So far I've tried FC. Not user friendly IMO, I can't even figure out how to create a shortcut to put on my desktop. Installation was a breeze... but the whole distro seems very "disorganized"... like redhat just scooped up a bunch of programs and threw them in a bag with the kernel. There are TOO MANY CHOICES (i know, some may consider it a GOOD thing, i don't, i don't know what 90% of all the programs are for).

I tried using the Knoppix boot CD and to tell you the truth, i liked it more than FC. It just seemed nicer and more friendly. The programs seemed to be more organized and there were less of them =)

But of course, knoppix isn't meant to be a installable distro, right?

I'm down to reading about Mandrake and SUSE. I hear some great things about SUSE, such as about YAST and just how pleasing it is to the eye. They don't ravage the desktop and then sh*t on it like some of the other distro's do either (cough::FC::cough).

But then again, i hear Mandrake is more popular. I'm trying to figure out why... it seems that everything says SUSE is better.

Anyone have any advice? I'm even considering other distro's. I have 2, 20gig partitions and a 1gig swap just for playing with linux. So i can have windowsxp and play with 2 distros at the same time.

I want a smooth OS that looks great and doesn't have me running into dead-ends constantly. I also want it to look and feel organized. I use the computer for doing college stuff like programming (c, java, etc) and use it to ssh to other networks. I do regular things like browse the web, talk, homework, etc. So i'm not looking to get all extreme with the programs i use. I'm sticking to windowsxp for games so i don't care for that in linux.

What do you recommend? I'm leaning torwards SUSE.

Personally, I'd try them all for a few weeks each and pick which one you like. BTW, Knoppix can be installed to hard disk - read the cheatcodes file (or on the Knoppix website) to find out how.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the Distributions forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

lol looks like moving my post instantly killed it.

Not really, you only had one answer before it was moved: you post, then 20 minutes later I post, then 3 minutes later it's moved. Just wait - we have members who are all over the world and many are probably still asleep.

I am sorry to repeat what has already been said but only you can decide whether you prefer Debian (via Knoppix), Mandrake or SuSE. You have two 20gb partitions free --- one of those would be more than enough to give homes to more than one distro. Why not install all of them and share /home?? Alternate boots and you'll soon realise that you prefer one or the other (or not and then it really isn't an issue). Me? I steer clear of SuSE because I have two SuSE 8.2 workstations at work that need serious upgrade attention and I do not enjoy their company. Mandrake is slick and urpmi is excellent. Debian (via Knoppix) is my home workstation choice and on both of my laptops.
Enjoy!

For a new comer Suse is better in my opinion than Mandrake ..
Suse install is more fool proof ..

Knoppix can be installed on hard disk easily after booting from cd.

try them .. btw you can get suse live cd and try that too .. it's just worh a shot to make sure your hardware is recognized

should i split all my partitions up to 6.6gigs? that will let me play with 6 linux OS's at a time =)

is that enough space for each (with full install, of course).

hi,

well, with linux, it's personal choice...

that said, from my experience -

SuSE (8.2, 9.0) - extremely good (no, brilliant) installation / config tool (YaST); reliable overall, slightly dodgy 'user convenience' features (9.0) SuSE Watcher... didn't always behave, but could be uninstalled (which I did). Performance OK

Mandrake (9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 10.0, 10.1) - My pick : 10.0 shines (very good). Nice config (Drak tools), let down by occasional poor reliability (which makes them worse than useless...). Generally cutting-edge software selection, very good performance. From 9.2 onwards, looks beautiful - they've really worked hard on the user interfaces (well organised menus) , fonts, etc. Convenience features (Magicdev, etc...) better than SuSE, but still occasionally temperamental...
10.1 - avoid (bad experience on two machines).... Oh, and to make the most of Mandrake, do join Mandrake Club (I'm not an employee!!!) - it's good value!

Debian - Tried 'Woody' on an iMac - fast and stable. Lovely package managment (apt) - so easy after RPM dependency hell!! But not the most up-to-date... which brings me to...

Ubuntu - Debian based, all the benefits (quick, seems really stable, apt package management, easy upgrades, etc...), but cutting-edge, too. Only problem - very, very poor multimedia support. Slightly restrictive (very Gnome-based, no KDE, although KDE available).... I'm playing with this distro right now - sure looks promising...

In summary - I use Mandrake for most things at the moment - it's a good performer, looks nice, but infuriating, too...

My ideal distro would have the performance / easy upgradeability / apt package management of Debian, looks / software selection of Mandrake and the config tools / thorough design of SuSE - Ubuntu might just do that in the future....

But that's just my experience....

alphster, there are so many various distributions that the only real way to tell which one is for you is to actually try them all out.

However, having said that, I'd have to say that SuSE is the best for a newbie to Linux. The install is flawless, no problems at all and is so easy to follow. The actual system to use again is flawless, no problems at all. In total, I'd say if you got SuSE 9.1 or 9.2 Professional it'd be a good choice. The only problem I found with 9.1 was that Gnome wouldn't always work properly.


Otherwise, if you can use KDE, then it'll be great for you.

Hope this helps.