Big Question, Choosing a Linux distribution Options

[Dinero]

I'm sure its very hard to say, but what is the best version of linux? I mean, I've tried to install things in linux and stuff with the whole make, make install blah blah, and have to install RPMs to allow that function to work, but have to install RPMs that allow for the installation of RPMs for the RPMs required to install the RPMs needed to install make and make install.

So its more along the lines of the easiest to use and most well designed. I've heard good things about Red hat, Fedora is pretty bad in my opinion and SUSE sucks. So far I haven't tried much, but I'm thinking of perminantly switching over, who can say what is the best?

[russ_m9]

Hi there, Dinero

i like Mandrake but i have tried Suse 9.l and it was not that bad i have also tried Debian 3.0 and could not quite get the hang of it but like the others above have already said it is a matter of prefrence and what you want to do that make a distro easy or hard to learn.

but in any case you will have to lean a whole new OS structure and commands like it or not, i mean when you first used Windows you did not know every thing off the bat right ?.

of course not you had to learn it from trial and error and if your like me lots of trial and error as for installing Make and GCC to ./configure and ./install programs that is easy during the install of any and all ditros i have tried you just select Development and then you can further select single files,RPMS,DEB, Ect from there to customize that but i have found on Mandrake and Suse that selecting Development will install a lot of stuff you do not need but will install the most common stuff needed to compile programs from source and most importantly do not forget to install the Kernel Source code for the kernel your running in your Distro or the compiler will exit with a ton of errors.

i know i have iover simplified things a bit but you get the idea it is just a matter of asking questions and learning from the Experince of Others whom have the skills and will write howto's that is my favorite way to learn.

But i would say for me Easy to use would be Suse or Mandrake but take that with a cautionary note: I am not an Advanced or Power User nor am i a programmer just a shmo that knows these are easy to learn (for me anyways) but i still have a ways to go on doing it all myself .

Scincerly
Russell Morton