# What free LINUX should I switch to from Red Hat 9? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 15, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440 "2003-11-15T17:13:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/1 "2003-11-15T17:13:13Z")
I want to play around with a different free Linux other than Red Hat 9. Any recommendations? ---
**Author:** ![Sparklo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Sparklo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparklo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/2 "2003-11-15T17:43:21Z")
FWIW, I’ve heard good things about Mandrake, although I’ve never personally used it. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/3 "2003-11-15T18:30:21Z")
It depends. there are plenty of desktop replacement unices available. (lindows, mandrake, knoppix if you don’t want to format a partition.) If your looking to play around in the guts of the OS, SuSE is a GREAT OS, it’s much better from a QA standpoint than even Redhat. (I’m speaking from experience as our department security engineer.) ---
**Author:** ![typhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed8c4c/32.png) [@typhoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typhoon)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/4 "2003-11-16T01:33:41Z")
The most obvious choice would be [Fedora](http://fedora.redhat.com/), which is the modern incarnation of the non-enterprise version of Red Hat. [Debian](http://www.debian.org/) is also a big one, although it’s a bit more difficult to set up. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/5 "2003-11-16T02:02:14Z")
Fedora got a pretty bad review from Fark, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/6 "2003-11-16T02:51:23Z")
If you want to setup a distro from it’s guts, nothing better than [Gentoo](http://www.gentoo.org) ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/7 "2003-11-16T05:27:18Z")
Gyan9, I tried it, didn’t much care for it. It’s disk partitioning utilities were seriously old school, and it’s ideal if you want to be an expert on Every Single Component of Everything. (And you have a fast computer OR don’t mind spending a serious amount of time building everything from code.) Gentoo is NOT a step for the meek. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/8 "2003-11-16T05:36:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Unintentionally Blank \* > \*\*it’s ideal if you want to be an expert on Every Single Component of Everything. \*\* Far from it. You won’t become an expert. Simply, well-versed enough to not be nervous, while dealing with linux issues. It took me about a couple of hours to install it (1.4rc2) I simply mentioned it, because the OP said _want to play around_. In the context of linux, I assume that means some technical curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![leenmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@leenmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leenmi)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/9 "2003-11-16T06:02:34Z")
Debian is no longer difficult to install, has good package management and is very robust. It’s an obvious choice if you want to try something different than RedHat. Additional applications are easily available. Mandrake is my personal favorite. I keep trying other distros and coming right back to Mandrake. Love it. But they do hit you up for Mandrake Club membership. Still, I rarely have a problem with Mandrake. With all the other distros I’ve tried, challenges always come up. Vector Linux is one of the minimalist distros, but it has a good mix of applications. KDE and GNOME are not included by default, but live a little. Fluxbox/Blackbox rock. Vector is Slackware based (tgz packages). Normally, Slackware bugs me like nails on chalkboard (personal preference, no factual stuff to point to), but I love Vector. I just love Mandrake more. Peanut is good to. Another minimalist distro, but this one is rpm based. It is not a RedHat clone or customization. It’s nice, good mix of apps, but I had a problem running OpenOffice that I couldn’t figure out. Probably something I did wrong, though. If you want to try something different, I would look at Mandrake or Debian. If you want to stick with RedHat, but not Fedora, I just tried Lorma Linux. Lorma College took RedHat and customized it for their environment. Very easily installed, solid distro, looked good. Worked well. But it is a RedHat clone, so I don’t know how they will be affected by RedHat’s new model. [www.ibiblio.org](http://www.ibiblio.org) has linux distributions mirrored. I go there and window shop among the descriptions to see what might be fun to try. ---
**Author:** ![Andros\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Andros\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andros_X)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/10 "2003-11-16T09:15:18Z")
I think Slackware is the best I’ve encountered thus far. Stable, easy to use, good for learning \*nix (since it tries to follow the Unix standard very closely). Some minor issues, but those aren’t show-stoppers for me. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/11 "2003-11-27T04:00:01Z")
Well, I went ahead and downloaded Slackware 9.1, and I’m using it now. It was a bit less user-friendly to set up; I’ve been spoiled with OS setup procedures detecting or at least listing my graphics card and monitor, and choosing the proper settings for me. Slackware didn’t do that, and I had to find and manually enter the proper values in the X configuration utility. It was a bit of a pain. But, it’s mostly up and working now. I don’t think the sound is working yet, and the mouse wheel isn’t functioning, but these are minor issues. In fact, it was kinda the reason for me playing with this stuff is to tweak things here and there to get stuff working. Even though it’s often annoying. I guess it’s sort of like playing with sore in your mouth; it hurts but you do it anyway. Thanks all! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-free-linux-should-i-switch-to-from-red-hat-9/213440/12 "2003-11-27T04:44:41Z")
And I already fixed the sound and mouse wheel issues. Now I have to look for more problems!