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Making the switch-02: Which Linux distro to choose?

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zridling:
Part 2 brings me to which distribution, or distro, to choose, where you'll install it, and with which desktop environment (shell). Fortunately, there's lots of help here online, perhaps the two best places to start are:

(1) DistroWatch Top Ten
(2) PolishLinux.org
(3) LinuxQuestions.org Distro Reviews

First, consider for what and how you will use GNU/Linux, as a:

* Primary system for all your major tasks, mainly productivity or programming;

* Secondary system for background tasks, such DVD burning, Usenet, BitTorrent, running a server, domain, etc.;

* Server, for your home network, a domain, or whatever;

* Test system, e.g., to learn GNU/Linux.
How you will use GNU/Linux will affect which distro you select. If you're wanting easy setup and non-open drivers, that's one consideration (often Ubuntu or Freespire). If you want a quick OS with a small installation footprint, that's another, as there are lots of "small" Linux distros available, such as MEPIS. You might also want to select a distro based on your work — graphics or video editing; programming (Ubuntu makes it easy to install codecs; other distros let you download and install them yourself). Or how much time you have to spend learning it, or how you might use it, e.g., as a server for your domain. Some think you should consider how many software packages are available for a given distro. For example, Ubuntu lists over 24,000 apps whereas Fedora 7 about 11,000. However, I can get any app I want via download or by searching inside the package manager. And don't be fooled: app lists are like binary newsgroups — most apps aren't worth downloading.

For now, my setup is as a test system, which was a five-year-old Pentium system. I upgraded the videocard and bought a cheap flatscreen monitor for it. The old videocard was too limited and my old monitor was a 15-year-old, 50-kilo dinosaur.

PolishLinux.org offers a brief survey that will return an interesting, perhaps unexpected result at http://polishlinux.org/choose/quiz/. After answering it, the survey said my best choices were: (1) Mandriva; (2) Ubuntu; (3) OpenSUSE; (4) Fedora 7; and (5) Debian GNU/Linux. Only two of those did I really care for, Fedora 7 and Ubuntu. And where the heck is PCLinuxOS? LinuxQuestions.org's Distro Reviews section allows users to write brief, forum post reviews of the distros they like. This is nice because much like product reviews on NewEgg.com, you get a wide sample of views, positive and negative by people who've used each.

If you just want to try GNU/Linux and see a distro in action, most offer Live CDs, meaning you can download and burn the ISO image as a boot disk and evaluate the distro using only the LiveCD (or DVD) version, leaving your Windows partition untouched. For this, I recommend either PCLinuxOS, Fedora7, or Ubuntu. Booting from the Live CD takes a little longer for everything to load, but it's worth a look.

A second consideration is where you're going to install your distro. For example, for years I've dual-booted a GNU/Linux distro on my Windows system; I didn't have a second computer since I'd always donated them. Now I do and it's much nicer to set aside an old computer to destroy and rebuild at will when learning. Better, I can install — even dual-boot — any distro I want at will on a second system since Windows has the occasional habit of erasing Linux's boot loader, called GRUB file, i.e., Windows will always want to boot first on a dual-boot system. The other advantage to having GNU/Linux on a second system is that I can use the first to troubleshoot it online if I completely screw something up, and being a newbie, that's already happened a few times.

The final consideration is one of desktop environment, often between Gnome and KDE. Both have been around almost as long as Windows95, but the oversimplification is that Gnome is more like Mac and that KDE is more like Windows. Yes and no. Gnome will be very familiar to Windows users, but it's different in a few ways. But don't let that fool you. Anything you don't like, you can change. And I mean anything. Most distros by default use Gnome, but you can choose to install KDE on them either during or after install. PCLinuxOS uses KDE as its default desktop environment and they make it look good. But don't commit to one over the other, since being new to GNU/Linux, you'll need a wide open mind.

[attach dilbert.2007-01-25.gif][/attach]
________________________________________________
Part-01: My journey from Windows to Linux
Part-02: Which Linux distro to choose?
Part-03: First impressions and first problems after installation
Part-04: The "User Guide" as life raft, more n00b problems
Part-05: Ten Great Ideas of GNU/Linux
Part-06: Software Management is not that different

Gothi[c]:
If you're wanting easy setup and non-open drivers, that's one consideration (often Ubuntu or Freespire).

--- End quote ---

... or for those, like me, who want to use an 100% free(as in freedom) and open distro, (i doubt that there will be many) there is only a handful of distro's to pick from. One of which is Blag ( http://www.blagblagblag.org ), which is surprisingly user friendly, and in my experience comes close to ubuntu as being easy to install etc,...

Darwin:
Thanks for another thought provoking post, Zaine. I'm with ubuntu at the moment because I'm still using WUBI under XP Pro and learning the ropes. However, when I return from my sojourn in Belgium next month I intend to turn my 7 year old Win2k notebook into a dedicated Linux machine. I have two harddrive caddies for it and will leave the 40GB Win2k install as it is and put a different 40 GB drive in to load Linux onto. I've been flirting with doing this for at least 6 years but have never been so motivated as I am now. This has less to do with being fecked off with M$ and more to do with how polished the new Linux distros have become. It seems like a viable alternative now whereas even two years ago I *felt* (right or wrong) that dedicating a machine to a Linux distro or two would be a waste of time...

Gothi[c]:
!
Darwin, me and Della be in belgium too next month.
We should have a dc get-togeather :) I'll install and setup linux for you if you want ;)

Darwin:
Cool! I'll be close to the city of Namur, at a cave site called Scladina. Maybe we should try and arrange something for any European DC'ers that can and wish to meet up?

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