Hi Everybody I'm currently running a 64bit PC. I've installed (and come to depise) Windows XP 64 Bit. Fortunatley, its now completely fouled up beyond all recognition. When I try and start it, it tells me that a dll is missing (I can't remember exactly which, but thats because I don't care) Now I could fix this, but instead I've decided I want Linux back on my partition instead. My question is, which distro should I go for? Ultimately, I'm fairly new to Linux, having not used it extensively since university, so I want something thats easyish to use as a desktop OS, but will still let me use Linux as it was meant to be used (command based). Ease of installation isn't an issue, as I'm fairly competent in that (as you become when you can't remember root password ) I'll probably be using it mostly for software/web page development, office apps and surfing the internet. The CPU is an AMD Athlon 3000+ 64 bit, and I'd like something that will make the most of the 64 Bit architecture. I've used Redhat and Debian in the past, and want to try something else. Anything you can recommend?
me too, personally i use Kubuntu Feisty but if you want to be different try Yoper, it's a very good little OS
I would go for a ubuntu distro if your not sure which flavour to go for. Its dead easy but should give you enough heads up to choose another distro should you choose to. Ive always used xubuntu cos its lightweight.
As a new Linux user, I'd recommend you go for Ubuntu 7.10. All the complicated bits of Linux are hidden away and the Ubuntu forums are an excellent resource.
If it helps you, I use Debian "Lenny", the current release candidate. I prefer it over Ubuntu because I'm a full-time Linux user and sysadmin, with zero Windows hosts at home. It's the most flexible distro I know of, and so fits my needs perfectly. It leaves more up to the user than Ubuntu, which is a weakness and a strength. So if you prefer to know what your OS is doing and why, or if you profess to know more about what you want in an OS than a company called Canonical does, I'd recommend Deb over Ubuntu to do basically the same things. Otherwise, with Ubuntu at least you'll have safety and numbers if that's your thing. Disclaimer: I talk a lot of crap about Ubuntu because, well I don't like it. There are many reasons for this, and I believe them to be valid. That said, I'd rather use Ubuntu or any other Linux distro out there than Windows, period. Good luck with the transition!