View Poll Results: If you were to suggest a first distro to someone who has never used Linux, which would it be?

***Dapper Dan*** · 08-28-2005

This question has been addressed at length in other thread discussions, however, I don't think the question has been asked "point blank" in a thread of its own.

oz · 08-28-2005

Suse because it's loaded with the hand-holding control centers and admin tools, and it has all that eye-candy that new users expect.

**AlexK** · 08-28-2005

Currently I would say SuSE cos it has great hardware detection and everything is easy to configure. However I have shown SuSE to some people and they still didn't get the complete hang of doing things and they are now perfectly happy with Xandros.

However if someone wants to learn programming and just generally mess around with linux, then SuSE is pretty much the best bet at the moment for such people.

**LondoJowo** · 08-28-2005

My vote was for SuSE as well.

***Dapper Dan*** · 08-28-2005

Unanimous so far... SuSE was my recommendation as well. Any others suggestions?

**budman7** · 08-28-2005

I would have to say Mepis.
Not just to be different either.

In Mepis the installation is easier. Just click on the install to harddrive icon.

And Mepis can be used as a Livecd.
You don't have to install it. The newb can check it out without installing.

**aysiu** · 08-28-2005

I would never flat-out recommend any Linux distribution to a newbie without knowing her situation, needs, and experience with computers.

I'd probably point her to one of these distribution chooser quizzes:

http://desktoplinuxathome.com/distro.html
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php

or to DistroWatch's top ten list:

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

**techieMoe** · 08-28-2005

Refer to the links posted by aysiu. This question is asked with great frequency and always boils down to one thing: personal preference. Try out a few, use what you like.

::UPDATE:: Due to a good point set forth by Dapper Dan, I'm reopening this thread and will redirect all future "which distro" threads to this one.

**fingal** · 08-30-2005

I voted Mandriva. Actually I think SuSe is very good, but later versions of Mandriva are also good, and do the job.

**techieMoe** · 08-30-2005

I voted Xandros. It's the closest to Windows that I've seen and some folks need that.

If the budget is tight (meaning you can't afford $50-120 for the OS, understandably), I'd recommend something like SuSE 9.3, Mepis or CentOS.

View Poll Results: If you were to suggest a first distro to someone who has never used Linux, which would it be?

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