what's a good linux os?



Most on here wouldn't have trouble installing them, but one good thing for newbs about Mint is that it comes with things like mp3 codecs and flash already installed.
 
Since nobody mentioned Arch Linux, I thought I'd do it.

You have to configure everything yourself from command line, which forces you to get to know your system and setup. It's got a package manager and a massive support community. In terms of driver support, I think Arch Linux beats Ubuntu, because the Ubuntu community won't help you unless you're one of those fucking hipsters leaching wifi at cafes.

I went straight from windows to Arch Linux, and now I feel I have pretty good command over my old Thinkpad.
 
Ubuntu started rocking in Server side too. All my servers are using Ubuntu Server edition and now I use no CentOS/RedHat!!
However for the personal usage the only problem I encounter is that many SEO software don't work on Linux!!
 
My server is running centos, and I can get a few basic things done via command line with it, enough to do what I need to. For the extra desktop, I was looking for something with a gui just to see what it's like. Sounds like ubunto is has the majority vote here
 
I have an old Dell desktop laying around that's not getting used. I've never tried linux os before and thought I'd install it and play around with it. Anyone recommend a good linux os that's easy to install and will have drivers for an old Dell Optiplex GX270?

Ha! Read this and glanced over in the corner and see GX280 wasting away. Sounds like a fun project. Will research and take the plunge as time permits. Hope you update the thread with your experience.
 
yeah, go with ubuntu if you want it locally as a desktop, centos for servers

I did a comparison, but I did not see any advantage CentOS has over Ubuntu except the Cpanel compatibility.

I switched to Ubuntu Server from CentOS because of the following reasons
1. apt is much more powerful, easy to use, supports much more software, updated very dynamically and yum is not when compared to apt.
In CentOS, Many times/ Sometimes I had to find add the repository of a software before installing it, but in Ubuntu is in not necessary as the Ubuntu apt is already configured to use a wide range of software repositories
2. The Ubuntu and it's software repositories are updated very quickly compared to CentOS (or even fedora) - May be this is not required by all users
3. Ubuntu's community support is much bigger and awesome.

The Server industry was captured by RedHat (RHEL/CentOS) so it is not easy for web hosting companies to migrate to a another distro that is bit different. - Migration is not worth the overhead of additional training of staff or the other infrastructure costs required for such platform change.

Earlier I used CentOS and after migrating things to Ubuntu, I am able to save some more time on configuration, installations, upgrades, etc! since Ubuntu is easier to manage. In terms of performance I don't see any difference between CentOS or Ubuntu or Any.
 
Software stacks are like religions. People fight about minor differences between them even though the underlying implementation is largely the same. Unlike religions, you don't go to hell if you choose the wrong one, and nobody will really judge you for switching if you've got a valid reason to do so. I don't give a fuck who's right, but I'm not an academic, I'm here to make money. IMO, pick one and drink their punch until it kills you. We're talking about the platform you host your entire online business upon; you will never be a Priest if you spend half your week in Synagogue.

Good one!!!
 
I have a couple old Dell D610s we use around the house Have Ubuntu 10 running Gnome on one.
The other is running Kubuntu 8.10 with KDE,,
I prefer Ubuntu- If I had to choose, though I'm by no means a Linux guy..

B~
 
[~]# get Ubuntu

[~]# help Ubuntu
Ubuntu: Easy to use, easy to install, boot from disc, lots of tutorials if needed, supports most hardware and drivers
 
Gentoo if you want customization and like using new versions of software, takes some learning, but well worth it. My servers are running gentoo now, been a heavy debian user, but got fed up building shit by hand from source and fixing it.
 
Gentoo if you want customization and like using new versions of software, takes some learning, but well worth it. My servers are running gentoo now, been a heavy debian user, but got fed up building shit by hand from source and fixing it.

sabayon is not bad if u are a bit too slack to build gentoo ha ha
 
Ubuntu is great and very user friendly, I used it for like a month. Allthough I had to discover that for a Gamer like me Linux just isn't the right thing, lol.
 
sabayon is not bad if u are a bit too slack to build gentoo ha ha

Nah, gentoo builds are all automated, for installation, I use prepared xen templates. Haven't heard of sabayon though, will check it out.