best distros for the new & seasoned user?

Story: Ask the Pros...Ahem, that would be you.Total Replies: 24
Author Content
jimf

Nov 24, 2006
4:40 PM EDT
> What are the best distros for the new user and seasoned user? Please keep it to two answers.

New Linux User - Kanotix

Seasoned User - Debian
rijelkentaurus

Nov 24, 2006
4:57 PM EDT
>What are the best distros for the new user and seasoned user? Please keep it to two answers.

New Linux User - PCLinuxOS

Seasoned User - Zenwalk

Could you ask a tougher question? Yikes! Both of the ones I picked are good for either; likewise, jimf's choices are the same, I think. Linux has come such a long way over the past few years that it's almost (almost) ridiculous to think that DistroX needs a seasoned user and isn't fit for a new user. I think that's a good thing. I'm interested to know what folks think, however.

Another good question would be to split distro choices into desktop/server. But that's for another time, I reckon.

8-)

Abe

Nov 24, 2006
5:01 PM EDT
NA
j0shy81

Nov 24, 2006
5:12 PM EDT
> What are the best distros for the new user and seasoned user? Please keep it to two answers.

New User - Kubuntu

Seasoned User - Arch Linux

I have helped set up Kubuntu in a nonprofit community center and it is great for new users. As a more experienced user, I love Arch's slackware-like simplicity and speed.
jimf

Nov 24, 2006
5:14 PM EDT
rijelkentaurus,

Knowing that these poll type things are a real pita to tabulate unless you follow the rules, I'm going to open a parael thread specificly for commentary. Let's use that :)

Let's keep it to two answers

New Linux User -

Seasoned User -
dcparris

Nov 24, 2006
5:14 PM EDT
New User - Ubuntu family

Seasoned - Debian
kozmcrae

Nov 24, 2006
5:16 PM EDT
PCLinuxOS and FC6. Hey wait, that's what you said. Well yes, those are my two choices exactly. I use PCLinuxOS as my primary distro. I cut my teeth on FC3 on up to FC5. Now my favorite Fedora Core champion (Stanton Finley) has switched to Ubunto. I don't blame him one bit though. The conflicts with the repositories are a royal PITA. I have FC6 on another hard drive but I haven't taken the time to make it media friendly yet. As an honorable mention I would like to add Simply Mepis. I played with it for a couple of weeks on a third hard drive (I'm so glad I lived long enough to enjoy cheap, huge, reliable hard drives). I was amazed at the size of the combined repositories. One thing that killed it for me was the fact that it didn't recognize my LCD monitor so it had to use a generic driver. Although PCLinuxOS' repository isn't as large, it has a great choice of software. I love playing with Google Earth.
Inhibit

Nov 24, 2006
5:16 PM EDT
A'ighty, here goes my shot.

New User - Debian Derivative (pick one.. they tend to one up each other every release)

Seasoned User - Debian (used to be slackware, but really.. who has the time)

Now that's on the desktop. Servers are a real personal preference, with every single admin I've talked to citing different criteria regardless of OS.
dominic

Nov 24, 2006
5:31 PM EDT
New users: Kubuntu Old users: Debian (or Kubuntu)
rijelkentaurus

Nov 24, 2006
5:33 PM EDT
{Moved to another thread}
Abe

Nov 24, 2006
5:33 PM EDT
New User - PCLinuxOS

Seasoned - Kubuntu
jdixon

Nov 24, 2006
6:02 PM EDT
New User - PCLinuxOS.

Seasoned User - Slackware.

Commentary moved to the other thread.
swbrown

Nov 24, 2006
6:21 PM EDT
New User - Debian Seasoned - Debian
djohnston

Nov 24, 2006
8:24 PM EDT
New User - PCLinuxOS.

Seasoned User - Arch.
herzeleid

Nov 24, 2006
8:39 PM EDT
I know this may not be politically correct in these troubled times, but IMHO SuSE is the best all around distro for a seasoned user. A slow newbie could go with something like Linspire I suppose...

New User - linspire Seasoned User - SuSE
Scott_Ruecker

Nov 24, 2006
11:33 PM EDT
New User - PCLinuxOS

Seasoned User - SuSE

PCLinuxOS is great for someone who just getting their feet wet and well I know I am going to take heat on it but I continue to use SuSE 10.1 and I think for a seasoned user it is really good. I get it to do all things I need it to and I like it.
micder

Nov 25, 2006
2:00 AM EDT
New User: PCLinuxOS Seasoned User: Slackware

Slackware uses the KISS principle and gives you total control
Sander_Marechal

Nov 25, 2006
3:33 AM EDT
New user: Ubuntu - I think Feisty will be great for new users. My vehement opposition to the binary drivers is about Mark breaking his promise to the community, not the quality of the distro

Seasoned users: Debian - Fedora comes a close second but really, RMP needs to be scrapped and reimplemented first.

If we were to vote on a distro specifically aimed at Windows people, I'd go for PCLinuxOS.
grgiii

Nov 25, 2006
4:55 AM EDT
New user: Ubuntu, friendlier version of debian, Gnome allows user interface to be tailored more easily for newbie and deb packaging is best there is.

Seasoned user: SimplyMepis (if you like it to work out of the box or Debian if you want to tweak yourself

I stay away from rpm distros because of bad experience in the past but Suse is very slick.
pat

Nov 25, 2006
7:21 AM EDT
New Users: Ubuntu - This is what we of Freegeek Columbus are using Seasoned User: Whatever you like. I use Gentoo.
number6x

Nov 25, 2006
8:33 AM EDT
Simply Mepis 3.4.3 was the best new user distro when it came out.

Simply Mepis 6 was a major re-work, as the distro is now based on Ubuntu instead of vanilla debian. Simply Mepis 6 has lost some of its polish, but I think it is more what Ubuntu should strive to be like.

PCLinux OS gets my vote for easiest distro to master your own live CD's with.
scrawler

Nov 25, 2006
2:02 PM EDT
New: pclos Seasoned: Arch Linux
SFN

Nov 27, 2006
4:28 AM EDT
New: Ubuntu Seasoned: Debian
devnet

Nov 27, 2006
8:11 AM EDT
New: PCLinuxOS (been saying this since 2004) Seasoned: Arch
hkwint

Nov 27, 2006
10:46 AM EDT
New: Linspire (I suppose)

Seasoned: Gentoo (of course)

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