. I'm a .
I started using Linux around 15 years ago, with Red Hat distribution. A short period of time I "tasted" the Slackware distribution, then for few years I've used Debian. After that, I've discovered SuSE.
The last distribution which I enjoy is Kubuntu, because it seems that is easier to mantain and easy to find the packages which I need.Linux it's a FREE operating system. For the same hardware, Linux it is faster than current versions of Windows for the same or equivalent applications. It runs well on older hardware, it is far more stable than any version of Windows to date and it doesn't violate your privacy (as Windows sometimes does). There is plenty of very good software (both commercial and free) available. Moving from Windows to Linux takes just some re-learning.
My favorite distributions are:
- Debian . Latest stable version is 5.03 (lenny). Debian comes with 25000 packages (precompiled software that is bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine) - all of it free. After my opinion, Debian is the most suitable distribution for students, engineers, radio amateurs and technical interested people. On the internet, it is available a huge amount of supporting information related to this Linux distribution.
- Kubuntu is an Ubuntu-derived distribution. The Kubuntu CDs are made up of Ubuntu's base plus KDE. This is one of the best replacement for Widows operating system. You can run it from CD (live), you can installe it on hard disk or on USB memory stick.
- SuSE . Last version for individual desktops was 10.3. It seems that it was replaced by OpenSuSE, now to version 11.1. In my opinion, this distribution has on of the best installer (not being a programmer I love this feature), excellent guides, very good support for mobile computing and hardware detection.
- Damn Small Linux (DSL) a small distribution which fits in a business-card CD (50Mb) and which you may keep it in your wallet. This is a versatile mini desktop oriented Linux distribution.
I also would like to mention here some of the Linux software which might be useful
for the radioamateur's use.
