Hello everyone

this is my first thread.
Just installed Desktop Kubuntu Natty 11.04 x86_64 and have been amazed by its possibilities.
I would like though to install a second OS which is free-ware and unlike Kubuntu but as powerful and userfriendly.
Would anyone recommend the followinf?
FreeBSD?
Fedora?
Mandriva?

Thanks a lot

Why?

With no clue of your goals, how can anyone give constructive advise?

Opinions obviously vary on what "userfriendly" means. I found Kubuntu 10 very unfriendly. Maybe 11 is a lot better. But more likely, you just have a different concept of userfriendly than I have.

Do you want to try Gnome instead of KDE?
How "unlike" Kubuntu do you want?

I'm personally using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (which is close enough to Kubuntu) and Fedora 14.
Fedora 14 seems to be one of the better releases in the Fedora line lately.
Another option is CentOS 5.6 if you want to master enterprise class server management (like RHEL 5 and 6)

If you're looking to try something new, Bohdi Linux is very interesting (it has the Enlightenment 17 desktop) but comes with only five or six applications in the download, which means that you would have to install most of the applications you take for granted. The Enlightenment desktop is unique, simple and beautiful with only a slight learning curve.

I've liked CrunchBang and still do. It isn't pretty but it's simple and lightweight and comes with a lot of programs on the Live CD. It contains slightly older software, but I really enjoyed how simple and bug free it is.

I would recommend Chakra, but it is too unstable at the moment.

I suppose it is just a matter of personal taste:
- I don't know what Mandriva is like, but I have heard a lot of good things about it.
- Fedora is a very good place to go if you want to try out the latest technologies, but it's too "vanilla" for my taste.
- As for FreeBSD, I don't know...

If you want to stay with Linux, have a look at one with a different desktop:
MoonOS, with Enlightenment – a riot of exotic graphics
Fedora, with Gnome – the basis of the famous Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Salix, with Xfce – the (in)famous Slackware made user-friendly

If you wanted to look at something that wasn't Linux, you could always try BSD, although no-one would call it user-friendly. Haiku and Syllable are interesting, although there's very little software yet.

I think I will try FreeBSD or MoonOS.