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I run Mepis 6.5 at home, and loving it It's all it should be, sure there was a small bug or two to work out, but not any worse than XP was to get going on the same computer, before 6.5, I've used 6.0, 3.4.3 and 3.3.1 they were all good and all easy to work with. Highly recommend for a solid first try! This computer also boots XP, hardly ever used except for the kid's computer games that are Widows only!

I don't have Linux INSTALLED at the moment on my hard drive but I have a couple Ubuntuu and Knoppix Live CDs, but what I mostly use is BackTrack 2 which I have bootable on my flash drive. I also have a bunch of distos that I don't use like Mandriva LX, Fedora Core, Red Hat, SuSE,  and Gentoo (Plus). Lol, I even have Solaris 11 but I don't really have a use for it.

Please don't propagate misconceptions.  Slackware is an excellent distro, and probably the best distro if you want to actually learn something about Linux.  A total Linux newbie can go on the web, do a quick search, print off a few pages and install Slackware with no problems whatsoever.  And their install will be rock-solid, fast and easy to maintain.  But if you can't bring yourself to recommend it, at least point them to Zenwalk or Vector so they can get that Slackware goodness with a little extra hand-holding.

If you're looking for an very nice system, and one I haven't seen mentioned, try PCLinuxOS.  I've put it on three people's systems and they all love it.  After that (and before Ubuntu), I'd recommend Mepis. 

 As if you can't tell, I run Slack on my main box and Vector dual-booting on my laptop (I travel and occasionally still need that damn modem).

 I'd recommend everyone at least dual-boot.

 Of course, my wife remains resistant to that (and many other of my) recommendation.

Cheers,

 joe f.
 

You should use it.  Solaris will put hair on your balls, haha :)

I'm a systems administrator of 3 years now. I don't use a unix os at home (I'm a video game addict), but I get a good taste of it at work. For any can do, intelligent computer person, I recommend Arch Linux (http://www.archlinux.org/). It's a phenomenal way to quickly learn what linux is about, or solidify what you currently know.

Arch linux is a linux distro that you build from the ground up. You set all of the initial configuration files, you select every package by hand. Crazy? Yes. The advantage is you can build a small firewall out of it or a full featured desktop, scalable from the oldest computer to the newest. It's a rolling distro, so you don't need to worry about full updates. Just run a pacman update weekly, and you're golden.

For you gentoo enthusiasts, Arch is like gentoo without the compiling. The packages are all pre-compiled for the most recent kernel version.

The downside is the perpetual updates require a solid net connection, and with updates being that immediate, you are always dealing with some minute detail, like the latest amixer doesn't retain settings from the old one.

Linux, and later BSD and/or UNIX dual or multibooted since Mandrake 5.2.

As I ran a business, and a computer club, I still use MS, but NOT mistahVISTA 

Because of the club I test a lot of Linux.

 

Life is good 

FreeBSD!!! Ok well for everything but gaming. I will also suggest Ubuntu to anyone wanting to get into the linux world probaly the best supported distro out. But seriously if you want games then go windows.

I've tried Linux Ubuntu and it failed for me cause I am a gamer.

And it took me 5 minutes after installing to realize Linux =/= Games whatsoever.

Otherwise, Linux is pretty cool. Just gotta wait for the day so that getting a commercial game to run won't take a week.
 

I've been using Kubuntu cold turkey for about 3 months now and I am soooo glad I made the switch. Linux is truly the best operating system I have ever used. It actually does what I tell it (such a great feeling) to. I just wish more games were made compatible with it.

Radiance:

I've tried Linux Ubuntu and it failed for me cause I am a gamer.

And it took me 5 minutes after installing to realize Linux =/= Games whatsoever.

Otherwise, Linux is pretty cool. Just gotta wait for the day so that getting a commercial game to run won't take a week.
 

Yeah, linux will never be for gamers. There has been some success with some engines (half life, nwn, etc), but they're nowhere near as simple as installing in windows.

For anyone that wants to get savvy with linux, throw it on a spare box in your house. Plug it into your router and make it a file/ftp/web/ssh/vnc/mail server. You'll learn a lot, plus have a pretty nice personal server. It doesn't always make the best desktop OS, unless you're really willing to work with it and accept its limitations.

I would disagree that linux doesnt make a good desktop OS. I will admit that it is no go for high end gaming, but other than that i have never ran into somthing that i could not do on a linux. And with widely supported distros like ubuntu it really doesnt take much work get what you want running(except games).

I mostly concur with that statement - most games arent a matter of work, they're just not compatible with linux. I intended that as in you need to deal with petty problems. File format differences, program differences, etc. For the most part, these quirks have been worked out, but issues still remain. For example, I'll always prefer photoshop to the GIMP. GIMP is a great tool (and it being free doesnt hurt either), but it's not my preference.

Not to mention the number of times I've tarred something only to have somebody be like 'wtf is that? .tar!?'

:-(

I have used Ubuntu a while ago and I was impressed.  Since then changed a system and now I am ready to delve into it in more detail.  Question is, should I wait for Feisty Fawn or go with Edgy ?  I am using AMD 64 X2 and still have to use a dual boot (wife will not be able to take the change so easily).  I am not a gamer and thus using on board video, nVidia GEForce 6150 ?  Will that be a concern for drivers or I am okay to go ? 

Any help, suggestions, remarks are welcome and appreciated.

Thanks,

Danny
 

I have Ubuntu/XP Dual boot on my laptop (an old POS HP pavilion).

Win Server 2003 / Fedora Core on my desktop, I plan on moving one or the other to another box after I get it up.

 And Slackware on a VM at work, mainly for farting around/ dev testing.

I'm hoping to give Solaris a try sometime, anyone have any experience with it?

I have been running Linux for years. I am currently triple booting with Ubuntu, WinXP, and Vista.

 

I have been messing around with Linux since you could install it from 4 floppy disks. It's been a while.

I've tried darned near every flavor there is, and liked some of them a lot. After using SuSE, Red Hat (then on to Fedora), CentOS, Mandrake (Mandriva), Xandros, Debian, Mepis, and every other mainstream distribution, I finally got pretty comfortable with the Debian methods, and started focusing on them.

I discovered Ubuntu back around the 5.04 release, and started working with it. 5.04 was pretty good on a desktop, but there was a general lack of support for wireless Ethernet (802.11x) on most all of the available releases at that time. This was a major problem for me, since I travel quite a bit for business. With their 6.04 release of Ubuntu, Canonical got it to a point where virtually everything worked on a laptop without fiddling, and it didn't take a lot of fiddling to get the wireless working. It was at this point that I started migrating off of Windows all together.

I have just recently replaced my old laptop with a new IBM (Lenovo) X60s ThinkPad. It came with an 80GB hard drive, which has WinXP on it. I purchased a new Hitachi 160GB drive, and did a clean install of Ubuntu's 7.04 on it. At the time of the install, 7.04 was in it's third Alpha version, but I had been running it on a desktop for well over a month with great results, and no reliability issues. Immediately on installation, Ubuntu 7.04 found all of the hardware, and it JUST WORKED. Wi-fi included.

Ubuntu 7.04 is now in Beta release, and I have now been running it on this laptop for well over a month and a half. It is due to be in final release later in April, but the only difference will be that all of the packages will be in final form. Any installation done now will be automatically upgraded as new packages or updates are available. This is true of all updates of the Ubuntu system since 5.10. The user is notified of available updates, and the installation is automatic.

I don't even do Windows any more. Why bother with an inferior operating system?
 

I tired the latest non beta of ubuntu and it ran extremely slow for me. A lot slower then xp did on the same computer.

 I really dont want to have to do tweaking just to get it up to xp speeds so i uninstalled it. This was on a test machine .

 I am going to wait more till it has better hardware support.

I always use Linux when I have a choice. Have been using various Linux distros for over five years now. Currently, I run Kubuntu as my main OS. I installed vmware server and use it to run XP from my former dual boot install. (I find that I occasionally use XP now that I can run it in a window within linux). Vmware Server makes it very easy to test other distros on virtual machine. I have two Linux test machines, a linux server, linux router/firewall and a MythTV box running Knoppmyth. I have converted two friends to Linux and added an additional frontend for MythTV. The only Windows install that see much use in our house these days is my wife's XP box.

I heartily recommend Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Xubuntu and SimplyMepis. If you have old hardware lying around or want to build a new machine without  spending too much money on software,  Linux has something for everyone.
 

ashakeandfrys:

While i was waiting for my replacement laptop HDD I installed the 7.04 beta of Ubuntu. After using it for the weekend I realized why so many people claim that it's so easy to use.. because it really is! What I think makes it so simple, is the fact that everything is accessible from the bar atop the screen. No more navigating through countless windows to accomplish something! But, for battery life, I put XP back on it when the new HDD came. For some reason, Ubuntu doesn't natively allow scaling of a Celeron M. Also, with the integrated Compiz.. and the add-on of Beryl, you can really, really , customize the way your OS looks. Even as a noob at Linux, I was able to find some useful 'tut's on the internet to help me enable my Broadcom 4318 wireless adapter. Give it a try! I've also had positive expereinces with FC5.. no use with 6 yet.

 

i am running ubuntu on my lappy and i am having issues connecting to my wireless network using WPA encryption and also recognizing my network, i have a linksys router, ubuntu regonizes my brodacom wireless nic... any suggestions/help? 

bluemantech:

ashakeandfrys:

While i was waiting for my replacement laptop HDD I installed the 7.04 beta of Ubuntu. After using it for the weekend I realized why so many people claim that it's so easy to use.. because it really is! What I think makes it so simple, is the fact that everything is accessible from the bar atop the screen. No more navigating through countless windows to accomplish something! But, for battery life, I put XP back on it when the new HDD came. For some reason, Ubuntu doesn't natively allow scaling of a Celeron M. Also, with the integrated Compiz.. and the add-on of Beryl, you can really, really , customize the way your OS looks. Even as a noob at Linux, I was able to find some useful 'tut's on the internet to help me enable my Broadcom 4318 wireless adapter. Give it a try! I've also had positive expereinces with FC5.. no use with 6 yet.

 

i am running ubuntu on my lappy and i am having issues connecting to my wireless network using WPA encryption and also recognizing my network, i have a linksys router, ubuntu regonizes my brodacom wireless nic... any suggestions/help? 

 

or any other good linux distros that will work well w/ a brodacom wireless nic 

I play around with Linux a lot, but I still consider myself a newbie.

I use mostly live cd's. I've tried Mepis, PCLOS, Knoppix, OpenSuse, and Mandriva.

Right now my favorites are Mepis 6.5 and PCLinuxOS 2007 because of their ease of use and the fact that they work with the wireless in my laptop.

Both also work with my P4 and Athlon 64 desktop systems. 

I wish installing software was easier in Linux though. Yes, I can open up synaptic and do an upgrade, but downloading a tarball and getting it to work still eludes me.

I've got a lot to learn...