How do I choose the best Linux for me? by hardwyrd © 2007
There are many factors in choosing the best Linux distribution for your own use. The following is just a basic guide for those who wants to be serious about using Linux. Factors to consider: 1. Internet connection - if you have a fairly good internet connection, then you will have a greater chance of fully customizing your chosen distro and take advantage of your distro's available online repositories to install the applications that you really need. 2. Existing hardware - do take note the hardware specifications of your PC. This will also dictate which distro you will be able to successfully install without thinking if your existing peripherals will work on your chosen distro. Consider your network adapter, external and internal modem, bluetooth adapter, CD/DVD drive, hard drive type (SATA,SAS,IDE), motherboard chipset, available RAM, sound card, and so on. Do not forget your scanner and printer. 3. Available disk space - some distros are huge. You have to put drive space into consideration so that you can fine tune your Linux install and install only needed and required applications and components. The sleeker the install, the better. 4. Specific purpose for using Linux - consider your reason why you are using Linux. Are you using it as a general purpose desktop? a multimedia and audio/video editing system? a server (web, portal, application/database backend, firewall/IDS/IPS? If you identify your purpose, you might be able to find a suitable pre-built distro that will require little customization for you so that you are good to go in a matter of minutes. So which distro will I need? There are a lot of distros you can use. Choosing which one is a daunting task. Ask somebody who is experienced with Linux, or just take some hints from this guide. 1. Full Distro - these distros are multi-purpose full packages, usually multi-CD (up to 5 or 6) installers, some already comes as DVD downloads. It comes with a lot of productivity applications, network tools, multimedia applications, and a lot more. These also have fairly good driver support and somewhat polished making these distros considerable usable for novice users. These distros also are fully customizable and you do not have to download sources or binaries just to install your favorite application. The distro already comes with a mini package repository for you to peruse and use. Sample Distros: SuSE Linux, Red Hat/Fedora, Slackware, Mandriva, Debian, Linspire, Xandros 2. Live CDs / Mini Distros - these are distros that are not entirely full when distributed or downloaded. These distros come as bootable live cds where you can run them off your CD/DVD drive and use Linux right there. The trade off is you will be limited to the read speed of the optical drive, plus the available RAM. Sometimes it will come to a crawling wait. However, these can be installed directly into the hard drive however, you will need to configure the install to fetch packages from the internet for customized install. Sample Distros: Ubuntu, Knoppix/Kanotix, Morphix, Debian, Mepis, Sabayon, Ulteo, Kororaa, FreeSpire 3. Specialist Distros - these distros come pre-configured and are somewhat fixed for a specific purpose. These are also quite difficult to reconfigure since these were built to serve as what the author of the distro intended it to be. These can be either used on cellphones, firewalls, IDS/IPS, VoIP solutions, servers, etc.. These too are not advisable for novice users. Sample Distro/Builds: AsteriskNow, TrixBox, Shurdix, Engarde Security Linux, Nitix Conclusion There really is no perfect fit for a Linux distribution to a specific user since the user's needs will change in time. First thing to do before downloading a distro is to take a look at its Technical Specification available at the distro's site and take note of its System Requirements and its Package List. It is also worth noting some things in its Changelog. This will save you loads of time when installing and prevent yourself from encountering problems later.It will also be great if you can read reviews of your intended Linux distribution to use and know what other people think. There are still a lot of Linux distros that I wasn't able to mention however you can visit http://distrowatch.com/ for a list of distros that you can choose from. Have a great Linux day! (Published at http://baudizm.blogsome.com) -- "A dog that has no bite, barks loudest." Registered Linux User #400165 Subscribed to: LARTC, Open-ITLUG, PRUG, KLUG, sybase.public.ase.linux
_________________________________________________ Kagay-Anon Linux Users' Group (KLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (http://cdo.linux.org.ph) Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
