Which Distro to replace Windows?

david.ostler · 03-07-2012, 09:37 PM

I've worked with Red Hat Enterprise, but other Linux releases I have no experience with.

I would like to replace my desktop with a Linux OS.

Which would make the transition less of a 'techno shock' to a Linux Desktop?

TIA

TroN-0074 · 03-07-2012, 09:47 PM

For starters you can try Linux Mint or Ubuntu. But because you are already familiar with Red Hat you will probably want to move in to try different distros out there are like hundreds of them

Good luck to you.

kapilbajpai88 · 03-07-2012, 11:59 PM

Hi David,

I believe that Debian will be the best choice in such a case. I was using RHEL-5 earlier, and then later got a Win-XP machine. I tried installing RHEL-5 on that but got stuck with some hardware related issues. Again it was related with my specific machine, but I have strong perception that there were some libraries missing.

Later I dnloaded Debian and that worked fine, and I am using the same till date. Maybe you can also try it and I hope that U will like it as well.

Regards,
Kapil

TKH · 03-08-2012, 12:14 AM

Mint and Ubuntu are the bests for beginners. If you want to try more, you might wanna go with CentOS.

Inkit · 03-08-2012, 03:46 AM

I too would recommend LinuxMint. In fact I would recommend the Linux Mint Debian Edition because the new ones based on Ubuntu are a little buggy (my opinion). The advantage of Mint Debian over straight Debian is that you get the non free libraries. And Mint looks much better too

DavidMcCann · 03-08-2012, 11:27 AM

If you've used RHEL, then obviously you'll feel at home with CentOS.

In a desktop environment, you'll need more software than the Red Hat packages. The CentOS site explains how to use extra repositories, with yum-priorities to avoid conflicts. I set the priorities to 1 CentOS, 2 EPEL, 3 RPMfusion, and 4 atrpms.
http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories