Linux Gurus: I am thinking of switching to Linux…what is a good variant/release?
I am thinking of switching my compuer to Linux…what is a good variant/release that you can recommend for stability and security?
I had an old release of Mandrake years ago…not bad but crashed a lot, full of security holes, bugs.
As well, I have WinXP pro installed..it it a pain to make a dual boot *absoultely without partitioning (don’t want to do this)*, or should I just get another machine?
My main uses: total security (total lock down with firewalls and encryption, paranoid tracking utilities) programming, word processing tools, and surfing.
THANKS SO MUCH
Also…I want something with no corporate OS hooks in it..so they can sneak around behind the scenes…Im weary of commercial variants, but again I am paranoid
Tagged with: absoultely • bugs • compuer • dual boot • firewalls • Linux • partitioning • processing tools • programming word • security holes • surfing thanks • variants • word processing
Filed under: Mandrake
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You can’t make it dual boot without partitioning because they use different file systems.
Ubuntu Linux is a very popular and easy to use distribution. See link.
Did you say total security?! if you want total security I’d highly recommend Open BSD 3.9 instead of Linux it is absolutley the most kick ass secure os you can download on the Internet for free but it’s alot of hard work to setup as a desktop because you have to recompile and setup everything yourself. My brother uses it as his primary OS and runs Winxp under vmware on it works great no problems.
http://www.openbsd.org/
It can also be set up as a hardware firewall/router on
a computer with two ethernet cards:
http://sofi-firewall.sourceforge.net/
Another one I’d recommend is DesktopBSD this is way easier
to install for someone who is a novice to unix I like it:
http://www.desktopbsd.net/index.php?id=37
I swore by Ubuntu; no partitioning work then get a second hard drive, dedicate THAT drive (don’t make a mistake of using the XP drive) for Ubuntu installation.
It will take care of boot sector automatically by default as long as XP is another bootable OS.
Try Live running for few days before install to HD.
Red Hat
I would recommend Ubuntu for begginers
also for advanced users that know their way around linux Gentoo is a great choice.
For starters. Try Ubuntu. You should NOT have a problem with that. its simple, easy, and fast. There are many variations like, linspire, freespire, gentoo, mandrake, redhat, etc.
ive been asked this question alot and ive suggested Ubuntu (ubuntoo) the most, and received praise for it.
Edit, be careful when dual booting with it. Select a seperate partition, because Ubuntoo (along with 90% of linux dist. use ETC3/ETC4 file systems. windows uses NTFS, so if you overwrite windows, it will be installed, jsut cant access it.)
hope it helps