The Reg guide to Linux, part 1: Picking a distro

[Nod]

TheRegister

One of the common complaints about Linux is that there are too many different editions (or “distributions”) to choose from, and only a hardcore nerd can tell them apart.

Well, it's true, but you can safely ignore 99 per cent of them. Welcome to The Register's guaranteed impartiality-free guide. Tomorrow, we'll tell you how to get them, burn them and set them up to dual-boot with Windows and on Wednesday there will be a guide to tweaking your new setup and getting it ready for use.

So, in order of popularity according to the DistroWatch chart:

Descriptions of the most popular distro's are given.

 

[ponder]

To be honest, unless you have some other reason, such as wanting to get into working with enterprise distributions such as RHEL or Novell's SUSE, for a first-timer or if you're giving Linux the first go in years there's no good reason to look beyond Ubuntu. Don't bother with any of the special “editions” or remixes – Ubuntu itself is the most professional offering around and it's possible to go from a blank machine to a working system with all applications and everything in well under an hour - considerably faster than it would be with Windows.

I would actually recommend Mint over Ubuntu.

 

[VonPickle]

I would actually recommend Mint over Ubuntu.

Same here, if it is your absolute first time, Mint is great.

When I started using Linux my boss got me started on Sabayon, a Gentoo derivative. I was so damn lost

 

[koffiejunkie]

Start the distro wars....

Dudes, use Real™ Debian™

 

[ponder]

Dudes, use Real™ Debian™

That's only because you can't grasp Gentoo

 

[koffiejunkie]

That's only because you can't grasp Gentoo

Who said anything about me? I was responding to all the different second cousin derivatives of Ubuntu, which is itself Debian-for-dummies

 

[jeanres]

That's only because you can't grasp Gentoo

Dude Gentoo sucks, who really wants to see open office compile for 1 and 1/2 hours to have it launch in 10ms less. People these days just use linux to sound awesome. The speed gain is not as much as you think.

 

[ponder]

Dude Gentoo sucks, who really wants to see open office compile for 1 and 1/2 hours to have it launch in 10ms less. People these days just use linux to sound awesome. The speed gain is not as much as you think.

Don't get your panties in a knot, it was a joke!

I don't use gentoo, been there done that. Btw open office is available as a binary