Which linux is best? and why?

[r-ID]

I have tried suse, mandriva, mandrake, red hat, slackware, debian, lfs, knoppix, few others. Slackware is my favorite. For learning purposes i do recommend LFS If you are too lazy to build your own OS, try to use any distro without any additional program, just a plain distro. and install everything you need manually. What is the point of this? You learn how the soft works, you find out what you need, and you get the lattest version of software.

btw, answer to the question: the best linux is the newest. Linux is just a kernel. Only distros may vary

[teutorix aleria]

Can i ask a stupid question?

Why the hell would you get RID of windows on an alienware pc?

Alienware is basically designed for gaming, and linux has a very small game collection.

[insomaniacal]

You can play a fair bit of Windows games on Linux with WINE, especially if your hardware is well supported. Not to mention, for security purposes, programming, hacking, and general meddling with computers, *Nix, and especially Linux is king.

[AtlasDark]

Alienware is overrated. I could construct a better system for far less, though this is besides the point.

Unix systems are extremely versatile, and for non-native software, there's the Wine binary compatibility layer, or if you're desperate for a piece of software that still breaks Wine, you can use VirtualBox to boot into any other supported OS (which is to say, nearly all except floppy-based OS's [hotswaps] and OSX).

Unix gaming is actually quite the opposite - we have a selection of fewer yet higher quality games. Not many click-to-create types, thereby limiting the selection to games that are substancially more fun than what you'd find in the Freeware gaming section at CNET for Windows.

[insomaniacal]

Actually, I remember seeing a guide to installing OSX in a virtual machine, though I believe it was under Windows. Still, I'm sure it could be applied to Linux as well.

[Henry25]

http://linux.wikia.com/wiki/Linux_Wiki

[Wootz]

If you've never used Linux before, and just want to get something up and running, then Linux Mint is for you.

However, "learning the ropes" wouldn't hurt either, so you might want to go with something like Ubuntu or Debian. I definetly don't recommend Arch for a first time user though.

I agrees with this man. Linux Mint isn't too painful, looks pretty and is fairly customizable, and gives you a feel for linux without hurting you too much, so you can graduate to a more hardcore (is that the right word?) version of linux.

[thedotmaster]

Personally I like Xubuntu. It's bloat-free, pretty stable, has a large community, is actively developed, has a huge repository and is widely compatible with a ton of hardware.
I keep meaning to try FreeBSD which my friend raves about, but haven't go round to it yet.

[k01db00t]

Honestly it really depends on each individual. Everyone has the things they want and or need. Personal prefrence. As far as me, personally I use BT3, BT4, Ubuntu 8.04 and 9.04, and SuSe

[drykill]

Ive been using kubuntu for a few weeks now and its a very good transitional OS.