Which File To Choose From All These Similar (as So They Look To Me) Ones.

There are so many Linux distros, and they all look good, but which one is right for me?

That is a question that almost all new Linux users ask. Really, it just depends on you. What do you want to use it for? I’ll go through a brief rundown of some mainstream Linux distros, and maybe from there you can make up your mind. I’ll sort by the most popular ones.

Ubuntu
I don’t particularly care for Ubuntu for a few reasons: It is ad supported because they lack support from users, It comes with spyware pre-installed, and they try to act like they’re the best despite all that. A lot of people who have been using Ubuntu for a while don’t care for the new UI that they’ve installed, which is the defacto option for Ubuntu. Not only that, but they, unlike any other distro, have a very distinct security hole: a guest session that can be accessed without a password. NOT the best for use...in really any environment.
But, to their credit, they’ve got the largest software repository second only to Debian, even though there’s a lot of applications that do the same exact thing. Their UI is very polished considering that they released it just in 2011. And their forums have a ton of helpful Ubuntu users.

Linux Mint
LM is pretty much just like Ubuntu, only instead of everything being either purple or orange, it’s green or white. Much like Ubuntu, they have their own UI, and their own Software Center.. But, because they are rooted in Ubuntu (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint) they may inherit some of Ubuntu’s problems. You guess which ones.

Fedora
Of them all, Fedora is probably the most user friendly, except for the fact that they use cutting edge packages that may/may not be 100% stable, and Fedora is making a change as of 21 to focus more on stability. (Personally, I’ve had very few issues with stability, and the issues I come accross seem to apply to most distors) Other than that, it’s a great distro, asthetically pleasing, Fedora comes standard with GNOME Boxes (lets you run another OS within Fedora, like Windows), an app store like thingy, and many nice GNOME applications.. Fedora is suitable for most any machine, including tablets and hybrids like the Lenovo Yoga, thanks to GNOME.

Debian
Debian is really in a world of their own. In an effort to focus on stability, they sacrifice reasonably up-to-date software. If you have old hardware that was supported, but is not now, Debian is for you.
Debian also has a lot of software, but I’ve had trouble with broken packages, dependencies completely missing, and whatnot.

openSUSE
Like Linux Mint, everything in openSUSE is green. Unlike Linux Mint, openSUSE is rock stable, mature, and has great avenues for customizing it to your specific needs, using the GUI. Most everything configurable is made much easier with YAST, rather than using the command line. openSUSE features something no other distro has: a one-click install for applications. Ubuntu is trying to copy it...good luck with that. And, like Debian, they've got most every package under the sun...which can be good and bad at the same time. The packages in openSUSE are complete, no missing dependencies from what I can see. The only problem I can see with it is that WiFi drivers and nonfree codecs can be a pain.

Now the reason you're reading this is to get an idea of what's out there as far as Linux goes. But maybe you haven't thought about Unix as a viable option.

Solaris
If you have an i386 arch processor, you can forget trying to boot up with Solaris 11. But once you get it running on an x86_64 machine, it's pretty decent, considering that it is an enterprise OS. It's stable. It's fast. And it has some proprietary Oracle tools to help administrate it, much like YAST on openSUSE. Solaris is targeted at being a workstation OS, so you won’t find things like games in abundance in it. Considering what it is, Solaris rocks.

Good day everyone,

I'm currently a student and as far as I'm aware I still need windows for some program I need, but I am going over to Linux.
(Thus I'm running Windows 8 at this moment)

Today I was going to install Ubuntu 14.04.01 alongside Windows 8, everything went well till I hit the 4th step (Installation type page) of the installation:

A message like follows showed:
"This computer currently has Debian GNU/Linux (Kali Linux 1.0.7) on it. What would you like to do?"

There are then 3 options available:
1) Install Ubuntu alongside Debian GNU/Linux (Kali Linux 1.0.7)
2) Replace Debian GNU/Linux (Kali Linux 1.0.7) with Ubuntu
3 and 4 is greyed out.
5) Something else (You can create resize partitions yourself, or choose multiple partitions for Ubuntu.

I just want to make sure what option to choose, I cant afford to lose all my data and windows.

Problem: Showing Kali Linux as current OS and not Windows 8.

Possible reason for showing Kali Linux as current OS:
I have a live CD of Kali Linux and ran it a few times in the past, but according to my knowledge it shouldn't have changed anything.

Maybe the 1st option is still the right one even though the current OS isn't listed right? Or the 3rd option is like a manual setting I guess.

Thanks for the time reading and helping!

I have dual-boot configuration, Windows and Linux Mint. I would like to replace Mint with Slackware. Problem is, Mint installed GRUB and Slackware uses LILO. At the moment I don't have second computer so I can't use help of internet if anything goes wrong, so I need first to make sure I know what to do.
Do I just proceed with installing Slackware and LILO will overwrite GRUB? Or how do I do it?

I just read that in 2013 nasa stopped using windows and moved to linux quoting the need for a more stable ssystem with better security. They also said that they were using debian.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...ed-reliability

They also use lenova thinkpads for the same reasons.

My question is, what is the functionality difference with debian? Is it more stable than other distributions? If ubuntu is Debian based, what is the difference?

I'm currently using ubuntu studio Distro and very happy with it but I'm very interested in the reasons why nasa use Debian.

Hi every One

I' like to install linux in my new laptop , I want to install a distribution based on Red hat Linux, so which one do you suggest to me (CentOS, OpenSuSe or Fedora). I've already an Ubuntu Debian based linux (I have Ubuntu 14.04 LTS installed in my second laptop).

Thanks a lot.

Hi, I'm a newbie. I've moved from windows 8.1 to Slackware a coupe days. They said If I want to know deeper about computer, I have to use one of Linux distro. So Slackware is very basic, that's why I try it. I used use Ubuntu a few time before but Slackware which it's harder. I begin search in the internet about driving the distro.

My language is not English. I used Lingoes in Windows. Now I'm lookin for same one. I need a help for downloading, installing software, maybe step by step because I don't have much experience at Linux in common.

Was running Windows 8.1 Pro till it got sick and died. I managed to install Ubuntu 14.04 on my sick computer over Windows wiping it out.

I first installed Linux Mint and downloaded Ubuntu. Somehow I was able to verify checksums or MD5Sums. I think my age is catching up with me and my mind doesn't work like it used to.

How do I find the MD5sum of a downloaded iso file. I've downloaded debian-7.8.0-amd64-DVD-1-3.iso's and both update DVD's as well. I've located the MD5Sum files on the Mirror. Now, how do I compare those numbers/letters with the iso's I've downloaded.

I know I need to run a program to compute the MD5 but can't find it in the menu. I see I need to read man pages and info pages, but can't find them either.

A brain is a terrible thing to waste, but mine needs help.

Thanks,
Stephen

I've been using/testing Zorin 9, Mint 12, and Ubuntu 14 on 2 older computers for about 2 weeks now and I'm completely impressed with the look and feel especially of Zorin and Ubuntu. My problem is that I also have 2 newer computers that I am unable to install or even test any of the 3 on due to I imagine video incompatibilities. I get to the point where you choose the partition, and I just choose the defaults and then I get this sort of Linux version of the BSOD. I've tried all three in different configurations but nothing is working. I figure I just need current Video Drivers for Linux but there's no way, at least that I know of to update them cause Windows doesn't recognize the "run" command and I can't get into Linux to update it there. Any advice is appreciated.

Thank You
John

Hello everyone, I am a beginner Linux user. I have a had very little experience with it and would very much like to know more. Eventually I want to have my computer running strictly Linux.

I have experimented with a few distributions but almost all of them have had issues with my current setup. I always have trouble setting up the drivers for my video card and mouse. I have dabbled in Ubuntu(primarily), Fedora and Linux Mint.

My question is which distribution would you all suggest I use based upon my specs.

My System Specs:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 925 @ 2.80 Ghz
RAM: 8 GB of DDR3
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6870 w/ 1GB VRAM
Ethernet: Killer Xeno Pro 2100 & On-Board
Mouse: R.A.T 5

If anything else is needed to help determine the right distro please let me know.

All help is much appreciated.

I was looking into Slackware because a very talented teaching assistant at my school uses Slackware

And when we asked our UNIX professor for a recommendation on distro he recommended Ubuntu, and if we google around for five minutes we all can see that Ubuntu is the most popular distro.

I tried Mint and it was fast, smooth and a sweet pleasure.

I am not worried about screwing things up on my laptop, which already has Windows 8 and some important data, because if something goes wrong and my laptop can't even start, I can run Knoppix in USB stick to log on.

Any important tips for Linux rookies?