Which Linux distributions would you recommend? Which do you use and why?

Which Linux distributions would you recommend? Which do you use and why?

This question is asked all the time and is impossible to answer without some more info:

What is your level of computer knowledge?

How much time are you willing to invest in learning new, cool stuff?

What hardware will the distro be installed on?

What will be the main use of the system?

Anyway, to answer the questions without that info:

Recommend: Slackware (or Knoppix for newbies or people looking for something to use to fix a borked install of another distro)

Use: Slackware

Why: It is the oldest currently maintained distro and therefore has a huge support base of users. Any issue that you will come across has been asked and solved before so anything is possible. Slackware is also the distro that comes closest to traditional Unix systems in terms of configuration and therefore when you can fix something in Slackware you can pretty much fix it in any distro (with a few caveats). The underlying principles of Slackware are simplicity and stability, so they don't try to use cutting edge software but whatever comes down the pipe in the releases is always well tested and very stable. I don't need or use fancy graphical tools to configure a Linux system, I prefer to edit a text file and then let things just work, Slackware gives me all that.

That said, I am typing this reply on OS X which I think is superior in several ways to any Linux distro as a desktop OS.

Which Linux distributions would you recommend? Which do you use and why?

This question is asked all the time and is impossible to answer without some more info:

What is your level of computer knowledge?

How much time are you willing to invest in learning new, cool stuff?

What hardware will the distro be installed on?

What will be the main use of the system?

Anyway, to answer the questions without that info:

Recommend: Slackware (or Knoppix for newbies or people looking for something to use to fix a borked install of another distro)

Use: Slackware

Why: It is the oldest currently maintained distro and therefore has a huge support base of users. Any issue that you will come across has been asked and solved before so anything is possible. Slackware is also the distro that comes closest to traditional Unix systems in terms of configuration and therefore when you can fix something in Slackware you can pretty much fix it in any distro (with a few caveats). The underlying principles of Slackware are simplicity and stability, so they don't try to use cutting edge software but whatever comes down the pipe in the releases is always well tested and very stable. I don't need or use fancy graphical tools to configure a Linux system, I prefer to edit a text file and then let things just work, Slackware gives me all that.

That said, I am typing this reply on OS X which I think is superior in several ways to any Linux distro as a desktop OS.

I agree that OS X is superior.Unfortunately the apps for OS X , the one time I had

a chance to use it(in a PC room in Phuket) are more nagware ridden than windows ones!

And I heard that linux/X windows support is not so good. Or has it improved

to the point I can run vlc, or Songbird or Kplayer with no problem?

This is a bit like asking what religion is the best

OpenSuSE.

Use it, love it, recommend it. Only issue is that I like KDE3.x, and it tries to default to KDE4. Not that big of a problem for me, but since KDE4 isn't quite ready for primetime, could be a problem for others.

I'll give slackula props, Slackware is a very mature system. Is it right for someone of your technical level? Don't think so. Look at Slax, which uses Slackware as a base, but very n00b friendly.

I use LinuxMint. very easy to use for beginners, not had any problems at all.

I use LinuxMint. very easy to use for beginners, not had any problems at all.

isn't that just Ubuntu 8.04 with a mint theme?