Best ver. of Linux?

P

Phil Wangenheim

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I am fairly new to Linux. I have a Dell desktop PC that is about 3 years old. I am going to install a new, clean 500 gig hard drive and load Linux. I plan at first to get my Comptia Linux cert., then continue on to to UCLA and get their Linux/Unix Certificate. Knowing all that, what is the best version of Linux to load on my PC?? Thanks!!
 


Define "best". Best is subjective. The "best" version of Linux is the one YOU like and which suits YOUR computer. We don't know. What do you suggest?
 
Well, for beginners like you probably Linux Mint, if you like the Windows start menu and have a *decent* computer I suggest Cinnamon, if your computer is not that good I suggest KDE for a Windows-like environment. Otherwise, try MATE. If you don't want to use Mint try Ubuntu, it comes with the Unity desktop. Once you get to know how things work (including the terminal) I suggest Arch Linux if you want a really customized experience, which I love.

There's also Fedora which is super cutting edge... latest software, always!
 
The book I'm reading recommends openSUSE. Is that acceptable?
 
Yes. Try it. If you don't like it try something else...
 
I have no experience with OpenSUSE, but it is not based off of Debian so it cannot open packages that Ubuntu/Debian can. I have read about OpenSUSE and some people are saying it's "buggy" or it "just won't work for them" and recommend Fedora as an alternative if you are interested in OpenSUSE... But I guess I don't know much... Fail post? :confused:
 
Thanks everyone. I decided to use openSUSE and try something else, if it doesn't work...
 
installed fedora once, and it crashed and bricked for no apparent reason, and the same with KDE WM
I would say it depends on what you like and where you want to go with your Linux experience.,

there are far two many options, ubuntu is up to date with latest software and stable.

the other distros will have outdated but tested software to make sure the system is stable.

fedora > redhat > centos > suse = RPM's without concern for dependencies, not up to date software

Debian and derivatives = Debs, signed packages with dependencies included mostly. debian stable outdated software but derivatives are up to date with software and usually stable.

and then you have your windows managers to choose from as in gnome or kde, xfce, e17, mate, cinnamon, openbox ..... etc etc

Archlinux - Independent you build from the ground up using terminal so this distro will really help in gaining the most experience with linux and its underlying system.

and then there is BSD which is not linux but more like unix

good source for all of the available distros > distrowatch.com
 
If you are intending to go down the Linux certification road I would suggest you find out which distro they train on and start there. Chances are it will be redhat enterprise Linux (RHEL). If that is the case, you can either try to find that, or use CentOS which is a free version of RHEL with the branding removed. Otherwise you can use Fedora, since its Redhats community distro, and is very similar in a lot of ways. If you learn a lot of the suse admin tools, you will have to relearn it all anyway. Some cert programs use debian, but not a lot, and while its my distro of choice, I would recommend you find out what you will be learning and start there.
 
The Linux OS tech book I bought recommends openSUSE. So for now I will use that distro. But your point is well taken, once I go through this book, I will find what distro Comptia Linux + "supports", and load that on my experiment / test PC.
 
OpenSUSE is a pretty good choice as SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) and RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) are by far the most popular business-level distributions, but you won't be able to play with them at they are proprietary and cost big $$$.

Of course by the time you're ready for your Comp TIA cert you should definitely have used/tried openSUSE, Fedora, CentOS, Debian, Arch and any other distros that look interesting as these will let you see how commands and some file locations can differ among distros, most noticeably Debian-based vs RPM-based distros.
 

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