Hello

I've been told that Fedora Core 3 has problems with a lot of things not working without some fiddling. Would Debian be better in this regard

I still have very little expenience with linux. I'm trying to start up my web development business (using JSP) and I want something that's stable and easy to use.

Thanks

pamount

I don't know of any distribution where there's no need for "fiddling" with things to get them to work. I guess what I'm saying to you is that your going to run into problems, especially if you're new to Linux, no matter what distribution you use.

Hello

Thanks for the reply. I guess it's best I just load Fedora Core 3 and see what it's like for myself.

Have a good day

pamount

Fedora and Debian are motivated by quite different philosophies.

Fedora is a testing ground for cutting edge software and features, so it is quite unstable by linux standards. Also, Fedora has a rapid update schedule so you can upgrade every 6 months or so and every year or so your version of Fedora will move into lagacy status. In short, if you want an environment to play with and test out new things, Fedora is cool, but if you actually need to do work on the computer and can't be bothered with updating and tweaking things all the time, then Fedora isn't the best choice.

Debian, by contrast, is all about stability. The software is older, there are fewer new and cool things, but it is a freakin' tank that is arguably the most stable Linux out there. Even Debian Testing (Sarge) is quite stable and perfect for a desktop that you must actually get work done on.

Pick your poison, they are both better than Windows.

Hi

Thanks for that. After reading your post I think I'll get a copy of Debian and compare that to Fedora Core 3. I did notice one of the web hosting companies I'm looking at uses Debian.

I guess it seems like I'm changing my mind on which distro to use every few hours but I've currently got my head stuck in this JavaServer Pages book and I'm starting back at my IT course this week so my mind is all over the place at the moment

Have a good day

pamount

Just try out both and then pick the one you like.

....You'll end up with slackware after some months anyway.

you're not the only one there, kinda like a kid in a kandy shop with only $1 to spend...