It seems...

Redhat is amied at Enterprise. Started in '94
Caldera is aimed at Enterprise. Started in 94 (Merged with SCO in 2002)
Mandrake is aimed at middle of the road, leaning towards desktop. Started in '98
Suse is aimed at middle of the road, leaning towards desktop. Started in 93
Slackware is aimed at hardcore command liners (Unix style)???? Started in '93
Debian is aimed at ?,Started in '93
Xantros is aimed at Home desktop users. Started in 2001?
Lindows is aimed at Home desktop users. Started in 2002?
Lycoris is aimed at Home desktop users. Started in 2000?
Gentoo is aimed at the Linux Power Users. Started in 2000

DEBIAN

please man, we really don't need yet another one of these. If you are interested in other peoples opinions then SEARCH and you will find them. LOTS of them.

carrja99.
Sorry I totaly forgot about debian thanks for the reminder. (And Gentoo...too.)

acid_kewpie,
If you don't like it, don't participate in it. You may have seen them many times before, but I'm new to this. The feedback on my threads is really helping me understand Linux more and the community supporting it. What, So I can't ask a simple question and offer a poll on it now. I thought the Linux commmunity was about Freedom. So don't attempt to confine or control what I ask.

Thank you very much.

ooooh, this will get ugly

Another thought...Should BSD be on the list too. Isn't it a Linux Distro too? or is it a Unix + Gui, or something else?

it's not linux, it's one of the forked unixes(TM).

Gah, no, not at all... The BSDs are seperate kernels, even from one another too, heck even different compilers, not Linux at all, and making that mistake at a party full of geeks is picking a fight, trust me, I made that mistake once 3 years ago and just got the bridgework on my jaw finished.

btw:

Commies!!!

Cheers,

Finegan

>> Debian is aimed at ?,Started in '93<<

damn hippies

Thanks for the info guys, I'll stay away from BSD then. Even though I already downloaded 3 cds of FreeBSD.

also..

The more I read about Suse Distro the more I like it. Its becoming very attactive to me.

However, even thought they allow you to install from ftp, they don't supply any CD ISOs for Download. I guess this is a marketing strategy to gt people to purchase the boxed version, and still offer the "Free for Download" option.

Here are some reviews of their products for any newbies who are on the hunt for their perfect match too...

http://www.suse.com/us/private/reviews/index.html

So far I have...
5 CD's of redhat 8
3 CD's of Mandrake 9.0
3 CD's of Mandrake 9.1
1 CD of Suse 8.1 Eval
3 CD's of Free BSD

All in all I think I have had the most success so far using RedHat, but it was much by luck, hit and miss mostly. Its slightly more complicated to configure then I would like, but at least I was able to use my networked shared windows printers and shared files with my Windows Computers with it, which is more than I can say for Mandrake.

I definately want to get Redhat 9 and Suse 8.2. I may have to buy Suse 8.2 but not until I know for sure its exactly right for me.

If you've already got all that stuff, go ahead and plug 'em in and you can answer a lot of questions for yourself.

This thread has been done a million times but I liked the little historical/target-audience notes you put in. Have I missed a thread on that? Seems like you can go to a Linux distro's site to get their sales pitch of what they're about but it would be nice to hear users of the distros describe what THEY think the distro's really about. I've seen it done generally 'by the way' or devoted to a single distro but not 'describe your distro, any distro, here' - not 'what's best' or 'what's your favorite thing about' but just 'what is it?'.

Like: BasicLinux - don't know when it started and it claims to be Slack-based (as does Vector) but I've never run Slack so can't definitely say. It's such a chopped distro that 'based on' doesn't mean much. The main thing is that (with complications) you can use 'pkg' and Slack '.tgz' files to enhance the system after you take it off the ramdrive and put it on the hard drive. (It initially runs off two floppies.) In a way, it's very nicely done with a lot of thought and effort but, in a way, it's just too limited and the 1.8 branch is too old. If you're desperate and have some familiarity with Linux or if you ONLY want to save a 386/486SX from the garbage by using it as a router/firewall that you don't really interact with, go for it. Otherwise, try something else.

Something like that would be cool. And, in answer to the question, I wouldn't recommend that one for the ambitious post-XP user - maybe the ambitious post-DOS 6.22 user who's dealt with Linux before.

By hearsay, if you're leaning to SuSe that should do all right for you and it seems Mandrake would be fine for an XP-switch while the most popular (or most numerous, anyway) dual-boot seems to be RedHat and XP. Huh. And that's exactly what you've got. You should be fine. Plug 'em in.

SuSE or Mandrake are perfect. Red Hat is okay, but has some missing multimedia things like mp3 player plugin and no xine to watch DVDs.

The rest are not good choices for someone just wanting to switch without getting frustrated. Slack, Gentoo, Debian, especially are more difficult to use for a new linux user.

Debian is for everybody. Going off the deepend forces you to adapt, well it did me. I did adapt to Debian, well still am. I am not worried one bit. I use both cmdline and gui as both are... dare I say... FUN!

If you want a challenge, and some fun (with an easy packaging system) Debian is your friend.

I hope that the above comment was a joke, not slander of my political beliefs!

About your question: Just take the plunge! Go with something! It doesn't really matter which one (hope this doesn't start a flame war...). Soon, you may find that you change your mind and that's ok. I tried Debian, RH 7 and 8 and Vector before landing on Slack. I am also currently bootstrapping (sp?) Gentoo...just to see what it is like. Basically, just keep trying things out until you find something you like. Lastly, never *never* ever listen to the people who tell you that you can't do something because you are a n00b. I tried Slack 8.1 even though *a lot* of people said that I wouldn't be able to do it. Finally, have fun!

Thanks Guys, you have all been very helpful, and for the most part this thread has been very civilized.

I think each distro has its pros and cons, and fits into different needs and likes.

Currently I am eyeing Suse 8.2, Redhat 9, and Mandrake 9.1 for my needs...

I just don;t want to invest months in one and then dump it and jump to another...I want to be assured I have chosen the best one for my needs from the get go.

Here are my thoughts on the pros and cons of my Top three choices...remembering that I want co-existence

1) Redhat: 9 Years experience, Solid, well thoughtout, very professional, but lacking desktop multimedia bells and whistles because of licensing issues as well as being aimed at enterprise users, also can be pretty complicated to configure for a newbie but gives more control to the user over the system, it is available for free on ISO's for Download.

2) Mandrake 9.1: 5 years experience, Buggy, Includes all the newest revisions of everything, very nice eye candy, and includes many multimedia components for the home desktop user, available for free on ISO's for Download.

3) Suse 8.2: 10 Years experience, Looks awesome, many bells and whistles for the Desktop home user who is into Multimedia and use to Windows XP. Is aimed at migrating Windows users to Linux, or co-exist between them. However to own copies of it you have to purchase 8.1 Pro for a whopping $140 Canadian, but this is the only distro that comes on DVD too, but if I have to pay that much I may as well stick with my WinXP.

Tough choices to make...but you can see why Suse is the most appealling to me, except for the cost. As far as becoming a hardcore Linux/Unix user it does not matter which distro I use for that, they all have a command line interface with pretty much the same commands...so that can come later...I need the best starter for me and then I can graduate to the more complex later...If I want too.


Thanks again everyone.