thanx abe, your post was really helpful. i think i'll hang on to mdk for a couple of months (i've only installed it 4-5 days ago), to get more linux-minded, and than switch to slackware.
it may sound stupid, but i really like getting os to work - i reinstalled windows at least 50-60 times, used all types of windows, and refused to use xp because it's extremly user friendly (it's got no DOS!!!!!!)i like to search a bit to find a solution and personalize os (you can't personalize xp - not talking about wallpapers and mouse cursors here)
command line RULES!!! i already use it for most of the time (mostly trying to get sound working...without success - i don't have snddevice far anymore...), and tar, bzip2 are great...

Well another vote for Jamd here. It's a simplified Redhat 9.0 Linux. It's installation is pretty similar to Redhat 7.3 and took me about 7-8 minutes to get my system up and running (P4 - 2 GHZ - 512). It comes with really useful packages as OpenOffice, Flash Plugin, Mozilla, Evolution, mplayer and apt-get/synaptic out of the box all in one single CD. It's meant to be simple and it is. It's a desktop OS only, no Apache, no gcc or any kind of servers, nor all the repetitive programs all distros are shipped with (5 browsers, 10 text editor which at the end does the same thing). It uses all rpm's available for Redhat which makes it pretty useful. If you have a fast internet connection, it's just awesome the stuff you can download using apt-get and synaptic, from updating your distro up to downloading p2p as xmule or gxmame to play some games.. Ask a Debian/Redhat/Conectiva/Jamd user about apt-get and he/she will tell you . Plus it's always fun to try out something not everybody is running (insert Mandrake, Redhat, Gentoo, Slack, Debian and Suse here).

Good luck!

Glad i could help Nechos! Whatever distro you use, welcome to Linux! Megaman X here has a good point about the "non-mainstream" Linux's. Don't forget to check them out! Sorcerer and Lunar Linux both look pretty interesting, maybe look into one of them?

Thanks Abe_the_Man!! I am also planning to give Sorcerer a try. Gentoo is pretty popular, but I like the command "cast" more then "emerge". Kinda silly, I know, but at the end, all Linux distros are good and highly customizable so no fear

Being a Mod for another completely different forum, I realise I am bumping up a really really old thread but the last query on this thread is pretty old so I hope ye dont mind.

I have been asked to set-up a network for an educational organization and I plumped for Linux since it meant lower TOC(licensing Win, especially in India, would have cost a small fortune)

The number of Linux distros out there is over-whelming. I've been reading for a while but I realise this calls for some professional advice.

What would you recommend? The students are only going to be doing a lot of Internet surfing, document creation, mail checking( they'll be having their own e-mail ids@schoolname.com) and running a few extra applications which I've already determined have a Linux version.

What about the server? The students' system has to connect since they get limited access to the Internet.Hardware requirements? Plus I have to configure the e-mails for the students.

I also read about some software(Userful site) that allows you to connect a few more systems to the server. Are these really worth it?

Please help.

p.s. What about Linspire??

RahulOP,

try these:

Kubuntu
http://www.kubuntu.org/

Mandriva
http://frontal2.mandriva.com/en/downloads/mirrors

PCLinuxOS .92
http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/dist...glish/preview/
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/distr...glish/preview/

This is the distro I use and recommend, Why because it works right out of the box. No need to configure Everything, everything just works. It also comes as a 1 CD install that is a live CD that you can install later if you wish.

BeatrIX
http://www.watsky.net/download.html

This Distro is small fast and effective, the ultimite Workers CD

Blag
http://www.blagblagblag.org/download/

is A one CD install of Fedora Core

OPENSUSE
http://www.opensuse.org/Download

Mephis
http://www.mepis.org/

if your still unsure of the distro, try these distro choosers:
http://eedok.voidofmind.com/linux/chooser.html
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

Wow, that's a lot of distros!!

Thanks jacook

I wasnt sure if I've understood your recommendations correctly so I've broken them down into what I think is the correct statement for each distro. I hope i am correct.

I loved the "choose your distro" walk throughs!! Thanks a lot for that

Sorry I missed this one out. I am not sure I understood the LiveCD part completely. Am I correct when I say that" LiveCD allows me to run that version of Linux without actually installing it onto my system. I need to have a CD everytime I boot my system"
Basically a LiveCD is useful if you want to see your comfort levels with that particular OS.

I'm going to have to pick 1 OS and stick with that so thanks for all the tips.I'll check out everything starting with your recommendation.