[TriLUG] What's the Fairest Distro of All?

[johnm]

sorry gang, I'm going to top post.

   My concept of a daily desktop is a "load and go" distro. Something I 
use every day for e-mail, irc and browsing needs to work without me 
having to tweak or adjust it. On December 6th 2004 I went full time 
using Ubuntu (Debian based with Gnome) for my daily desktop. It all 
seems to work, the updates using Synaptic are very painless and I like 
it. There is a lot of software available if I want to try a special 
program or two. The security updates are timely and the Ubuntu user 
forum is very active.
   I have two other PCs running two versions of Debian with Icewm, 
fluxbox, and xfce - these are the ones I adjust and play with, but if 
they break, I'm still on the net.
   (By the way, i believe the KDE version of Ubuntu (kubuntu) is out now)

john mitchell

 > James Brigman wrote:

>Just when I thought I had a handle on the world of Linux distros, things
>change out from under me. 
>
>I'm running CentOS 4. I like it OK, but I've been looking for ready-to-
>go RPM packages and am surprised to find that there are few, if any, on
>the major websites for CentOS 4. For example, I tried to install a DVD
>reader app, and came up short on the libraries required for the app to
>run under CentOS/RHEL 4.
>
>I've started looking for other packages for CentOS, and am finding that
>the other distros have pulled out ahead of CentOS/RHEL 4 for RPM or YUM
>package popularity: Mandrake 10 seems to have a lot going on, along with
>Debian, SuSE 9, and even Fedora Core 1, 2 and 3. 
>
>The questions I've got are:
>1) Can I just use any Fedora Core 3 packages I find for RHEL/CentOS 4?
>2) What's the distro seeing the most activity for add-on software these
>days? 
>3) Is there a website anywhere with a grid that tallies such
>information? I thought Distrowatch would be the thing, but turned up
>null there. 
>4) Without trying to start any flamewars here - what's everyone's
>favorite distros to use for a WinXP replacement (everyday desktop "heavy
>lifting") and why? 
>5) Should I just shut up and subscribe to Linux Journal or Linux
>World? :-)
>
>JKB
>
>  
>