[Burn]

hey all,

i've heard that linux is open source, meaning that people can go into the source code and edit it for stability, performance, etc. i was wondering if any of you know of the best one, and if you do, can you drop me a link to it? i'm just looking for another os that's free. thanks

 

[Lostnhell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by atvkid1090 hey all, i've heard that linux is open source, meaning that people can go into the source code and edit it for stability, performance, etc. i was wondering if any of you know of the best one, and if you do, can you drop me a link to it? i'm just looking for another os that's free. thanks

I would recommend SUSE, RedHat, Feddora or Mandrake.
go to http://www.linuxiso.org/ for download links for all distros.

 

[MrSmiley]

Go FreeBSD SuSE Locks you out almost as much as Windows does. With BSD you can do what ever you want. http://www.freebsd.org. Trust me that is what you want. .

 

[Burn]

ok. how is suse? i'm looking at that one. it's free, right? and it's pretty good as an os, rite?

 

[Lostnhell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by atvkid1090 ok. how is suse? i'm looking at that one. it's free, right? and it's pretty good as an os, rite?

I have heard only good reviews of SUSE, the other benfit of that distro is that they are now owned by Novell so I expect their programming to signifigantly improve in future releases.

 

[shermstix]

SuSe. They seem to have the best hardware support. Also Mandrake isn't bad.

Actually it looks like Novell has bought SuSe.

 

[MrSmiley]

NOOOOOOO FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T GO SUSE ANYTHING ELSE PLEASE EVEN WINDOWS. plessee Go mandrake it is also a good version... though I suggest BSD.

 

[Lostnhell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSmiley NOOOOOOO FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T GO SUSE ANYTHING ELSE PLEASE EVEN WINDOWS. plessee Go mandrake it is also a good version... though I suggest BSD.

What is wrong with SuSe?

 

[aznchowboy650]

I got Suse Pro works like a charm

 

[Crash]

If you knew SUSE like I know SUSE.

JK - I havent tried any of them. Im a slave to Windows

 

[NoAffinity]

Suse, Mandrake or Conectiva get my votes.

If you're a linux newb, I'd recommend downloading one, and seeing if you can get the feel for it. Give it a couple weeks, and if you find the functionality isn't to your liking, then try something else. Keep in mind, the two most widely used interfaces (GUI's, that is), KDE and Gnome, are basically the same on all distributions. Once your savvy finding your way around either GUI on one distro, you'll be good to go on pretty much any distro. Also, be prepared to use google a lot, to learn a whole different way of approaching computing, and to not be afraid to go into a console (i.e. step away from the GUI) to do what you need to.

 

[shermstix]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoAffinity Suse, Mandrake or Conectiva get my votes. If you're a linux newb, I'd recommend downloading one, and seeing if you can get the feel for it. Give it a couple weeks, and if you find the functionality isn't to your liking, then try something else. Keep in mind, the two most widely used interfaces (GUI's, that is), KDE and Gnome, are basically the same on all distributions. Once your savvy finding your way around either GUI on one distro, you'll be good to go on pretty much any distro. Also, be prepared to use google a lot, to learn a whole different way of approaching computing, and to not be afraid to go into a console (i.e. step away from the GUI) to do what you need to.

No Affinity is absolutely right, sometimes using the terminal console is the only way to acomplish things in a Unix/Solaris/Linux environment. Much to a seasoned DOS users dismay, almost none of the commands that we know and love are used for the Unix terminal...... except dir......

 

[MrSmiley]

Bring it on you...you... Linux fans.
No just joking around

Anywho, yeah SuSE is nice to start with. I still have my SuSE disks ( I suggest everyone should buy a copy not just download it and burn the ISO's because some older mobo's can't read burned CD's as boots.) It has the best partioning set up known to man. Anyways SuSE is nice to start out on, I'm just a BSD person and my vote goes straight there. Oh yes KDE is like Windows looking enviroment and acts kinda like it. Gnome is more like the mac so make your choice.

 

[bytecaptain]

...but with the following caveat: Just as your tastes change for food over the years, your preference for linux flavors will change as well.

I personally use mainline distributions Redhat and SuSE in production, for demonstrations I use Morphix(based on Debian). I've messed around a bit in college with slackware and caldera(yuck! Everybody scream "I HATE SCO!"). I'm planning an excursion into Mandrake one day and eventually my database servers will all run BSD/PostgreSQL, but SuSE covers the United Linux front nicely and integrates with Novell as well, which is quite helpful. RedHat has helped so many people with the rpm build process and tends to cut down on administrative headaches and maintaining your software, that most other mainline distros offer at least some similar kind of package manager with online updates. Lately there has been some concern about pricing for an update channel, which is why the fedora project was started. Fedora is free as in speech, free as in beer and sponsored by redhat.

It's all going to depend on what you want out of your computer. Each distro offers something a bit different than the next. If you want to set up a router/firewall, Turbolinux has a solid rep. If you're looking for an easy desktop/workstation, SuSE or Mandrake are fairly easy to get going, although a bit different in their approaches to package management. Debian is known for its rock solid stability. Something else you want to consider: Build your system and software for what you intend to use the machine for. If you're just surfing the web, it's one thing- if you're trying to serve Samba over the web(!=good), it's another thing entirely. If you aren't sure what the software does, even after you read the release notes, don't install it unless your package manager tells you otherwise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atvkid1090 hey all, i've heard that linux is open source, meaning that people can go into the source code and edit it for stability, performance, etc. i was wondering if any of you know of the best one, and if you do, can you drop me a link to it? i'm just looking for another os that's free. thanks