Hello This is really the 20 million dollar question unlike windows Linux distrobutions are extremely varied.
The first questions I ask is -> 1.how much knowlege of Unix/Linux have you got. 2.Do you want an easy to use distribution that has a windows feel or do you want to hit the books and put together a tight and fast machine. 3.How game are you to learn something new. Now heres a quik review Mandrake/SuSE - easy to install easy to use has simple GUI based tools.Uses rpm packages and Mandrake has a nice package tool called urpmi that allows easy updates locally or over a network. Red Hat - Definitely a middle of the road distribution very well supported and lots of info on the web another rpm distribution and yes there are some easy update options with Red Hat for newbies. Debian - I would call this one of the best distributions around but not for the newbie or feint of heart but the results are always better in the long run. You will have a steep learning curve but worth the sweat and swearing the results are first class. Packages are very easy to manage and install and updates are very easy too. Gentoo - this is the cutting edge at the extreme you have a 65mb base install and you download and install packages as source and compile them locally, and Gentoo maintains a local source database so when things break often you can recompile with new source packages and bingo your back on line. The good side is everything is VERY tight and fast (on my tests about 10%-20 faster) the down side is you need broadband and a very good knowledge of Linux. One note here is "YES" you can actaully play windows games in Linux either with Wine or even better Winex [ http://www.transgames.com ].Winex allows you to play many Direct X games native in linux but isnt a freebie were wine is. Also beware some windows games like Quake and Unreal (GOTY) and others have Linux installers on the web so you can run the games native in Linux yep no emulator, basically download the installer run it with the game CD in the machine and it will install the game in Linux then you just need to copy a few files over and thats it. Regards Richard On Wed, 2002-08-14 at 12:36, Brendan Dacre wrote: > Gentlepeople, > > This is the beginning of a series of (maybe dumb) questions relating to > Linux, its installation, configuration and maintenance. (I hope this is > an appropriate place.) > > I am quite proficient with Windows but for a number of reasons I am not > happy with it. So as a first step I am trying to rid my house of it (I > cannot be 100% successful with this because of my son's games, but I can > at least be about 80% successful). However, I have a working network > and am not prepared to break it (completely), so I am trying to do an > incremental transfer. I have done a number of Linux installs and have > had varying success in getting things working. However, I do not feel I > am in control of what I doing. So here is my first question: > > What distribution should I use as my base? > > I have a number of criteria I want to satisfy so please read these > criteria before you advocate your favourite distribution and feel free > to offer different distributions for my different purposes: > > The main criterion is what I call "maximum parsimony". I do not want > bloated installs (one of my reasons for being disenchanted with > Windows). I only want to install on each machine the minimum needed to > serve the purpose of that machine and then to add/remove (reasonably > easily) packages I need (or don't as the case may be). At least two > (one server and one workstation) will be designated "production" and I > want them to always work, be stable and easily maintainable (upgradeable > and patchable). > > I am a programmer (of sorts) so I eventually want to learn how to > install and modify source distributions. I am also planning to do some > work on an open source project, so I will be targeting machines for a > number of purposes. To this end, it would be preferable for me to be > able to create my own distributions from a suitable base. I won't have > a lot of choice what hardware I use (much of it will be old) and I may > have to trash and rebuild some machines multiple times. I will not > necessarily have a bootable CDROM drive. > > I regard these things as base for all machines: > > Linux kernel supporting machine hardware > Base networking > C/C++ compiler to be able compile kernel/modules locally on machine > Printing > Web browsing > X windows on workstations, not servers > > I am not afraid of the command line and advocate scripting to automate > processes. However, graphical/browser interfaces sometimes make things > easier in certain circumstances. I am not sure whether what I have said > makes me sound like a "hacker", but I think that I am more a "control > freak". My objective is to control and customize my environment. > > Please in your replies also state a local (Sydney, preferably in the > city) source of the latest version of the distribution on CD at a > reasonable price (approximately the cost of the medium). > > Thanks in advance. > > Brendan > > > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ > More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
