What Linux distro should I choose

[Wolfword]

I am thinking on changing to Linux, and I've compiled a small live CD of fedora. But, Gentoo also looks good. (I don't mind if it is difficult to use) Ubuntu doesn't convince me, it performance is #cough# not so good.

But my PC is so powerful... I don't know

Any sugerence?

[Das Bruce]

Why are you switching?

[Wolfword]

Many reasons:

1-Reading carefully the EULA (End User License Agreement) that everything that Microsoft gives to every product, it has weird things. (Like "This computer can fail after 60 days" or "You may not connect more than 10 things at the same time to this device") (Just search for it and read it fully)

2-Searching in the web, I've discovered a very convincing story against Microsoft (Talking about plans to control all the PCs, stuff like that)

3-Simply, cause Windows FAILS

4-It doesn't have viruses roaming everywhere

[Das Bruce]

Sorry, that doesn't really help with picking a distro.

[Wolfword]

You started this conversation. I'm only asking for suggestions of picking a distro.

[JohannesH]

You started this conversation. I'm only asking for suggestions of picking a distro.

point of his question was to find out wtf you want from your OS

[Wolfword]

To have the perfect balance between good performance, low PC use and a good command to search packages. I don't mind if I must use lots of commands.

[==Troy==]

the question is WHAT FOR.

I.e. do you want to code on it? Do you want to just browse? Do you want to have services ran on it? what do you want to do with it? That will determine applicable distros pretty well.

[luckywaldo7]

If you want lightweight and highly customizable then I would recommend checking out Arch Linux.

[Teutooni]

I have used Debian (+ubuntu) and Gentoo, both have nice packaging systems. I'd recommend trying Gentoo if you are not afraid to do some tinkering. It's not hard, I got it running on my laptop in about a day (including searching for a working patch to no longer supported ethernet drivers, first having to figure out how to install the base system without internet access), and I'm pretty crap at using linux.

[Hobo Joe]

Well if you want something that will be a fairly simple transition from Windows, Ubuntu is probably your best choice. All depends on what you're looking for though, really.

[Pxtl]

Imho, for a primary PC as a developer, I find that the Debian family have a real problem with staying up-to-date... and Ubuntu in particular is the worts for sticking users with 3-year-old packages. That said, Ubuntu (a Deb distro) has the best ease-of-use and the largest support from the software community at large.

[malric]

About your initial choices, Gentoo is for people that want to learn about Linux/compiling-debugging application. If you want just to use linux, probably Gentoo is not the best choice.

I used Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSuse. I didn't lake Ubuntu for small reasons (can't make a list though, it just annoyed me over and over), didn't try Fedore lately and OpenSuse seems now better. (don't like that it is rpm based, then again if you add 1 or 2 repositories you find what you want)

[hoijui]

The main reason NOT to choose Gentoo is not that it is more difficult (which is not so clearly the case, in my eyes), but that installing and updating software takes a LONG time. a system wide update once every 2 months or so may easily take half a day on a modern system, compiling with -j5, while it would be 5min in any other distro, using a single core.

I can not imagine that you would be able to grasp performance differences between Ubuntu and Gentoo in daily work.
malric was quite right when he said, the best about Gentoo is that it is good if you want to get a good understanding of the internals of linux, and if you want to always stay on latest versions of all packages. the later can be problematic for a developer though. If you always code for latest versions of libs, your code will not run on 90% of systems, and your users will have to wait to be able to use your code, or manually update libs in their systems, or you have to supply the libs... just adds a lot of unnecessary complication.

[malric]

Yeah, speed can be also quite annoying at first. After using it 3 years, you don't install that many new applications, and I upgrade usually 2 or 3 times a year, when I am in the mood for problems (problems are good you learn about new stuff, still can't have them everyday)

[1v0ry_k1ng]

if you dont like windows 7 I question you

[malric]

I don't. So what's the question ?

[Das Bruce]

Why, might be an appropriate one, if lacking in the dramatic.

[luckywaldo7]

http://en.windows7sins.org/

But this is getting somewhat off-topic.

[malric]

... Gentoo is for people that want to learn about Linux/compiling-debugging applications...

And more than that configuring things, understanding how computer work, changing some obscure default thing just because it annoys you and you can do it.

And, not to be accused, I used/configured windows (sometimes work, friends) and it tries to keep you away from things.

Also, I don't question people that like windows 7

PS: regarding the above link, even they are real problems, they don't represent my primary reasons of not liking it.