You might do well to choose one then stick to it until you are
comfortable enough to experiment. In my opinion you could pretty much
choose by drawing straws. They aren't all that different in the end, but
different enough to confuse a newbie. (except Gentoo?)
I started using Ubuntu because it seemed to be an up-to-date version of
Debian. I previously found Debian excellent to use but it often didn't
have the latest features/libraries for the software I needed.
Now I've got three servers and six desktops running Ubuntu, so changing
to another distro would be inconvenient (although not impossible!).
I'm sure Fedora/Suse/Debian etc etc are fine. I've used them all in the
past and they were all OK.
They all work, flame wars aside.
onlyjob wrote:
For someone new to Linux I would not recommend Debian as it can be a
pain to get all the hardware support sorted. I still can't get it
(Debian 6)to recognise my onboard sound system whereas Ubuntu, OpenSuSE
and Fedora picked it up easily during install.
Derivatives such as Ubuntu 10.10 (11.04 is flawed) are easier to set up.
OpenSuSE 11.4 and Fedora 14 are also excellent choices.
OpenSuSE 11.4 is on the cover disk of this month's APC magazine.
Heracles
For complete newbie no distribution can compete with OpenSUSE and Mandriva.
However newbies quickly become familiar with system and that's where
problems begin when they're starting to push system's boundaries.
Speaking about Debian, remember that there are 3 versions of it:
'stable', 'testing' and 'unstable'. Debian6 is 'stable' when Ubuntu
make their distribution mostly from 'unstable' version.
For Desktop you can install 'testing' or simply upgrade from 'stable'
or even cherry pick packages from 'unstable'.
Debian works perfectly with hardware so there is no 'hardware support'
issue. But keep in mind that non-free drivers only available from
'non-free' repository which is disabled by default.
While Ubuntu promote installation of non-free drivers I especially
recommend Debian as far more superior distribution including support
for non-free hardware.
Regards,
Dmitry.
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