Help me pick a linux distro?

Question

I plan on dual-booting alongside Windows 7 since I like my gaming. I have about a year's experience using Linux Mint, but I'm willing to explore deeper into the Linux world to maybe find a distribution that I'll like more.

I want a distribution that is lightweight, configurable, and stable. My computer isn't old, but I'd much rather have an OS that's fast and simple than slow but pretty. I'd like to have as much control as possible, yet I wouldn't say I'm quite an expert either, so it can't be too advanced. And I'd much rather have software that's reliable than fancy but buggy.

Answer 1

Linux mint is an excellent distro to start with. If you want more control and stability (stability means fewer updates and older versions of software) try Debian.

You can try gaming with steam on Mint:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/games/steam-linux-mint.html

Answer 2

It's kind of all relative.... it depends what you're going to be using it for. If you want stability then choose a distro that slanted toward servers instead of the desktop. You'd also want the slower development cycle which should make you lean toward RHEL and derivatives like even CentOS.

On the other end of the spectrum you have distros like Ubuntu that are more bleeding edge but bloated and slow.



It's really a personal decision and depends on your usage. I know that in a business environment people typically go with RHEL and include the Redhat support. At home on decent hardware people tend to like Ubuntu. On older hardware Ubuntu chokes pretty bad.



For me personally, I said screw it and went with MacOSX at home as a seperate machine from my windows gaming machine. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made. It gives me all the benefits of Linux without any of the garbage.

I've been using Linux since the 90s and it's still lacking in the desktop department. Make no mistake Linux has it's share of bugs!

Answer 3

You want a stable distribution that strives to be more like Unix, not one like Ubuntu and the like that strive to be more like Windows.



If you want to learn the Red Hat way, use Red Hat. You won't, however, learn Linux.



If you want to actually learn Linux, choose and older stable distro like Slackware. It is one of the most Unix-like distros, stays out of your way as you learn and grow. I use Slackware for my development workstations, for my servers, and even for my gaming machine. Slackware doesn't need a server version - it is highly optimized as is and makes an excellent server. I used to use Ubuntu for servers, but they had a lot of problems. I switched my servers to Slackware an the problems went away.