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Linux distributions comparison

hi all,

I am a student of Computer Science and I have been using Ubuntu for almost 4 years now. However i am a bit disappointed from 10.04 release and having some issues (which I fixed but still they shouldn't be there in first place). Sound not working, video flicker, no splash etc. I stuck with ubuntu coz I know my way around it and I love .deb package management. However, I would like to move on to another distro. please suggest me one. I require a programming environment and support for multimedia.

I run Win 7(64 bit) as the other OS(came preinstalled) but i use linux most of the time as my time is spent learning programming.

My computer specs are :

intel core i3 2.13Ghz


Mobility Radeon 5470

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marked as duplicate by Bobby, Diago Nov 10 '10 at 12:26


btw I took the zegenie distro test and it recommended Ubuntu ... not much help from it. Also, I know ATI has issues with Linux. –  Siddharth Sharma Nov 10 '10 at 9:04
I used to struggle with ATI cards years ago, but they are much more supported now, mileage varies as always. It's a good idea to research new hardware before you buy, to ensure it will work on your distro. –  invert Nov 11 '10 at 6:30

4 Answers 4

There are plenty you can find at Distrowatch, they show the major distros with pros and cons for each. There are also new and upcoming distros, but you'd want to stick to major distros for development.

Use Debian to stay with the dpkg package manager, Slackware is very technical and one of the oldest distros, while Mandriva (derived from Mandrake and based on Red Hat) uses the RPM packaging system.

Be aware that since most distros are based off the Linux kernel, your driver support will stay pretty much the same (unless a distro issued patches for a specific driver).

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+1 for Distrowatch. –  Jamie Schembri Nov 10 '10 at 10:24

If you like the .deb format and already know your way around Ubuntu, why don't you try Debian? It always made a very stable impression to me and uses the same package management so you should feel comfortable very quickly.

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if you dont mind rpm format, try fedora. If you want ubuntu without all the bad bits, try linux mint.

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One I highly recommend is CentOS. The 'stable' of Fedora, and the 'free' of RedHat.

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