Best Linux to start with professional/server use?

[Initux]

I'm somewhat new to Linux, I've dabbled with ubuntu and all the "goodie-filled" distros, but never stuck with them for more than a month or two. With college on the horizon for me, I know that to be a professional working in IT I'll need experience with Linux.

What is the best Linux distro for me, in your personal opinion based on the following:

1.When I take college courses that involve Linux, I want to be able to focus on the course itself, not having to bumble around the OS and command line.
(So best distro for learning)

2. After college, I will obviously work in the IT field, my preference is networking/servers. What is the most commonly used server and or workstation distro in professional enviroments. (If you have statistics that'd be great, I've had no luck finding any however.)

3.
I'm looking to learn from a student/professional prospective, I don't want a distro that is needlessly difficult or filled with goodies.
(By needlessly difficult, I've heard slackware is pretty grueling, I could be really wrong though. And by goodies, well, PCLinuxOS or Mint or Mandriva would be good examples)


Thanks, and if it helps any, I'm guessing the answer will most likely be Fedora or SUSE, maybe Ubuntu.


P.S. I'm also starting to learn web developement/db mysql type stuff, so I'll be setting up a homeserver and toying with apache and the like, if the OS could be based on the same foundation(E.G. Ubuntu, debian, Fedora, redhat) so that the commands and such wouldn't be different that would be nice, but I can deal if there's nothing similar.

[MikeTbob]

I'm somewhat new to Linux, I've dabbled with ubuntu and all the "goodie-filled" distros, but never stuck with them for more than a month or two. With college on the horizon for me, I know that to be a professional working in IT I'll need experience with Linux.

What is the best Linux distro for me, in your personal opinion based on the following:

1.When I take college courses that involve Linux, I want to be able to focus on the course itself, not having to bumble around the OS and command line.
(So best distro for learning)

2. After college, I will obviously work in the IT field, my preference is networking/servers. What is the most commonly used server and or workstation distro in professional enviroments. (If you have statistics that'd be great, I've had no luck finding any however.)

3.
I'm looking to learn from a student/professional prospective, I don't want a distro that is needlessly difficult or filled with goodies.
(By needlessly difficult, I've heard slackware is pretty grueling, I could be really wrong though. And by goodies, well, PCLinuxOS or Mint or Mandriva would be good examples)


Thanks, and if it helps any, I'm guessing the answer will most likely be Fedora or SUSE, maybe Ubuntu.


P.S. I'm also starting to learn web developement/db mysql type stuff, so I'll be setting up a homeserver and toying with apache and the like, if the OS could be based on the same foundation(E.G. Ubuntu, debian, Fedora, redhat) so that the commands and such wouldn't be different that would be nice, but I can deal if there's nothing similar.

Hello and Welcome to Linuxforums.
I would suggest CentOS, it's based on RHEL, which is Redhat. I don't have any statistics for you, but I'm pretty sure Redhat is one of the leaders in Server software.

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

I would suggest either CentOS (for the same reasons as MikeTbob) or perhaps Debian. CentOS/RHEL are probably far more common on the workstations, and both distros should easily be stable enough for the server side.

[fingal]

I don't work in IT and most of my Linux experience is with desktop distros (currently using Mandriva) but as you're focussing on networks and a professional environment you might take a look at Centos. It's really an 'unbadged' version of Redhat (commonly used in professional environments to partly answer your question).

You mention not wanting to bumble through a command line etc., but isn't that a bit of a contradiction if you want to learn to use Linux professionally? Using a CLI is part and parcel of learning, and while it would be reasonable not to expect a desktop user to tackle a command line, I think you will need to! Really - it's good for you.

As for difficult, that depends on what you're looking for. Hacking around with different distros is part of learning to use Linux, and I think you need to try a few and see for yourself. How about multi-booting a few and seeing what feels right? I haven't used Mint, but I've heard good reports.

I've played with Slackware a bit and - shock horror - I didn't find it difficult. Certainly not to install anyway. I think problems occur when you try very specific things, like trying to configure certain devices. It can be done, but you need to do some reading and ask plenty of questions. If that doesn't work, try another distro - you haven't lost anything and you can always try again later.

Good luck with your course. PS: I wrote this before I saw the other responses, so that's a vote for Centos!

[Initux]

I don't work in IT and most of my Linux experience is with desktop distros (currently using Mandriva) but as you're focussing on networks and a professional environment you might take a look at Centos. It's really an 'unbadged' version of Redhat (commonly used in professional environments to partly answer your question).

You mention not wanting to bumble through a command line etc., but isn't that a bit of a contradiction if you want to learn to use Linux professionally? Using a CLI is part and parcel of learning, and while it would be reasonable not to expect a desktop user to tackle a command line, I think you will need to! Really - it's good for you.

As for difficult, that depends on what you're looking for. Hacking around with different distros is part of learning to use Linux, and I think you need to try a few and see for yourself. How about multi-booting a few and seeing what feels right? I haven't used Mint, but I've heard good reports.

I've played with Slackware a bit and - shock horror - I didn't find it difficult. Certainly not to install anyway. I think problems occur when you try very specific things, like trying to configure certain devices. It can be done, but you need to do some reading and ask plenty of questions. If that doesn't work, try another distro - you haven't lost anything and you can always try again later.

Good luck with your course. PS: I wrote this before I saw the other responses, so that's a vote for Centos!

"You mention not wanting to bumble through a command line etc., but isn't that a bit of a contradiction if you want to learn to use Linux professionally? Using a CLI is part and parcel of learning, and while it would be reasonable not to expect a desktop user to tackle a command line, I think you will need to! Really - it's good for you."


Ahh, I think you misunderstood me, or I typed it wrong.(The latter being more likely, )

By not having to bumble around the OS/CLI I meant already knowing how to use them, infact learning the CLI is one of the things I see most important, since dealing with lots of servers that will most likely not have GUI's installed or I'd be accessing them through SSH anyways.



3 for 3, Centos? Hmm, it would have never occured to me, I've seen alot of servers and they're usually running centos, seems odd I wouldn't think of it.

I think centos will be the perfect thing for me to learn on, especially since I was looking for something redhat-ish.

Thanks very much, I'll try to stick around these forums aswell, you're all very helpful.-Initux



P.S. @Fingal I'll try other distros aswell, just don't have the time to switch distros alot right now.

[coopstah13]

CentOS is good to learn on, lots of production systems will be using RHEL because of the support that comes with it, and CentOS is built from the same exact sources as RHEL, so it is nearly identical. I think fedora is a little too cutting edge for a server, it is fine for a desktop if you don't mind upgrading at every release. Ubuntu LTS server edition I have found to be very stable as well, I use it for many machines at work and I have no problems with it at all.

[elija]

That's 5 for CentOS. It's Red Hat without the support contract and that will stand you in good stead for the professional world

[bkovacevich]

What is the major difference between CentOS and Fedora Core? I thought FC was derived from RHEL also but is obviously without the paid support RHEL provides.

[elija]

What is the major difference between CentOS and Fedora Core? I thought FC was derived from RHEL also but is obviously without the paid support RHEL provides.

CentOS is RHEL, it is recompiled without the Red Hat Branding. Extremely stable and robust it may not have the most recent packages but that's the idea!

Fedora is a Red Hat sponsored community project. It is far more more bleeding edge and as far as I am concerned should never be used in an enterprise situation.

[bkovacevich]

Thanks for the clarification - I'm only using for a home-based network/file server but may want to check out CentOS for that as well as I'm having some problems getting FC to work on a new machine. And of course would like to use any knowledge gained to advance my professional worth as well!