Thinking of upgrading to linux...

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(It should be noted that Debian is the only distribution that I've used for any length of time, so this is extremely biased.)

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Debian is the best distro, IMNSHO. Though I'd recommend Ubuntu for someone who's just starting with Linux, it has much better hardware support and non-free drivers, so you don't have to worry as much about force-arch-installing an i386 arch package onto a amd64-compatible processor, and going through 3rd party .deb archive sites.

If you choose Debian (and I highly reccommend it), go to these forums: http://forums.debian.net/ . For Ubuntu, there are many around. Fedora is probably the most popular distro, but I personally don't like it. There's too much of a RHEL-based environment.

Personally, if you don't mind a learning curve, go with Debian. If you like an easier ride, go for Ubuntu or Fedora.

Whew. Long first post.

Debian is fine if you don't mind getting packages 3 years after they're released. I'd vote Ubuntu or Fedora.

For stable, yes. Get unstable or testing and you'll get very recent code. Only space shuttles use stable. ;) I use unstable myself. I'd use testing, but I don't get on the internet often enough to make it worthwhile.

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Originally Posted by Perspective

Debian is fine if you don't mind getting packages 3 years after they're released. I'd vote Ubuntu or Fedora.

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What's this about Debian releasing packages three years after they are released into the rest of the world? Ever tried Sid? Experimental? Lenny?

Lenny is packages that have had no bug reports for ten days (I think). Sid is those that have had no bug reports for one day (Again, I think). Experimental is not even officially supported by Debian, they are packages that are so new, they haven't had time to port them yet.

dpkg is probably similar to Fedora/Red Hat's rpm, but I've never tried the Fedora version of apt or aptitude or dselect.

So either I'm sadly mistaken, or you have some incorrect info. ;)

EDIT: To prove the point: I'm posting this from a "out-of-date" Debian Lenny computer that has had no updates since, oh, I don't know, say, two weeks ago?

I'm not talking about updates to existing packages, I'm talking about acceptance of new packages. Debian is notoriously slow at permitting new packages in the distro. At least that was the buzz a couple years ago when I was more hardcore about using linux. Since upgrading from windows to linux, I've now upgraded from linux to mac ;)

I figure I might as well throw my two cents in.


Point in case: I love linux (quasi-related: I am also a BSD fan.) I have been running ArchLinux and OpenBSD for over a year now and I do not regret looking back (although I will admit I am typing this on XP.) I have just recently started using DragonflyBSD as well. Many of the following statements will probably apply to BSD as well.


Why do I love linux? Because I like being me, and linux facilitates what I do. I am a programmer; keyboard efficiency is important to me. It is for this reason I almost never use graphical interfaces and resort to applications like mutt, irssi and xmonad. On the same note, I like extensibility. It is for this reason I use extensible software which is quite common in the Linux world. I also like language choice, and many if not most all major programming languages (sans .net-based languages) are quite well supported on Linux.
These things make it really hard to even imagine programming on windows again. I would miss a lot of stuff.

I also believe in open source software. While I do not believe this should get in the way of choosing a better solution given two options, I will say at the very least it is an advantage and highly preferable in my instances (no vendor lock-ins.) Luckily, Linux is all about this as well.

I am a fan of choice. I get this from Linux too. I like having configurable window managers, terminals, kernels and a configurable system in all aspects. I get all of these; if there is something I don't like, then I know if I wish to, I can change it. With a little effort? Perhaps. Then again, I would rather have a difficult route than an impossible one.

I like the tools. The command line alone is a reason enough to try it. In fact, for several months I simply never ran a window manager, and instead would SSH into my boxes and work entirely from a terminal using nothing but GNU Screen as my window manager. (I'm a recent xmonad switch because I also love Haskell, so the choice was inevitable I guess, but that's not the point.)


These are not all of the reasons. But I will digress, and simply come full circle: I love linux because I like me, and it facilitates being me. You are not me; therefore it is reasonable to assume that you will not love it but hate it as it may not facilitate you. Windows or OS X may be the one riding a gold chariot to save your day.

Then again, you can't know until you've tried; a process in which there is no real harm.


Addendum: if you would like a distribution to start off with, I recommend with high praise ArchLinux. It will drop you into an environment that might not be "the most user friendly," yet also not impossible. I feel you may learn more about Linux and how it works from taking a somewhat more difficult route like this rather than Ubuntu (this implies nothing about Ubuntu, mind you.) There is more than just the skin, and this is something I think is critically important to realize as a Linux user, especially a new one. Starting off simple with just the terminal and your base OS installed, you will probably learn a lot (this is what arch drops you in with, but it is trivial to install packages after the fact such as mail clients, desktop environments, etc. etc..)

I personally believe that UNIX and now more likely Linux are the open-minded Operating Systems. Being the fact that Windows has been a leader for quite a while now, it's pretty much everywhere still in use, and it's going to be like this for an unknown amount of time. When it comes to the GNU/Linux platform, I think things are just starting to get better, especially with the Google Chrome OS that Google is going to release soon (someday next year (2010)). If you're a developer, I think it's best to learn both just as well. There are plenty of jobs out there for both of the platforms. You may even end up working for a miscellaneous company that produces software for both of the platforms. This year you may work to a project that's for the Windows platform, the year after you'll be working for applications that will be specifically for the Linux platform, etc. Do you understand?

So yes, the best advice is to buy a book of any distribution of GNU/Linux, and make sure it's for a beginning level and has a CD/DVD-ROM with it that offers one or more distributions of GNU/Linux. ;-) Take care, and enjoy the stress learning Linux for the first time. :-D

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