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| Home >> Resources | Support >> SHEX >> SHEX (share experience) on OS, Software, Systems & Notebooks >> |
SHEX: Which Linux is the Best for me?by Jacob (07/25/02) Copyright (c) Directron.com.We have SHEX (share experience) posts in Directron.com Help Desk Forum. We now have compiled them into this new section on Directron.com. We hope more people will write such pieces to benefit the entire PC community. Copying the contents for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited without Directron.com's written consent. However, you are welcome to distribute these computer support tips free to your friends and associates as long as it's not for commercial purposes and you acknowledge the source. You are permitted and encouraged to create links to this page from your own web site. Shex: Which Linux is the Best for me? The answer is, there's no real answer, it's all personal preference. Many choose RedHat because that's all they're familiar with, but in actuality, there are a lot more choices which are probably better suited to them. Here's a quick rundown of the more common versions: RedHat - Generically the most well known Linux. Has the most application support, and commercial support. Fairly simple install process for the beginner, based around KDE. RedHat pretty much requires that you run X on your system, and isn't very configurable without doing the same things you'd have to in the other linuxes, despite their claims to be more user friendly, however, this also helps the novice user not screw up configurations. Generally referred to as one of the best learning distributions. Mandrake - RedHat, with a twist. It's basically RedHat with a few extra applications, some functionality upgrades in the built in tools, and some stability issues resolved. (please note, a linux stability issue is something that will make you have to reboot every week or two instead of every 6 months). This would be one of my personal recommendations for those new to linux, and not very familiar with computers in general, who wishes to learn linux. Slackware - One of the oldest, if not the oldest, Linux distributions out there, Slackware is still considered king by those who run it. It has both KDE and GTK, and can be configured to use any mix of the two. A lot of the configurations must be done by hand, instead of with X interfaces, but this can be considered a good thing for expanding into other Unixes, and gaining general "how do i fix it when X doesn't work" knowledge. Does not require X, but will run it very happily. A recommendation for those new to linux, but quite familiar with computers in general. Debian - The distribution which is gaining popularity the fastest. Has a fairly intuitive install process, and a few very nice tools (such as the infamous apt, which will update all your system across the internet, keeping you current and security-hole free at all times). Will run happily with KDE or GTK/Gnome, but is more suited for GTK/Gnome. Overall, a wonderful choice for headless servers, as you can set up a script that will keep them updated and patched and not have to worry about intruders quite so much as with the other distributions. Offers commercial support. A good choice for intermediate level linux users. If there are any more questions about the above, or anyone wants to add something about other distributions which I havent' detailed, feel free, I just thought I'd help people make the decision between the top 4 distributions. And, for the record, I use debian on servers, and slackware on my workstations. :-) SHEX - Share Experience! Reply by thespian Let me add my new favorite (at least I expect it to be--I only installed it on Tuesday and then flew to Houston on Wednesday): Take a look at Gentoo Linux. One thing I love is you can choose your level of install from levels 1 through 3. A level 3 install pretty much gives you a basic system (note: a true basic system doesn't include X) default compiled for a 686. A level 2 install has some stuff prebuilt. A level 1 install lets you edit the makefiles and compile everything with the optimizations of your choice. (I chose an i686 compilation without 386 compatibility to increase speed.). It takes a while but you step through the three stages and compile your entire system pretty easily with about 20 (ish) total steps. Then you have a "ports" system similar to the BSD unices. This is a package system where you tell the program what you want and it goes and gets everything it depends on and compiles and installs it in order. The big difference with a "port" system is that the basic application source code comes from the original maintainer rather than a third party. Then the system applies "patches" to adjust any incompatibilities or set any system specific options. The entire compilation is pretty automatic and really impressive to watch. I would say the Gentoo install gives you almost the fine-grained control of a slackware command line install. Make no mistake--none of the Gentoo installs are for a linux newbie. As an advanced user, I really appreciate getting to pick what is installed. It adds easy program optimization, compilation, and installation similar to the Debian package system. Reply by WebHawg I'm sort of a linux newbie. I've messed with it a few times and have a fairly good knowledge of unix from college and messing with Solaris machines. I just recently installed Redhat on an old pc, but learned nothing from the install. I'm REALLY wanting to learn some stuff about linux and how it works. So now...I'm wanting to install something different on my old pc. Do you guys have any suggestions on a good distribution for learning about linux? I've looked at Gentoo and really like what it has to offer. But I'm afraid my 133Mhz pc won't handle the CPU intensive distribution. I've also looked at Slackware and LinuxFromScratch. I'm sure the LinuxFromScratch distribution would help me learn a lot, but I think I'm too much of a newbie to handle that. What about Slackware? Would that be a good distribution for me to try? Or can my 133Mhz handle Gentoo? Because I agree...Gentoo rocks. Let me know...thanks. Reply by vlvtelvis I'm about a year late in responding, but since what you are asking is not an uncommon question, I'll respond in case someone else sees it. You pretty much just described Slackware to a "T". It's supposedly the most unix-like of the linux distros. All configuration is done by manualy editing the text-based config files. That's not as hard as it sounds since half of what makes most modern linux distros complicated at the system level is all the doohickies that try and run your computer for you. It was the first distro I tried as a total linux newbie and I had everything working the way I wanted it to be within a week of fiddling with it for 2-3 hours a day. Reply by FNG I use mandrake 9.2 most of the time. If i want to browse the internet i load damn small linux into memory and use firebird (very fast) I am also new to linux I order my cds at LinuxDist you might want to check them out they have a pretty good selection and their prices are great. Reply by thespian Wow this is an old topic to revive, but I wanted to answer WebHawg's question in case someone else has the same one. Gentoo compiles all of the code specifically for your processor. Granted the compile process on a slow processor will be terribly long. (probably two days for the base system I suspect) On the other hand you can start that and come back to it when it is complete to start the next step. The long compiles are chained together so there are only three stages that require interaction. On the other hand, because you can set the optimizations specifically for your processor, Gentoo would give you snappier performance than any other distribution out of the box. To improve the performance of most of the others you would need to recompile from source -- the same thing you do with gentoo. But building a package from source with very specific optimizations can be difficult with most package managers. In short, I would recommend planning to take a couple of weeks to get the system configured, and going with Gentoo for that application. Reply by Erick P. Well, since this thread was revived, I might as well add my own. I use a distro called SmoothWall - its meant for stand-alone servers, and is a pure firewall system. The server acts as a gateway, and the distro needs nothing more than a 486 (100Mhz) processor, 32mb of RAM and a 540mb hard drive. Linux And, as always, you can post a question on the Directron Help Desk! (by121704) |
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