Debian / YDL/ or Suse????

[Jose]

Been thinking of giving Linux a try. I've used RedHat some years ago, but not much.
Wich one of the following versions would you advise, and what are a ad/disadvantages of each one.

[Tomas]

Debian! I love the apt-get function of debian... so much better than redhat packet manager...

Jose wrote:
Been thinking of giving Linux a try. I've used RedHat some years ago, but not much.
Wich one of the following versions would you advise, and what are a ad/disadvantages of each one.

I've tried most, and Debian comes out on top.

Are you going to be running Linux on x86 or A1/Peg?

If x86, then try Morphix. http://www.morphix.org

It runs from CD, autodetects all your hardware, and can easily be installed to hard disk.  It's also Debian based, so when you want to upgrade it just type 'apt-get update;apt-get upgrade' et voila! you have the latest version of everything you already have installed.

Can't get much easier than that.  Use Synaptic for a gui version of apt-get,with an easy to use search facility for new software to install.

Whatever you do, don't use any RPM based distro.  You'll really get to hate Linux after a while, and it's not the fault of Linux per se, but the fault of RPM.

[Jose]

Hey:) Gonna use X86. I'm tired of only having WinBlows in my Athlon...

[dslcc]

I used to think that Mandrake was my favorite, but then I started using Debian on my Pegasos and I'm getting to like it more all the time.  :-(

[Jose]

Ok, Debian is winning.
Any more votes?
Some people prefer Debian cause it's completely free, but I'm talkin bout the product only, hope you didn't took that into account.
Thx for replies keep 'em coming

[thing_from_space]

I was going to suggest Knoppix which is what Morphix is based off of. The great thing about Knoppix and Morphix is that you don't need to commit a partition to install Linux. Your hard drive is untouched as everything runs off the CD. It's a great way to get your feet wet if you're just starting out with Linux.

Once you're comfortable with the basics and are willing to at least dual-boot, I would suggest Gentoo. Not only does it have a great package management system that rivals Debian's APT, but you can completely customize it to your heart's content. The only drawback is that everything is built on the fly from source tarballs, which means if you have a slow system big packages can take days. On the other hand, there's nothing more satisfying than a wildly tweaked-out and hacked kernel.

Debian still has a place in my servers. There's nothing more rock-solid than the Debian stable tree.

Unless you're looking for a business desktop, I'd stay away from RedHat and even Mandrake. Installation is easy enough for any Linux newbie, but the end result is lacking for any Amigan and the RPM package management system (even Mandrake's URPMI) can leave you frustrated.

[Jose]

Downloading Debian this very moment  :-D
I know you only need the first CD but the dowload is HUGE! Even usging Jigdo.
This will keep my dial-up connection busy for a while  :-)

Jose wrote:
Downloading Debian this very moment  :-D
I know you only need the first CD but the dowload is HUGE! Even usging Jigdo.
This will keep my dial-up connection busy for a while  :-)

Download the Morphix Mini-ISO. It's only 200MB, and has everything youneed to start with.  You can always apt-get anything else you need later on. GNOME etc.  btw KDE is disgusting,it's just a cheap windows clone.  Hardly Amiga like. Use XFCE4 for a more responsive system.

[jr_bAz]

Hi,

Have you think about give BSD a try? I start with GNU/Linux but after some distros (SuSE, Red Hat and Debian) I use FreeBSD. If you like the apt-get funtion you'll love the ports of FreeBSD. More info here, FreeBSD home page

[MrZammler]

Debian has a lot of old software in it's stable release.

I think the best all-around distro at this moment is Gentoo. Excellent package manager and very fast (being a LFS-style distro).

[bloodline]

I'll put a good word in for SuSE!!! I've been with that for a while and it makes a very nice transition from Wimblows to limbucks.  :-P

[Rodney]

Debian is very very good.

Debian is the largest used non commercial distro in the world. What that means is, Debian is a community project and is the lagest of its kinda.

I've used RH and compared to that, Debian comes out in front by a long shot. I've also tried BSD and OpenBSD was great, but im liking debian a lot.

Although if your not familiar with linux debian (as i've read many times) is refered to as an advanced linux users machine. Althoug i dont consider myself advanced, although im prolly more equiped then the average user. But i love it. Find it easy to use. Easy to find programs, you dont have to fiddler around with dependancies and i have total faith in the debian package system, unlike the RH one where i never really trusted it removed everything. I love that about debian. It feels as if i have control over my system.

I guess thats what the maintainers of debian where doing. Debian is produced by the community for the community. Where as projects such as RH are produced to make money. They dont neccessarily focus on the aspects of the system which are more important like packaging (their packaging system is damn poor compared to debians) and dependancies...

Debian maintainers prolly impliment what would make their lifes a lot easier, in effect, making our lifes alot easier too

i love deiban! and because of it, i love linux!

Although if your not familiar with linux debian (as i've read many times) is refered to as an advanced linux users machine.

Thats FUD put out by the big distro boys.

My mother has Morphix on her PC as she was sick off Windows 98 crashing all the time.

She even uses Synaptic to update her system every week.

She's 51 and is completely computer illiterate.  She doesn't understand the difference between Windows and Linux, she just thinks I've played about and made her computer not crash anymore.

[Cyberus]

I was still waiting for a friend to download one of the Mandrake CDs for me, but these sound like a good idea...
So morphix or knoppix?

Cheers,
Cyberus