What distro do you like, and why?

[computerdude]

I use Ubuntu. It's a very great distro.

• Ubuntu isn't hard to install at all. It's very easy.
• Runs very great on older computers.
• It's very sexy
• It's very user friendly

Anyone that is thinking about trying out Ubuntu you should really try it out your'll most likely love it. I've ran it for about a week now, and I just installed it on all my other computers including my server.

Thanks,
Travis

[dark_lord_kodd]

Well a week isnt very long...

Ive been using Fedora Core 4 since it was released..it is very good, stable and easy to install applications on. I would recommend it to all.

[josolanes]

I've used Fedora Core 3, Gentoo 2005.1, and Arch Linux as serious solutions for my desktop OS. I've tried others, but only shortly after installed something else (installed it just to see what it's about and got bored).

I'm currently running Arch Linux and really enjoy it, though I've only used it for about 3 weeks now. It installs fairly easily, it's i686 optimized, it starts off with whatever you want, but you have the option of starting with just a base install so you can build from there (what I did and really enjoy about Arch), quick package installs (I came from Gentoo and this is the only reason I switched from it...hours of installing/updating started interfering with work).

What I enjoyed about Gentoo is how customizable it was. You simply tell the package manager (emerge---portage) what your computer's uses are and everything installed will be customized accordingly. I also liked the thought that everything would be optimized (compiled) for MY computer (or any user who uses it), but I'm not sure that this really makes that much of a speed difference...though there are some people who say it does, it's an ongoing debate.

What I enjoyed about Fedora Core 3, the first linux distro I had taken seriously upon installing, was its ease of use. It seemed to make my transition from Windows to linux less painful, as I could learn commands and such when I wanted to and wasn't forced into using them all the time since it came with many tools to aid the user if the user decides not to jump right into the CLI.

I eventually got bored of Fedora Core 3 and felt I needed more CLI interaction and made the huge leap to Gentoo. Not that it was impossible by any means, but it was a completely different world. I went from (in FC3) a GUI installer, a system pre-setup for me, a GUI package manager (Synaptic), and many other tools to simplify tasks for the user...to Gentoo's text-based install in which you do everything and follow a (very thorough and excellent) online manual/handbook, a system that starts with little more than the basic tools, a package manager run purely from the GUI (though you can install Porthole for that GUI feel), and, generally speaking, a system that the user has to really involve him/herself with to get running and maintain.

In short, FC3 was easy and made a simple transition from Windows to linux; Gentoo was fun and let me really get comfortable with the CLI; and Arch feels like, simply put, Gentoo with quick installs (the ideal OS for me )


Sorry for the long explanation, but that's just been my experience with a few of the distros that I've seriously tried. I hope someone can find this useful

[chopin1810]

SUSE!

[cayalee]

ive used with most regularity, damn small linux and suse9.1 to 9.3
my fave is 9.3 because of its proffesional sheen, highly customised kde, and ease of use all round; from installing to patching the system, to just using it to get stuff done.
DSL is cool for old systems providing you have a basic understanding of linux too, its light and resonsive and has a ridiculuosly easy (if not limited repository) way of installing programs on a hdd space/ram budget.

[GNOME_n00b]

my favourite would have to be suse. i currently use suse 10 and i think its a superb distro for the following reasons:
-it must have one of the best kde implementations of any distro. even though the rpm packages are some of the latest of any distro (ie gnome 2.12 and kde 3.4.92(?)), its very stable, considering. i think i prefer kde now, although i still have a soft spot for gnome. maybe i should ask one of the admin to change my username to KDE_n00b . no, seriously,....i like them both equally because they are just like different flavours of chocolate. neither is better, but i can like one more than the other depending upon my mood at the time.
-yast is one of the best, if not, thee best admin system for any distro. the only one that comes close is mandrivas control centre.
-more packages included on the dvd than any other distro. this is handy for me because my linux box doesn't have a network connection.

it has some negatives, though.
-its VERY slow to boot and for each log in to start up.
-gnome is incredibly sluggish and buggy on suse, whereas its snappy and reliable on all other distros that i've tried (fedora, mandriva etc).
-i can't find where i can change the PATH variable. on all the others, its either in /home/.bashrc or /home/.bash-profile.
- don't think putting kde in /opt/kde3 and gnome in /opt/gnome is the most efficient way of organisation. i also don't think /media should be the directory for the mount points. i was 'brought up' on linux to believe that the best place is in /mnt.

[chopin1810]

This is a stupid question, these threads always end up in religious distrowars...

[GNOME_n00b]

This is a stupid question, these threads always end up in religious distrowars...

where is the 'war' in this thread?

[chopin1810]

I can smell it coming, it always does... these threads always end in wars...

[budman7]

As long as people stick to letting us know what they like about there favorite distro/s.
And keep the negative stuff about the distro/s that they don't like out of the post, this could be a really good thread.

My favorite distro is Gentoo, because it is highly customizable.
I have even managed to get it to install on an old machine, 224 Mhz with 96 MB ram(4 SIMM's).
And it ran quite well on that old mahcine as long as I didn't have more than 2 or 3 open windows.

My next favorite would have to be Sourcemage Linux.
All of the commands are based on sorcery. I am a D&D fan.

My next favorite would have to be Suse, it just works.
When I am feeling lazy, and don't want to have to do a lot of work to get a distro running Suse is the one.