Which linux distro is right for me?

hi all,

i’ve got a spare machine with decent specs and i’d like to set it up as a linux server for my home network.

problem is, there are many distributions to choose from. i tried ubuntu server but due to lack of a gui and no-wpa support (well, not without lots if fiddling) i thought there might be something better/easier to use (red hat? SuSe? Mandriva?)

ideally i would like a server with a gui as i am a linux spaz.

thanks.

I’ve heard fedora is one of the more user-friendly linux distros and it has a GUI. I did install it once and it seemed fine. However, I use FreeBSD now for all my server needs.

Red Hat / Fedora. I ran servers using Fedora for years without a hitch.

If you want a GUI, just install the regular desktop Ubuntu, which is all the same stuff plus X11/Gnome. I can’t comment on WPA, except that this seems to suggest it should Just Work.

I’ve had a number of bad experiences with Fedora, admittedly limited to Fedora Core 2 and 3. Bearing in mind that it was conceived essentially as an unstable testing ground for software that might make it into RHEL, it doesn’t seem like a good bet for easy use to me.

As a 15-year linux user who knows how it all works and yet has no inclination to ever mess around in it (I have actual work to get done), I’m a really big fan of Ubuntu.

  • Drunken Brend

Hello,

I prefer Red Hat Enterprise Linux (www.redhat.com). These are not free versions but I have stuck with Red Hat since 2001, starting back with RH Linux 6.2 and currently run RHEL WS3 and WS4. The WS is the workstation version as I prefer the full development packages and run applications like Scribus, Zend Studio5.5 and Aptana. These are not the very latest versions from Red Hat but WS4 is very stable and solved some of my previous problems for Chinese Traditional input methods using WS3. So WS4 + SCIM works flawlessly inside most applications. WS4 from my understanding uses the Fedora Core GUI.

Thanks, Andrew

You can try Opensuse. I think its pretty user friendly. It comes with a handy-dandy graphical user interface called “Yast2” for setting up all sort of things without having to sort through scripts. What kind of network services are you trying to set up? The biggest trick is to set up your package manager to download from local mirrors so you get faster downloads of the updates and other software, and its really rather easy if you follow the instructions on the website. G’luck.

If you want a GUI, just install the regular desktop Ubuntu, which is all the same stuff plus X11/Gnome. I can’t comment on WPA, except that this seems to suggest it should Just Work.

I’ve had a number of bad experiences with Fedora, admittedly limited to Fedora Core 2 and 3. Bearing in mind that it was conceived essentially as an unstable testing ground for software that might make it into RHEL, it doesn’t seem like a good bet for easy use to me.

As a 15-year linux user who knows how it all works and yet has no inclination to ever mess around in it (I have actual work to get done), I’m a really big fan of Ubuntu.

  • Drunken Brend[/quote]

HI Brendon,

I just took a look at the Ubuuntu site. I know you suggested the regular version, but what’s the difference between Ubuntu and the other variants xubuntu and kubuntu in terms of functionality? e.g. diff between gnome, kde and xfce?

Kubuntu=KDE desktop,great desktop, easy to use, very configurable Ubuntu=Gnome ,great desktop, easy to use, not as configurable as KDE, Xubuntu=xfce, great desktop, more “lightweight” than KDE or Gnome. You don’t limit the number of applications by choosing one desktop (necessarily). You can even install ALL of these desktop systems side by side. For example, you can log out of Gnome, and log into KDE. This would take up a lot of space on your hard drive of course. But, as a beginner you can play with all systems then decide which one you like and re-install the one you like the most (to save space).

A good idea is to download a Live CD of Kubuntu, Ubuntu, and Xubuntu, and play around with them for a bit to see which desktop you prefer.

Personally, I prefer KDE, but Gnome is great too.

As I mentioned in my post above, you can also try Opensuse, which comes in both Gnome and KDE variants. If your going to run server services, I would recommend it to the newcomer because of a graphical system tool called “Yast” which makes it easy to set up, say, an HTTP or an FTP server. http://news.opensuse.org/?p=489 http://en.opensuse.org/Mirrors_Released_Version#Taiwan