Hello...i'm thinking of switching my operating system from windows Vista to any open source operating system.i'd like to know which free OS is the best?thank you.

hmm...you could try ubuntu..
it quite easy to use

there are many open source solution out there, if you are not familiar with Linux, you can best try with either Ubuntu or Mandrake. If you are at mid level user which can play around with some Linux command, then you can try Fedora or Slackware. If you are truely a master of linux or sub set of Unix user, you can try built your prefer linux using OpenBSD. Just my opinion

ubuntu
been using it and it feels just like windows

Try Linux Mint Elyssa http://www.linuxmint.com/ It's the best distro I've ever used.

How about PCLinuxOS

there is no "best". it depends on what u need and what u can do. BSDs are dead stable, but can u handle it? do you need a BSD OS?

end user wise; those aforementioned linux distros are easier to migrate to.

Since you're a first timer then I suggest you to try out Ubuntu first. It has a relatively good support and massive community to help those in need. I first thought of using Fedore Core before this but thinking the fact that I'm a newbie so port to using Ubuntu first.

Here's a good article which can help you decide. It's rather dated (published January 24th, 2006) but still very relevant.

http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT3269115798.html

Try this....distro chooser
It might help...
Mandriva and Ubuntu are famous...
but I prefer Linux Mint...
It's up to you...

So many people pointing out Ubuntu as the easiest, well I second that too. BTW, you might want to try out the LiveCD first before installing it to the hard disk. And I think most of the Linux distro have their own LiveCD, so just give it a try.

How about CentOS?

It is an enterprise OS

for linux newbie i recommand ubuntu

depend on preference
i'm using centos for quite some time now
if u have an xtra bucks, go for RHEL instead

Recommend Ubuntu because got friendly GUI.

opensuse
ubuntu
fedora

enuff said..

Linux is in the mainstream for free OS (there have other Unix clone as well - Linux itself also is clone of Unix).

Linux is kernel of the OS, in another word, it core of the OS or heart of OS.

They are a lot distro - like Ubuntu, Fedora and etc ...

Different distro bundle different software like different wordprocessor and other stuffs.

Ubuntu is popular distro at moment because I think it bundle the right software into it and make it easy to be to used by anyone especially the newbie.

Since you are 1st timer,

I suggest Ubuntu/Linux Mint,
Ubuntu - come with good software instead let you choose among from tons of foss, but lack of some codecs. You need to figure it by yourself

Linux Mint - basically clone of Ubuntu but bundle with most of the codecs, should be a good start if you dun wan spend time to troubleshooting your Linux system (although sometimes troubleshooting experience is good experience under Linux )

In fact, i never use both of them.hehe..

Linux Mint is almost identical as Windows 98.

im trying to use Damn Small Linux.. reading the comment makes me want to install linux

How is it similar to Windows 98? I'm a Linux Mint user but I don't see anything identical.

i don't recommend DSL for new user. it's a streamed line version of linux. so it'll lack some features that you may need to use. new users don't really know what they need from linux, so it's recommended that u use a full featured version so you can try evrything.

hehe im trying it now..

btw, im oso not recommend to new user like me

try Reactos... very similar to windows... they're not using UNIX architecture...
it's really windows but open source...

"ReactOS® is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows® XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows® architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level. This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture."

go here...

http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

see the screenshot..

Hmm... don't know how to say. When i look at the screenshot, it identical mah... Akekeke

Yup I tried it...but lets just say that it's a work in progress....

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Added on July 29, 2008, 8:05 pm
duh.... dude....omg....

i look at it much more like ....very2 much not like 98

The latest OpenSuse 11 worth to try.
Chanelle - I'm fell in love with Suse...Suse

I'm newbie, I want to learn the web server on Linux OS, I prefer the server edition Linux.
Any suggestion for me?

try centOS which is based on RHEL.

is that openSUSE is suitable for me?

Yup...it'll help you.....hehe...try gentoo?

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Added on July 31, 2008, 8:45 pm
Depends....what do you want to learn?
You can just use a distro n then dl packages as n when needed....IF you just wanna learn Linux...
Network security?
Try BackTrackLive CD.....it's cool....

anyone have try'ed gOS?

I want to learn webserver and linux.

Is that Centos suitable to do all of this?

you can try centOS or debian or ubuntu server edition or ...

just go for the server edition or enterprise edition which u can find at there

all linux is suitable for that. doesn't have to be enterprise version or server version.

well usually linux+webserver=enterprise
don't u think so?

haha. we know that all linux basically same. just d applications bundle with is different

err....i beg to differ. linux + web server = not necessarily makes it enterprise. even winXP pro can become a webserver.

even if the distro it isn't bundle with a web server, you can always install it later from other source.

Anyone Using Mandriva?

using linux is not because you hate windows but use it because u really love it.

hehehe