Favourite Free Linux?

[up4it]

I am just in the process of installing Ubuntu Linux on an old PC I have lying around at home to play around with and also do some development work.

I did consider Scientific Linux as it is based on Red Hat Linux but is free.

If anyone else uses Linux at home, what version do you use and why do you prefer it?

Cheers!

[cojak]

I used to like Mepis, but I've been out of Linux for a few years so I'd go straight to Ubuntu (same Debian parentage as I remember)

It wasn't deeply technical unless you wanted it to be and the drivers worked without a lot of tinkering.

It also looked nice and was easy enough to use.

[ShandyDrinker]

I'd go straight to Ubuntu.

This ^^

If you want to stay close to the Red Hat stack I would go with CentOS for RHEL and Fedora for the desktop version (not sure how close the Fedora project is to Red Hat these days).

An interesting alternative to Ubuntu (desktop) is Linux Mint, especially if from a Windows background.

A good site showing what is currently popular in the Linux distro world is DistroWatch.com

[Cliphead]

Linux Mint is far better than Ubuntu although it's based on that, try it out and you won't go back to Ubuntu.

Mint

[RasputinDude]

Scientific Linux all the way...

[cojak]

Linux Mint is far better than Ubuntu although it's based on that, try it out and you won't go back to Ubuntu.

Mint

I'd have a look at Mint then, sounds a lot like Mepis.

[doodab]

CentOS for me because I've found it to be easy to get commercial software that supports RHEL to run on it. I did muck about with ubuntu for a bit but I gave up on it when they decided to move the window decorations to the wrong side.

[RasputinDude]

I used to go for CentOS, but after the debacle that was CentOS 6, I gave up on it.

[doodab]

I used to go for CentOS, but after the debacle that was CentOS 6, I gave up on it.

I haven't graduated to 6 yet. What was wrong with it?

[Cliphead]

CentOS for me because I've found it to be easy to get commercial software that supports RHEL to run on it. I did muck about with ubuntu for a bit but I gave up on it when they decided to move the window decorations to the wrong side.

My choice for a server distro.