ok so i need to start getting used to using linux for work and a few other reasons.. just wondering what people consider the best distro and why.

i've been told that fedora core 4 is quite good but the guy didn't know that much about the other releases to compare them.

Im sorta after something that is quite customizable and has good performance (its going to mostly be used for algorithm development).

any suggestions/advice ?

gentoo

I would say try out Fedora Core 4.

It's nice and easy to get going for newbies. Also, if you're using it for work, it will set you up nicely for using RedHat Enterprise Linux later on.

Once you know RedHat well, it's awesome. But I'm sure a few people will disagree with me on this one, and I'll say right now, I don't care!

gentoo is amazingly fun
fc4 for more of a 'standard' package
mandriva for more of a newb intro

I had a go of Knoppix the other day, its very good. Give it a try.

I would suggest Gentoo, Ubuntu or Kubuntu over Fedora for development work. I use anjuta, kdevelop, glade, netbeans, eclipse, avrdude and the like for development tasks and find the above to be quite servicable.

If you're doing embedded product development please aim towards an LFS install in the future so you really understand what you're doing. If you're a C/C++ developer, get used to automake NOW because a truely useful developer will need to know it's intricacies to produce a powerful build environment for a given product.

If you want ubuntu cds you can order them for free from the ubuntu site however they do take a week or two.

Basically this is a plea to help you not become another clueless windows-monkey to linux-monkey convert. Understand what you're doing before you take it to work :)

For work - RHEL or Suse 9 Enterprise

For home - FC4 or Ubuntu.. Ubuntu is shining up to me as a better distro though.

I use SuSE 10 at home. It rawks.

1. If you want to have fun and have an easy-to-use-and-update (for the newbie), yet powerful (extra functionality for the pro), go Gentoo!

2. If you want a down-to-earth distro that is as unmodified as possible and will let you compile and install almost any software on the planet and help you learn heaps about Linux without overwhelming you, go Slackware.

3. If you prefer a heavily customised distro that is well supported but has the potential to break 'normal' software and requires special installation packages, go SuSE or Fedora.

4. If you want to learn the absolute most about Linux, go LinuxFromScratch.

Personally I'd stay away from Fedora as it hides the underlying Linux system from you and basically tries to prevent you from learning a thing about Linux. Plus I've always found Redhat/Fedora to break easily.

For the newbie who wants to learn about linux, I'd recommend Slackware, and then Gentoo once you learn the basics. Gentoo is a very rewarding distribution once it's installed. It is very well supported by the community and let's you tweak the absolute bejesus out of it, while remaining simple to use.

If all you want to do is go "omg I have teh lunix" or just try out a distro for the weekend, go Ubuntu. I heard someone joke that Ubuntu is Swahili for "Can't install Gentoo" =)

ubuntu

Cheers parabol. I was going to install FC4 or Mandriva, but thanks to your post I think I'll d/l slackware/gentoo.

parabol i believe that joke is passed around by gentoo elitists. I've used both your preference distros there and I can tell you, from a business perspective, having to compile every package you use can be a bit hard to explain to a savvy-but-uninterested boss.

I would highly suggest the op use gentoo at home. If you want to run gentoo at work, build the system up over a couple of days and work on a spare pc at work. Try and note down every piece of software and compile them before you need it. Use distcc if you can. If you're developing with gcc for gods sake don't go crazy with your opts. Learn to love portable libraries like libSDL, libExpat, OpenAL and wxWindows. You never know when your test code will have to be ported :)

I still use slackware at home, but from what I've seen Ubuntu is getting really good, especially if you want to use it as a desktop OS. If I was installing a box and didn't care about having a GUI I'd still go with slackware, mostly because I'm familiar with it but I quite like (as parabol says) the way it will help you learn a bit more about Linux that some of the other newb distros like Fedora.

I reckon it's about what you're familar with.

I was introduced to Linux with slackware too and really liked it. But the first company I worked for only used RedHat boxes. So I wanted to have that same environment at home.

At the end of the day, you should be able to make any flavour do what you want, and the more familar you are with it, the better off you are.

However, if your serious about using it for work on high availability systems your only choices are distros with support contracts such as RH & Suse.

The business risk is using a distro like Ubuntu, Gentoo, etc are far greater than the cost savings.

What about those production Fedora boxes you built :P

in the end i went with (k)ubuntu... seems to offer the best blend of everything - good customizability, relatively easy to use, etc. will see how it goes.

No one listens to me :(

What about those production Fedora boxes you built :P

QUIET!@

Thanks to a deadline of 24hrs, RedHat not functioning correctly and no Suse license.. we had to use FC :(

Thanks to a deadline of 24hrs, RedHat not functioning correctly and no Suse license.. we had to use FC :(

What about White Box?

It's basically just Red Hat Enterprise stripped of all Red Hat logos/tags and re-released under a new name. Completely legal, thanks to the GPL .. just without any support from Redhat.

We use it here at work for most of our servers (not my choice :P)

Neat, never heard of it before..

Meh, Fedora is fine. I use Fedora in production too now because we're not allowed to spend money anymore.

At least is has PHP5, where RHEL4 only has PHP4, so that's pretty gay, and no, I'm not compiling my own. I hate Suse, and more than I hate Suse, is the fact everyone pronounces it differently. I bet it's some kind of marketing ploy.

And ubuntu, that's debian, and debian is far too l33t for me. :)

At least is has PHP5, where RHEL4 only has PHP4, so that's pretty gay, and no, I'm not compiling my own.

Go back to windows then you f*****. what's the point of being a linux user if you're only going to use pre-packaged software.

Meh, Fedora is fine. I use Fedora in production too now because we're not allowed to spend money anymore.

Hahah suckers, I bet your using FC1 because it uses less CDs then FC4.

Go back to windows then you f*****. what's the point of being a linux user if you're only going to use pre-packaged software.

With distros that have support agreements, you can't compile your own software. If you called RH and said your having problems with Apache & PHP5, they'd tell you to go shag yourself.

Personally, I've been using Linux since the early 90s and started on Slackware building everything from source. These days, I'd much rather install something pre-packaged because I can't be arsed with the hassle of compiling.

Does that make me a Linux user that is suddenly not as competent as a user who gets his jibbles off on proclaiming everything on his Linux box took him weeks to install since it's all from source so therefore it must "run better" ?

Nope, it just makes me a successful troll :)

Hahah

Thanks TicMan :) Couldn't of said it better myself. I think stinky is still in the I need to prove myself stage and obviously hasn't touched Enterprise Linux yet, lol. So I don't think I need to even retort to his poor attempt at undermining my sk1llz, when he doesn't even know what the f*** I admin on a daily basis.

And as for your little comment about FC1 cause we can't afford CDs? Dude, I do PXE boot, NFS, kickstart installs cause I'm a f***en RedHat ninja.

And as for your little comment about FC1 cause we can't afford CDs? Dude, I do PXE boot, NFS, kickstart installs cause I'm a f***en RedHat ninja.

No you do that because your boss is too tight arse to buy CDs :P

AND because I'm a ninja.

Compiling packages? If you weren't noobs obviously you would write every peice of code you use yourself.