distribution CDs thousands of tools and
applications--easily much more than any other distribution. All these
tools/apps are nicely "packaged" (for ease of installation) and
tested for compatibility. This makes Debian distro look monumental, safe,
conservative, and always slightly outdated. So yes, we would not have a problem
recommending Debian as a great general-purpose Linux distribution. Debian calls
itself "The Universal Operating System" for a good reason. At any
time, Debian carries 3 versions. (1) The "stable" version (sometimes
called "potato"), and we would not recommend it, unless you are really
paranoid on stability and don't mind quite outdated packages. (2) The Debian
"testing" version (sometimes called "woody") is probably as
stable as the latest RedHat, and more stable than your current Mandrake. It is
much more up do date than Debian "stable". Debian Woody is the version
we like. (3) If you don't mind occasional trouble, you can also the the third
branch called "unstable", which is likely quite up-to-date.
Corel was once working on their own Linux distribution apparently geared towards a nice and easy platform to run the Corel suite of office applications: WordPerfect wordprocessor, QuattroPro spreadsheet, Corel Presentations, Paradox database, CorelDraw artist package.... The Corel Linux was based on the Debian distribution. It looked initially quite promissing, but it is unclear to me what Corel has done with it (was paid by Microsoft to drop it?). In brief, Corel Linux is dead now, and I would never recommend it to anybody because it it a dead-end. The only reason to mention it here is that Corel Linux once received lots of publicity, so you may still hear about it.
Slackware seems to be favorite among "cutting-edge hackers" who like being close to the operating system and hardware--we did not use it so this is hearsay. We would have trouble recommending Slackware for Linux newbies. Our reviewer Bill Staehle says: "The real 'reason' for a newbie to avoid Slackware is that it is much more command line oriented, and lacks some of the 'cutsie slick and drool' tools that the other distributions have." However, we received feedback from Linux newbies who use Slackware and it works very well for them. It seems that Slackware is relatively simple and cool because of the lack of automation. Therefore, with a bit of effort, a computer-literate administrator can actually understand what is going in her operating system (this is not something I can always say about Mandrake, or MS Windows for that matter). Perhaps Slackware is to Linux what DOS is for MS Windows :) is very popular in Europe. It surely looks German--a solid, general-purpose distro with an easy setup and an excellent reputation. Many users swear by SuSe. We couldn't find cheap Suse CDs though but it appears you can download it.
Corel was once working on their own Linux distribution apparently geared towards a nice and easy platform to run the Corel suite of office applications: WordPerfect wordprocessor, QuattroPro spreadsheet, Corel Presentations, Paradox database, CorelDraw artist package.... The Corel Linux was based on the Debian distribution. It looked initially quite promissing, but it is unclear to me what Corel has done with it (was paid by Microsoft to drop it?). In brief, Corel Linux is dead now, and I would never recommend it to anybody because it it a dead-end. The only reason to mention it here is that Corel Linux once received lots of publicity, so you may still hear about it.
Slackware seems to be favorite among "cutting-edge hackers" who like being close to the operating system and hardware--we did not use it so this is hearsay. We would have trouble recommending Slackware for Linux newbies. Our reviewer Bill Staehle says: "The real 'reason' for a newbie to avoid Slackware is that it is much more command line oriented, and lacks some of the 'cutsie slick and drool' tools that the other distributions have." However, we received feedback from Linux newbies who use Slackware and it works very well for them. It seems that Slackware is relatively simple and cool because of the lack of automation. Therefore, with a bit of effort, a computer-literate administrator can actually understand what is going in her operating system (this is not something I can always say about Mandrake, or MS Windows for that matter). Perhaps Slackware is to Linux what DOS is for MS Windows :) is very popular in Europe. It surely looks German--a solid, general-purpose distro with an easy setup and an excellent reputation. Many users swear by SuSe. We couldn't find cheap Suse CDs though but it appears you can download it.
Caldera was another, well-known and distribution.
It was said to be aiming at corporate users, have the most fancy installation
program, a set of advanced (and pricey) remote configuration tools, and other corporate
goodies. In Aug.2000, Caldera purchased SCO Unix (the original UNIX, including
the UNIX trademark) which gives them an even more "corporate" look in
my eyes. Caldera does not seem to be putting too much of their work into the
Linux community, nor to care too much about the home Linux users, so I would
not consider it for my home use.
There are "localized" versions of Linux
for specific countries or languages (Korean, Chinese, Japanese... )--they
likely contain (on default) all the hacks and docs (documentation) that the
users in these countries want to see. Says Bill Staehle: "You may want to
mention the Conectiva Linux distribution, loosely based on RH from Brazil. As
such, it is in Portugese, and is also available in Spanish. I heard several good things about Conectiva, so if Portugese or
Spanish was my language, I would probably give it a try.
There are also "special purpose"
distributions, e.g. the "real-time" editions of Linux (might be
useful if you are in for automation, robotics, fast speed data acquisition,
etc.), very small distros (if you like the idea of running Linux from a single
floppy which can be useful for system security or recovery), Linux for embedded
systems (if you wanted to customize Linux as a small "special
purpose" device, which could be good for the next-generation stereo, MP3
player, palm computer, or a fancy cellular phone), parallel computing and
clustering systems (might be great if you plan to do your own weather
forecasting :-) or at least nuclear explosion simulations :p ), etc. Here the
differences will be larger, but these distributions are not meant to be
"general purpose". As a newbie, you likely don't want to start with
any of these, although you might be tempted to. (They surely show Linux
strength and viability--Linux runs on toys, even a wrist watch, as well as
computer clusters that make the currently fastest systems in the world.)
The distribution you need is of course specific to the hardware platform you have. This means that for your PC hardware containing an Intel 386 processor, or Intel 486, or Intel Pentium, or Intel 586, or Intel 686, or Cyrix, or K6, AMD, or similar, you need the binary distribution called "Intel" or "386" or x86. [Unless you are prepared to start with your own compilation of the Linux source code, which is not typical for a newbie :-)] . This happens because there are binary distributions for other hardware platforms too: PowerPC, Alpha, Apple, IBM mainframe, "Intel StrongARM", Transmeta, and perhaps a dozen more--you don't want to get those binaries for your PC clone; they surely will not work on a PC machine with an "Intel" or "AMD" processor inside. If you have no-Intel hardware, you may want to search the Internet to find who supports it (chances are Debian does, they seem to support even the most exotic ones. Then, you need to obtain "Debian ARM" or "Debian Motorola 680x0"or "Debian PowerPC" or "Debian SPARC ", ...).
In short, although newbies get confused with the multiple Linux distributions, there are reasons to have different distros. They should be viewed as a Linux strength rather than weakness. Linux is simply filling all application and hardware platform niches.
This guide concentrates on RedHat and Mandrake for the PC (Intel) platform. Many of the answers will work fine on other distributions or platforms, but we did not try them.
The distribution you need is of course specific to the hardware platform you have. This means that for your PC hardware containing an Intel 386 processor, or Intel 486, or Intel Pentium, or Intel 586, or Intel 686, or Cyrix, or K6, AMD, or similar, you need the binary distribution called "Intel" or "386" or x86. [Unless you are prepared to start with your own compilation of the Linux source code, which is not typical for a newbie :-)] . This happens because there are binary distributions for other hardware platforms too: PowerPC, Alpha, Apple, IBM mainframe, "Intel StrongARM", Transmeta, and perhaps a dozen more--you don't want to get those binaries for your PC clone; they surely will not work on a PC machine with an "Intel" or "AMD" processor inside. If you have no-Intel hardware, you may want to search the Internet to find who supports it (chances are Debian does, they seem to support even the most exotic ones. Then, you need to obtain "Debian ARM" or "Debian Motorola 680x0"or "Debian PowerPC" or "Debian SPARC ", ...).
In short, although newbies get confused with the multiple Linux distributions, there are reasons to have different distros. They should be viewed as a Linux strength rather than weakness. Linux is simply filling all application and hardware platform niches.
This guide concentrates on RedHat and Mandrake for the PC (Intel) platform. Many of the answers will work fine on other distributions or platforms, but we did not try them.
Which Linux Distribution should I select for my old
computer(s)? Quick answer: Debian, Slackware, or perhaps BasicLinux (current
version), or an older version of RedHat, Mandrake, or SuSE. Justification:
RedHat, Mandrake, SuSE, Caldera, and TurboLinux are optimized/suitable for
hardware current at the date of their release. They may be difficult or
impossible to install on older machines mostly due to the memory contraints and
speed. Debian and Slackware are suitable for most older hardware as well.
CREATED BY : THEVARANI A/P SHANMUGHAM (THEVA)
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