Hey all I've been using Linux for a few weeks now and I've decided to expand my current 5Gig Linux partition to 20Gigs just because I'm more comfortable with it and I want to use more full-time. What I'm asking is I've tried Red Hat and Mandrake (New Versions) and personnaly I like mandrake better but what about other linux distributions? They seem to be so many and I don't know which to choose. Could you please tell me what distribution you use and why do you think it's the best, also which GUI do you use (If any) and why? Any other info about your linux system and what you use it for and what usefull programs I can get would be greatly appreciated. BTW I'm not running any linux servers, this is just a workstation (for now). :) [Edited by - Eric Poitras on September 7, 2004 7:52:56 AM]

well, i use suse 9.1 and Gnome. but i think about switching to fluxbox or XFce or something fast like that, because my pc is an AMD Athlon 600 MHz and gnome is sometimes a bit slow :-P

i like suse because the configuration tools are quite comfortable. I'm not a good administrator, i admit it. But maybe i'll try yoper or Gentoo one day.

i never liked KDE. I find it too bloated - too many small buttons and menus. I guess it's a matter of taste; i'm a bit minimalistic :)

chris

I currently have tripple boot with Win XP, MDK 10 and Gentoo. I've used MDK for a quite long time and I find it extremly comfortable and easy to use. What I like about it that there are tools for almost everything, and the command running this are simple, containing "drak" in it, for instance "drakconf", "localedrake", "userdrake" etc. I once used RedHat but I don't like it very much.

As for Gentoo, nothing to say. Superb distribution, with the latest kernel, and software available. I've been using for about a mounth now, and I'm satisfied with in the full line.

I'm using KDE as my GUI. I'm opposite to crupp, I didn't ever like Gnome much. KDE is graphically overloaded and contains very easy-to-use administration programs, office tools and ... shortly, it's very neat!

Programs I use: k3b, emacs, openoffice, cvs, gimp, kdevelop, xine, xmms ...

I'm running webserver, too. I use Apache with PHP and MySQL.

Gentoo and xfce4 here

Gentoo - because it's easy to use once you know what you're doing, and gives you more freedom/choice than most distros

Xfce4 - lightweight, customiseable, useable and looks like CDE (which was what was installed on the first unix box I ever used)

I suggest Slackware if you like getting down and dirty with your Linux distros. Slackware is my first (and only) distro, and so far I've learned a lot about Linux using it.

EDIT:
Oh and, I use Xfce4, runs like a dream.

Well if you want to have a little more customization to your distro , definatly give gentoo a try. Its documentation is very solid and you will definatly learn something along the way. There is just something about compiling everything from source, like a warm fuzzy feeling or something.

I use slackware for both my computers..
I've tried a few other distros, but IMHO slack is the greatest..

Workstation/server (2.6.6) - slackware 9.1
laptop (2.6.8.1) - slackware 10.0

both are running the openbox window manager.

also.. emacs, xchat, gkrellm etc..

/Nico

I've used Redhat 9 and Mandrake 10, of those two I prefer Mandrake hands down. This past weekend I replaced Mandrake with Debian sarge, and so far I rather like it, but I also have to admit I haven't spent enough time with it to fairly judge. Also note though, that Mandrake will automatically configure some things that you're going to have to learn to set up yourself if you use Debian (such as automatically mounting a windows partition, if you dual boot, as an example)

As for the GUI, I prefer KDE. I like Gnome, and in some aspects I even prefer it, but as much as I've liked fooling around with Gnome, XFCE, Enlightenment and such, I find I keep coming back to KDE. So far it's the only GUI I've installed for Debian, and I don't have any specific plans as of yet to change that.

Any other info about your linux system and what you use it for and what usefull programs I can get would be greatly appreciated.


Well I've tried over 10 distros and I've settled with arch, due to it's great package manager, and the fact that packages come as optimized binaries(all the speed without the wait). The other thing is the way all the configuration is handled(through 1 text file). For my GUI I use enlightenment, which is highly inspired by the way EvilEntity is set up. The reason for this is that it's not based on resembling windows or mac, and is more focused on making work go by faster by having menu access anywhere(instead of through a start menu), easy to work with keyboard shortcuts, tooltips explaining how to do everything, and very pretty themes :D. The only thing it's missing is support for anti-aliased fonts. I'll probably be switching to EvilE exclusively if the developers can live up to their promises for their next release.

As for some useful programs in no particular order:
abiword, audacity, bittorrent, blender, bluefish, cdrtools, clamav, eclipse, emelfm, gcombust, gftp, the GIMP, gkrellm, gnumeric, gqview, imagemagick, j2sdk, mozilla-firefox, mplayer, openoffice, rar, ripperX, sylpheed, unzip, vim, xchat, xmms & xpdf

I started with Mandrake, and still keep a Mandrake box or two around, but my main dev system runs Debian testing.

I use KDevelop for programming; Blender for 3D modelling; the Gimp for graphics work; Firefox for surfin'; XChat for IRC; GKrellM because I like looking at wavy CPU activity lines and little dancing penguins when I get system mails; NCftp for uploading crap to my website; Quanta for creating crap to upload to my website; XMMS for listening to Thornley, Megadeth and Perfect Circle; oKle for watching DVDs; OpenOffice for that word processing lovin'; gedit for that quick note-taking' lovin'; UseMod Wiki to dump my brains for future reference and keep design and story notes; vi on those infrequent occasions when X just won't do and only a text prompt will serve.

I mainly use KDE, though in times of quirkiness I use Enlightenment or BlackBox. I usually return to KDE, though.