I've had Ubuntu and Fedora on two of my machines for a good 5 months now. Personally, I've become a huge, huge fan of Linux and I don't see myself switching back to Windows or crossing over to the dark side of Mac anytime soon (aside from government computers, of course).

Well, I just picked up Mandriva and it runs even smoother than the other distributions that I have. My mediocre Dell Insprion 6000 now operates like an XPS or Alienware computer, in terms of speed. After a few hours playing around on the terminal, I managed to install Fruity Loops 7 XXL Producer Edition as well as the racing game GRID. Everything runs smoothly.

Still, I can't seem to figure out which Linux distro is the best. Each one I've acquired has been better than the one before. For the Linux users, what distros are you running on your machines? What do you personally recommend?

edit: KDE is growing on me. I'm still partial to Gnome, but KDE 4.1 looks clean.

At work (I'm an assistant systems administrator) we use OpenSUSE. I can unequivocally say that it sucks, and I don't recommend using it. Configuration is a pain in the ass, and the package management is terrible and slow.

At home, I use Gentoo. It's nice and I like the package management, plus I know what's installed and running on my machine at all times, because I put it there. The only downside is that installing something like X Windows or KDE or GNOME can take upwards of 1/2 a day.

In our apartment, we also have a couple machines running FreeBSD, which is really nice, too. Plus it doesn't have all the annoying political crap that comes with using Linux.

Actually, to be honest, most of the time at home, I use a Mac. Why? It's got all the cool Unix-y things I like about Linux, without all of the pain in the ass stuff. I maintain a Linux network all day, and I usually don't want to keep doing that when I come home at night.

On my old computer I had Mandriva. My new one doesn't have any form of Linux yet, but I'm planning on getting it today.

Mandriva is the most user-friendly distro I've tried.


Also, help on facepunch.

I've heard really good things about Gentoo-based distributions because it allows for a more intricate customization for the subjected machine. I just don't have the time, internet connection or space in my hut for another machine to jump into it. However, I am strongly considering building and selling Linux-based machines once I return to the states.



The discussion in that thread confirmed a lot of what I've been hearing about a few different distros. I'm still going to continue to do some research.

Mandriva works extremely well. It's easy to use, much like Ubuntu, and KDE 4.1 runs bug-free with Mandriva vice Kubuntu. What I personally like about Ubuntu and it's derivatives is that the community support is absolutely amazing. Time difference and all; I am able to go to the site and get answers, damn near immediately.

With Mandriva, it wasn't that simple. I just purchased an HP Pavilion dv2913cl and 1) it's a 64 bit processor and 2) the nvidia graphics card isn't recognized with Mandriva One. Luckily, I'd read about a few bugs to be fixed with Mandriva, and after some kernel manipulation, and a driver change, I was good to go. Although, I'm not sure it will be so simple for the poor chap who knows completely dick about the OS.

Whatever the case, I'd still recommend Ubuntu, especially if you lean toward the Gnome desktop environment. For KDE, Mandriva seems like the way to go.

***UPDATE***

I'm currently still sold on Ubuntu as the best Linux OS for PC usage. It's easily customizable, the package manager is excellent, the compatibility with new machines is the best I've run into, it boots quickly and the install is damn near painless.

I've done some playing around with Fedora 9, and I must say that it is an extremely clean and smooth operating system, however, despite the user friendly interface, installing/uninstalling programs and drivers can certainly be a pain in the ass.

Mandriva 2009 (PowerPack) has given me a similar headache, but my main gripe with that particular OS is it's package manager; horrendous.

I sat in the back of a humvee and played around on a friend's computer that was running off of Debian. For you code junkies, you can definitely get your fix. I haven't worked my way around to Gentoo, but what I've noticed about Debian is that you'll spend a considerable amount of time in the terminal to get virtually anything done. That's a good and a bad thing, depending on the user.

Kubuntu just does not offer the support of Ubuntu and, as I said before, the KDE desktop on Kubuntu seems a bit awkward. I'm partial to the Gnome environment because I do like the Mac-like interface. As far as community support goes, the Kubuntu help forums are almost as lifeless as my own personal internet forum; that's certainly not a good thing.

And as for Linpus, well, let's not go there. I'll just write that off as a learning experience for Fedora.

This is just my feedback from personal experience. Depending on what your focus of computer usage is, your experiences with these different distros will vary. Still, I'll stick with Ubuntu and call it a day. Eventually, once my proficiency in this arena increases, I'll step up to the plate and challenge Gentoo.

You shouldn't have any trouble connecting to networks from Linux.

Yeah. Some details might be different, but overall it's the same.

P.S. Ubuntu is a Debian-based distro.

^So I found an Debian/Ubuntu based distribution that I just like, without being able to explain why just yet; Linux Mint 5.

I also messed around with Elive a little. Eh, it's alright. It looks purdy, though.

tiddly-winks. (I just had to do that)

I am a huge Suse fan. They seem to have a lot of support out of the box. Lately I haven't been using Linux due to being on a Mac. Linux will always hold a special spot to me, with customization alone. I remember spending hours just customizing how my Linux box looked.

Distros I've tried are:
Xandros
Linspire (Lindows)
Ubuntu
Kubuntu
Damn Small Linux (DSL)
Fox Linux (a mac look-a-like)
Slackware
Fedora Core
Suse

Really? I'm a sysadmin for a network of OpenSUSE boxes, and I hate it.

^What exactly don't you like about it? I heard OpenSUSE based servers are extremely secure.

I just got my hands on Kubuntu 8.10 and damn, I'm really disappointed with KDE 4. It has all the bells and whistles that Vista has (desktop widgets, window effects, etc). The Kubuntu repositories are endless, which is a plus, but my desktop just kept crashing. When it didn't crash, the screen kept jumping. I even deleted the partition and re-installed the OS, but I got the same problem.

1. The package manager is lame. It's balls-slow, and it's not well-updated -- there's a lot of newer software that doesn't have updated versions in the default repos, and some commonly-used software doesn't even exist in the repo. This is annoying for a typical home user, but even more annoying for me, because if someone asks for a piece of unsupported software, we have to compile and maintain it ourselves. This is a huge pain in the ass when you have a large network.
   
   Debian's repos are maintained much better. I'd even rather use Gentoo (although Gentoo lags behind on a lot of software, too).
   
2. The configuration tools suck. OpenSUSE uses a tool called YaST for configuration, which is slow, has an awful interface, and is -- dare I say it -- more difficult than just editing config files by hand. But again, it's ultimately a lot easier to use YaST (as opposed to hand-editing config files) when you're dealing with a large network.

That's a disappointment. I was considering SUSE because I'm always, always, always downloading something. The more secure the better, right? So what's the difference between Ubuntu and Debian? Right now, both seem like they're ahead of the power curve.

More Fun
YOper blows.
Kubuntu 8.10 kept crashing.
Slacware 12.1 won't run on my old-ass Dell and I don't have the 64-Bit Live CD.

gnome-look.org is a pretty good site. it may seem unorganized at first, but take a browse through the GTK themes. I used 'Slickness Black' for a while before I made my own theme and used one of the cool icon sets that were available for download.

When I did web servers, email servers, game servers and database servers we used Fedora and FreeBSD. Both work fantastically with cPanel and MySQL so it was a dream come true. The government loves RedHat.

But they can't afford to opt out of the contracts they already have. It would be nice to see Linux go DoD wide, but we can only hope, right?

Wait...Red Hat is a Linux-based OS. Am I missing something?

I'm referring to the Windows 2000 based Navy/Marine Corps Intranet. NMCI has the Marine Corps, Navy & Coast Guard by the balls for 3 more years.

I like linux mint:) Does it use gnome?
And does elive come with that mac-like bar at the bottom?

Definitely check out Hannah Montana Linux:

I use Mint and love it. It's based off Ubuntu, but is built more for multimedia use.



I give up on life.



Actually all DoD service networks are being integrated into an AKO like system (Army Knowledge Online) which runs on a mixture of Windows (mostly) and linux servers.

When it's all said and done, which will be never.

I hate Ubuntu because it babies you, but I hate Mint because it holds your hand on the way to the bathroom and shakes the piss off your cock when you're done.


Also, here's a review on Mandriva I wrote a few months ago:


Mandriva Linux was originally released by MandrakeSoft as Mandrake Linux as an easy to use and powerful Linux distribution for both those new to Linux, and powerusers. When Mandrake was released in 1998, Linux was already well known for it's stability and power, but any use of it required such extensive technical knowledge that it had no hope of becoming a mainstream operating system. MandrakeSoft saw this as an opportunity to introduce a more user-friendly distribution than ever seen in the Linux community.

Pros:
* Extremely fast if your computer can handle KDE 4 or Gnome.
* Somewhat light (Approximately 650 Mb. That's better than Red Hat. Even Red Hat 9 from 2003 took up four times as much space)
* Very user friendly, while still being powerful
* Ships with Gnome or KDE4. Works flawlessly with Enlightenment, XFCE, or Fluxbox (These are the only alternatives I've tried on Mandriva.)
* Will boot on literally anything. I've run it in CLI on a computer with 1 Mb RAM and a 486.
* Has a free version that's as good as the enterprise version, but misses a few non-essential programs that nobody uses.
* Uses RPMs, so pretty much any program will work on it.

Cons:
* Runs extremely slow if X is enabled on old hardware (I'm talking pre-2000 old. If you have this problem, you should be using Damn Small Linux or Puppy anyway)
* Doesn't work too well with JWM, although not much does.
* Default DE is KDE 4, this makes changing to a different DE or WM painful on first boot. I suggest using CLI to download another WM with urpmi before you do anything.
* Slow package manager.

Notes:
* Has an enterprise version.
* Network install isn't an option.










Also Arch Linux. Use it, f****ts.

I really wish what was said about Mint was true. If I could find free software to shake the piss off my cock, I would do it.

sudo apt-get install cockshaker-i386-dev