Looking for one that is easy to install, lots of developement tools, good hardware auto-detection

A good starter distro is Knoppix on Live CD or Mandrake Move. If you want to actually install Linux on your system then Mandrake is probably the easiest to do. Concerning development tools, that's not really an issue. Just look for a distro that makes it easy to add new software and you can have tools coming out your ears by downloading them from GNU or other open source repositories. But most distros let you choose from a wide range of development tools during installation.

PCLinuxOS.

It has everything you need right off the bat. Go to http://distrowatch.com and do a search for it.

Flash, Java, Shockwave, Everything. There are only a handful of the flavors of linux that work with all of these. PCLinuxOS is the easiest and most visual pleasing one of them.

Plus, it's a LiveCd, so you can try before you install. WooT!

I dabbled with SuSE Linux 7.1 for a while, before I got into Mac OS X. The nice thing about SuSE (now part of Novell) was their excellent printed manual. As a newbie, I couldn't have even got it installed properly without the printed manual. :-|

Hello,

I am a RedHat / Fedora fan, and also liked SuSE. I did not get into big-time programming though.

Christian

If you wanna learn about linux, i suggest you to try Archlinux,
you are able to install individually each package and it s straight forward.

However for a linux which is close to wot provide web hosters, i suggest you to try fedora.

happy linux

The best one that gives you support is www.mepis.com

Simply Mepis is available on CD, you can buy the OS for $14.00 or so and you can boot the OS from your CD on your Windows box without loading it on your hard drive so you can do a test drive.

They also have a great support forum over there :cheesy:

The question of "which Linux" is specifically related to what you want to use it for. For example, if you want a server (nothing else), then go with stripped down redhat. If you want a home system, stay away from redhat, and their derivs, because you'll have too many issues, such as mp3 playing, etc. Sure, they can be done, but it's a lot more complicated than it is with other distros, simply because RH wanted an easy out from things.

If you're looking for a home system, go with Suse (now 9.3) or Mandrake. Drake is good, it's what I started using a while back, then moved up to suse for security and whatnot. Both are extremely easy to understand and use.

Mandrake Mandrake. how bout Mandriva??? Mandriva LE 2005?? Mandriva is super easy to install & so is suse 9.1 personal. ELX linux never finishes setting up. Fedora is awful if you like to use your main pc as a router, but is ok for client pc's. Debian is a little harder to install & may not work with your hardware especially if you have a fancy video card. Linspire is out for your wallet.

u can go for redhat linux 8+ or fedora core 4