best linux distro?
 

Hi,
I am using Linux (Mandriva) since 2005/6, recently I installed Powerpack 2011 and since I face several problems such as damaged sound, I am considering switching to another Distro, I use Gnome 2.32.1 amd I like it's theme and resolution, so I want it to have this version of Gnome.

I am not a Linux expert since I use few linux applications such as gcc/g++, emacs, firefox, evince, mplayer, xine... .

So what do you recommend ??

Thanks,

If you like GNOME 2 and you aren't a Linux geek, you might want to go with Linux Mint 13 MATE Edition.
It features MATE desktop which uses the source code of GNOME 2 where gnome left off to gnome 3.

Mint is a Ubuntu-based distro. It has the deb package manager. Have fun! XD

Some apps you listed is not built-in, but, you can use: apt-get, software center, etc.

There is no such thing as the best linux distro.

If you like Gnome 2.x, you might also try Fuduntu.

Yeah, I was just about to say that there is no "best distro". It actually depends on your taste (What you like).
Each distro has its own taste. Some are similar but some are unique.

I was in such a hurry, that's why i didn't say that. :p

I agree with sycamorex.

Fuduntu may or may not be the "best" distro, but it's the only one I know that's committed to keeping the obsolete Gnome 2.32 alive indefinitely. Highly recommended for that reason.

Otherwise you can look into a desktop environment such as MATE that provides a Gnome-2-like experience, or branch out into something different like KDE, Xfce, Unity, LXDE, etc..

I was expecting you to recommend a more famous distro like Debian, Fedora,openSuse, what are the disadvantages of those ??
How about Debian for example? I am searching for a more reliable distro.
I have no experience with any other environment other than KDE and Gnome.
Thnx,

Debian uses stable but old version of stuff, it can be outdated which means that it might not support new hardware as much as ubuntu, etc.

Debian focuses more on server which uses stable and reliable stuff.

How about Fedora Core ? and openSuse? I managed to solve most issue with Mandriva Powerpack 2011 except the sound, if I'll fix that also then I'll keep the Powerpack 2011.

Thanks,

What about them?

Here's a comparison of the Top 10, they are all pretty good in my opinion: http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

Do they support new hardware? are they suitable for not too much Linux experts? are they stable,
For what purposes they are much suited ??

Well, Obviously,

Not:
* Fedora Core.
But, These do support new hardware and may suite what you need:
* Fedora.
* OpenSUSE.

If I am right, It starts to sound like a homework question.

Fedora is a bleeding edge distribution, so chances that it support the latest hardware are high. The downside is that it isn't really considered to be stable due to its bleeding edge nature.
openSuse has just released it new version 12.2, so hardware support should also be pretty good. I haven't used a Suse distribution for a long time (last one was Suse 8.0), but it seems to be stable and user-friendly, from what I can see on this forum.
Debian is a distro that is made for stability, which means that it has a longer development cycle with extensive testing. That causes that Debian is released with a bit older software and software versions in a released Debian never change (except you make use of the backport repository or third party repositories).

Regarding the hardware, the easiest way to find out is to just download a few distros, put them on USB and simply give them a try.

Fedora lied to me, I read the features page and it has the "Office Suite". I downloaded Fedora hoping it has the office suite I was expecting but, no office suite. I need to search on Google many times until I get this and that was before I joined the forums.

Have you downloaded the DVD or the CD? AFAIK, only the DVD contains an office suite.

I think it was CD... I don't know.. I couldn't remember, I was new to Linux at that time.

Hi,
I still find it difficult to decide, I was looking in the linuxQuestions reviews.

Does freeBSD support Intel or just AMD?
What is the meaning of Live-Desktop in : Is it a DVD iso?
Please excuse me if my questions look simple to you but I have never tried any other Linux rather than Mandriva.

FreeBSD supports both CPUs. Bear in mind that FreeBSD is not a Linux distribution.

The Live bit means that you can boot that CD (yes, it's a CD) without installing anything on your hard drive. It loads everything to RAM so that you can try out distributions without installing them. It's a very smart and convenient way of checking out distros. The "Desktop" bit means that the default selection of software is targeted at desktop users, as opposed to server administrators.

seeing as the LAST "core" was fedora core 6
and it is now 11 versions OUT OF DATE ( it hit EOL on "2007-12-07")
i would NOT use a unsupported version of fedora !!!!

and fedora 17 is using Gnome3.4

but if you MUST stay with Gnome2 then there is CentOS6.3
Centos6 has a 7 year life span ,BUT it is NOT a good choice for the home desktop

FreeBSD supports both arch but, you might want to get a DVD if you want the Graphical Desktop Environment.
FreeBSD focuses on servers so, you might find it hard to work with it as a desktop user.

Well, simply, if the iso is more than 700 MB then it is a dvd. If it is less than 700 MB, it is a CD.

OK,
So I read a lot at the LQ reviews and in the internet and want to choose one of three, openSuse,Fedora and Slackware.

Which one do you recommend? I saw that many rates gave Slackware a grade of 10 .

I am downloading all of them now, and till it finishes I need to decide.

Thanks,

better try them on live-cd or a VM first.

Wouldn't it be more sensible to try them first and then decide?

I think you're overcomplicating the whole thing. It's good that you read reviews but at the end of the day it's you who need to feel comfortable using a particular distro so try some of them and stick to the one you like best.

OK, Thanks, I'll try Slackware first ... Thanks for the help.

And you should rename your ident as "SlackwareFan" if you like slackware, etc.

Hi,

From what I have read, Slackware is for experienced Linux users, while I really like the textual interface and really would like to do every thing using the shell, I have no time to learn this at the moment.

So I think I'll try openSUSE .


Thanks,

Gentoo AFAIK still has Gnome 2 in portages. And it's the best Linux distro. So there you have it. :D

If Gentoo is the best Linux distro why are you using Arch?

You do need to learn the Linux command line to use Slackware effectively. With a desktop-oriented distro like Mint, on the other hand, you can do everything from its default desktop and you never have to pull up a terminal if you don't want to.

To TobiSGD.
I expected this kind of question. :)
I just don't have time to learn Gentoo. I do some PHP coding occasionally and have Arch ready for it (I know everything I need to use Arch as a system for PHP development whereas with Gentoo who knows how long will it take to learn how to set everything up...). I also have very slow CPU for compiling everything. So yeah, I wish I used Gentoo. Just not now.

Hi,
Gentoo is not listed in this list...
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

That is because Gentoo is not one of the major distros. Gentoo will not be interesting for you if you don't have the time to learn the commandline. You have to install and setup it from scratch, with compiling everything except the minimal system from source.

To get back to the question posed by mandrivaFan in his/her original post:

There is no perfect/best/ultimate Linux distribution. Everyone has (very!) different preferences and different goals for their computer systems. I find Xubuntu to be a good fit with my preferences, yet there are others who swear by Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, Arch, Gentoo, Salix, PCLinuxOS, ...

If you are hoping for a recommendation of what Linux distribution might be a good choice for you, I would suggest trying a Linux distribution chooser (there are many) or posting a list of your preferences and goals here at LQ and asking for help. Alternatively, download several distributions and try them out on a spare computer; keep downloading, burning and installing/LiveCDing until you find something you like.

Good luck! :)

If you're looking for a user friendly distro, I would say Mint is what you might be looking for, although it's been said many times in this thread that there is no "Best Distro," and I agree. Linux UE (Ultimate Edition) is also user friendly, and comes with a lot of pre-installed "fancy" features, but be warned, it's still in it's early stages. Right now, I currently have mine dual booting to Ultimate Edition and LuninuX OS. It runs gnome, but (as you can probably concur from the name) looks and acts similar to Mac OS X. It even fools some people at a first glance. It comes with docky pre-installed, as well as a lot of other programs you would want it to have. This does have the downside of making it a little heavier than most distros, but I really like it. But if you're looking for user friendly, I would still say Mint or UE. Both are clean and user-friendly.

Debian stable is great because it never crashes, and you know that if you have to upgrade anything, then it's always for security reasons only.

I used Ubuntu briefly but when the Update Manager told me to, for example, upgrade the kernel 3 times a week or rip out all of OpenOffice to replace it with LibreOffice, it felt like I should do backups. I never worry on Debian.

The only drawback is that you don't get the newfangled software that more up-to-date distributions offer. You do get it eventually, but only after it has been tested for about 3 years, and I like that.

It's not unlike why the Volvo 740 is better than those new cars where everything is electronic. The 740 -- although the window lifts use a crank -- can easily roll over 50 000 (metric) miles, while modern cars break down before 10 000. The old stuff is better and more reliable.

For example, I bet your sound will work out of the box on Debian.

Slackware is also an excellent choice (which gives you more freedom and up-to-date software), but Debian is more convenient.

What's a 'metric mile'?
How does that differ from a non-metric (aka Imperial) one?

After trying several distributions starting from Fedora,Slackware,Ubuntu,Debian,SolusOS,OpenSuse and PCLinuxOS, I am much comfortable using the Linux Mint 13 XFCE edition. Linux Mint XFCE is really seems like pretty solid and stable with good collection of software along with multimedia codecs installed. It's has been so far running great on my 3 year old HP Compaq Laptop with AMD dual core machine with NVIDIA 8200MG graphic card.

For me atleast for now, Linux MINT XFCE is working better.

It's 2 miles on leap years.

I see now on Wikipedia that I was thinking of the Scandinavian mile, which is 10 km.

Moderator Response
 

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <Linux-Distribution> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

To the OP, i've read every reply, (granted i'm drunk right now, i think i can give you an intelligent response). I have three favorite distributions; in no order, Slackware Opensuse and Debian. You like gnome 2.32. In case you have not kept up to date with linux dev stuff, Gnome have moved on to gnome3 which is much different to gnome2, and many previous gnome2 users are not happy, and you may not be too. If you are certain you want to stick with your current desktop environment, gnome2, you need to look for a distribution that supports mate, or one that supports gnome2 for a long time. Mate is a fork of gnome 2.32 to continue the development of gnome2 where the previous developers left off.
You list three distributions you're interested in, Fedora, Opensuse and Slackware. I have not had a real lot to do with Fedora as they're aiming for the complete opposite of what i'm looking for, but here's my twp cents.
All you want to do is type and compile code? why would you need bleeding edge? you've no need to go to Fedora. Opensuse currently only have a development branch for Mate, so i personally wouldn't recommend it, (but that's not to say it's not usable; some people use it on there desktops): Slackware hasn't supported gnome for a long time, and thus never supported Mate; but Salix, a fork of Slakware does support mate, with packages 100% compatible with Slack. I've used the Salix Mate packages on Slackware and they worked great. I like to use the kwin window manager though even on mate, which is not standard behavior and it made the cpu go right up under mate (opposed to native kde) which drained the battery fast unfortunately. But that's only under kwin; if you use metacity like most people do i'm sure you'll be fine.
So out of Fedora, Opensuse, and Slackware, i think Slackware is you're best option. I don't think Slackware is your best option out of all distros though. Lets face it, I love Slackware, but it takes a little longer than other distros to get set up, and if you don't care about that, and just want your programs to work as soon as possible, then i can understand that, and that's one of the reasons why i use Opensuse on my secondary computer.
I think that's you. you've made it clear you don't know a lot about Gnu/Linux and just want to code software with the gnome 2.32 desktop environment, and have sound work.
Because of this, my ultimate suggestion is try Linux Mint Mate edition; or Debian Wheezy, and install Mate with the third party repo.
Debian Wheezy will take a little more learning than mandriva and Mint, but if you follow Wheezy From Testing and through stable, i honestly think it will be your best option despite the little bit of a learning curve at the beginning, but at least it'll be nothing compared to Slackware.

Please feel welcome to post any more questions.

Knightron

Hello,
So I installed openSUSE a while now, at first installation it was freeze while booting, so I burned a new DVD, and reinstalled it, it worked perfectly for several times and now it freezes sometimes while booting, so I am afraid that it will freeze for all of the boots, and then I'll lost my data and my configuration, Mandriva Powerpack 2011 has damaged sound.

So either I go back to windows or try another distro, I search for distro with reputation, and thought about Debian 6, but I want to know where I am going to before, does it have graphical package manager? it's kernel is old, will this cause problems in sound/video for example, or other things? does it have a gui network manager? does it come with emacs,gcc,g++,mplayer,codecs,libreoffice... .

What do you think ?

can some one give me the link to the DVD 64bit iso for intel, the link in this site is for amd .?
p.s. I am the same as mandrivaFan !
Thanks,

amd64 is the correct architecture choice for 64-bit intel chips as well.

Why not test-drive a Live CD, which will answer many of your questions? All of the applications on your list can be installed in Debian, using either a GUI package manager or the terminal, whichever is your preference. :) You might also check out Wheezy/7 which is very close to Stable (probably in the next few months) and has about 2 years newer kernel and software than Squeeze/6.

Why is it called DVD-1??
I checked in www.distrowatch.com and Debian in not among the Distros to be released in coming months!
Also I read that the latest stable version is 6.0.4, where can I find it? what advantages does it have compared to 6?

Thanks

6.0.4 is nothing fancier than the current maintenance update of 6, it is the default download at: http://www.debian.org/distrib/

Debian does not speculate/predict release dates. Debian 7 will be released when it's ready.

I agree that there is no such thing that a "best distro". So, I will only tell you where I am now Since I've been paying with linux, I've tried different distro's: Mandrake, opneSuSe, Fedora, Fuduntu, Pear, Mint, PCLinux, etc. I think I've stayed with Fedora the longest as I liked the GUI and the support. I've lately changed over to Ubuntu for the following reaons:
1. I didn't like the desktop and GUI of Fedora 16 and later
2. I did like Ubuntu's GUI
(yeah, I know its silly, but if you interact 8 hours a day with a PC, you want it to correspond to youas a person)
3. The community support is great
4. Its user-friendly. With Ubuntu, I'm busy with a project of converting Win 7 users to Linux as a cost saving exercise (license costs) and it works.

So, I would really recommend trying Ubuntu. You can revert back to previous Gnome versions, if that's the main concern.

Debian Wheezy Beta installer 3
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/wh...amd64/iso-dvd/

Debian Squueze 6.06
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/...amd64/iso-dvd/

You only need dvd1 to install debian.

Even though That Wheezy installer is beta, i used it just over a week ago and it worked flawlessly, and gave me a good Wheezy system.
I still suggest you try Wheezy, Debian really is not difficult to work out. I suggest Wheezy over Squeeze because it will become the stable release in the coming months, and it's pretty good right now. Squeeze does encounter common issues with newer hardware; they're not hard to fix if you know what you're doing, but i just think Wheezy is the right choice at this time of the freeze, if you're doing a fresh install.
Make sure you do an md5sum check of the iso once downloaded, that may have been your issue with Opensuse.

Can you explain for me what is md5sum check ?? I have never did such thing !! sorry but as I said I am sort of newbie .

No worries mate. Have you ever downloaded a song or video, and when you've played it, it got so far and just stoped and it refused to play further no matter what? Yes, No? It's happened to me, so i figure, you may have experienced that too.
Well this occurs because the file became corrupt. This can sometimes happen when you download an iso file too (and has happened three times to me while downloading with Apple Safari when i was first starting), and if it does you don't want to install from it.
the md5sum is a long string of digits that are generated in response to the contents of the iso. As far as i know, every distro out there has a md5 number for there isos which can be downloaded or simply viewed on your web browser. Once the iso is downloaded, you can open up you linux terminal and type the command 'md5sum $directory/to/file.iso', this will appear to do nothing for a small period of time and then output a long sting of digits. You compare these with the string of digits of the md5 file downloaded or displayed on your web browser and make sure they're the same. If they're the same, then you're all good (unless it becomes corrupt in the burning process). If the strings are different then your file has not downloaded correctly.

'md5sum' is a linux command and i'm pretty sure Os X has it too, but it's not a Windows command. Windows can get third party programs to check the md5sum, but i've never used them so can't help you there.

So in summery, the md5sum check is a way to make sure your iso didn't become corrupt during download. I never mentioned it, but it can also help in identifying that someone hasn't hijacked the web sight and replaced the iso with malware named the same. I have never seen this, but it is a possibility.

Some people never check the md5, and some are religious about it. I personally, usually do when i download a new iso (it's pretty easy on Linux anyways), but have let it slip on occasions. I suggest it to be done all the time though.

Actually after trying openSUSE with Gnome 3, I now like it ..! :-)

Did you see it's rank on the LQ reviews ??

What kernel version and Gnome version does Debian 7 has ??

OK, I understand I'll check it with the isos I have, but I wanted to ask, does the correct md5sum to compare with depend on the site from which the iso/torrent was downloaded from ?

Thanks,

The md5sum should be the same if the the different website is hosting the same iso. The Opensuse12.2 64bit iso will have a different md5sum to Opensuse12.2 32 bit, and any Opensuse iso will have a diffeent iso to and Debian iso. the md5sum should be unique to every iso, so a different md5sum for every different iso.

Well why don't you stick with Opensuse then? Speaking of them freezes, you don't have an nvidia card by any chance?

Opensuse 12.2 comes with Gnome shell 3.6.1. Debian Wheezy comes with Gnome shell 3.4.2