Topic: What distro is best for linux newbies

[Talvace]

Jake, what distro would you suggest for linux newbies thats nice and stable...besides ubuntu? Kubuntu?

[BluenoseJake]

It's hard to say, if it's a laptop, I'd go with any of the 'buntus, but if it is a desktop, Fedora is supposed to be good, but I personally don't like it.   OpenSuse is good, I tried 11.2 and it was really good at detecting all my hardware.

If they are interested in learning how linux works, I would choose Debian.  There is nothing more stable than Lenny IMHO, though it's a bit harder to get everything working.

[Talvace]

i tried fedora first for desktop i really liked it i think its time dual boot my desktop again

[BluenoseJake]

Fedora 12 is supposed to be pretty good.  Just came out the other day

[billyevil]

Actually, if you don't want to use Ubuntu or Kubuntu.. I would suggest the offshoot known as Linux Mint. It is a very nice setup with the drivers/codecs included that are sometimes listed as restricted in Ubuntu. Personally I like the KDE community edition.

Another good one is Mepis Linux, which is based directly on Debian instead of using Ubuntu. Both of these releases have their own repositories and some distro specific tools as well, which makes for an interesting setup. I personally enjoyed them both. Both have great and friendly support communities, much like Ubuntu. I can see both being great setups for new users and experienced as well.