linux users, which free one is best?

[rmiddle]

if red hat is free, where do you download it at?  their site charges $49 for it now from what I see.

 

CentOS is the free version of Red Had.  CentOS makes a great server not so great of a workstation.

 

Thanks

Robert

[rmiddle]

Technicality.   Its name changed so they could split out the commercial and free versions.  The same mothership still controls and "owns" both (if anyone really owns a free Linux).   Not being a huge unix fan anyway (I use it when I must, which is rare, usually I can hack out what needs doing in Cygwin) and truly hating their version, I had not kept up with their line.   But even if I personally hated it, its should still be a very viable choice.

 

RedHat Linux split into Fedora a distro released every 6 months and each version ends support after 1 year (Generally crap unless you like to live on the bleeding edge) and Red Hat Certified LInux (RHEL).  RHEL require you to pay for support to get updates however they release the source code for all the updates so at least 2 different projects take that source and create work a like versions the CentOS project is the most popular.  Personally I have pretty much stopped using windows all together I use Kubuntu for my desktops and CentOS for my servers.  I prefer the 10+ year support cycles that I get with CentOS for servers since one wants servers to remain pretty much the same and to run tried and true versions of the software.

[rmiddle]

Building a couple of computers for people that will probably not be too savvy with Linux and need to know which ones work pretty good outside of Ubuntu.

 

Tried loading Ubuntu and couldn't get online (not interested in troubleshooting it).  Anyone have recommendations for another flavor?  Last time I was into the Linux thing was back when redhat was free, so it's been years and years ago.

 

For desktops I have heard good things about Linux Mint I personally prefer KDE over Gnome so I prefer kubuntu over ubuntu. Linux Mint uses Gnome as it desktop.  Linux supports most hardware but some wireless network cards just won't work well or at all under linux.  Web camera's and fingerprint readers can generally be made to work but sometimes requires manual configuration to get to work. Most USB stuff seems to work out of the box nowadays because everything seems to use the same handful of USB chips in there devices.  Personally I have been using Linux as my main desktop for more than 15 years now.  I have tried once or twice to switch back to windows but just can't seem to make the switch.  I still find myself having to dual boot into windows to play games although about 20 percent now will just run under Linux since Steam created SteamOS that percentage seems to be going up. 

 

Thanks

Robert

[ReeferMac]

Ubuntu user since LTS 12.something.... nary a problem, I'd suggest giving it another go? The LiveCD option is a viable option to test it out, see what's causing the troubles (likely a NIC driver).

Once up and running, I found Gentoo was incredibly stable, but probably more work to get going than what you're after.

 

Gawd, how I miss working on Solaris....

 

- K
 

[enfield]

I run Linuxmint 17.3 with the Mate desktop. I've found that there's always either something broken in the Gnome and KDE desktops, or I have some hardware they don't like. Mate has always been easy for me.

[ReeferMac]

https://bsd.slashdot.org/story/16/03/21/0321213/meet-ubuntubsd-unix-for-human-beings

 

Saw this this morning!

[ou812]

Any suggests on which linux to install on a couple of netbooks I have laying around the house????  I have installed mint 17.1 xfce on one of them...it runs... but firefox is a bit slow, but only a bit, just a bit faster than a new install of win 7......specs are 

 10.1" LED / Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz / 1GB Ram / 250GB HD / 802.11g/g Wireless LAN / Webcam..thanks for any suggestions!!!