Fedora

Hi,

i'm currently part of an apprenticeship becoming a IT specialist.
Because I'm already an electronic technician (finished apprenticeship) I can do this one in 2 years (normally you need 3).
Thing is, in school they started out with basic unix stuff (working with the shell) in the first year. Now I need to learn all that stuff until my school starts in september.
I'm already on my way using a virtual machine one of my teachers made (SUN Linux) with all the data I need to finish working through the script I got.
I also have a virtual Damn Small Linux.
I like working with unix systems, I currently have Ubuntu installed on my computer, but for some reason I'm not that fond of it anymore, I want to try something else.

Now I want to hear what to experts say
I've been browsing these forums for some time and I must say that it is very interesting and you guys really know what you talk about.

So:
1. What Linux Distribution do you think is the best and why is that so?
Which Linux do you use and why?
2. Is there a IRC channel or some chat connected to this forum?

I hope you can give me some useful infos here, maybe I can finally kill all of my windows pcs

I wasn't aware of Sun having a Linux variety? Not all UNIX is Linux. Religious wars aside, which distro is "best" entirely depends on what you want to do with it. That's why different distros exist. I use Gentoo because it's great for software developers and general playing around with. It's not user friendly. Neither will you have to fight against any magic autoconfigurator. On the other hand there is no magic autoconfigurator. No.

I think Mandriva is the best beginners to intermediate Distro there is. Mandriva has a closely related cousin by the name of Mageia. These both Have M.C.C Mandriva Control Center and drak or draketools I can't remember which and are RPM based. Fedora is a really good one as well in my opinion but I think a little experience on a more polished distro is needed. Suse has a interface that is bloated like Vista or something. I don't understand who would find it appealing. Ubuntu is heavy with the GUI end and is probably best for people with only have menu-type of computer experience. Debian is also worth a look. The thing with Linux distros is that the difficult ones don't have package managers etcetera. They are merely a stripped down version. You can do the same things with a fully equipped distro if you want. There is nothing stopping you.

I used mandrake (which became mandriva) for a year and learned nothing. Then the instant I started fiddling with it it became so upset with me that its installer refused to install anything else, at all, ever again.

Too friendly to learn much, throws a fit when you try to play with what's underneath. Better off without it.