Choice of Linux

Written on October 20, 2006  |  by RP Mickler  |  Leave a Comment Leave a Comment  |  Bookmark and Share

From a reader:

Hi,I was just reading your blog and since I am building a new computer from the ground up, I have been toying with the idea of using Linux Fedor Core 5/6 (?). What are your thoughts on Linux and what version if any would you suggest for a person who at time can be very dangerous to his own system?

Thanks,
Fred
Sr. Faculty Coordinator for CS/IT/MIS

My response:

Why, hello Fred! Good to see you around the blog here!

I’d recommend Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net/). If you want to really geek-out with toys, widgets, accessories, and tools, Knoppix (in my opinion), is the way to go.

If you want a cake-walk sort of installation – Linux, but easy to use and install – I’d recommend Open Suse (http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org). Note that this isn’t Novell’s commercial version but the freebie open source version.

Red Hat (Fedora Core) is a great o/s but in my experience, I’ve frequently encountered driver installation and compatibility issues with Fedora. This caused me a lot of troubleshooting headaches. That made me switch to SUSE, in fact, which was more of a brainless installation (grin). Then, I found how great it was to use Knoppix for a self-contained, direct boot option from a CD ROM – especially for recovery and just toying around with the o/s – and then I was hooked!

I use Knoppix for disaster recovery purposes, Fred. If I need to mount a hard disk with USB support, so I can connect a USB dynamic disk and then the local hard drive, bypassing Windows security mechanisms to have direct access to the partition, I use Knoppix. Knoppix is a great UI, even has RDC (Remote Desktop Connectivity) so I can still “run” Windows on top of it by accessing a Windows box on the network. I can’t speak more highly about it. Easy to use, run, install, and like I said, a lot of widgets for the techno-enthusiast.

Best of luck -
R

www.micklerandassociates.com