What Flavor Of Linux Is Best?

[arwalden]

Or are they all the same (more or less)? If Linux is "free" how come people can charge for it?

[phantom power]

1. What you pay for is....

the service of them compiling a coherent distribution onto a CD, which you can then install fairly easily. You really can download linux for free, but you have to organize the distribution yourself.

Also, you generally get some level of tech-support with the versions you pay for.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. You can sell the convenience of a neat CD already recorded, manuals etc

As opposed to having to download three 650 MB files yourself (maybe you're on dialup), burn the CDs (maybe you don't have a CD writer) and write on them with your crappy caligraphy.

Free here means freedom, not price. More here:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. As to what flavor is best: for dipping your toes I recommend Knoppix.

You can boot from the CD and have a working Linux desktop right then and there, without incurring on any risk to your HD files. Also you get the bonus of knowing whether Linux recognizes all of your hardware.

More here: http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

Ah, and check your Inbox.

[ret5hd]

4. linux is free...

i can send you a disk, you can copy the disk and give it away (or sell it). when you buy a disk, you are getting support and/or add-ons. but linux itself is free.

the "core" operating system is the same, but the "install" program is different among the different vendors. Extra programs included on the disk can also be different from vendor to vendor.

Red-Hat (what i use) has lately seemed to be concentrating on the commercial end of the market - businesses, etc. so maybe one of the other distributions would be more suitable for you. but all will come with a whole host of programs that you aren't accustomed to getting from ms (without $$$$$$) --web server, ftp server, mail server, photo editing, c and c++ compiler, a whole host of languages (such as perl, tcl/tk) , i could go on and on...

you might never use most of the capabilities offered. if not, despite what contrarians say, linux is easy to use, taking only a small learning curve to get a home user up to speed.

[ret5hd]

5. oops...dupe post

[no name no slogan]

6. <badjoke> Linux is free only if your time is worthless </badjoke>

...according to one old saw, probably started by a WinSlave way back.

I haven't played with any distros lately, but IIRC Mandrake is quite cool. Easy to install, lots of user-friendly apps and utilities, Red Hat-compatable (altho all Linuxes are compatable w/ each other-- but Mandrake uses Red Hat's package manager)...

I used to really like Corel's distro way back when, but they got out of that bidness and sold it off to somebody else (forgot who). Otherwise, Red Hat/Fedora has a strong following, as does SuSE. If you're a "purist" you may like Debian.

Most of them are pretty good, actually. But if you're just starting out, pick a distro that's popular and well-supported. You can't go wrong.