I installed slack from Cica-NT disks in 1997. I quickly established that it was not mature enough to be usable for me, and I was in no position at the time to be a Linux hobbyist - too busy. So I blew it off.

Along about 2001, I was standing in a store looking at a software shelf that had Redhat, Mandrake, SUSE, and one or two other packages there. I studied the packaging for awhile, and decided to try Mandrake 7.2. Why? I don't recall why I picked it over the others...it was strictly from reading the box.

I installed that Mandrake, decided that though it was quite rough around the edges it was usable, and so I started using it as a dual-boot with my Windows NT system.

I still have that Mandrake installation and am using it now - I have never reinstalled. I just keep upgrading it and periodically I sweep through the system to get rid of ancient digital detritus. Currently it is Mandriva 2009.1 and this system no longer boots Windows though I do run Windows routinely in VMWare Workstation. I like all the GUI stuff to configure the system; I need to use the bloody thing, not play with it to tweak it all the time. I have plenty of Linux systems to play with.

My original Mandrake want onto a 4.3 Gig IBM SCSI drive that was just laying around - and that became the second drive in my system (NT was on a 9.1 gig Quantum SCSI). Presently, that same installation resides on a 20 Gig partition on a 147 Gig Hitachi SCSI drive. The system has grown to 5 internal and 2 external drives, and I cycled that 9.1 Gig Quantum out of service due to age, energy requirements, noise, and low capacity just a year ago (drive still works fine though).

I sit here in my office, out of which I consult, and I am surrounded by computers. My workstation runs Mandriva 2009.1. One system I have sitting here as a development system for an embedded project has Mandriva 2008.0 on it, and it has a digital signal processor with an L-band tuner plugged into it and connected to a satellite antenna. One laptop here has Kubuntu 9.04 on it; the other one has FC 10. There is a small single board computer sitting on the table over there wired into a digital signal processor development card and it is running FC 8. I have been doing some kernel hacking on it. I am using a server in another part of town as an SNMP server; it runs a 64 bit SUSE. I do have to do some development on it because my code has to work with 64 bit as well as 32 bit. I have a candidate target system running at the same physical location as that 64 bit SUSE; presently it is Mandriva 2008.0, but we soon will be hacking a kernel and creating a custom distro for it.

Q: Which is the best Linux?
A: Yes

Q: Which should I use?
A: (Jim18) All of them (see above)

Q: Which is your favorite?
A: (Pixellany) My favorite is the one that I am running at the moment. At home, we're running Mepis8, because it works. In the office, I run 3: 1) RHEL5.3 (Officially supported*, but not on laptops, so I still have to fiddle.); 2) Mepis8 (see Home); 3)Arch---because this is really my favorite---if only I could learn to get everything working. I know that, as an LQ "guru emeritus**", I'm really supposed to be using Slackware. Maybe I will someday, but their attitude about dependency-checking package-management really annoys me. Or maybe I'm really supposed to be using Debian, but they are a bit puritanical/dogmatic for my tastes. (Closed-source SW is NOT intrinsically bad.....).
According to Distrowatch, I'm supposed to be using Ubuntu or Mint. But they have this weird thing about having no root account by default.

I could continue, but I can tell that you've heard quite enough........

* The good news: Our organization supports Linux.
The bad news: They do dumb things like moving the whole place (~8,000 people) to Office2007/Exchange2007 which barely works for Windows users, much less for the Mac and *nix lunatic fringe. And they don't support Linux on laptops---they won't even let you buy one of the many pre-configured models---because they are not "certified".

**When you hit some magic post count on LQ, they make you a guru. There are only two ways out: Some strange title like "addict", or become a moderator. (I like the latter, since it does not require me to actually know anything except the rules of the forum.......)

Hello,

I've only been using Linux for about 7 years now and almost always have used Debian. But it's only fair to say that in all those years I've only used Linux in a server environment (no GUI). Also did a lot with RHEL (also no GUI) for a former employer.

To get back to this thread. I recently have started trying out some distro's because I got the management at work finally looking into migrating everything from Windows to Linux (should be about 95% coverage).

I've installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop, along with Windows 7 and on three other machines I have installed DreamLinux, MintLinux and Debian with Xfce. The only one I could install 'out of the box' on my laptop was Ubuntu. Everything was working, even the build-in webcam. So that was a nice surprise.

Just out of curiousity I'm also building a Linux From Scratch machine on my free time (will take a lot of time), just to acquire more indepth knowledge of the Linux system. I also plan on making a custom 'MyDesktop' machine out of that one.

IMHO there is no 'best' because everyone has other needs and requirements, but I like the Debian based distro's.

Kind regards,

Eric

equo/emerge are rather good. do NOT use both at same time. use one or the other. you will be better off learning/using equo until you really master gentoo. sabyon is just a gentoo fork made easy.

i put equo up there with apt for speed and yum and apt for stability in just working. they also have a fantastic live help on the desktop that you might want to check out when you bump your head against things, or heck just log in to chat and listen to several of the gurus there.