Favourite Free Linux?

[lilelvis2000]

Why upgrade the server from 10.04 though? All mine are still on 10.04 and I ain't budging until just before it runs out:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS

Got two more years yet! When closer to that time I will set up new machines and transfer sites to them and then just can the old boxes. Servers tend to be the same kind of price but RAM and proc power increases. I wouldn't upgrade from version to version on a production machine due to the kind of ball-ache you describe. If it ain't broke...

Indeed. lesson learned. The main server is still on 10.04 and I'm saving up for new hardware. Than I'll image the drive. Upgrade the new server, test and switch over. The older server will than become the new backup server. The current backup server can't manage to backup all the machines in 8 hours now. Just too much data for a Celeron 800Mhz to compress now.

[petergriffin]

Slackware is great, especially for learning Linux, but lack of packaging dependency management means it takes a lot of time. I prefer FreeBSD for that kind of usage these days as ports makes it a bit easier & quicker to use.

I never got on with grub, found lilo so much easier.

If you install everything you don't need package dependency resolution. If you like Freebsd-style source based dependency resolution you can install Sbopkg:
sbopkg : the slackbuilds.org package browser

Slackware is probably the only major distribution still using Lilo and Init by default, as opposite to Grub and the vile SystemD. If and when even Slackware is forced to use SystemD (and it's perfectly possible), then you can truly say that Linux has died.

[bobspud]

I like damn small Linux. It's 40MB and runs a desktop system.

I hate having the kitchen sink running on a machine when it does not need to be there.

It's Debian based too so apt-get will work.

DSL information

[ThomserveBAS]

Favourite Free Linux?

Ubuntu 12.10 as my main file server, 12.04 on my CCTV server and Debian Wheezy on a couple of repurposed Raspberry Pi's.

The whole lot is controlled by FreeBSD-based pfSense (firewall, dns, dhcp, proxy and VPN in one tiny appliance).