Picking a Linux distribution

Sunni Maravillosa solicited advice on picking a Linux distribution:

Seeing the writing on the wall — the coming digital divide, where some users will retain control of their machines and others will have relinquished it to the likes of Microsoft and Intel — I’m getting serious about giving Linux another try.

Sunni and others: it depends on the computer, network considerations and what you want to do with it.

Someone who is new to Linux AND has a NEW computer should first go with a modern, mainstream distro until they get their legs under them.

The reason I add NEW computer on to that is that the mainstream distributions have been getting fat to where they are almost as slow as Windows. Or, as slow as Windows would be before it gets bogged down even further with spyware and viruses/trojans — approximately the first four minutes after installation.

Fedora, SUSE and Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) are the most popular ones for a reason. Ubuntu has been getting rave reviews lately, but I’ve never tried it myself. It’s surely worth a look, given that much grassroots buzz — even though I can’t give an informed opinion on it myself.

Are you accessing the internet through a broadband or dialup connection? I used to have endless trouble getting the WinModem on this box to work on RedHat 7.1 through RedHat 9. But all were perfectly fine with a broadband connection that could make use of my ethernet port. Dialup problems ended for me with Suse 9.1, which had no trouble at all with this WinModem.

One distro that I can’t recommend enough, particularly for older computers, is VectorLinux — the SOHO edition specifically. VectorLinux SOHO comes with the more full-featured KDE desktop as well as a light, stripped down desktop environment (IceWM). The whole thing is tuned for speed and has applications specifically selected for Small Office/Home Office use. It’ll put some pep in your old but not ancient machine.

From the VectorLinux web site:

VECTORLINUX is a small, fast, Linux operating system for Intel, AMD and x86 compatible systems, based on one of the original Linux distributions, Slackware. The enormously popular Slackware is the true ‘Unix’ of Linux distributions and is used by major corporations, universities and home users alike. It’s popularity stems from the fact that it is a robust, versatile and almost unbreakable system. We have produced a bloat free, easy to install, configure and maintain Slackware based system that is second to none. We include automatic hardware configuration, unique administration tools and easy package management via the Gslapt/slapt-get system. We are also known as the fastest non-source distro on the planet!

If we’re talking about a truly ancient machine (300 Mhz processor or less) — the standard edition (not SOHO) of VectorLinux or Damn Small Linux (DSL) are both good choices. DSL will reportedly give you a solid, basically serviceable desktop on a 486DX with 16 megs of RAM!

If you’re new to server administration and want to set up a server on your home network to play with, go with Fedora Core 3 or 4. After you’re more comfortable with servers — Slackware, Debian, OpenBSD and FreeBSD are all OS choices I would consider.

Finally, if you’re looking to get into small business IT consulting, pay attention to what the UserLinux people are putting together.

Shameless self-promotion: I’ve been busy as hell lately, but I am generally available for paying clients.