their own idea of what to look for. There is no perfect distribution, but
there is one that you can use and enjoy. Finding the match is the problem.
Things to consider are: your experience level, your needs, your level of
frustration, and your hardware.
If you lack experience then there are only so many that cater to new users,
such as Ubuntu and the other *buntus (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc), Linux Mint,
PCLinuxOS, Mandriva, SimplyMEPIS and a few others. Go to Distrowatch.com to
find the top 100.
If your needs are modest then you can use the full array of the above
distributions, but it you have needs of special applications then you want a
distribution with lots of packages and that limits you. Most rpm
distributions have far fewer packages so you can cross off PCLinuxOS which
at the moment only comes as 32-bit (a 64-bit version is in the works) and
Mandriva. Debian based distributions have the most packages by far. That
leaves you with the *buntus, Mint and MEPIS. If on the other hand you don't
require anything peculiar PCLinuxOS and Mandriva may be just the thing you
need.
If you have a high tolerance for frustration and just want to learn then you
can consider things not mentioned, such as Fedora or openSuSE. They are not
as tolerant for newbies IMO. Fedora for example is tricky to set up
multimedia and proprietary drivers. SuSE's Yast package manager is confusing
for newbies and I find you can quickly break your system if you don't know
what you are doing. However, both are excellent for more experienced users.
If you have a low tolerance for frustration then you want a newbie friendly
distribution, such as Mint, Ubuntu or its kin and MEPIS (which is Debian
stable with a good installer and some good tools). MEPIS is also a rolling
release. That takes away the fear of re-installing and upgrading woes. It
comes in both 64 and 32 bit and has AntiX for old hardware.
If your hardware is older, especially with respect to RAM, then you need to
look at distributions that cater to that, such as Puppy, AntiX, and
Crunchbang. If you have an uncommon chipset like powerPC or arm, then you
may be even further restricted. Debian supports the most chips, but it is
hard to install and frustrating for newbies. This may be useful for a side
by side comparison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions
Many newbies gravitate to the *buntus because it is newbie friendly, has the
most applications, supports both 32 and 64-bit, supports the most desktop
environments, sends free disks and it has the most online support. However,
if you look outside the box then you may be pleasantly surprised.
Mint is Ubuntu in most respects. Be careful that you get the right version.
It has LMDE which is Debain based and Linux Mint which is Ubuntu based. The
former is a rolling release and experimental. The latter is tested and been
around for some time.
Ubuntu is in transition. The current version Maverick Meerkat, 10.10, uses
GNOME 2.x as the desktop. The next version 11.04 will default to Unity with
Compiz as the desktop. GNOME 2.x will be the fall back for those without
compositing. You can install GNOME 2.x or GNOME 3 if you want, but it is
moving away from those desktops. Kubuntu and the other *buntus are not
affected. Mint has said that it will stick with GNOME 2.x for its desktop.
My advice is to stick with GNOME 2.x or use KDE (Kubuntu) as GNOME 3 and
Unity are unproven. That is not to say they won't be good by April next
year, but you don't know at this point. If you want GNOME then Mint is the
way to go for now, IMO. Otherwise look at one of the other *buntus (not
Ubuntu). I am not fear mongering, just being wary.
Finally the *buntus have two streams, LTS and regular releases. They follow
separate and independent cycles. Last LTS release was 10.04, last April. It
has three years support and won't expire until April 2013 (2015 for the
server version). You can upgrade from LTS to LTS. The next LTS will come out
in April 2012. That gives you a stable platform for two or three years which
is the purpose of LTS. If you follow the regular cycle it is more onerous.
Upgrades are April and October, following a six month cycle. You get the
latest kernel and applications, but at the cost of more risk. Upgrades don't
always go smoothly. If you follow the six month cycle then you are locked
into upgrading six months or having your version expire in 18 months and
re-installing. You cannot skip versions. You should know this up front. If
you want stability then install 10.04 and not 10.10.
Mandriva, Fedora and openSuSE are equally ambitious with an aggressive
release cycle. The *buntus are more fixed in that they set dates and stick
with them, hence the numbering. The number before the decimal is the year of
release and the number after is the month. All releases but one have
followed this method (6.06). The code names are always alliterative with
adjective and animal name, and have been sequential since Dapper Drake. Mint
uses female names like Julia, Gloria etc. Fedora uses names chosen by the
community like Lovelock or Laughlin. Debian uses characters from Toy Story,
Sid, Lenny, Etch etc. Who says Linux is boring? :)
Roy
Using Kubuntu 10.10, 64-bit
Location: Canada
On 28 November 2010 02:45, dbneeley <dbneeley@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> First, I wouldn't be so worried about upgrades. I presently use the latest
> release of Kubuntu--and it has updates nearly every day, since Linux and the
> thousands of projects change rapidly. Most of those changes are actually
> improvements, and the functionality continues to improve through the efforts
> of tens of thousands of developers.
>
> Also, if you set up the distribution you select with a separate /home
> partition, upgrading becomes extremely simple.
>
> As for distributions--there are some who don't have major upgrade
> schedules--but they generally have continuous updates.
>
> If you are like most newcomers, you will tend to want a distribution at
> first that is easy to use in moving from Windows. Later, as your knowledge
> matures, most folks want to branch out a little and try new versions.
>
> Many on this list seem drawn to Mint. I think another one that a newcomer
> may like is called Simply Mepis, which has just released a major new
> version.
>
> Much depends, too, upon what hardware you will be running it on. If it's an
> older box with comparatively fewer hardware resources, you may prefer a
> lightweight distribution that will run optimally on it. By contrast, if you
> have a newer machine with plenty of RAM, you may be perfectly happy with one
> of the more elaborate ones.
>
> Fortunately, since most distributions today come in Live CD variants, you
> can try a few out easily enough and choose what appeals to you the most.
>
> The majority of Linux users will be partial to the distribution they are
> presently using--"ease of use" is largely a matter of what you are used to,
> after all.
>
> Personally, I created an extra partition when I set up my machine that I
> can use for the root filesystem of a second distribution. That way, I can
> experiment without nuking the primary one I use most often. One of my
> projects today, in fact, is to try yet another one--but it is an early
> development version of a new distro called Bodhi that uses the Enlightenment
> window manager--but it is far from feature complete, so I would not want to
> have it as my only distribution.
>
> Assuming a relatively recent machine, to me your first choice should be the
> primary windowing system you want to use. The "big two" are Gnome and KDE,
> but there are some appealing options such as LXDE and XFCE, for example.
>
> Although it has a six-month major release cycle, the various Ubuntu
> variants have some advantages for new Linux users, I believe. These include
> not only the official Cononical versions but also Ubuntu-based ones such as
> Mint and quite a few others.
>
> Finally, although major versions do upgrade in the Ubuntu universe, there
> is no reason you must upgrade each time if you choose not to. I know several
> people who use their "Long Term Support" versions and only do a major
> version upgrade when a new LTS variant comes out.
>
> David
>
> --- In LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com <LINUX_Newbies%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "rkzbos" <jackrossini@...> wrote:
> >
> > I am interested in learning and running Linux on my PC, but their are
> many choices to choose from when if comes to which Linux version or Distro
> to get.
> >
> > To help narrow it down to my needs, I need a Linux OS for general use and
> that it doesn't causes me to up grade every 6 months.
> > Can someone help explain to me or find information about the differences
> of the Linux Distros.
> >
> > rkzbos
> >
>
>
>
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