Being new to the Linux world, I would suggest *buntu or Mandriva. I use Mandriva on several computers at home, and have for many years. I have looked at other distros and found no reason to switch. It just works for me. Ubuntu is popular because it's the one the media has picked up as the poster child for Linux. It is not a bad distro, don't get me wrong. It has a great user base, and lots of community support. Mandriva has great support too. Most distros have a Live-CD version you can boot to and try out without installing anything. Do a few of those. It really comes to personal preference. If you have a big hard drive, install several to try out with dual booting.
Welcome to the LUG, and good luck. Let us know what you end up using and why. Jeremiah E. Bess Network Ninja, Penguin Geek, Father of four On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 07:32, dr. Hannibal Lecter <[email protected]>wrote: > > Hi all! > > I'd like to tell you something about my current situation and why I > decided to post this question here. > > I'm a software developer, and my primary OS is WindowsXP. I'm getting > a notebook now, and being an open source supporter/fan, I've decided > to make my primary OS linux. I'm relatively new to linux, I've > experimented with it several times in the past, but I would call > myself experienced in any way. Basically, I know my way around, I know > how to run ./configure and make, but if those two fail, I normally > just go to the corner of the room and cry all night. :) > > Another problem is the fact that I'm going to share that notebook with > my wife and sister, which are "technologically challenged" as far as > linux is concerned. That's how I came to this point of asking myself > which distro is "appropriate" for all of us. > > I went through the "linux distribution chooser" on www.zegeniestudios.net, > and unsurprisingly I got the following results: > > 1. openSUSE > 2. Kubuntu > 3. Ubuntu > 4. Linux Mint > 5. Mandriva > > I've used openSUSE and Mandrake in the past, tried Ubuntu in vmware. > Kubuntu is out of the question because I don't want to limit myself to > KDE (reminds me of windows..and that's just not it!). Until now, I've > never heard of Mint. > > So in the end, which distribution would you suggest? What are your > opinions on the distros above? > > I want something that has a future (openSUSE is backed by Novell, so > that's one point pro-SUSE), and updated regularly. Also, the distro > should be easily configurable/maintainable, but not too limited either > ("for the utter noobs"), I would like to develop in it (mostly PHP) > and learn the advanced stuff on the way. > > I'm assuming there are some differences regarding media codecs/ > players, so if you know which one does the best job with audio/video, > that would certainly have some weight. > > I apologise for the long post, I thought I should be precise in this > matter to get good answers :-) > > Cheers and thanks in advance! > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
