For The Computer Gurus: Which Linux Is Best?

Today | Brainhose

[Brainhose]

Greetings;
I recently built a new PC and I plan to run Linux in a virtual machine using VMWare.
I know very little sbout Linux and was wondering if anyone had an opinion on which of the seemingly endless versions was the best to use. Many thanks in advance.

[thecabal]

Ubuntu or its even more user friendly (but less cutting edge) variant Linux Mint.

[21stCenturion]

...

[Pearls Before Swine]

A couple of comments:

First, I’ve been using Oracle’s “Virtual Box” instead of VMware. Its easy to set up, and I’ve used both the Linux and the Windows versions.

That is, I’ve run Linux as the major system with XP running inside Virtual Box, and more recently, I’ve run Windows 7 as the main operating system (which is the way I think you want to do it) and both Fedora and Ubuntu as the guest OS.

I’ve been a long time Fedora user, but I’ve got to say that the latest version of Ubuntu (10.04) is a bit easier to get started and customized. I’d also second the comment that the Synaptics/APT update in Ubuntu is a bit easier to use than the YUM updater provided in Fedora, but YUM works very well also.

[ml/nj]

I would use Ubuntu. I downloaded it to a thumbdrive and booted it from there....but I can’t get the wireless to work. Anyone have any ideas?

I also downloaded Ubuntu to a thumbdrive. As I recall there is some little widget in the upper right corner of the screen that you have to click on to enable the wireless.

I found I had to do this and everything else, like install programs, every time I tried to run the thing; apparently because no changes were ever made to the image that was being booted. I could create files and put them on the desktop; and the next time I booted the system they were all gone. Anyone have any ideas about THAT?? !

ML/NJ

[martin_fierro]

Ubuntu: Easy to install, rock solid, using it now.

Linux Mint: a derivative of Ubuntu with the most Windows-like interface

[reg45]

There is a distro called "Mint", which is a derivative of Ubuntu (which is a derivative of Debian), that does everything that Ubuntu does but allows for (Oh Horrors!) proprietary device drivers. The proprietary drivers are generally considered to be more stable - since they have been written by the device manufacturers for that specific device. Many people consider it to be among the most reliable of the distros.

I have it on a dual-boot machine with Windows 7.

The only fault I've found with it so far, is that it does not use the DVI output at boot time. In order to boot with other than the default OS, you need to use a VGA monitor to see the boot menu. Once the boot has completed, you can then switch your monitor to DVI. Since my monitor supports both VGA and DVI, I can just change a monitor setting to observe the boot menu. I do not know if this "problem" exists in Ubuntu and Debian also - I have not tested them on my other machine yet. It's related to GRUB - the bootloader which actually loads the operating system.

I would recommend either Ubuntu 10.4 LTS or Mint 9.

One more thing - if you want to have a dual-boot machine with Windows and Linux, ALWAYS install Windows first and then install Linux - most of the distros will do that from a single CD or DVD. On the other hand, a Windows installation destroys the Linux bootloader and provides no multiple boot capability, while GRUB is designed as a multiple OS bootloader.

[snowsislander]

I found I had to do this and everything else, like install programs, every time I tried to run the thing; apparently because no changes were ever made to the image that was being booted. I could create files and put them on the desktop; and the next time I booted the system they were all gone. Anyone have any ideas about THAT?? !

I have used liveusb-creator with some success (particularly with Fedora images.)

Notice the "persistent storage" option on the window; if you set it to a value, then you will find that much persistent space available to your usb image.

It's been a few months since I used one of these images, but I seem to remember that you could add new packages to them that persist over reboots, and the webpage I reference above also indicates that.

[martin_fierro]

Linux Distro Chart

[reg45]

Wow! That makes some of my wife’s genealogical charts look downright simple.

[ml/nj]

I guess it must be a "feature" to have a system where everything you do disappears every time you turn it off, but I just don't get it.

ML/NJ

[kevkrom]

It works great for people using public machines.

[krogers58]

For my two cents worth, I’d install Ubuntu for ease of installation as the root operating system, then use “VirtualBox” for the vm program. It blows vmware out of the water and is free. Then you can run anything you want in your virtual machines. I have 3 flavors of windows, 2 versions of linux and an old unix os. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to set up ubuntu for your root os, and then virtualbox is also easy to install.

[goodnesswins]

My desktop just died this morning.....HELP....you two seem to know alot about computers (and others here) I’ve always used Windows based computers...should I consider switching to an Apple type? I haven’t had a new computer in 6+ years....aaagghghghg

[snowsislander]

I guess it must be a "feature" to have a system where everything you do disappears every time you turn it off, but I just don't get it.

It's considered an advantage when you are concerned about nasties that might creep in.

Some experts recommend, for instance, only doing your web-browsing on a live Linux image that doesn't retain any state. Even if you were to come across a website that transmitted malware that was persistent, it would be gone the next time you reboot.

Now that my memory has been jogged, the Puppy Linux distribution also has a native persistence feature.

[JerseyHighlander]

Ubuntu Ultimate Gamers Edition 2.
http://ultimateedition.info/ultimate-edition/ultimate-edition-gamers/#download

Cause really, it’s awesome. Productivity is overrated.

---

Ubuntu Studio
Ubuntu Studio 10.04 (Lucid) DVD Images
http://ubuntustudio.org/downloads
Let Your Creativity Fly...
Ubuntu Studio. A multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.

We provide a suite of the best open-source applications available for multimedia creation. Completely free to use, modify and redistribute. Your only limitation is your imagination.

---

The big list of VMWare linux images you can download from the VMWare community....
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/cat/508?k=linux&sort=relevance

[kevkrom]

What do you want to use it for?

[dfwgator]

I like Linux Mint a lot.

[krb]

Real Men use LFS:

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

[JerseyHighlander]

http://www.menuetos.net/download.htm

Not linux. Written in Assembly language. Full OS fits on a floppy disk.

Also... find the VMXBuilder here....

http://powerwf.com/product_list/vmx-builder/

Then find the tutorial on how to build an empty virtual disk which you can boot into... easiest and most customizable way to build your own images...

Virtual CloneDrive http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html is another piece of useful software.

Also might want to download software that allows converting a directory into a virtual drive. For example: http://home.datacomm.ch/t.bigler/vsubst.zip

Note... DaemonTools is now considered spyware... too much junk has been added to the underlying utilities...

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Mint 8 for me, love it.

Me too!