[TAG] which distribution?

[Thomas Adam]

 --- Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote: 

[ ** adding querent back on the CC list -- Alan, ensure you reply_all, and
add the querent's e-mail address back in, if need be. ** ]

> Hello.
> 
> > My concerns are:
> > I want the distribution to have a lot of packages (debian seems to
> have
> > the most)
> 
> Thats not necessarily so. You can download the source to just about
> everything and compile it on any distribution. Debian does have a lot of
> debs, and redhat has a lot of RPMs..

Back when I started (heh), I ran SuSE as my main distribution of choice --
that did, and still does ship with about 7CDs full of useful software half
of which the 'average' user has no need for, but is still interesting
nevertheless.
 
> > I want the distribuiton to have to most support (red hat has the most
> > support online)
> 
> Haha! Are you sure about that? The fact that RedHat don't support RedHat
> desktop distributions any more may change that slightly. Also, it
> depends
> where you look for your support. I tend to use IRC ( irc.blitzed org
> #hants channel ) and a lot more people there run Debian than RedHat. So
> I
> find there's more support for Debian..

Only because the people in that IRC channel are oddballs ;). Asking this
kind of question is _always_ result in a bias towards the distribution
being run by the person answering the question. The best answer you could
want for yourself is to try out several distributions for yourself, and
weigh out their differences.

What you'll find is that they're all more-or-less the same (discount
slackware, that is more BSD-ish in operation) both with their disk layout
(yay for LSB) and with the programs that they offer. For instance,
Mandrake/Fedora (the successor to RH) use their empahsis towards the GUI,
and hence offer lots of packages and setups to that goal. SuSE do this to
an extent as well.

Despite what people may tell you, Debian is NO longer a distribution for
those that "know what their doing". Yes, had you have asked me that about
six years ago I might have said that. But things are getting much easier
for Debian -- the user support is growing and it is finally getting good
recognition by a wide-range of people.

> > I want the program to access the part of my computer that is
> monopolized
> > by windows (fat 34 capabilities; windows have xp)
> 
> They can both mount "windows partitions". No contest there.

To further extend that, you can use WINE (http://www.winehq.com).

> > because there are files in that territory that i could use.
> > I want the program to give the most freedom (it seems red hat does
> alot of
> > control and takes the absolute freedom)
> > and at the end be a good operating system for a graphic designer.

If you want to give things a try, I suggest you download and create for
yourself a Knoppix CD (http://www.knoppix.com), which is handy both as a
live CD as to what you *can* do with your computer, but also as a backup
CD for when things go, errm, wrong.

Hope That Helps,

-- Thomas Adam

=====
"The Linux Weekend Mechanic" -- http://linuxgazette.net
"TAG Editor"                 -- http://linuxgazette.net

"<shrug> We'll just save up your sins, Thomas, and punish 
you for all of them at once when you get better. The 
experience will probably kill you. :)"

 -- Benjamin A. Okopnik (Linux Gazette Technical Editor)


	
	
		
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