Linux or OpenBSD?

[Pyroteh]

Which is a better Open-Source operating system? If Linux which version do you prefer? I don't really know much about OpenBSD....

I want a Unix based open-source operating system installed onto my computer.....

I currently have a Dell Dimension DIM4600 intel pentium 4 CPU 2.80 GHz 2.79GHz, 512mb of RAM.

I'm running Windows XP Professional.

[MathFan]

I vote linux. There are several distributions, but I prefer Slackware. It's the one that is the most unix-alike. Though it isn't really user friendly, so I don't know if it's a good thing to start with if you are a beginner.

Mandrake or RedHat would have been a better choice I think. Much more user friendly, less configuration needed (that is more of it is done automatically) etc...

Debian is also a possibility. It stands somewhere between Slack and Mdk and RH. It is more difficult than the last two, but easier than Slack (at least in my opinion). It is though most remarkable for its package system. It is very easy to update/upgrade and install packages. It is done automatically through a server so you do not need to look for them elsewhere... The only thing you need to know is app's name.

You can also give Slax a try. It's a great live linux dist. It can run from ram, so you really don't need to install anything. Very nice design and many features of the full system.

Here are some links you can take a look at:

Slackware
Mandrake
RedHat

SLAX

[Pyroteh]

haha... love the signature MathFan....

so which one has the best price? I know that through Linuxonline.org I can download a version of Linux....

[MathFan]

You mean price like how much it costs? Well, all of the distributions above are free, like most of the linux distrivutions in general; there are exceptions though, like Suse, which is totally commercial. Mandrake and RedHat have also commercial builds. But those are mainly for larger companies etc. What you need is the free version. Just look at the links I wrote in the previous post (Yeah, I know, Mandrake's and ReHat's sites are rather hard to navigate, but eventually you will find what you are looking for). Mind you, the free RedHat dist is called FedoraCore. If you can't find where to download these dists, just google it and I'm sure you'll find them somewhere...

Here is a useful page for those who are downloading linux for the first time.

There is also a more or less full list of distributions here. (As you see, there are REALLY many of them )


If you are asking which of the distributions is best, well... There is really no answer to this question. You should try them for yourself and find out which one of them you like best. But for a beginner, I think Mandrake or FedoraCore would be great.

Hope this helps...

[confuted]

Well, all of the distributions above are free, like most of the linux distrivutions in general; there are exceptions though, like Suse, which is totally commercial.

SuSE is not totally commercial; there is a "personal" edition that is free, but in my experience (several installs), it's not worth running. My soundcard, printer, and NIC wouldn't work with the personal edition; the soundcard and NIC both worked perfectly as soon as the professional install was done, and the printer only took a few minutes to configure.

Ubuntu will send you a CD (or multiple CDs) free of charge if you ask. It will probably take a few months to get it, since they only ship once they've accumulated a large number of requests, but it's free. http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org/

[MathFan]

SuSE is not totally commercial; there is a "personal" edition that is free

Yeah, but isn't it some kind of evaluation thingy with practically no packages?

it's not worth running

No, why bother to get Suse when you can get another linux distro for free without any restrictions and much more software

My soundcard, printer, and NIC wouldn't work with the personal edition;

Well, you can encounter such problems with any distro. While windoze users are used to that everything is done automatically, you can't expect the same of linux. It's not really hard to fix it either (in most cases) - just install the correct drivers and it'll work fine.

[confuted]

I had needed to install drivers, change settings, recompile kernels, etc with other distros to get my hardware working before, and I tried for several hours with SuSE personal to work with my hardware. It was a no go. SuSE professional, however, is very good; it provides wizards to accomplish many things, but I still find that using vim is often the best way to go. It's not based on debian, so you don't use apt-get, but there's YaST, which is somewhat similar (but more limited), and you can compile anything you want from source, which IMO is one of the beautiful things in Linux. So who cares about packages and inefficient precompiled binaries when the source for all of it is free and as easy to install as typing "./configure && make && sudo make install" and your password when prompted?

[Pyroteh]

ok right.... but I have a 56k modem.... and... damn.... haha... its going to take forever....

[MathFan]

Hmmm... now that's a problem... Like, Debian, it's on 9 (!) cd-s! Hehe...

But you can get linux otherwise, too. You can for example order a cd set of some distribution (may cost something like 6-10$) or you can buy some linux magazine (like Linux Magazine or Linux Format) - they very often include full distros on their cds/dvd. Or you can always ask a friend to download it for ya'...

[Pyroteh]

hmm... yeah... maybe I can ask my cousin... he's got a pretty good connection.... thx though big help... I think Linux is the direction I'm heading...haha..

[Pyroteh]

ok... another question... haha.... last one.. I promise....

I'm currently looking at the website linuxcd.org.... and I have found the cd that I want... I want to get the fedora core 4...
my question is... one has i386 and the other has x86_64.... I assume that I should get the x86_64 because.... it just sounds right... but I'm not all too keen on these things so.... which one should I get?

[MathFan]

ok... another question... haha.... last one.. I promise....

Just ask as many as you can come up with

Unless you have an AMD64 processor, choose i386...

[Pyroteh]

Just ask as many as you can come up with

haha will do....

I don't have an AMD 64 processor... so I take it go with the other one?

[Pyroteh]

or wait.... unless I have an AMD64.... so I should get the i386? I miss read.... haha....

[Perspective]

x86_64 is for 64 bit architectures (like AMD64, IA64)

you want the i386 (or x86). Pentium chips are x86.