linuxgeek: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] What distro's to try.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Re: [LINUX_Newbies] What distro's to try.

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 21:03, sgttutt2001 <sgttutt2001@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have installed Ubuntu 10.04 which I like, but would it be worth to try another distro? I have a external HD that I would install it on. I know that everyone has their favorite one. Any recommendations would be welcomed.
>
> i am still a newbie to Linux.
>
> KT

There are as many different distros as there are snowflakes, it seems...

If you are still that much a newbie, stick with Ubuntu for a while.
To get your feet wet, you may want to try Linux Mint (which is a
deriviative of Ubuntu) to get an idea what a similar, yet slightly
different distro is like.

I'd also suggest, if you've got the extra hard disk to try things
with, Fedora and OpenSuSE, the other two major distros.

You can try CentOS to get a feel for what Red Hat Enterprise Linux is
like (which is rather similar to Fedora with fewer boneheaded
"features" (right Scott?).

But until you get more used to it, stick with the "easy" stuff.

Ubuntu is a great beginner Linux, and I still think Fedora is as well.

Once you get really into it and your knowledge grows, look at Debain
(which Ubuntu is based on), maybe even Gentoo (a build your own
distro).

Then there are the micros like PuppyLinux, Damn Small Linux and so forth.

There are also specialized distros for things like running routers or
firewall appliances.

Ubuntu also has a version (unofficial) called UbuntuStudio that is
geared toward people who like to do things like Image and Video
editing and manipulation, create music, etc.

Then there are the educational distros that focus on science and
educational applications.

heh... starting to get the picture? :-)

But still, my short answer is: Stick with Ubuntu, and try out Mint,
Fedora and SuSE. Then Debian perhaps...

Full Disclosure: I'm a QA engineer at Canonical, so yeah, I make my
living on Ubuntu... but I liked it long before I got to work there.

I was a (and still am, to some degree) a big Red Hat fan (I worked for
them too, at one point, and my tinkering with the old Red Hat versions
(5.1 and beyond) is what got me a job at Red Hat back in the day...
But these days, I only run RHEL on my home servers, all my other
machines run Ubuntu or a Ubuntu variant (crunchbang mostly).

Cheers
Jeff