Hey hoping you see this Silver, or anyone else who has interest in Linux, feel free to participate.

Anyway,... so the other day, my Linux box of about 6 years finally started going. So I just ordered a new Dell Vostro (decent, not high-end) which are great deals right now, btw. When I install Linux, I'm thinking of going with Ubuntu over Fedora for my new Linux box. Just curious if you would you still recommend Ubuntu? I'd been using it mostly as an SVN box, but if I have the time, I'd like to do more with it.

I've been a little out of the Linux picture for a few years because I've been developing almost exclusively on Windows at my current and previous job. Although, there's talk that we may port our app to Linux next year, which has me excited.

Anyway, if you could give your opinion, that would be great. Thanks!

I'm using CentOS 5.x. But I don't use Linux as a destop OS, I use it for email / web server, php & mysql and subversion.

The first Linux I installed was Yggdrasil in '93 or '94, but didn't get serious about Linux till the late 90's with Red Hat. I kept trying different distributions. I had Slackware for a while.

Then I switched to BSD - I tried NetBSD and OpenBSD. I really wanted to go with OpenBSD but it didn't support multiple processors at the time, so I went with FreeBSD and stuck with it for about five years. I finally got fed up because I had FreeBSD 4 on a co-located box and there was no good way to do a major version upgrade. I had a client with Red Hat ES 4, and CentOS is a Red Hat ES clone, so I settled on Cent OS. I like to try to stick with one distribution. I have no idea if something else might be better but I don't like switching so much anymore.





[Edited by - basketballjones on 02-07-2009 21:10]

Interesting, BBJ. I've used Slackware before, but that was definitely among my least favorite Linux flavors when I tried it -- which was probably 10 years ago, at this point. CentOS sounds interesting, but at this point, I think I'm down to Fedora vs. Ubuntu. I want something relatively simple and mainstream, since I don't have time to tinker with too much.

Silver, interesting on your recommendation of FC 10. It's true, that I've been mostly Fedora/Red Hat since college, so maybe it's best to stick with Fedora. Based on your suggestions, I think I'm going to go with Fedora. One concern I had about Ubuntu was that I remembered last time having to download all the dev packages after I installed, which is kind of annoying compared to Fedora, where you just burn a DVD with everything and install what you like -- makes the setup process go quicker.

This machine is: Core 2 duo 2.66 Ghz, ATI Radeon HD 3450, 3 GB ram. I would've preferred to go with Nvidia, but they only offered ATI for this machine. How are the ATI drivers? I know ATI has been more annoying to set up perfectly in the past.

Ok, let me know. If things are looking not so good on the graphics font for Radeon, I could swap video cards with my Windows box, if I get desperate. I have a GeForce 7300 LE on that.