Choosing Linux Distro
 

Hi,

I am new here merging from Window to Linux so I can develop Web Application using PHP & MySQL.

What Linux do you suggest according to my requirement, I just need to web application development purpose to run application on it.

I went through List of Linux Distro and found the following:

- Ubuntu Desktop & server version
- OpenSuse (Suse)
- Fedora
- Gentoo

If you can assist me choosing the right Linux for my requirement.

Thanks,
Ahmad Hassouna

You missed out many - Slackware, Debian, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS to name a few. Any will do.

All of them can do that equally well.

Hi,

I should one them and use it so I can go ahead and work on web application development.

Please could assist me in choosing the right one.

Thank you,
Ahmad Hassouna

Hi,

Can you assist me on choosing one of them?

regards,
Ahmad Hassouna

Most have a LiveCD that you can run without installing anything, try some out and see how you like them. I don't know what you will be using for development, but if it runs on one distro, it should run on the rest of them. Each distro has little differences, but none that would one unsuitable for this task.

If you already have windows installed and have an internet connection, you can do a net-installation of many of them:

http://lubi.sourceforge.net/unetbootin.html

But downloading a live-cd is a good idea, because it lets you test it on your hardware before installing it.

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

All of the ones you mentioned will work equally well, but if it makes you feel better, why don't you use the Linux distro chooser at the following website:

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

All will do but my Fav is openSUSE for desktop and CentOS for server.

As said, any will do but if you want to go straight down to doing your stuff and skip the whole setting-up-my-new-linux-box stuff, you should try Mandriva One. It's got that Windowsish feel (I can't explain it, that's how I see it) which I know some newcomers to Linux like a lot.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like Mandriva is better than Fedora (<3) or openSUSE - it just comes with quite a few proprietary drivers out-of-the-box, which, in contrast to purely FOSS distros like the latter two can save you some hassle.

many options available
 

Start out with one of the traditional/large distros for the simple reason that you will find more supporting info on the Net and also more drivers supported for these systems.

If you have a very new and fast PC with tons of memory then you can use any distro. If your PC is old or slow and has a limited amount of RAM, then settle for a distro that doesn't hog your resources.

It also depends on your definition of web-development. Plain HTML pages are possible everywhere. If you want flash animations, Java applets, OpenLaszlo and other extras, then you will have to adjust your system, no matter what distro you start out with.

My suggestion would be Fedora or Ubuntu for a comfortable system, and Slackware if you are more into the technical part and have to deal with limited hardware resources.

An interim option is using a Knoppix Live DVD. It has a lot of applications pre-installed, works without installation and helps you to get a feel on Linux in general. This is true for most Live CD's, but Knoppix has excellent hardware support. Needs a lot RAM, though.

Bye,
M

Linux Archive

Ahmad,

I use Ubuntu but any distro should work. Once you install the OS you need to install mysql, apache, and php. If the machine is ONLY going to be used for development and not any type of production. I would suggest installing xamp. It is bundled package of all three packages, a quick download and install. It works great for development.

The link is http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Hope this helps.

Fr. Robert