What "flavour" of linux?

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

I have never used linux before. What "flavour" is the best for me to have a play about with? which am i most likely to come across in a work enviroment

 

Fedora is Sponsored by REDHAT, which in turn is one of the more likely linux distros you will come across in the real world (in the workplace anyway)

openSUSE 11.1 is my recommendation though as I have had more success (and fun) playing with this than Fedora. If you are just starting out with linux then you cant really go wrong with either. They also have an enterprise version which you may come across in the work environment.

Ubuntu is a favorite if you want it to just work and be simple to play around with.

Any will do for learning the basics of the command line though, which I would definitely recommend doing!

 

i have also been told centOS which is apparently a clone of redhat, is centOS recommended?

 

CentOS is a good choice but as mentioned before, maybe try Ubuntu (either install it or run it as a live cd to play with it) and see how you get on?

I personally like CentOS, Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux and Slax. Though in all honesty am not much of a Linux user to be fair...

 

If you are completely new to Linux, then I would recommend that you start by installing Ubuntu. My main reasons for this recommendation are:

1. Ubuntu (usually) installs very easily and usually detects most harware first time
2. There are many entry level books available which detail using Ubuntu from the beginning (Ubuntu from Novice to Professional would be an example)
3. Having used various Linux distros over the years, Ubuntu has by far the best online community. Ubuntu Forums (http://ubuntuforums.org/) is the best source for information that I have come across.

4. At the end of the day Linux is Linux - especially when it is used in a server environment - ok, there are some differences, for example rpm for Redhat and apt-get for Debian based distros (of which Ubuntu is one), but generally you will find that once familiar with one distro you will find it fairly easy to hop onto another flavoured box.

HTH

 

Unix

Most people like fedora and ubuntu.

Though I still think Unix is the best OS ever.

 

Another vote for OpenSUSE for me too. Nice and simple whilst still being a 'real' Linux distro. Ubuntu is too much like Windoze for me - if I want point & click I'll stay with MS, thanks - who do it 'properly'

 

That's broadly why I recommend openSUSE/Fedora etc. to people who want to actually learn to use linux via the command line etc. Ubuntu is great for people who just want something to work and aren't interested in using anything but the GUI.

To be fair though, there is nothing in Ubuntu that stops you from using the CLI so you can't go far wrong with any!

Try some live CD's and pick the prettiest one ;)

 

Its all very welll recommending 'real' linux distros - in which case I would have recommended Slackware or Debian. The OP hasnt used Linux before - to say 'go learn Debian' isnt really constructive is it?

Linux is Linux - you dont have to use a WM. I should think that KDE and Gnome are probably 'too much like windoze' for you too. What do you use? Fluxbox?

My recommendation is still ubuntu - you have 2 choices to make it do what you want - command line or GUI. If you still have problems there is a great online community waiting to help you.

 

If you ssh'd to my ubuntu box would that be too much like windoze for you?