I'm sort of in a holding pattern right now. I have two distributions of Linux (Knoppix and ubuntu) already installed, deliberately limiting myself to these because they both use the DEB package system, but one uses Gnome and the other uses KDE as their default Desktop. There are other differences as well, and I just felt that working with two distributions would give me a somewhat broader exposure.
But I've encountered a few issues as a consequence, First, I am filling up my available hard drive, and now I am forced to consider yet another distribution to add to the mix. Not only that, but I need more disk space to provide storage for each of the VE (Virtual Environments) that I will be using later, and I've learned that you should not install these on your root drive - that means having a scratch partition as well. So right now I am waiting for the delivery of a 320GB hard drive that I've ordered, and at the same time have considered what that third distribution might be.
Since many add-ons are first targeted at Red Hat/Fedora as RPM packages, and because Red Hat is a successful venture to commercialize Linux for enterprises, it has become as much or more mainstream in the Linux community as any other distribution, outside of what major players like IBM and Novel might be using.
So aside from support from the Linux community in the form of volunteers, you have Red Hat staffers helping out, sort of using Fedora as an alpha and beta release before incorporating some benefits into their commercial product.
Some people might opt to just buy into getting Red Hat, since you can also acquire technical support in this fashion. But a stable version of Fedora is pretty much the same thing, although that leaves you pretty much on your own, or at the mercy of what you can learn from other resources. And since Fedora is also updated with RPM packages, just as Red Hat is, it gives me the option to try and install packages without attempting to obtain a DEB package or using alien to convert from one format to the other.
So naturally, Fedora appears to be a good choice for many people. But before I made up my mind, I decided to visit
www.linux.com and see what else might be available. And there are a lot of choices there, with some descriptions to help you decide. For instance, I knew that Mandrake is essentially a custom distribution that used to be based on Red Hat, back in the day that Red Hat was also available as a free download. I assumed that if I got down the list far enough, I might find Mandrake still listed, but probably now based on Fedora.
But when I got down to Fedora, it made mention of a couple of distributions that are dependent on it, including Yoper, and that Yoper had a touch of Knoppix thrown in. Now there are a number of things I really like about Knoppix, so that got my interest. At least it seemed like a reason to pick it as my third choice.
So I've downloaded it (it comes in three versions - live, slim, and what appears to be the full version, and I got the live and full versions). There is also mention of a DVD version, but I will have to see what that entails. So now I am about set to begin anew, and just waiting for the larger hard drive to get here to upgrade my PC before I transfer everything and install the new stuff,
