UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I installed Redhat into my system. The reason? This was the version my friend was running and he told me about this one, so I downloaded and installed it. Simple enough

But as I am searching the net, I am coming across many other forms of linux made by other companies. Redhat seems to be the most popular (maybe this is reason my friend suggested it to me ), but I have another friend who runs his web server using debian. I have also come across suse, mandrakesoft, slackware, and caldera.

My question is what are the main differences between these different versions? As a newbie, is this a difference I would likely notice? What would be the pros of using some of these versions of linux over the other?

Sorry if my question seems really broad, but I would like to find out why there are so many choices and what the differences are so I can make the best choice for myself.

Thanx

M.R.

well, they all do package managment differently ( one way or another .... ) and some adminitration commands are different. if you are using your linux box for a server, then there wont be too much difference. however if this is your desktop machine, its my opinion that a "newbie" will notice a difference. they all have their own way of laying out the desktop, be it KDE or GNOME ( other window managers , ie window maker come pretty much default, in my experience ) . again, IMO SuSE has the nicest KDE desktop around, when you get to customizing it your self, you can make it look however you want, but the initial design is the best around. if you are looking for reccomendations i would defenitly suggest SuSE 8.2 with KDE !!! if you want a non-rpm based system, i would suggest gentoo, i havnt used it first hand, but a few of my friends say its great. even though it is not regarded as a 'newbie' distro, as you do EVERYTHING your self, everything up to compiling your own kernel for first boot, the online documentation and step by step instructions are very very good.

It all depends really, I find its all down to prefrence, Ive used Redhat, Mandrake, Suse and Debian, keeping each distro for about 3 months, been using Slackware for the last 2 months and I really like it.

I feel imho, its best to try a few distros and go for the one you are most comfortable with, I will be trying gentoo soon as well, but Ill be installing that on another machine as I am very happy with slack, try a few and stick with distros you like best.