What distro should I go for?

Malus

I'm not really a Linux newbie anymore, so I don't need something overly simplified like Mandrake, but I'm not really sure what the best distro is though. I was considering RedHat, but I'm open to anything. Any suggestions?

UberLord

Slackware and Debian are regarded as the best distros for more technically inclined people. I've never used either and my recommendation is purely based on heresay.

Malus

I have heard good about both of those distros as well. Anyone around here have any experience with these distros?

high_ping

I would go for SuSE or Mandrake.

Malus

Mandrake is kind of slow, or at least that's how I perceived it. SuSe is nice though.

Anyone know of any free programs that let me repartition an NTFS partition? I'd like to keep my existing one if at all possible. I don't remember if you can do that with fdisk or not.

glussier

fdisk can delete a non dos partition, you can also use Ranish Partition Manager (freeware). Or, most of the linux distros, will give you the option of repartitioning your hard-drive at installation time.

Malus

Oh, I forgot about repartitioning at installation, thanks!

Nikademus

Debian is probably the best distribution. It is fast but a little bit complicated to install. But once it is installed, it is the most secure one and the easiest to upgrade or install packages from.

I use it on all my machines.

Ryo-Ohki

You don't want to do that. So far only Partition Magic 6.0 is able to tackle with Win2K NTFS partitions (7.0 for XP). Any attempt at modifying NTFS partitions from Linux will lead to utter corruption of the data stored on them.

You can safely read them from Linux and that's about it. Write operations are possible, but you need a Check Disk operation from Windows afterwards. Visit sourceforge.net to get the advancement state of the Linux-NTFS kernel driver project.

DarkHelmut

I've got 3 recomendations for you. 1) Slackware 2)Slackware and 3)ummmm..... Slackware?

Ryo-Ohki

Maybe I'll add : 4) Slackware, the power distribution for power users.

UberLord

So what exactly makes Slackware so great? C'mon - gimmie good reasons not just "It r0x0r my b0x0r"

Ryo-Ohki

All right, a few good reasons.

- First, it's probably the easiest distribution to install (while I'll admit preparing the partitions beforehand saves time, especially if you're dual-booting w/ Windows). The text-based menus are concise, and pretty self-explanatory. Then it boots in console mode by default, which is a big plus.
- Slackware is constructed with stability & security in mind. FI you'll never find an application bundled with Slackware which hasn't reached a stable level of developpement. At one point RedHat used a beta 2.4 kernel and beta 2.x KDE.
- Package management (.tar.gz) is pretty neat and easy to handle. Much more flexible than RedHat's RPM IMHO.
- Slackware doesn't hide anything from you. I prefer to set it up myself rather than letting GUIs do the job for me (or I wouldn't have installed Linux, Windows is perfect for that).
- Slackware is blazing fast, and no proprietary tool get in the way. I feel this distribution and the people behind it to remain faithful to original Linux spirit. Then again it is good for anything with only 2GB of software installed and one CD-ROM only.
- Now Slackware 8.0 was a little behind when it came out (2.2.19 kernel by default for example), Slackware 8.1 has more than filled the gap with a whole new bunch of cool applications...

DarkHelmut

how about it r0x0r your s0x0r? no? k.

1) no rpm. Personal preference here, but I hate rpm. I prefer the simple method of ./configure && make && make install . I don't hit depenancy hell, and it keeps my system nice and peppy because when I build/install something I optimize for my athlon rather than just a 386 that most packages are built for.

2) BSD-style init system. The system V init system with all it's symlinks drives me up the wall. I prefer the BSD init style slackware and very few other distros (most based on slackware) have. I like being able to edit and personalize a few files /etc/rc.d/ and know exactly what I'm changing.

3) no bloat. It doesn't load everything under the sun onto your box and then have you weed out what you don't need. It doesn't make your 1.4Ghz t-bird feel like a 200Mhz PPro.

4) Very customizable. You need a server? uncomment a few lines in /etc/inetd.conf or chmod +x a few files in /etc/rc.d/ and you've got a server running. Need a workstation? X -configure; startx and you've got a workstation. Forget to install something off the cd? put it in and installpkg <pkgname> and it you've got it. install something you don't want now? removepkg <pkgname>.

5) fast. Have I mentioned that allready? it's fast. Way faster than mdk or redhat. (no benchmarks, more of a "feeling of speed" compared to those distros on my box). About the only thing that seemed faster on my box was Gentoo, but that's because you build the whole damn thing on the install. That's only for people with a fat pipe and nothing to do for several days in a row.

6) Friendly community. I used to love the forum on slackware.com, until it got shut down by trolls. The wealth of information contained in it is still archived at http://www.userlocal.com though, under the forums link on the left. Userlocal always has great slack info. If usenet is your thing, the people at alt.os.linux.slackware are very kind. If you need immediate help, me and about 60 others are always in #slackware on irc.openprojects.net to give a few suggestions.

7) It'll r0x0r your b0x0r! Seriously, I could go on for days, but I'm sitting at work right now, it's 8:30 in the morning, and I need some caffine. Maybe I'll come back and finish this explaination later when I have a bit more time.

Ryo-Ohki

Very true. I even exchanged a couple e-mails with the master himself, mr. Volkerding,
and he's a very nice person, always ready to help (though not having too much spare time to).

DallasStar

I'm a Linux noob. Is it possible that I may be able to use Slackware without problems (meaning: will it be very hard to install/user?)?

Ryo-Ohki

Really, yes. Might be a bit tricky to fine-tune, but it's pretty easy to fire up, install and use. As I said, just prepare your Linux partitions before if you intend to dual-boot (with something like Partition Magic or equivalent), and your install process should run trouble-free.

You can even prepare your Linux partitions in FAT32 from Windows, and then tag them as Linux filesystem / Linux Swap with CFDISK from the Slackware installation prompt, and then format them during install.

I also recommend XOSL over anything else for your multi-boot selector.

Just to let you know, Slackware was my very first Linux distro as well...

babede

this thread is my fav. linux thread `til now...
http://discuss.extremetech.com/n/mai...es&msg=17267.1
mandrake 9.0 beta 2 is strongly recommanded, 4 the implamentation
of gnome 2.0 i.e., i myself use suse 8.0, but i guess i`ll do a crossover
2 mandrake in a few weeks time...
the discussion of linux-die-hard`s vs win2k/xp-die-hard`s is one of
the most enjoyable reads i remember, so have fun...

Zarathustra

A real man uses FreeBSD