06-18-2004, 10:28 PM
I am a Debian advocate :)
If you chose Debian, go with testing (at the moment: Sarge). Stable is much too outdated, SID is much too unstable.
Starting with Debian stable is a very common mistake. Do not - I repeat - do *not* install stable/Woody if you want to use it as a desktop system. Debian's naming policy can be confusing for newbies:
With Woody, you will probably run into alot of trouble, simply because it is too old.
Testing (Sarge) on the other hand is at least as stable as the 'stable' versions of most other GNU/Linux distributions, and definately stable enough for a home user.
The big plus of Debian is apt, i.e. the best package management system of all GNU/Linux distributions. Apt is a powerful package management tool that also makes it very very easy to install software for newbies. And the Debian distribution comes with alot of pre-packaged software :)
If you want a very easy installation, I suggest you try Suse Linux, or maybe Knoppix with a HD install. These are incredibly easy to install. I recommend these if you just want to quickly check out UNIX/Linux and do not want to invest time into setting up your system.
If you are willing to invest some time to set up your system, I strongly recommend trying Debian. The Debian community is also very helpful and newbie-friendly, from my experience.
If you are into the ethical aspects of Free Software, another big advantage of Debian is that it aims at only containing Free Software in a strict sense.
If you chose Debian, go with testing (at the moment: Sarge). Stable is much too outdated, SID is much too unstable.
Starting with Debian stable is a very common mistake. Do not - I repeat - do *not* install stable/Woody if you want to use it as a desktop system. Debian's naming policy can be confusing for newbies:
With Woody, you will probably run into alot of trouble, simply because it is too old.
Testing (Sarge) on the other hand is at least as stable as the 'stable' versions of most other GNU/Linux distributions, and definately stable enough for a home user.
The big plus of Debian is apt, i.e. the best package management system of all GNU/Linux distributions. Apt is a powerful package management tool that also makes it very very easy to install software for newbies. And the Debian distribution comes with alot of pre-packaged software :)
If you want a very easy installation, I suggest you try Suse Linux, or maybe Knoppix with a HD install. These are incredibly easy to install. I recommend these if you just want to quickly check out UNIX/Linux and do not want to invest time into setting up your system.
If you are willing to invest some time to set up your system, I strongly recommend trying Debian. The Debian community is also very helpful and newbie-friendly, from my experience.
If you are into the ethical aspects of Free Software, another big advantage of Debian is that it aims at only containing Free Software in a strict sense.