The Brand New UltraMegaSuper "Which Distro" Thread

After trying few newbies distro's I was in your place and wanted something else that fits me more or that will make me learn more, I went with Slackware (that's was few weeks ago) I'm happy with it more than any distro I tried took me few days to get used to do stuff myself but now I'm cool with that and even sorry I didn't try it before, go for it you have nothing to loss don't like it install something else.

I'm a web developer on my way to linux
What are your opinions on what is the best distro for web developers ?
I was thinking about suse, but want to have some light shed on the issue.
Thanks.

The distro really doesn't make a difference as far as web development goes. The available tools for Linux will run on any of the major distros. Select a distro you like for other reasons (like ease of use or ease of upkeep) and then make it work for web development.

That's not 100% true, for example in ubuntu 5.10 you can't get firefox 1.5 from the official repositories.
That spoils the benefits of using apt. Also when i tried installing from source i couldn't get extensions to work.
That's unacceptable for a web dev machine. So ubuntu is not an option for me.

My apologies in advance if this is offensive, but that strikes me as more of a problem with your familiarity with Ubuntu than a problem with Ubuntu itself. While the "official" Ubuntu repository may not have Firefox 1.5, I would bet that one of the less restrictive repositories does. Having used Ubuntu a bit, I know if you broaden the repositories that apt or synaptic looks at, you can find pretty much anything.

For example, the official Slackware 10.2 repository doesn't have Firefox 1.5 either. However, it is readily available from the less restrictive Current repository as well as Linuxpackages, which is an unofficial source of decent Slackware packages. Ubuntu will have a similar sort of approach.

It's not offensive at all. Yet i'am aware of unofficial repositories but do not trust them since i had issues in the past. In ubuntu and fedora, but mostly in ubuntu. Also ubuntu is practicaly an unstable debian and that's more unstable than what i want to be. Especialy the 64bit version was a disaster, i started crashing from the first login.

You surely understand that i'm not a linux guru or anything. I just want a nice productive enviroment to work without wasting too much time on experiments and tuning.

Originally Posted by thejasondean You surely understand that i'm not a linux guru or anything. I just want a nice productive enviroment to work without wasting too much time on experiments and tuning.

That is a perfectly sound way to approach picking a distro. Note that it is also very different from asking "what is the best distro for web developers".

There are a few projects that are aimed at ease of use and since you've ruled out Ubuntu, you may want to look at Mandriva, Ark Linux or Mepis. And oddly enough, I would also suggest having a look at Slackware. Although it can be a bit of a chore to get up and running, once there it is very stable and individual applications are usually found readily at Linuxpackages.net if they aren't in the Current repository. If running a 64 bit OS is important to you, you may have to also look at one of the bigger distros such as Fedora or Suse.

It doesn't matter which distro. Linux is linux, it's just a matter of your preferences in package management and init scripts.

Just use whatever you feel like trying.

I'm thinking of getting a laptop and install linux on it. What distribution would you recomend me for needing the following?

Wireless internet, There are some wireless spots where I can use the internet I want this to work with ease, and also my own internet at home which is not wireless, uses ethernet. Also this is the reason I posted, I don't see much info on wireless internet with respect to distributions (maby searched wrong things).

Easy install and hardware configuration * easy hardware configuration is what will give me the greatest influence to get linux.
Also 2 or less disks needed for install.

these preferably on installation CD: Programming tools already there like GCC (Is GCC included in every distribution?), KDE, OpenOffice, mplayer

Anything I should consider for the laptop to be compatible with linux?
Thank you!

Wireless doesn't depend on distribution; the possibly working kernel modules either are or are not in the kernel, and it's good to have a new kernel (Debian might not offer you the very newest). If there isn't a native working "driver" (kernel module) for your wireless hardware card, you'll need ndiswrapper to use a windows driver, and probably you'll need to get ndiswrapper from the net, so again it's not about distributions. Configuring the wireless goes through a wireless app or somekind of control panel; KDE has somekind of configuration tool, but I've heard it can't handle WEP (or was it the other W-thingie?), so probably you want to download the app from the net too, and again it's not about the distribution.

Hardware configuration is the point. Some distributions do allow you to easily control your hardware, but actually it's not the distribution. Ok, SuSE is said to be "user friendly", but I disagree at some points (well it's just my opinion so I won't suggest you to leave it off). KDE has a nice configuration center, and KDE is included (or available) for most, if not all, of the distributions. If you want a nice pack, 1-disc Kubuntu install (= Ubuntu with KDE) does it; my laptop (Acer Aspire 3004 widescreen) took (talking about Kubu8ntu here) 15 minutes of installation, after which wireless "just worked".

If you want a lot of apps, you need multiple installation discs (like Fedora, has 3 discs). But again, if you choose a distribution with only 1 install disc, you can get what you need - Kubuntu offers you basically everything you need for a start, but is only 1 discs of install: it does contain a set of applications ("one app for one need"), whereas some distros (like Fedora) contain multiple apps for one need (waste of space).

I recomemnd Kubuntu (or Ubuntu) for a start, it's user-friendly and especially newbie-friendly, since switching a distribution is quite a piece of cake.

Remember: the configuration is not dependent of a distribution, only of the programs. Distributions hold certain configure files in different locations, yes, but it's a small matter; if you mean graphical configuration, only few distributions have specific tools that make configuration of some devices/things easier, most of the distributions just share the common programs so it's up to you what distro you choose.

Also remember that easiness of use may lead to lack of control. Anyway you need to start somewhere, and Kubuntu is a good start - if you get bored or angry at it in a week, switch off to some other one. Kubuntu normal install disc is actually a LiveCD so you can try it first, and install then (click the install icon on desktop).

One more thing: if you want easy configuration of devices, Linux might not always be your choice..

Try a few LiveCD's and see which one you like the most. You can usually install the OS to your hard drive from there. I've had the most luck with SimplyMEPIS. It did the best job at detected all of my laptop's hardware and Wifi worked without any configuration what so ever. Knoppix 5 is getting really good reviews and I think Kubuntu has a LiveCD out now.

With every day, we see a new "Which Distro" thread turn up on the boards. None of these threads are new and they rarely impart new knowledge. They also make our members provide the same answers over and over again.

To alleviate this, this thread has been started and stickied. If you have a question about which is the best distro, ask it here. Search/Read the thread first. It will soon become clear that despite the cleverness of the question, or the particulars of the needs of the questioner, the questions and answers will quickly be duplicated.

Any "Which Distro" question asked outside of this thread from now on will either be closed or merged here.

Enjoy.

I'd like to start this with 2 interesting URLs on that suject:

http://distrowatch.com/
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/in...firsttime=true

And my own auto response to such threads by people who claim some previous Linux experience ... Why Debian...A Sales Pitch.

I know ALL newbies want to know this answer, but I have a feeling it may be more complicated at second glance... This hopefully will become a very helpful thread.

Different distributions maybe be good at some things, and bad at others. I hope to cover all pros and cons of the main distributions, such as Slackware, SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva, Ubuntu, and Debian; and maybe take a glance at the latent power of smaller, less commercialized Distributions as well.

Valete,
Vince