. I like it alot. Have had no problems with it.

Xandros is an excellent Linux Distribution, it can automatically partition or resize your existing partitions without asking you anything more than:

1 Use an existing free partition
2 Delete windows & use that partition
3 resize windows partition & use the remaining free space (first you must scandisk & Defrag in windows) if you want a fast Xandros installation.

It can manage FAT, VFAT, VFAT32 or NTFS partitions.

It installs from a graphic interfase, detects hardware automatically (even everytime you reboot), it does a basic installation or an expert mode one (both are really easy), it's debian based (one of the finest Linux Dists), includes KDE, Opera, Open Office, etc.

Try it, you will love it.

This is not necessarily a clear-cut choice - I chose Sun because of their commitment to a form of Linux, and Mandrake because it liked my hardware. If you are a Gatesey MS WIN user, you may have problems with the boot sector after having partitioned with Partition Magic, as your drive has extra info written to the MBR which blocks a Linux distro from booting ... A Linux partition after Windows is recommended, but that may defeat the whole object of going MS-free .. Better put Linux ( not SUSE: Novell is charging ! ), on a completely virgin workstation, and network-link to your Gates box, using a router to manage firewalling - Debian won't work with PM either. So it depends on what you're already precommitted to. A friend advizes Linspire but despite Torvalds' reservations, I think Sun will have to put some more money where the rest is already - which means drivers for hardware support. If the distro likes your hardware, be thankful, and run with what works - and is free - or at the very least, more thoroughly supported than other contenders.

You might want to give VidaLinux a try. I love Gentoo but am reluctant to recommend it to the newbie unless they want to start a whole new learning adventure. VidaLinux seems to solve this problem while still giving you a Gentoo based distro. Gentoo's package manager (portage) is one of the best out there.

You can read a review of VidaLinux here:

http://madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=3321

...because there is no single best Linux distro, even when you restrict your search to those distros targeting newbies coming over from Windows (in which I include myself). I want to install Linux on a Dell C610 notebook in dual-boot mode with WinXP Pro (sorry, I have some critical Win-only software I need to run and I don't like/trust emulators). I need wireless networking (luckily I have an old Orinoco card with the Prism chipset, so most distros can work with it).

I've downloaded and installed a BUNCH of Linux distros over the last 3 weeks: Fedora Cores 3 and 4 (4 currently installed), Yoper, Vector, Ubuntu, ELX, Cobind, Symphony, Knoppix, Gentoo, Mandrake 9.1, Puppy, Suse 9.1, and many more. A few distros had some really cool features that set them apart from the others but failed miserably in other regards. An excellent example is Vector Linux Soho 2005. This thing is FAST and looks great, but its configuration menus are terrible and are a throwback to 1979's idea of a UI. On the other hand, Yoper has an excellent configuration utility that looks like MacOSX's System Preferences app but it prefers nVidia over my ATI video and I'd see strange screen artifacts when I'd move icons or such on the screen.

It'd be interesting to see how possible it would be to grab the best features of these different distros and combine them into a high-performance, strong-featured Blend Linux distro. I might try pulling, say, Yoper's Config into Fedora, then recompile Fedora's kernel as an optimized i686. Better yet would be for Vector to completely redesign their control panel and fix their ATI driver - then I'd switch back!

Ubuntu is a great distro. Ubuntulinux.com =O They will ship it for free. (Completly free =O No shipping charges or anything.)

Hi,

I was a windows user. Now I use SuSE 10. Installing SuSe is so simple, it detects any partitions on your hard drive and you can choose to install it on a partition other than the one containing windows, so you can keep both. Even if you don't have a parition on your PC, it shrinks your windows partition and you don't lose anything.
It has almost all the necessary softwares required like OpenOffice, FireFox browser, adobe reader, Gaim Instant messenger (supports, msn, yahoo, aol, icq, irc, jabber blah balh). You won't have to install anything, even if you install something its so simple, YaST does everything for you.
Configuring LAN might be a bit complicated but as you have to do it only once, so not a big problem.
I suggest using GNOME with SuSE, but KDE is equally good. UBUNTU Linux is also similar to SuSE, you can get a free ubuntu CD from www.ubuntu.com, but as I started with SuSE and now I am through it, so I will recommend SuSE.

Good Luck
Asad.

Having tried numerous (out of uncontrollable curiosity) Linux distros, the following remain my favorites:
1. Puppy "multisession"
2. Ubuntu
3. Xandros
Most others (including Distrowatch's "top of the pops")have had various problems in my hardware systems.
Cheers
Septus

Debian is good because it is literally free. But Mandriva 10.2 would be next choice or Mandriva 2006.
Red Hat and mandriva would be better since it's a paid version, with windows ease. But if you want what linux is about it's Debian or something like it.Oh and use Gnome as a desktop

Again my $.02

Hi I have been using linux for several years now.
My kids PC has XandrOS on it, and they don't have any trouble at all.

I like to use Puppy Linux to cruise the net with, it's fast and light. Puppy runs good on older hardware or new hardware. This distro will boot from a CD, hard drive, or a jump drive. The small download (66mb) makes it easy to get.

A good place to look at new distro's is at:

www.distrowatch.com

I hope this helps.

I have found "PClinuxOS" to be the one for me. I have been using it for about two months now. It is very easy for someone like me who is new to linux. It comes as a live cd that you can install on the HD which I did. There is a "New user guide" and a forum for help. The people on the forum are very helpful and friendly. So head over to Google and type in "PClinuxOS" and have a look.

Hey man,

Ubuntu Linux (www.ubuntu.com) is hands down the best distro for newbies, IMO.

I've been a user for a little over a year and a half. I consider myself and intermediate to experienced Linux user and I learned everything I know under Ubuntu.

I bought a openSUSE 11.0 install DVD Disc from OSDisk for around $5 and loaded it into my PC yesterday the setup was fairly quick and simple with the program asking what you want to setup on your computer. I really never saw an answer to my question nor could I find anyone with Linux experience locally so I used my old PC that had practically quit working on me using windows xp but with Linux it was working great. I did not take the time to setup everything that I had on it with windows but it seemed to be running like it did when I first got it built about 3 years ago,it had been acting like the motherboard was going out so I had another Tower built for me and after downloading all programs it started acting poorly as it did not utilize all the memory that I had installed in it. I can hardly wait to get Linux loaded into my newer PC Tower with it able to use all the memory installed. I tried loading Slackware and another that was a combination of 3 different versions called Mandriva and neither would even start the install, openSUSE began to load as soon as I put the DVD in the drive. The company I got this from is OSDisc.com , Good luck and have fun running linux. Gary M.