which linux?

[shankle]

Thinking about putting Linux on my machine.
Which one???
   Red Hat
   Caldera
   SuSe
   Debian

Use will be personal.
The web sites give the imression that they are free BUT I don't think so.
What do I get if I download it off the internet?

Thanks,
JPS

[petezl]

The last I heard was that RedHat has gone completely server stuff but that still leaves a wide choice. Linux IS free but be prepared for a big download avarage appx 2gb. You can get most distros from linux central very good price (covers DVD and shipping).  If you want official support then you do have to pay for that. I've eavesdropped  on several linux forums but they don't appear over helpful, so if you encounter problems you are on your own to a certain extent, It would be a great help if you knew someone local to share problems with. Two heads etc...
Peter.

[Bieb]

I like Fedora, the free version of RedHat.  Get it at redhat.com .

[sluggy]

Personally i use a version of Knoppix, very user friendly, great support forums, and i haven't had a problem with the auto hardware detection (which is important when you are not an expert on Linux).

[hutch--]

Jack,

Notwithstanding al the good advice you have been given here, the people who run the server for one of my websites in England recommend Slackware as a good basic Linux distro.

[hitchhikr]

Slackware but personally i'll go for FreeBSD.

[rags]

Sluggy,
   According to the Knoppix website, it says it runs off the cd.
   Have you had any problems with it affecting any of the info
on the hard drive(s) you use with Windows? or interfering with the
operation of  windows after you reboot your PC?
  I never played with Linux before, and thought that this might be
an easy way to check it out, without having to repartion a hard drive,
and possibly mess up what I already have on it.
Thanks,
         Mike

[Bieb]

It can read files off your hard disk, but it can't write to them or delete them, so it's totally safe.

[sluggy]

Sluggy,
   According to the Knoppix website, it says it runs off the cd.
   Have you had any problems with it affecting any of the info
on the hard drive(s) you use with Windows? or interfering with the
operation of  windows after you reboot your PC?
  I never played with Linux before, and thought that this might be
an easy way to check it out, without having to repartion a hard drive,
and possibly mess up what I already have on it.

No, never had any issues like this, it has been great so far  :U

[sluggy]

It can read files off your hard disk, but it can't write to them or delete them, so it's totally safe.

Not quite correct  :bg It mounts each partition in read only mode, which protects your filesystem. All you have to do is remount it as read/write and then you can write to it (including NTFS, although that fs is not "officially" suppoerted). The command to remount in Knoppix is something like this:

Code Select Expand


   sudo su   (change to root)
   mount -o remount r,w /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1   (mount with options "remount read/write")

That's off the top of my head, so don't nag me if i got the syntax slightly wrong :toothy

[petezl]

You can download "Mandrake move" and run it from a CD, Use a memory stick as a psuedo hard drive.

Peter.