Distribution Query
 

Hi,

I know this may have been asked a million times over however I can't decide which distribution is best to use. I have Red Hat is good however updates is an issue. Mandrake is buggy, Debian is complex and so is Gentoo. I'm fairly new to Linux and wish to run a server environment. Which should I use? Also I am told RPM has its own issues. So as you can see I'm in a dilemma which distro to use and how?

This question has been asked a million times over, and the answer is always the same: do some research, read reviews others have written, then try several distros, and decide for yourself which one best suits your needs and preferences. Just as you have described, every distro has its own good points and bad points, and it's a subjective call as to which one is going to be "best" for you. Only you can make that decision.

One good central source for downloading many of the most popular distros is www.linuxiso.org

Good luck and welcome to the excellent world of Linux -- J.W.

One distro that you didn't mention is slackware. It doesn't use rpm (it can if you want) but rather a more simple packetmanagement that doesn't come with the problems of rpm.

But then I like to be the boss of the situation rather than having a mystic wizard mess things up...