Which linux distro?

[duncan]

I have just had a new (secondhand, of course) Thinkpad X31 laptop delivered, and currently, the poor thing has Windows XP on it. Obviously the first thing I'll do is get rid of this, but what should I replace it with?

This laptop has kubuntu on it, I guess I could just do that again, but I feel like experimenting!

Duncan

[Lucky]

I'm a big fan of Fedora. I've used it since version 3, and have just made the hop from 8 to 10. Had the occasional issue with the older versions, but since 7 it's been a good solid OS. It doesn't have the beginner friendly reputation that Ubuntu has, but I don't think it's actually any harder to use (just marketed differently), and if you're familiar with the basics of using Linux you should be fine with it. Fedora's installer is particularly good these days.

I've also played with OpenSUSE and, to be honest, wasn't overly impressed. I couldn't pick out anything specifically wrong with it, it just doesn't seem as polished as Fedora and Ubuntu.

[TimO]

If you really want to get your hands dirty, try Gentoo.  Be warned though, it's not for the timid, most things are installed by compiling them from the source, although you can install most of the initial chunk as a binary.  This can make installing things a bit slow on older machines, but most modern machines can hammer through all but the most complex installations pretty fast.

I use it on some of our machines, since there servers, and headless, so I don't need all the X11 junk to be installed.  I configure and run everything using the command line, so SSH is fine for that.  X11 can be installed, and will run fine though.

The flip side is that since almost nothing is installed by default, you probably want a network connection until you are sure that everything you need or want is installed.

The installation is also significantly more complex than most distros like Ubuntu, where you only have to make the occasional mouse click, either print out the installation guide, or have a second machine to hand to check things on.

[duncan]

If you really want to get your hands dirty, try Gentoo. 

I've got my hands, and indeed everything else, dirty with Gentoo before. I used it for a couple of years. Never again! Thanks for the suggestion though!

Duncan

[delthebike]

If you really want to get your hands dirty, try Gentoo. 

I've got my hands, and indeed everything else, dirty with Gentoo before. I used it for a couple of years. Never again! Thanks for the suggestion though!

Get them clean with Slackware. 

[duncan]

If you really want to get your hands dirty, try Gentoo. 

I've got my hands, and indeed everything else, dirty with Gentoo before. I used it for a couple of years. Never again! Thanks for the suggestion though!

Get them clean with Slackware. 

I have been thinking about that. I've had slackware before too

Duncan

[redshift]

At home I mostly run Mandriva, but I have a copy of Solaris that I can boot to.  I haven't really bonded with it, but YMMV.  A friend of mine was having a look at Zenwalk, which I believe is slackware-based, and I think he quite liked it, but I haven't got around to trying that yet. 

[inc]

but I feel like experimenting!

Well just work your way through the 100 listed distros on Distrowatch you may find something you like. Asking what Linux distro is far too open and you won't find any consensus.

[duncan]

you won't find any consensus.

No problem. I'm not expecting consensus, just some new ideas I've tried most of the obvious ones, and I'm wondering if there is something new that is good that I've missed.

Duncan

[inc]

you won't find any consensus.

 I'm wondering if there is something new that is good that I've missed.

Duncan

Give sidux a go then, it is a live distro but installs in less than four minutes. Once installed and with a net connection you can just do a dist-upgrade and you are running Debian Sid as of that date, including kernel upgrades which are now handled with apt, It is very stable. The manual is very good and is available when running the live version.

[vorsprung]

If you really want to get your hands dirty, try Gentoo. 

I've got my hands, and indeed everything else, dirty with Gentoo before. I used it for a couple of years. Never again! Thanks for the suggestion though!

Get them clean with Slackware. 

I stopped using Slackware in 1998 as it was lacking in a number of areas.
Everytime I've looked at it since it was lagging behind everyone else
The main problem is the package manager which doesn't cope with dependancies

I don't like Redhat in general but the modern paid-for-support version seems pretty much ok.  Especially if you get Rackspace to manage it for you  Dunno about Fedora never run it, heard occassional good things and occassional bad things

I am a big fan of Debian.  I do understand that a) it isn't the easiest to install b) it is so stable because it ignores new features and programs that people want.  But if you are running a server it is ideal.  The package management on Debian is super.

The embedded stuff I'm working with at the moment uses Gentoo.  I don't think I'd like it for ease of use on a average PC.  But with the wacky stuff it seems quite nice.

I recently installed Suse.  It has good integration with MS Windows stuff and Netware which we were trying out.  It was easy to install and use.

For an easy time  I don't think you can beat Ubuntu though.  It has much of the package features of Debian but is easier to install and use.

The next OS experiment at home will probably be putting OpenBSD on an old  rackmount dell I have lying around.  FreeBSD is quite fun to use, I've even used it on a desktop machine before.

[fred the great]

I use Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop which is also Debian and very similar to Windows. There are a couple of Programmes that it cannot handle so I use a double boot.

The only issue I have is that the Ubuntu programme always wants to update although on another thread I was advised that this can be managed better with another update Manager. Some of the updates are strange to me, so I have to update as recommended to be safe.

[Woofage]

Why not go for another OS completely like FreeBSD, OpenSolaris or BeOS? Nothing to lose...

[TimO]

I've still got the odd Solaris machine working around here, and I've found Linux distros to generally be easier to manage.  Solaris is probably ideal for big systems with lots of well trained system managers, and appropriate (read expensive) support packages, but for the odd server I found it overly complex, and a bit of a pain to configure.