Thread: Which Linux based OS do you prefer? Ubuntu, Fedora, or ???

if it is your first effort it probably should be ubuntu desktop.

how do you want to run your photoshop etc - VM with windows in it or WINE ?

is there a linux version of your server software ?

Thanks for all the help. Started my computer this morning and had a registry failure and it rolled back to a previous version of the registry. Lost all my settings, email identities and and who knows what else. Been a struggle just to get online today.

The laptop I use is over 3 years old so may be on its way out but I think I'll try to squeeze just a bit more life out of it.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Centos is probably the worst, and I don't think it's free

Shows us how much you know - nothing.

Centos is free.

You should really refrain from commenting.

Originally Posted by mobs00

So question is..... Which OS would would be best. I'm not planning on changing things around too much in the OS system itself. Just need a solid platform for day to day work.

Ain't no "best." if you want to get your feet wet a program such as Baldrick lined out would be "Best." That old laptop might be a good place to start with; trying out a few different distros. Remember you only install once in a blue moon so ease of install is a minor hurdle. Ease of use and stability are more important.

Originally Posted by mobs00

I do a lot of work on the net, email, etc. I use photo-shop, dream-weaver, Illustrator, etc. Also have a testing server based on my PC but do not use it as a www server.

Although Adobe did some development work in Linux (they've recently joined the "linux Foundation," whatever that is worth) and even offered a distro of their own a few years ago, there is no Photoshop for linux and opening and using all your proprietary, nicely layered photoshop files will be next to, if not completely, impossible. But you can use The Gimp, LightZone (photos only) or a couple other packages. Dream Weaver; have no idea on WYSIWYG html editors, never used them. here's a list of apps that might do it for you:
-Kompozer KompoZer - Easy web authoring
-Bluefish Bluefish Editor : Home
-Aptana Aptana
-Sea-Monkey The SeaMonkey® Project
-Quatana Quanta Plus Home

Illustrator: there are a few vector drawing apps out there Inkscape is the most popular. there is a fairly complete list of various "artistic" apps here.

If you have to have the three apps listed and cannot find suitable replacements and end up thinking about Wine to run those Windoze apps on Linux you may want to consider the idea Linux is just not for you.

Another vote for Slackware here.

If you are making the switch to Linux you may as well take some time and learn all the ins and outs and Slackware is a great distro for that.

It's also rock solid and stable and it's very good for older hardware as it ships with fluxbox and xfce as well as KDE (which I can't stand personally).

^ agree, best distro, all the others are for stupid clueless poof tards

Originally Posted by slackula

Another vote for Slackware here.

If you are making the switch to Linux you may as well take some time and learn all the ins and outs and Slackware is a great distro for that.

Very carefully chosen words, as that statement would prove true in every sense of those words - of course, Slackware is also the ideal distribution for guys who've been cultivating a long beard since they have been punching cards.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^ agree, best distro, all the others are for stupid clueless poof tards

I beg to differ, there are many fine Linux distros but I am most comfortable with Slackware, and a Knoppix CD for when I bork things up. I also like OS X (can't go wrong with full UNIX cert imho) but I find some of the file system choices confusing.

I am completely baffled by your equating distro selction with sexual orientation and mental capacity, if it was flame-bait you are going to have to work harder to get a rise out of me. That was worth maybe 1/10, fark.com has far better anti-linux flamefests.

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

Very carefully chosen words, as that statement would prove true in every sense of those words - of course, Slackware is also the ideal distribution for guys who've been cultivating a long beard since they have been punching cards.

Slackware has a fine and logically ordered and well documented system of .conf files that I find easy to edit to "tune" the system after installation and thereafter almost never need to be fiddled with again. I was a bit upset at Pat V's decision to remove Gnome but I understand the underlying reasoning.

I leave Gentoo and LFS for the long-beards.


/choosing words carefully because I'm a newbie

Originally Posted by slackula

Knoppix CD

yes another fine distro not for stupid poof,

Originally Posted by slackula

I also like OS X

do you mean MacOS X ? don't get me started on that one, useless crap that it is. You will find a few Mac zealots here who can only swear by Apple since they never saw anything else in their life, or never really used a computer for doing anything useful.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Originally Posted by slackula

Knoppix CD

yes another fine distro not for stupid poof,

I don't think distro choice is based on sexual orientation.

Originally Posted by slackula

I also like OS X
do you mean MacOS X ? don't get me started on that one, useless crap that it is. You will find a few Mac zealots here who can only swear by Apple since they never saw anything else in their life, or never really used a computer for doing anything useful.

Yes, I mean Mac OS X, is there another OS calling itself OS X? I find it to be a very flexible and usable OS with a very nice front end. Having access to a real UNIX terminal is a bonus, but I rarely have to use it on my Macs because Apple seems to have put a good amount of thought into the UI.

I'd be interested to hear why you think OS X "useless crap"?

Originally Posted by slackula

I'd be interested to hear why you think OS X "useless crap"?

butterfly has yet to master his favourite OS


you will learn more about his afflictions as you spend time on the board - and don't be scared about calling him whatever you want , he apparently has callouses to attest to the anal reaming he has had in the past

Originally Posted by slackula

Slackware has a fine and logically ordered and well documented system of .conf files that I find easy to edit to "tune" the system after installation and thereafter almost never need to be fiddled with again.

but the learning curve for using vi is a bit steeper than the GUI stuff that ships with the popular distros

Originally Posted by slackula

I don't think distro choice is based on sexual orientation.

it is actually, but you are probably a poof, so it doesn't really matter

Originally Posted by slackula

is there another OS calling itself OS X?

yes there was actually, an old project in 1995 called OS X

Originally Posted by slackula

I find it to be a very flexible and usable OS with a very nice front end. Having access to a real UNIX terminal is a bonus, but I rarely have to use it on my Macs because Apple seems to have put a good amount of thought into the UI.

ah, knew it, you are a Mac poof, end of discussion then, no point to argue with a Mac tard

Originally Posted by slackula

I'd be interested to hear why you think OS X "useless crap"?

It's very pretty, I will grant you that, but full of silly distractions and gadgets that are basically useless unless you spend all day playing with the Finder and do nothing else.

The worst part of the OS is the clumsy Filesystem and the proprietary directory organization of the system files and libs, which means when you enter in CMD mode, you have to struggle with silly "Macness" and often not logical directory structure.

Of course the worst piece of garbage is the Finder. Absolutely useless. I tried to find a replacement that would look like Explorer, but it seems that key "fundamentals" functionalities in the Mac to permit to have a full working Explorer like in WinXP are missing. It's hopeless, because despite MS devil work, they still seem to have the best usable UI in the whole world (WinXP), even beating any Linux Desktop in that regard. Let's face it, there is no replacement in the desktop market for that at the moment. In the server market, Linux rules. MacOS X rules in neither and for good reasons. The public sees it's crap and stay away from it. Apple was never able to design a proper OS, they build nice machine and gadgets and that's it.

Originally Posted by slackula

Originally Posted by DaffyDuck

Very carefully chosen words, as that statement would prove true in every sense of those words - of course, Slackware is also the ideal distribution for guys who've been cultivating a long beard since they have been punching cards.

Slackware has a fine and logically ordered and well documented system of .conf files that I find easy to edit to "tune" the system after installation and thereafter almost never need to be fiddled with again. I was a bit upset at Pat V's decision to remove Gnome but I understand the underlying reasoning.

I leave Gentoo and LFS for the long-beards.

I was being tongue-in-cheek regarding Slackware -- if you are familiar with the underpinnings and concepts of unix, you'll figure it out, and it makes sense -- if you are a total newbie, it's hell.

Slackware was the first distro I figured out, back around 1996 or so, I think. I quickly switched to RedHat, though, because of the RPM system. Currently using Centos, though. For a brand new user, Ubuntu does a decent job hiding the underbelly from the end user, and providing a functional desktop environment.

Mandriva (née Mandrake) does the worst job of it, as well as maintaining a consistent environment - well, they are French, so there's your answer.

Originally Posted by baldrick

but the learning curve for using vi is a bit steeper than the GUI stuff that ships with the popular distros

actually VI is super easy, you need to learn no more than 3 or 4 commands to use it on a daily basis

once you go VI, there is no turning back