What you look for in a Linux Distro?

I just want feedback on what people look for in Linux.

Ease of use? Business? Looks/Design? Better Server? Gnome/Kde? Hate for Windows ? Cost/free? Hardware compatible? Is Linux safer even without anti-virus? Etc: Etc: Etc: ??


What sparked me to ask is ..... I was looking at a Webpage with Lindows, Lycoris, and XPde. And asked myself whats the point of having a differ OS that looks exactly like windows?

 

I'm not sure what u mean by "business" and "better server" but yes to all other .

I also love the zillion apps that come with linux, either on the install dvd, or from one central repository.
Wants xemacs ? opera ? latex ? haskell ? Eclipse ? Ssh ? Ghostview ? Acroread ? - Just select these on the software menu, and it automatically goes and fetches and install it.
No going around from site to site, worrying about malware, as everything is coming from the same sorce. Or worrying about registry getting bigger and slowing the computer down - I've heard people ave to reinstall windows after a couple of years as it starts getting slower and slower
Plus, it have a free inbuilt dvd burning software ( I dont thnk there's any free dvd burning software for windows.

 

I meant I know alot of businesses prefer Linux servers over a windows.

Yea, some of the reasons you metioned are great, but I'm asking what makes somebody choose a Certain distro?



I got to fix my k' & x's lol

 

For me its, .Ease of installation (I'm not too comfortable with hacking scripts).

I tried installing mandriva on my M90, the X install failed. I tried SLED, it worked, so I'm sticking to it.

 

Yea, that was one of the biggest reasons for me too. Thats why I installed Ubuntu and it's been sweet so far.

Last year I tried to install Fedora 2 and had nothing but problems.


Getting my hardware to work was reason #1 for me. Without wireless, DVD/CD, or USB detection then whats the point.

 

It's not my main OS but, I choose slackware 10.2 because it is different from windows and like wearetheborg said I love all the apps that come with this distro(Blender 3D rendering & animation suite). It wasn't hard for me to get it up and running and only install what I wanted(no bloatware). Plus alot of buisnesses use Linux or Unix in their networks and that is what I'm going to shcool for so I figured I'd get myself fimiliar with the OS for the future.

 

That's one of the reasons I use it. Next year my degree is almost solely *nix stuff. My uni uses Debian as their OS, so I wanted to find a good Debian based distro.

 

I've heard Debian is a bit hard to install - is that true ?
Most hackers seem to use debian, I wonder why ?

 

I installed debian once quite a while ago. I found it pretty easy, and I'm no hacker. I think there was a little post-install work to get everything going hardware-wise, but that tends to be the case for me with everything. Even when stuff gets all my hardware, WPA, for instance, never works out of the box.

 

I used Ubuntu cause of the easy install process, the fact that all is included on a CD (a LiveCD no less), and I had used it before via a VM and was very impressed with the Synaptic Package Manager. Also, the ability to easily get Gnome, KDE, and Xfce desktops to work was a plus. And the fact that nearly all of my hardware worked out of the box.

 

I want most everything to work with little hassle. I like getting into the guts of things, but I really haven't got the time for it. I need to get work done. For me, that means Kanotix. Has some nice simple scripts for configuring networking, upgrading packages via apt, installing graphics drivers, beryl, compiz, etc. Really great distro, plus it's completely compatible with debian. Oh, and they even put up warnings for when NOT to upgrade your system because it will get borked. I love it.

http://kanotix.com

 

I have SuSE 10.0, and I have been supremely happy with it. I love the "eye-candy." Everything is so sparkly and clean-looking--if you ask me Windows doesn't come anywhere close to looking as good as Linux.

But as for the serious reasons I like Linux--IT'S FREE!!! When it comes to using Linux for things like word processing, email, surfing the Internet... etc., Linux does just as well if not better than Windows. Who wants to pay $100 for an operating system when you can get the same thing for free?

The Linux community is really great, too. Instead of looking down on newbies like so many other people do, Linux users go out of their way to be helpful to newbies.

I think the greatest thing about Linux is that it's open-source, which means anybody who wants to can learn to work with it and develop their personalized operating system, if they so desire. Ichthux, for example, is a "Christian" operating system--one customized to include Bible study applications and other handy things.

Furthermore, I think Microsoft charges outrageous prices, and a little competition sure couldn't hurt 'em!

 

For me, Linux is a much more developer-friendy environment. For that reason, on Windows a few people even use cygwin...

The other thing is that on Linux, things like ssh/scp or Latex work out of the box, whereas in Windows you have to find some additional software first...

And also there are quite a few apps I like better than the Windows counterparts, say amarok with it's neat integration of last.fm. Or Kontact is far superior to Outlook (well, you can get Thunderbird for Windows which is okay)

 

1) hardware detection out of the box, especially with recent laptops.
2) popularity. higher means more people out there to answer your questions

Ubuntu meets these two, and that what I'm using now.