Linux Distribution Recommendations

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Revision as of 21:35, 21 October 2012 by Rpeters (talk | contribs) (amended TIP mirror info & added qtdesktop)
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For Beginners

One size does not fil all. Some key differentiators to evaluate include:

  1. the functionality/style of "Control Panel" and that is best asssesed by trying various live CD from the suggestions below
  2. look-and-feel of the various Desktop enviroments
    • Unity
    • KDE
    • Gnome
    • LXDE
  3. Applications
    • this should not be a "show-stopper"
    • whilst > 700 MB won't fit on a CD, most Distributions have large, on-line repositories from which many applications can be installed quite simply

Suggestions from PCUG's Linux SIG depend on perspective:

for best support from the SIG

  1. Linux Mint
  2. openSUSE
  3. Ubuntu

for Windows/MacOS like experience

  1. KDE variants of the above

uncomplicated/mobile computing

  1. Peppermint

for netbooks and low spec hardware

  1. Peppermint
  2. PC Linux OS LXDE
  3. Puppy
    • limited network security

for PCUG members having a dearth of download quota, the following are unmetered download from TIP

  1. Ubuntu
    • an Ubuntu download should be redirected automatically to TIP server - but check your usage stats before & after

For Intermediate Users

for continual upgrade to latest software releases

  1. openSUSE with Tumbleweed repository enabled
  2. Ubuntu with Universe repository enabled

for fewest upgrades

  1. Ubuntu (& derivatives) based on Long Term Support (LTS) core

for PCUG members having a dearth of download quota, the following are unmetered download from TIP

  1. Ubuntu
  2. Debian
    • an Ubuntu/Debian download should be redirected automatically to TIP server - but check your usage stats before & after

for netbooks and low spec hardware

  1. Peppermint
  2. PC Linux OS LXDE
  3. the new razorqt desktop
    • www.qtdesktop.org
    • available for most major distributions

Specialised Distributions

utility CD

  1. PartedMagic
  2. SystemRescueCD

firewall/gateway/router

  1. Smoothwall Express
  2. IPFire
  3. IPCop no longer recommended
    • release 1.4.x is stable, but no longer maintained
    • release 2.x less reliable

For Geeks

the following are generally regarded as not suited to beginners.

  1. Arch
  2. Gentoo
  3. Slackware

--Rpeters 13:59, 19 August 2012 (EST)