Recommended Linux distribution

[Chris Paxton]

I've got a new HP dc-7600 desktop (with a HP 1955 flat panel) at work with XP installed on it but I want to dual-boot to Linux for administration purposes. I've had little or luck trying to install several different Linux distributions.

I would appreciate any recommendations as to which distribution works best with this hardware.

Thanks in advance

[Senthil Prabu.S_1]

Hi,
Either you can go for fedora porject or Suse Linux distro. Since you need a desktop version, these two are the most suited one for your use.


HTH,
Senthil

[Steven E. Protter]

I recommend the following:
Red Hat, if you are willing to pay.
Fedora Core 5 if not willing to pay.
Centos, if you want RH Enterprise but don't want to pay.
Ubuntu has great hardware support and is not RH based.

SEP

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

there are many discussions/reviews/flame wars about subj.
IMHO the best answer is "Use the distribution that the Linux guru next door uses".
You can see some reviews here:
http://www.devx.com/opensource/Article/30781
http://www.tuxmagazine.com/node/1000189

[Chris Paxton]

Thanks for the tips. As I mentioned, I have several distros in my bag already. The first one I tried was SUSE 10.1 which installed but wasn't able to provide sound (no it wasn't just muted) and had trouble with the display with flickering.

The other thing is that, in this organization (a sea of MS users) I *am* the Linux guru. "In the land of the blind..."

What I has looking for were people's experiences installing and using Linux with this hardware combo (dc7600 with the HP1955 display). I have used Linux sucessfully for several years on my old I*M hardware.

I will keep trying, in the meantime I 'm stuck in XP land. and XP is the face I'm making!

[Steve_160]

Vitally hit the nail right on the head! Since my "guru" switched to a Debian distro (which I don't care for), I'm pretty much on my own.

FC5 is my favorite, with SuSE 10.1 as a close second. FC5 suports my HP R707 camera (the subject of an earlier thread) and SuSE doesn't.

Consider carefully how much security (or paranoia) you want during install. For a home user "selinux" can be a pain, the firewall is good for the internet, but annoying on a LAN, and when setting up the soundcard there is a security feature you might want to turn off if you want more than one person to be able to use the mixer. (I forget what it's called, but there is only one such feature on by default.)

[Alan_152]

If you are in a sea of linux users, then I'd recommend using a hard-lard of Knoppix with the "redmond" customizations and an updated version of "wine". That way you won't scare so many people.

My question is, though, what specifically (as in what tasks and programs) do you wish to do with said linux box?

[Chris Paxton]

I use my desktop for my day-to-day functions. For mandatory Windows fuctions (email, MS Office, Remedy, etc.) I RDP into a terminal server. For administering Windows servers I also use RDP. For administering UNIX servers (and my one lone LINUX server) I use Linux and remotely run X-based applications or the command line through ssh. Plus browsing, downloading, etc.

[Alan_152]

In light of your recent response and description of what you do, then I recommend Pilot Linux -- basically a version that just does X, RDP, and Citrix on a liveCD (though you can make it boot from a hard drive or run it from inside MS-windows)

[Charles DeWeese]

I really love the Ubuntu Dapper Drake Operating System. You also get amazing support from the community. The site is www.ubuntuforums.org
You can also download from there and get instruction for installation. I think you will see why Ubuntu is the number 1 Linux OS on distrowatch.com.