If you are a developer then you will likely want the most complete environment and the one that has the most users which means Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Either of these has a future. Increasingly we see that if packages are offered by independent sites that Ubuntu is the only one. It used to be Fedora or Debian.
The difference is largely one of personal preference. Ubuntu uses GNOME which is favored by Red Hat distributions and Debian. KDE4 is the newest and is going to be more cross-platform. You can already install it in Windows and a Mac version is due. KDE is the more configurable. GNOME uses GTK and KDE uses QT4, so if you programme in either of these that could be a determining factor, although you can run any combination. Also GNOME supports Mono OTB and KDE does not, although you can still install it and run Mono. My personal preference leans toward KDE simply because it has been through its changes and can only get better, while GNOME is due for an overhaul and it will be a bit of a roller coaster ride as it transitions from old to new (which is what has happened to KDE in the past year). If I was to look outside of the Debian stable then I would look to Fedora first and SUSE second. Fedora is the first choice because it is based on Red Hat which is the enterprise distro of choice. SUSE is second because it has fewer users. The fact that Novell "cooperated" with M$ is not an advantage because it has ticked off many Linux users and has produced few results. Red Hat has just signed a similar agreement but without the controversial clauses, so it looks like Novell rolled over for no apparent reason, but weakness. All three choices, Ubuntu/Kubuntu, Fedora, and SUSE, have strong community support. You really can't go wrong and we are lucky to have so much choice. On 20/02/2009, 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! > > > > -- Linux: Fast, friendly, flexible and ... free! Support open Source <,*)}}+< Only dead fish go with the flow. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
