Ubuntu !
 

Hi all.

Pls dont be mad at me since this question may be asked thousands of time.

I am currently using win xp (registered version) in my organization. I am from network dept so i thought it would be fun and productive to move to linux. So far i have heard great things about ubuntu, what i am really concerned with, will all the shell tools be available to me ? like sed, awk, grep, shell navigation commands etc ?

Yes, they should all be there. I do not live and breathe the command line, but I have not yet found a basic bash command missing from Ubuntu.

Yeah, but you will be unable to use labor-saving scripts such as smxi

Suggest a true-Debian distro, myself (see link).

Best wishes!

yeah, but i think CentOS or redhat will be better for network related
ubuntu does not have some libraries for development and applications.

If you aren't familiar with Linux I would recommend starting with Ubuntu. It has all the standard Linux commands.

Ubuntu gives you a huge user community, tons of helpful websites, support, forums, etc.

You can always move to another distro later if you find you need advanced features not available in Ubuntu.

Good luck.

nope, start with CentOS, since it a clone (100%) of Redhat Enterprise series (RH costs $$$ for support, CentOS is free community support).
Redhat is the defacto in the Linux server market.
If you know CentOS, you have a rock stable beast under your belts, and a very long update lifespan (7 years +).
Also in the enterprise industry the use Redhat distro's for development (and thus WORKSTATION use) is standard mostly.

Ubuntu is quite good, although more suited for home (desktop) usage, than server or workstation usage.

Redhat (and therefor CentOS) is certified in many areas, while ubuntu is not.

>>>>> Redhat is the defacto in the Linux server market.

@teebones, you're right of course. I was (incorrectly?) assuming this person was talking about a pc. For a personal computer I'd go Ubuntu, for a server I'd go CentOS. Thanks.

If you are in a corporate environment and need a server OS, Centos or Redhat is the only way to go. It is the most commonly used LinuxOS in corporate environments from my experience.

If you are interested in a desktop/laptop OS, then go with Fedora. This is maintained by a community and Redhat and has upstream features not yet implemented into Redhat.

Ubuntu is based off of Debian. You probably will not run into many corporations that use Ubuntu or Debian(I haven't, I'm a contractor and work in 100-200 new environments a year) especially after their SSL slip up a year or so back, IMHO. Also, some of the commands and programs included with Debian/Ubuntu might throw you off, when you go to use Fedora / centos / redhat.