Any recommendations for Linux OS?

I've been meaning to try Linux for years but never had the time. Now I have plenty, but don't know where to start. There are just so many flavors of Linux: Fedora, NimbleX, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, DSL, Slax, Puppy...... and the list goes on. I don't need to use the best or most feature-rich version, just one that I can cut my teeth on without being overwhelmed by how much I don't know about yet another OS. Thanks

 

I keep Puppy on a flash drive, partially as a safety measure for the day Windows won't boot, but also just for fun. Puppy runs entirely in RAM so makes no changes at all to the hard drive, and remembers when booting (via a configuration file also on the flash drive) all your previous configuration. It's an easy way to have a very usable Linux system always available without having to partition your main drive or see your bootloader replaced by Grub. Considering its small size it's pretty remarkable.

 

Thanks, I was hoping to run the OS from a flash drive so I'll definitely give this one a try.

 

Fortunately, my wife likes small too (sorry, couldn't help myself) Thanks for the recs. I would like to start with something that has a Windows-like GUI so KDE sounds like a good choice for me as well. XFCE I've not heard of but if it's small I'll definitely take a look at it.

 

Also, have a look at Mint Mate...

I'm currently running Mint Mate 13 which has Long Term Support and is easy to use...

 

You can run almost any linux OS from a flash drive.

Personally, I would use this tool here to determine a good version for you:

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

 

Thanks Collinsl, that's a neat website; Custom made Linux recommendations. It suggested:

• Ubuntu
• Kubuntu
• Mint
• SuSe
• Mandriva

Are there any clear favorites in this group?

 

Greetings, rustysavage.

One more vote for Mint. I'm not a dedicated Linux buff, but I use Mint a lot for troubleshooting Windows machines - Mint just seems to handle a wider variety of hardware and has a shallower learning curve than some of the other distros (at least for me).

My son-in-law is a Linux freak and he recommends Mint for normal use and Ubuntu for gaming.

I see that Hedon James has popped in - he's a Linux guy, should give you some good advice.

 

Thanks Caliban. Trouble shooting Windows is one of the main reasons that I became interested in Linux in the first place, so I'll definitely try Mint.

 

For an easy to use windows type linuxOS I recommend Zorin. By installing using default settings, using GNOME, it will run on modern machines yet still be lightweight, & fast, it is updated frequently, and if needed you can install it with LXDE shell environment to run on older machines, with a little as a 266 CPU, and 128Mb's of ram. It is Ubuntu based, so there is alot of free software's available, and is very stable. I have used it, and that was my experience with it.

 

The latest version of Gnome is completely unlike OS X.