Which Linux is best

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 15:01

ok, so looking for the best/easiest linux distro for each of the following :

Office/Internet -
MediaPlayer -
MediaServer -
FileServer -

from my recent playing around, for the Office/Internet one i think mandriva is pretty good, until i had issues last night and today, but then i have had similar issues with windows so im sure its just one of those things. any suggestions would be welcome.

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 15:21

JHeaton said:
Could you define 'best' and 'easiest'? Because I could answer with my distribution of choice for all of those and many people might disagree!

mainly something that pretty much works out of the box without a lot of configuring. for someone that is not used to linux and konsoles.

i dont expect there to be one answer for them, just ideas and i can try them out, but no point me trying out loads that just arent designed for the jobs or are not that user friendly, so just really want an idea and i can go from there.

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 15:29

pingwing said:
Mint is probably the best start to have everything from the off

so...

Office/Internet - Mandriva/Mint
MediaPlayer -
MediaServer -
FileServer -

i tried mint before mandriva, cant remember now why i decided to give up and move to mandriva now, think it was down to the default theme looked dated.

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 15:35

would mint run fine or a reasonably low powered system like an atom for the media player and servers?

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 15:41

ok kool. so briefly whats the difference between mint 11 RC(i assume this is beta for the new version), Xfce, LXDE, KDE, Debian?

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 15:51

Smit said:
Media Player - XBMC Live

is it installable?

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 15:56

Huw said:
Office/Internet - Any of the big ones - Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE etc. Well maybe not Fedora for total newbs.

MediaPlayer - Do you really want a dedicated distro for this? Install XBMC on any of them and it will do all you want. Failing that, Mythbuntu maybe.

MediaServer/FileServer - For any kind of dedicated server you want something rock-solid. In other words, Debian, which also happens to be the best distro anyway.

The thing to remember about Linux though, is that there's barely anything exclusive to a distro. You can install Gnome on OpenSUSE for example, a distro traditionally used by KDE lovers. You can put XBMC or MythTV on any distro and make them dedicated media players. There are some distros that arguably make certain activities easier, but in my opinion it's far more useful to just use a distro you're comfortable with.

im thinking to use on systems with those specific needs. if someone just wants something for watching films on, then something that isnt very resource hungry would be better than a distro with addition software if you know what i mean.

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 16:04

russ0r said:
Mint 11 is based on Ubuntu 11 (albeit without Unity or Gnome 3). The newest release.
Debian is just Mint based on Debian. More stable at the expense of older software and slightly worse hardware support.
Xfce, LXDE, KDE are just Mint 10 with different window managers. Xfce and LXDE are lightweight, KDE less so. Gnome is somewhere in between Xfce and KDE to give you an idea.

so they all do the same thing, just some versions have services/packages not installed from disc to make them better for netbooks etc, like windows ce is a cutdown version of windows?
so debian and kde use different ways of installing packages so not everything is available on both?

overall are the konsole commands universal accross all linux systems or does that vary too?

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 16:33

mint 201101 debian download says its based on gnome :confused:

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 16:44

so the Xfce version of mint debian will be a cutdown version of the gnome version?

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 16:48

so debian is an OS in itself, but you get different front ends for it?

i know of rpm for mandriva but i seem to remeber it was something different for ubuntu. is there any that are more commonly made for, if so which is best to find the largest range of software, or does most software get written for all?

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 16:54

so is debian a better one to go for than mint? or is mint a user friendly interface for debian that is more suited for my needs?

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 17:01

ok think i am understanding. so, gnome or kde? from what i gather, kde is more for easily applying eyecandy? or can you do it as eaily with gnome?

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 17:07

i have been using KDE on mandriva and have found the overall OS to be good, but i did run into some issues which i couldnt resolve

paradisiac · 19 May 2011 at 17:10

Huw said:
Gnome is arguably easier to use than KDE, but personally I prefer KDE because of the range of customisability options. Gnome is a bit more locked down in this regard and more difficult to tweak.

By the way, you can install both Gnome and KDE on the same system, and choose which one to use at the login screen by using the session options.

can i use the 3d desktop features as easily in GNOME? also, is one better/easier for modifying the panel than another?

also, im guess stay clear of 11 whilst its in RC stage as im not that good with linux the bugs might throw me?