The distribution for the whole family?
 

I have had my family on Fedora Core 2 for a while, but its been hell keeping the machines working. Things just keep getting worse. I have found that I don't like Red Hat based distros in general, so I have the following question:

What is the best Debian based distribution for an entire family? It needs to be simple, and have plenty of plugins (for java, flash, css decryption for DVD's, etc....)

I have taken a liking to MEPIS, but if you can think of a better more maintainable distro for my entire family, I would greatly appreciate it.

*Note: I am rather new to linux myself, but I have quite a bit more experience than the rest of my family, so I am willing to do a little manual configuration if required.

Thanks much,

Jeremy Pedersen
:Pengy:

You should give ubuntu a shot. It's based on debian. I started a dual boot yesterday, and the only thing that I have a problem with is it doesn't work with my sound card.

I think ubuntu is quite clean and easy for a family who has even a little computing experience to use. It has its own package updater (Synaptic) and uses gnome as it's interface (I feel it's more clean and less confusing than KDE, but that's just how I feel). Everything is very clean and functional. You might like it a lot as I have!

Good luck!

Try Debian itself. Sarge is quite good and maintainable.

Easy to install, upgrade remove programs using apt. Dependencies are also automatically handled and downloaded so you won't have the problem of RPMs.

i second mepis for the family but i personally love ubuntu