Linux Operating System And Distribution Recommendations?

[Mister Epic]

Hey folks!

I'm in a bit of a predicament. Well, not really a predicament, so as much as indecisiveness.

The thing is that generally, I use Ubuntu as my Linux Operating System of choice. But the newest version, 11.04 isn't quite to my liking as I am really not digging or liking the new "Unity" desktop environment and graphical user interface and they seem to have gotten rid of GNOME, which is my favorite one to use.

So as of now, I am looking into other options when it comes to Linux Operating Systems.

I have been Googling and doing mild research and can't seem to pick one out.

So far, my number one choice is Debian, but it looks like a BITCH to install and I could not figure out how to do so when I booted the installation up, as opposed to installing as well as configuring Windows and Ubuntu (Which is easy), for instance.

Does anyone else know how to install it (Debian) and perhaps can give me some easy steps or a tutorial for installing it? This would benefit other people as well.

My second choice is Linux Mint, but I hear there are some issues with version 10 Julia, so I am currently waiting for the release of version 11, supposedly labelled as "Katya".

Which other Linux Operating System would those of you who have used them recommend? Can you provide positive and negative constructive points on them as well? Anything just as good as or as decent as Ubuntu, if not better?

Thanks in advance to those who reply with their knowledge and experience.

[Renegade]

Not sure about the installation of it, as never really tried those ones, always been an Ubuntu as my primary choice, However, why don't you just set yourself up a virtual PC? It's pretty simple to do and you have all of the same features pretty much as you would installing it as an OS. That way you can experiment with each OS, to see which one meets your criteria.

[Mister Epic]

Eh, I like running full Operating Systems instead of in a virtual PC. So, don't really feel like bothering with that for now.

I still want to hear from others that have some experience with different Linux Operating Systems to see their takes and opinions on it and then go from there.

Still on 10.10 Ubuntu for now. (Wish I had sound for my headphones, though. Damn kernel update...)

[pureIso]

Have you tried Suse?

[Mister Epic]

Which one? I think they have multiple forks.

I know there's OpenSuse, which now owned by Novell, correct? Also, what was your experience with Suse, if you'd like to share?

[pureIso]

Any of the Suse...
They are ok and very beautiful GUI :) I only really use it for browseing the web nothing serious.

[Mister Epic]

Does OpenSuse have VLC Media Player, Pidgin, GIMP Photo Editor and OpenOffice by any chance?

Edit: Also, do they have anything similar to Ubuntu's Software Center and Synaptic Package Manager?

[pureIso]

Does OpenSuse have VLC Media Player, Pidgin, GIMP Photo Editor and OpenOffice by any chance?

Edit: Also, do they have anything similar to Ubuntu's Software Center and Synaptic Package Manager?

Yes
Opensuse = YaST or you can apt-get synaptic package

[Mocha]

Download Wubi
???
Profit. If you have questions though PM I or Mojo(He's a linux god)

[Mister Epic]

Download Wubi
???
Profit. If you have questions though PM I or Mojo(He's a linux god)

I dunno if if Mojo's a Linux God (He does seem knowledgeable, however), but I can tell you that I'm not stupid and know what WUBI is and also, that is a ridiculous meme. (The whole "??? Profit". Nothing personal against you though. Thanks for trying to help.)

I'm currently ON Ubuntu, not Winblowz. :-P (I only switch to Winblowz when I want to use save editors or do PC Gaming and nothing but that.)

Read first post in topic
???
PROFIT!

I thank you for the suggestion, though. (I may PM you later. I do like discussing Linux and learning more about it. I remember one whole week where I did nothing but research different Linux Operating Systems as well as the community and scene in general in my spare time. Fun times.)

[mojobojo]

I am not a "Linux God" lol. I am decent with it, I have had experience with it since Fedora 9. I have tried multiple distributions, so far my favourites are Debain (http://www.debian.org/) (outdated, go with Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/), Mint (http://www.linuxmint.com/), or other distros that use Debain as the base (http://www.debian.org/misc/children-distros)), Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/) (Sabayon Linux (http://www.sabayon.org/)), Redhat (http://www.redhat.com/) (Fedora (http://fedoraproject.org/), CentOS (http://www.centos.org/)). Another good one that falls out of category is ArtistX (http://www.artistx.org/site3/), its a crappy name but I love the art and media tools that come with it especially because I am an artist.


Does OpenSuse have VLC Media Player, Pidgin, GIMP Photo Editor and OpenOffice by any chance?

Edit: Also, do they have anything similar to Ubuntu's Software Center and Synaptic Package Manager?

Any distro can support those, but you will have to manually install them with the included package manager. Its a little close minded to only install a distro that comes with them pre-installed, especially because most provide what you are looking for.

Just before anyone asks, desktop environments do not make a difference. It is just out of preference. The ones I know of are Gnome (http://www.gnome.org/) (my favorite), XFCE (http://www.xfce.org/), KDE (http://www.kde.org/), and LXDE (http://lxde.org/).

Also, if your BIOS supports USB booting, use Universal USB Installer (http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/). I use it whenever I want to try out a new distro.


Download Wubi
???
Profit. If you have questions though PM I or Mojo(He's a linux god)

Don't use wubi, it still runs windows in the background. Look at your processes if you don't believe me (type in terminal "ps aux | less"). If you are willing, I recommend repartitioning your HDD and installing an OS to each partition if you want to dual boot.

[Mister Epic]

I am not a "Linux God" lol. I am decent with it, I have had experience with it since Fedora 9. I have tried multiple distributions, so far my favourites are Debain (http://www.debian.org/) (outdated, go with Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/), Mint (http://www.linuxmint.com/), or other distros that use Debain as the base), Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/) (Sabayon Linux (http://www.sabayon.org/)), Redhat (http://www.redhat.com/) (Fedora (http://fedoraproject.org/), CentOS (http://www.centos.org/)). Another good one that falls our of category is ArtistX (http://www.artistx.org/site3/), its a crappy name but I love the art and media tools that come with it especially because I am an artist.



Any distro can support those, but you will have to manually install them with the included package manager. Its a little close minded to only install a distro that comes with them pre-installed, especially because most provide what you are looking for.

Just before anyone asks, desktop environments do not make a difference. It is just out of preference. The ones I know of are Gnome (http://www.gnome.org/) (my favorite), XFCE (http://www.xfce.org/), KDE (http://www.kde.org/), and LXDE (http://lxde.org/).

I see. I can agree with most of what you said, especially the part about desktop environments/graphical user interface. I too, am a fellow lover of GNOME.

But I'll frank and admit that "Unity" is the first desktop environment/graphical user interface that I've actually not liked. It was too weird and disorienting for me, probably because I was so used to GNOME. But then again, even GNOME was a little crazy to me at first after switching over from Winblowz for the first time. (I didn't find it crappy or too disorienting, though. It basically just required a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT way of thinking from Winblowz.)

I'm currently waiting for the next version of Linux Mint, myself. They work that have done is elegant and beautiful so far. It just needs a little push and better functionality, less problems in order to surpass Ubuntu. (And also thus Debian.)

Hey Mojo, I've been asking about this for quite a while now, but...

Is there any chance you can make a tutorial or write and instructional help text on installing Debian? That Operating System is a real confusing bitch and pain in the ass to install.

Regardless of quality, I'd still like to try Debian out, even if they only update a new version every few years. (At least everything is more stable, right?)

Fedora is a WHOLE 'nother animal that I am VERY interested in trying, but am a little scared to since it looks a little intimidating. (It does look pretty, though...)

Also, live installers, FTW! (Great for checking out new Linux Distributions without installing them, but sadly not every Linux OS has it.)

[mojobojo]

Hey Mojo, I've been asking about this for quite a while now, but...
...
...
Also, live installers, FTW! (Great for checking out new Linux Distributions without installing them, but sadly not every Linux OS has it.)

Well you are in luck, Debain has live media. If I recall correctly it even has an installer.
32 bit: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/i386/iso-hybrid/
64 bit: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/

[Mister Epic]

Well you are in luck, Debain has live media. If I recall correctly it even has an installer.
32 bit: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/i386/iso-hybrid/
64 bit: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/

Thanks. I've actually tried out the live media/installer for Debian before, but it was all weird and confusing for me to use and figure out. I know that upon installing it, it's not the same as Ubuntu or Winblowz where it's soopa easy and you mostly just have to click on crap and click next with barely any typing required.

Debian on the other hand... This monster requires you to TYPE. FRIGGIN'. EVERYTHING.

When installing it, you get a black screen with some text/script/whatever the hell and it's basically a lot like a terminal/command line and you have to figure out what the Hell to type to get moving forward on this thing I've never had to do anything like that before... (Although I have worked in the terminal a lot in Ubuntu, but it was more to get some drivers working or to apt-get some programs or software or to "Sudo iwlist wlan0 scan" and other such crap.)

But thank you for the links, I want to keep that on hand. That is the latest version of Debian, yes? (I don't recall what they named it... Lenny, was it? Hmm...)

[mojobojo]

Debian on the other hand... This monster requires you to TYPE. FRIGGIN'. EVERYTHING.

When installing it, you get a black screen with some text/script/whatever the hell and it's basically a lot like a terminal/command line and you have to figure out what the Hell to type to get moving forward on this thing I've never had to do anything like that before... (Although I have worked in the terminal a lot in Ubuntu, but it was more to get some drivers working or to apt-get some programs or software or to "Sudo iwlist wlan0 scan" and other such crap.)

It should have a graphical installer and boot into gnome right after you install. Its never done that for me.

[Mister Epic]

It should have a graphical installer and boot into gnome right after you install. Its never done that for me.

Yeah, I must've selected the wrong download. I think the website was a little confusing to navigate at the time, I don't remember. That and I think what I was downloading at the time was Lenny. The new version is "Squeeze", right?

Now for an update: I finally tried out Fedora Linux and needless to say... I was pretty impressed, but my opinion of it overall was negative due to the fact that it's not quite user-friendly and can be quite a headache to get what you want done (Mostly with hardware drivers), even with Fedoraplus and RPM Fusion.

I think my new Linux OS of choice will either be Linux Mint or Debian in the end. For now, I'm gonna fuck with Debian using the links that Mojo provided. (If it's true that they have a graphical installer, then it's about damn time! Nice. Can't wait to try it out.)