im trying out suse 11.1 right now and am not enjoying it. i get alot of crashes and it seems very buggy.

i like the kde desktop and am looking to use my ipod, hp printer, support for nvidia drivers and audio and others. im looking for something that stays current with updates, is fairly simple to use and is stable.

i was researching ubuntu and kubuntu. can anyone explain the difference. im assuming kubuntu is the kde side so anyone have comments on that distro? i just want something that is reliable and has lots of packages

If your a kde fan .Maybe try Mepis..Its a pretty good distro,geared toward being easy for new linux users

Ubuntu us gnome-based, and kubuntu is kde-based. You could also give Debian a try, if your overriding goal is stability.

Don't go in for Debian ...you will not find the latest by default. Kubuntu will be best for you.

thank you everyone for all the input i really appreciate the help

well..from reading the only review of Kubuntu on distrowatch..its a little buggy..not "crashes every minute" buggy.But has a few issues.So If kde and stable is what you want..then 3.5.10 is stable.But you can always try Kubuntu and if its to buggy for you..you can try Mepis.

the way i decide which distro i install totally depends on my goals...

easy to use desktop distro (especially laptop) Ubuntu 8.10 with Gnome, everything works, Kubuntu is kinda weak here.

distro for every day use that can stay installed for years once you get it just right: Centos5 with KDE 3.5.x

for all out new, cool, good looking, albeit not 100% stable Open Suse 11.1 with KDE4, updated to KDE4.2 via "Factory" repository.

the latter being by far my favorite at this point. One of my servers is Centos 4, installed a couple of years ago, hosts EVERYTHING, mail, website, ftp, Samba, you name it.

production is currently Centos 5.2 64bit with VMware hosting some 20 images each. just awesome!

===
Mandriva is always nice, Fedora is nice enough, but i just don't like the KDE4 implementation on Fedora. OpenSuse with KDE4.2 is sooo much better.

regards

Uli

Next time post an easier question like "Can any one recommend a religion?"

I suggest you try Linux Mint. It is Ubuntu at heart so it uses Ubuntu repositories but Mint includes numerous refinements and includes more support for audio and video than the ?Buntus.

Slackware or Fedora or Centos. I've yet to meet a competent linux user who started with ubuntu or its derivatives.

BSD! pc-bsd

Shooting a questing easy. But answering to a question is difficult.
Anyway. Here is my view: I like fedora 10 with kde 4.2 for my desktop / notebook. But for server I prefer centos ( minimal he hehehe ).

Its all based on how you wanted to use your system.

Good luck.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON BOTH YOUR PURPOSE AND YOUR TASTE.

Every distro is aimed at certain preference or emphasis, and for that it is good, or at least it deserves merit --after all the hard work to make it available. Go satisfy your own reasoning at http://distrowatch.com.

Happy hunting.

I'd bet KDE is your issue, not Suse. KDE4 has been a bit wonky in my opinion. I had quite a few problems w/ the beta of Kubuntu 9.04. However using the beta of Ubuntu 9.04, it runs quite well(clearly still a few bugs to work out).

I'm not a huge KDE fan, but I'd steer clear of KDE4, and use 3.5. You might even consider Linux Mint, which uses Gnome, but its tweaked a bit.

Agreed, try Mandriva, it's probably the most user friendly Linux distro available.
Just today the first release candidate of Mandriva 2009 Spring came out, you could try that, even though it's only a release candidate not the final release it's nonetheless very stable and usable (I just tried it out earlier today).

See here for links to download it:
http://home.linuxtech.net/news/

No matter what distribution you decide for, they all have sometimes problems. Most of these problems get solved, and then new bugs are introduced with new application versions, and the process repeats itself.

You are advised to choose a distribution with a community that you feel comfortable with. It doesn't help to enter a community with engineering gods, where you don't understand a single word - and it also doesn't help to join some group of people that constantly do annoy you.

The top distro entries on distrowatch.org should give a good indication which ones are used the most, and by Googling a bit you can find out what kind of people are the community for that particular distro.

Under the hood most distributions are quite similar. Running Linux for a few years will give you enough experience to be productive on any of them.

Arch Linux