You can dis or discuss what you like or dislike about them. I tried openSuse 11.1 and all I could think was OMG; Surely it doesn't have to be that complicated. Mandriva I just couldn't get to work. Debian is cool but so rigid. Ubuntu just seems to be my favorite so far.

What part of opensuse 11.1 that complicated? I use mainly ubuntu and opensuse.

I like Ubuntu. Just upgraded to the latest. New to this, so still learning.

I guess it is about preference. Ubuntu just seems easier. I guess I got used to Debian based. openSuse is Red Hat based but not quite like the Red Hat 7.1 that I remember. I like the Gnome better than the KDE. I like the Synaptic better than the YMP. I still have the openSuse on the first hard drive. openSuse lets one have the option of untrusted keys. I was having problems with their K3B. Brasero is much easier for me.

Usually switch between gnome and KDE if use opensuse. ubuntu is easier to install, easier to update, and if u setup a server ubuntu more easier to setting too imo. but sometimes still can't let go opensuse, one of my first distro after all

I learned my ways around in Linux by using Knoppix in college. The cool thing about it is that it's very basic and loads faster from the CD (if you don't want to install it) than the other distros.

I tried Kubuntu (KDE) and although it looks nice and all, I didn't like it because I had glitches and hangups so yeah, me too like the Gnome Ubuntu, it gets a lot of support and updates and the community support is great.

I use Fedora at home, Redhat at work.

redhat at work, wow

:sigh: wish my office can get to use linux too

Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise, Open SuSE... I like them... easy install, although my X60 laptop has some issues with the integrated NIC on v10... v11.x solved it for me...

Some CentOS (appliances), RedHat... Personally, I lean towards open SuSE myself...

Mac's at home (LOL)...

$.02

Puppy Linux 431 just amazes me. It is so small but so powerful.

Powerful in what term?

Well, its not like its any more powerful than any other distro....but look at the size, man! There are individual windows apps which barely do one useful thing and yet are larger than this entire distro. The default puppy install is a whole OS and a dozen apps, in such a tiny footprint. Its amazing.

Dissing the distro:

If i remember correctly, back in the day, Lindows ran everything as root. I never used it, but it pissed me off. They were actively marketing their distro, and they had the worst security approach of any distro. They were targeting people who were not computer savvy. It was a recipe for disaster. If they had been more successful as a company, they would have done tremendous damage to the public perception of linux-based OSes.

People constantly overstate the inherent security advantages of Linux - it depends on which OS the kernel is being used in, and it depends on how it is configured.

Dissing: Debian

I consider Debian to be the best and most important distro in existence. Did they ever create a truly user friendly live version? For many years after dozens of distros created super-user-friendly live distros to test drive, then install, debian seemed to be lagging horrible without an super-simple, idiot friendly and 'pretty' method of doing this.

Yah I agree with this. Debian is super powerful and many based on their system. but hey it's not for ur average user, at least u know a lot about computer.

Found out it was easier to have XP loaded first then use Ubuntu's diskpart than the other way around. Now Ubuntu 10.4 LTS is using the second 80 gb drive with a small extension off of the first 30 gb drive. XP is using the rest of the first 30 gb. Now I just got to get Ubuntu to mount the usb 500 gb expansion drive. Cool, XP and Ubuntu running side by side. I have multiple operating system going now.

Got XP to do a fdisk like maneuver on the expansion drive that took it out of the unallocated file type and sure enough now XP and Ubuntu sees the whole drive. With Realplayer sp gold 11 downloading movies on XP Realplayer 10 on Ubuntu fixed up out of alien 8.0 I can watch RealPlayer movies on Ubuntu. Ubuntu 10.4 LTS just got that fixed recently. Don't have to screw up Ubuntu this time. Ubuntu 10.4 LTS now has the system hardware checker and don't quit till all your hardware issues are resolved. So cool. Now the Aureal sound card is hooked up to the two DVD rom burner via the little cord working in analog and the Via High Definition Digital onboard sound unit are working in conjunction. Now Ubuntu and XP both give me sound.

My only rants are about the support for printers and webcam. Even though I found a program for my webcam, it's very basic and the image isn't as high quality. But this isn't as a big concern as my next rant.

My other rant is about the printer. I have a perfectly working dell printer 926..yeah it's old (I got it for free) and even though it shares a similar software/drivers as the newer models, Linux won't support it because "it's old" , according to the linux hardware support and distributions. So I can't print anything on Ubuntu neither scan pictures etc, and I am still not planning to buy another newer printer until this one gives up or someone donates me a newer printer. I'm not cheap, I just see no reason to buy another one, when this one prints/scans/faxes perfectly.

My understanding is that windows 7 also does not support all of these old printers out of the box - its up to the printer company (if they are still around) to provide drivers for it.

I haven't tried the Creative web-cam out or HP 1315 all in one printer with Ubuntu. I am not even sure what this PictBridge connector on it is for. I bought it at a pawn shop and it works great on XP after I went to the HP place to get the driver. Same thing with the Radeon 256 pci express graphics card had to go to the manufacturers website to get the driver for XP. But guess what and this shocked me; Ubuntu has a better graphics support than XP. I mean the color just looks better with Ubuntu.