Gentoo > * (for personal) CentOS > * (for production)

I won't argue that, though Gentoo is a bit much for noobs, and it helps to have a really complete inventory of your hardware in order to configure the OS correctly! Also, you really need a printout of the installation/configuration docs, which are a couple hundred pages, if I recall correctly. I think I killed an entire grove of trees the first time I successfully built a Gentoo system...

I ran Ubuntu for a LONG time. Recently switched to Linux Mint and love it!! Even though it's based on Ubuntu, it's much better and I even got the kids and wife to use it :-) One step closer to getting them weened away from Winblows. My PC has had Linux for a long time. Next step is the wife's laptop!!

Arch Linux for me, followed by Sidux. Neither are really for new folks, though.

My wife's laptop is a PowerMac G4 (17"). She runs OSX and Linux at work, hates Winblows, and has a PhD in particle physics. Of course, she won't let me anywhere near her systems! :-)

Alright, I'll bite. Puppy or AntiX>Personal Ubuntu> Server/Production Ubuntus support may cost more than redhat or Opensuse but from what I've read it gives you more than either.

I have been a long-time devotee of Red Hat systems. All my "production" machines run Fedora 8-10. A combination of ease of installation/management plus access to many well packaged computing tools keeps me faithful. All my other machines run Kubuntu. So I'll make this worse: I use KDE only. No Gnome on my machines. Fedora support for KDE is fine, and Kubuntu is, well...

ive been using linux a little over a yr, have tried numerous distributions and always go back to fedora with gnome

gentoo@home ubuntu@girlfriend gentoo@embedded systems gentoo@lan servers suse@internet servers Im not really happy with suse, wanna move to debian for future internet servers but I'm to lazy to migrate the existing ones... and suse is not sooo bad at all ;) @rubberman: hint: save the trees, just use another term to access the guides on cd with lynx next time ;)

Regarding accessing guides on cd with lynx - that's fine as far as it goes, but it is nice to have hard copy in the lap when grinding thru the configuration of the hardware, etc. It also works better in the loo... :-)

i use mandriva 2009 at home 2008 on most office servers, centos 5.2 on other servers, Fedora 10 on laptops. no probs with any - all do pretty much as asked. I do like to mess more with the mandriva 2009 box though c

Rubberman, try an eee PC for the loo. Just kidding! Loved your comment.

It's also handy when I run out of tp... :^)

All I'm going to say is application dictates incarnation. A good saying no matter the situation.

+1 Arch Linux on my desktops +1 Arch LInux on my virtual (playground) +1 RedHat or Ubuntu LTS on production Servers +100 The right distribution for your needs, make your own choice.

I'm a suse w/ KDE fan.

I might get some heat for this, already have actually, but I say Gentoo, Debian and Slackware aren't for first time Linux users. I've used these all, I love them all, but I'm saying first time Linux users should stay away from all three. Shameless blog link where I discussed this: http://linuxlala.net/thoughts/2009/02/20/linux-distributions-new-users-should-avoid/

Shashank: I concur. Unbuntu though Debian based is geared for newbies.

I agree also, but I'll add that for the _adventurous_ newbies, I would recommend Fedora.

I actually started my Linux journey with Fedora, and it was kind of cool to learn about dependency hell and makefiles. Of course I'm more _adventurous_ than most, I'd say skip the irritation and get cozy with Synaptic. I know it catches some heat for being mainstream, but LTS Ubuntu just keeps getting better. For an old machine, SimplyMEPIS is teh shnitzle.