Whats the best Linux download available

I am interested in trying out the lunix operating system however, when I began looking around I was amazed to see how many downloads are available. does any one have an opinion on whats the best lunix operating system around.

 

It's linux first off, and it all depends on what you want to do. I don't have much linux experience but have used Ubuntu before, which seems to be the best recommendation for those just starting out.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

 

sorry my spelling has never been the best.(working on it though) I am looking for a operrating system that can run without to much work but, as I get more acustomed to it I could become more involved. esentualy somthing to get my feet wet, without destroying my computer.

 

I second the recommendation for Ubuntu, but if you are coming from the Windows world, you may be happiest with the Kubuntu version. This is what I use, despite having more than twelve years of experience (and a kernel contribution), so it's certainly good enough for experienced users as well. http://kubuntu.org/

There'll be a new version of Kubuntu out later this month. What I recommend, though, is starting with Kubuntu 6.06.1 LTS. The LTS stands for "long-term support" and is a good place to start. Some computers, particularly those with cutting-edge chipsets, have problems with 6.06, though. If you can't get it to install or if it installs but then refuses to boot, check out 6.10 once that is released. This has better support for more cutting-edge hardware.

Whichever distribution you choose, MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR ESSENTIAL WINDOWS FILES before you try installing. I haven't had a Linux install hose my Windows partition unless I went out of my way to screw things up but this is always a possibility.

 

I curently use Ubuntu as my Linux OS, but Looking at the Photos of Kubuntu BETA, I might end up installing that over Ubuntu.

 

I am looking at geting a Asus w3j or a dell XPS M1210, do you think that Kubuntu 6.06.1 LTS would run on them or would i have to wait for 6.10 version

 

This is a report of Ubuntu 6.06 running on the Dell:
http://www-igm.univ-mlv.fr/~vnozick/LIENS/linuxOnLaptops.html

This contains a reference from someone running Ubuntu on the w3j:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=57254

 

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop.

You don't need to install it over Ubuntu. You can have both on the same machine.

 

Thanks for the links yamla. I was wondering what you guys think the advanteges of runing linux are over windows. Is it more secure, easier to navigate, more intuitive or is it just more customizable.

 

I agree that Ubtunu is a good way to go. If you would like to try linux and see what it is like try a Live-cd version of Ubuntu or Knoppix. These can run off of a CD and do not install on your system unless you wish to install it. Live versions will run slow and files must be savedto floppy not the disk drive. They are a good way to get your feet wet without messing up your system. I am currently running a tri boot on my laptop of XP media center, Vista and Ubtuntu 6.06 "Drapper Drake"

 

No one linux distribution is "best". The reason there are so many is so you can find the one that is closest to perfect for you.

That said, I'm using Ubuntu at the moment, purely because of the userbase. If I have an issue, wiki.ubuntu.com or ubuntuforums.org usually has an answer.

 

Hear hear.

 

I think that security and customizability are the two big things. Also, not having to deal with some big company is nice (nobody is no forcing Windows Genuine Advantage Notification or the like on you).

The downsides are that you may well have to do a little configuring by hand to get all of your hardware working. Also, some programs which you were used to having on Windows aren't available for Linux, though there is usually something similar available. Linux is just different than Windows and it will take some getting used to.

Personally I recommend Mandriva over Ubuntu. My experience with Ubuntu has always been that if something doesn't work, you have to fix it at the command line. The GUIs, like Apple's, aren't all that deep. I'm okay with that, but it's not as newbie friendly as it could be. Also, Mandriva just released a new version last week so it'll have more recent versions of all the included software.

The best thing, though, is to do like other people suggested and try Live-CDs. You can try several different versions of Linux that way without committing to any one version.

 

Would you say that linux is closer to mac osx than windows,

Thanks for all of the resonses

 

Yes, very much so. However, OS X is more polished.

 

is it posible to get linux to the refinement of mac osx

 

If you want the spit and polish of OSX, you really should go with OSX. However, http://www.taimila.com/ubuntuosx.php gives you some pointers on how to make Ubuntu more like OSX.

 

I like the idea of being able to costumize the software. OSX is availiable on macs only, as far as i know and in my opinion macs are over priced slow and, i hate to say it, but just a little to feminin for me. just curious though is the osx so polished because it has been developed for the last 20 years or because mac has tons of engineers trying to make it that way for consumers?
Also I do in general try and make my projects look perfect so making it look polished is ok with me.

 

I've always been partial to SuSE.

http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/downloads/suse_linux/index.html

 

how do all of the available linux softwares differe. is it posible to catagorize them so less expiriencd users can understand differences between the systems?

 

On the same Partition?

 

yes, at the logon screen there should be a "Sessions" menu or something similar, where you can select your desktop environment.

ubuntu and kubuntu aren't totally different operating systems. kubuntu IS ubuntu, just with the KDE desktop installed, whereas ubuntu has GNOME installed by default. Think of KDE and GNOME as different brands of tools to do the same job, you don't graft the tool into your arm, just as KDE and GNOME aren't integral to Linux.

 

Kubuntu only installed half way, meaning it loads with the the blue Kubuntu boot up screen & log-in screen, but after log-in goes to the Ubuntu desktop.

Now I'm downloading the Kubuntu iso, I will install via live cd .. being that I need to Fix the size of my Partitions anyway. If you read another post in LINUX forums I made then you will know why

Thanks guys for the info.

 

You need to change the session to KDE. Do you have auto-login enabled? Because that just defaults you to the old session, hence why it logs in to Gnome. You might also install kdm, and remove gdm.

Linux isn't like Windows. You don't need to reinstall the whole system to fix everything.

 

...you can't even get close to how polished OSX is. You could make it look as nice, maybe, but there's more to being "polished" than just looks. I love linux and push it to anyone that will listen, but it's nothing compared to OSX or even Windows when it comes to being "polished".

My point is that historically Linux didn't care about seemless integration and usability of apps. And it's only just starting to realise that it's quite important. Developers of OSX apps are forced to use the same libraries, but more than that, they actually strive to make their apps user friendly and very consistent with the rest of the environment and other applications written for the platform.

...it's in this regard that linux doesn't even come close. Each app is written by each developer with their own interface ideals. They make the app work for themselves, the way they want it to work, end of story. If you can't get your head around how someone wanted their app to work, then it's tough luck.

Like say... Gimp. Works nothing like any other app you use, quite unique. It still works, on par with photoshop 3 or 4, and it's still free... but it's nothing like friendly for someone to pick up just based on platform familiarity

This is probably the biggest failing of Linux. You have to learn each application on its own terms, not the platform common usability terms. It's only recent times that you can even get the apps written for different desktops to look the same. The song and dance of getting the Gtk and Qt apps just showing up in similar fashion.

It's remarkable that they work together at all, but they certainly have a long way to go to get anywhere near the "polished" title.

 

Meh. OSX isn't all that and a bag of chips. I've used it. They make a lot of things user-friendly-ish, but if you've ever looked under the hood, it's a pain in the rear. They have all kinds of hacks to support their "view" of the OS, but they don't actually change anything about the Unix underneath. Case in point: case insensitivity. It won't auto-complete a typed in directory/file if it's not correctly cased, but case doesn't matter to it (in theory). Even Windows can do that.

And each app in OSX is still written by individual developers to, and even Apple doesn't adhere to their own interface guidelines.

In closing, KDE also has it's user interface guidelines, as does Gnome/GTK. So they exist. And if you use all KDE applications, the user experience is actually quite cohesive. So it just matters on what does what you want. I find that Linux is much better for development, for new tools, for games and many other things that I want to do, and doesn't require overpaying for the same hardware as everyone else has. Caveat Emptor.

 

I agree with Pitabred except that I find Linux to be severely lacking for gaming.

 

Sure, OSX isn't "all that", and under the covers may be ugly for geeks, but the interesting point is that you still confirmed that Windows and OSX are still better at consistent UI's.


Linux desktops are possibly half way to consistency... but because of the nature of the beast (separate goals of the various application forces), it wont be able to close that gap to become truly comparable to Windows or OSX are regarding this. They may, but it's years away.


...and I agree, Linux is by far and away the best development platform. Can't follow you on the Game statement though.

 

Portland is a start. Developing an application that can work with either GNOME or KDE's menu, address book, e-mail, etc. systems will supposedly be easier.

http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/10/11/1355201

 

yup, saw that on /.

certainly a worthy project.

 

yamla: UT, Quake/Doom, and lots of nifty free games. What more is there?

And Wine for games that absolutely have to use that backwards OS by default.

 

Operation: Flashpoint runs great under WINE, that's almost enough for me! (I still have a WinXP partition for BFME2 and Silent Hunter 3)

 

For those who are recommending ubuntu/kubuntu - what do they have over mandriva or Suse SLED 10 ?

 

They're both free.

Well, the free version of Mandriva is okay, but I think it tries to be too "switcher friendly". I believe one of the best things about running Linux is your freedom to tinker.

 

SLED 10 is also free.
I think the powerpack version of mandriva is also free (though its not hosted on servers).

As the OP is someone looking to switch, wouldn't mandriva or SLED 10 be a better match ?

 

I will also add the Ubuntu suggestion. I have installed it a few times in Virtual machines starting with version 5.10. When I got my new laptop, I installed it natively on my old Latitude C640 and it is currently the only OS on that machine. The great thing about Ubuntu is that it works very easily out of the box, allows you to install from the LiveCD so that you don't have to download another iso to do the install, and it also allows you to grow into it. I installed SUSE on my M90 a while back ago and found it to be nice, but the install process was just too long, the file was huge and thus took a long time to download (~3.5GB vs. ~650MB for Ubuntu), came with a LOT of extra packages but didn't really seem to offer anything that I needed (or wanted), and YaST was nowhere near as efficient as Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager. It was however a little nicer looking (though I still prefer Gnome to KDE) and YaST has a little more intuitive UI than SPM. Still, Ubuntu allows you to start off easily and install easily, has a huge user base, but as I said, still doesn't try to guide you by the hand in everything like SUSE attempts to do (though IMHO it's because SUSE attempts this that it fails miserably) and allows you to get more involved down the line. I don't think I used the Terminal at all within the first week of installing Ubuntu, but I have gradually gotten more confident and find myself using it often. I have gotten more adventerous and actually compile apps from source via the command line rather than instantly give up if it didn't work the first time. Personally, I just find Ubuntu to be overall a very good distro. It suits advanced users as well as it does noobs. And the fact that it installs on most all hardware (opposed to distros like Slackware which I've heard a lot of horror stories about) allows you to cut through the BS of getting it to work and lets you start using it. It's the closest thing I've ever found to completely replacing Windows in my life.

 

HAv u been able to install ubuntu on the m90 ?

 

So I am guessing that you can get a full software suit for the linux operating systems I.e somthing like ms word, excel and that sort of thing and can they be transfered to windows computers if I need to?

 

Yes, openoffice can creat word/excel/powerpoint files that can be read in MS office

 

Would you mind linking me to somewhere I can download SLED 10 from? I remember looking it up on the Novell site, but I remember something about it only being a trial version. I have heard some very good things about it, and would love to give it a try.

 

I am using the "trial version"
http://www.novell.com/products/server/eval.html
The trial version basically has updates for only 60 days, everything else is same.

 

so if i type up a reaserch paper in linux there should'nt be any compatibility problems transfering it to windows computers

 

I've done exactly that.

Note that there are compatibility problems transferring a document created in MS Office on Windows to another machine also running the same version of MS Office on the same version of Windows, especially if the printers are different. The formatting tends to get messed up, pages get rearranged, that sort of thing. As such, I rate MS Office compatibility as 9 out of 10 if you are on Windows and stick to the same version. 8 out of 10 if you are dealing with different versions of Office. OpenOffice I'd probably rate 7 out of 10. So, it isn't perfect. But it's good enough for almost anyone, unless you are dealing with papers involving huge amounts of special formatting, etc. Basically, a resume tuned to take up a whole page probably won't transfer properly, but then that also won't transfer between two MS Office users. A paper should transfer without problems, though.

In summary, OpenOffice is PLENTY good enough for my needs and I often need to open MS Office documents or send documents to other people using MS Office. In fact, the only problem I ever had was with sending or receiving MS Office documents with other people also using MS Office.

 

Ah, okay. Well, I doubt I'll use that, I'm looking for something to use as my primary OS for the Vista era.

 

if all else fails, openoffice can also export directly to a PDF file. I often did that if I was giving a friend notes if they missed a class, as the unordered list formatting would usually get boned in the transfer to MS Office format. A straight paper with minimal formatting turned out great when I saved it as an office file, though.

 

It IS fully functional, the only difference between the "trial" version and "full" version is that the trial version only gives online updates from Novell for 60 days.
OS is still chugging away after 60 days, u juts wont get updates from Novell.
Updates for normal user programs (like gimp/web browsers) can always be done after that by third party sites like Guru's suse repository.
And SLED has 3d desktop & other effects.

 

You guy's are talking about trial version, any reson you are avoiding the full version besides cost.(just out of curiosity how much does it cost?)

 

can anyone tell me the difference between linux and unix? Any comments are welcome

 

No, for me it was just the cost , why pay for something when it can be had for free
Also, as I mentioned the ONLY difference between the trial & the full version is, 1)online updates limited to 60 days, 2)no tech support.
Linux is in general much more secure than windows, so not much fear of comprising the laptop by not upgrading. I've been usign linux for 8 years, I have never done updates on a linux system (like windows updates), never had a problem.
User program updates can always be downloaded for free.
Also, unlike windows, there are like 2 versions of each distro released each year, if you want to be extra secure, you can upgrade when they release a new version.
Novel SLED pricing:
http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/howtobuy.html

 

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/32719.html