What's the best Linux operating system?

General Computing *nix and other operating systems
1

I want to change my operating system from Windows to Linux :slight_smile: , what’s the the best Linux system: Debian, Suse, RedHat, Mandrake or another one? :confused:
(for programming and using BOINC)

2

Personally I like Fedora Redhat, but other swear by Suse and Mandrake. The are pretty much all built on the same core kernel.

3

I also am a Redhat user, but would not comment on which is best, as its the only version I’ve used :slight_smile:

DT.

4

Does RedHat run on AMD Duron 1100 MHz with 256 SDRAM?

5

Certainly will, I’m using a P3/500 at work with Redhat 8 instead of a Sparc workstation and its quick enough for my needs. Shames the Sparc 5 for all sorts of things performance wise.

what do you want to use the box for ?
Might sway us towards one flavour of unix if we had a bit more info

6

Depending on how self-motivated you are…Gentoo. With respect to performance tuning, package/ports management, and configurability in linux distros it is unrivaled imo. I would put Debian and Slackware a close second. Ease of set up and learning would definitely go to distros like Suse, Mandrake, and Redhat/Fedora.

Any linux distro will support Boinc and provide basic development utilities.

7

Principal I want to use it as a workstation, with programms how:

  • spreadsheet
  • word
  • and C++ /C#
    and maybe a network connection.
8

I’m a fan of Suse. Snag is the pro version isn’t free, and I don’t think the personal version has the C stuff included.

I’d suggest against Debian. From what I’ve seen of it, it isn’t very newbie friendly.

I haven’t used Fedora or Mandrake recently so can’t comment on those. For distro ideas, visit http://www.distrowatch.com/

Isn’t the fastest Sparc 5 only 170 MHz? As advanced as the Sparc may be for its day, the P3 is a lot newer and faster. The only advantage I can think of for the Sparc is that its SCSI drives were often 7200 rpm long before IDE ones were around.

For more of a Sun feel, why not use Solaris?

At my first ever “job”, I was writing C on a Sparc 4. I vaguely remember SunOS 4 and fvwm. My 486 was faster than that…

9

I would suggest Mandrake or Fedora if (as I am) you are new to the Linux world as they are a breeze to set up and run. I have both here and I love 'em.

I also have Red Hat 9, but this has been superseded by Fedora.

I have had in the past three different releases of SuSE and I found them to be an absolute pig, but Mackerel likes them - you will often find this as different flavours suit the way different people work.

If you want a play - try downloading Knoppix - it will run straight off the CD with no configuration, and no need to wipe your existing Windoze disk.

HTH

10

Thanks for your posts, I think I try it first with Fedora/RedHat. :slight_smile:
And when this will fail I try it with Mandrake. :smiley:

11

There are a fair amount of people on these forums running Fedora/Red Hat, you could do a lot worse than try it - you’ll be pretty much guaranteed to get help on any problems :slight_smile:

12

The best one is probably the one that you end up feeling most comfortable using. Fedora 2 and Mandrake are probably the easiest ones to choose from. I use both but prefer Mandrake. Take a look at http://www.distrowatch.com to get an idea of what is around and, if possible, download a few of the different Linux versions that may take your interest. However, for someone who is a raw beginner to Linux then the Fedora / Mandrake options are probably the best way to go.

Regards.

Kaibigan

13

Nope, this is a four year old Ultra-5 running at 400Mhz with 512Mb of 50ns memory I’m drawing comparisons with.

14

You never said it was an Ultra :wink:

I had a Sparc 5 - Solaris ran horribly slowly. Never managed to get any version of Linux to work on it though.