Linux

[Cory_K]

Anybody here a Linux user?

If so, what is your favorite distro?

Just curious

I had been using Ubuntu for a while, but just recently installed Mint 9.

So far its amazing. I haven't had a single driver issue (yet) and the layout and animations are really stunning.

If you haven't taken a look yet, I recommend you do.
And its free... what do you have to lose

[elset191]

I used to dual-boot Ubuntu, as it helped facilitate my school work.  Once I graduated though, I uninstalled it because it was taking up half of my 60gb hard drive that I kept running out of space on.  I liked it, but it didn't wow me enough to switch from xp on this computer or os x on my computer at home.

[Intaris]

I have used Ubuntu, Red hat, Mandriva (or Mandrake back in the days) and Suse very shortly.

I always end up deinstalling them after a while though.  My last episode had me installing Xen AFTER installing VISA et. al which changes the kernel and got me crashing Linux.  Nice nice.

I have used Mandriva one (a version of it, I can't recall the name) to make a usb-startable Linux with a custom piece of software installed (for driving a spectrometer) which allowed the user to test the software without having to install anything, just reboot.....  Cool idea but it took a while to get it working.

Shane.

[Cory_K]

Due to hardware support and driver availability (or lack thereof )

I generally restrict using Linux to home computers only.

Windows seems to have much more support in that area,

so I don't generally stray off the beaten path when I'm using a computer for work.

[F._Schubert]

I know a lot of people that use LINUX. But I have the impression that they are spending time administering their system, which I don't need on my XP. So far, debian stable is the one I got recommended most.

But there are some use cases where I think LINUX is a cool option:

* Public Internet Stations: using an old (for free) PC + Linux + Firefox. In addition to the low-costs, the security of linux prevents that users trash the system from the SW side (still they do on the HW side).

* Professional Security System: Do not install the network card under Win, use Linux for surfing/emails. Do your important work (developing code) under Win. The problem I have seen with this approach is that there are some viruses (well, they were in fact trojans, so the security still worked) transmitted via USB memory sticks and in this scenario you don't have an up-to-date virus scanner on your Win boot.

Felix

[pallen]

Been messing around with Linux for a few years now.  Played at least once with most of the distros.  But my favorite for a number of years has been PCLOS.  http://www.pclinuxos.com/ 

I like Mint too.  But for LabVIEW, I'll probably give Cent OS another test drive.  Theoretically, everything should just work out of the box on that one. 

[pallen]

Been messing around with Linux for a few years now.  Played at least once with most of the distros.  But my favorite for a number of years has been PCLOS.  http://www.pclinuxos.com/ 

I like Mint too.  But for LabVIEW, I'll probably give Cent OS another test drive.  Theoretically, everything should just work out of the box on that one. 

[Ray.R]

Just picked up another Sun Ultra Sparc-10.  I do have Solaris, but I'm thinking of installing Linux on it and get more acquainted with the OS.  And maybe try out LV for Linux.

Any recommendations for Distro?  I was considering Ubuntu..