Choosing a Linux Distro

[TheUnixGuy]

Hello,

I found this quiz good enough and would surely help those who're confused about which Distro to choose. Its a simple quiz which tells you all you want.
Here's the quiz.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Looks like a great method of determining your *nix distro. Ended up with OpenSuSE and Fedora. Was a little surprised that it said that a computer a couple years old couldn't run Ubuntu, which is why it only gave it a 95%

[TheUnixGuy]

Hi ComputerHope,

You might want to try Xubuntu which uses the light and modular Xfce desktop environment which runs smoothly on low end computers. GNOME on Ubuntu is a bit heavy.

[Computer Hope Admin]

Thanks for the suggestion, I've actually got Ubuntu running on two boxes, which is why I was surprised about the results.

[TheUnixGuy]

Hi there,

Maybe it estimates available hardware by the age. Forgets that you could add 4 gb memory even 2 years ago. 

[Cityscape]

Yes this is a great quiz, I've came across it before but forgot to bookmark.
I get: Fedora, Mandriva, LinuxMint, OpenSuse and Ubuntu.

I use Ubuntu 9.04 as the main OS on my computer, I think it is very good. I'm using it and Google Chrome to type this right now.

[JJ 3000]

Was a little surprised that it said that a computer a couple years old couldn't run Ubuntu, which is why it only gave it a 95%

What? I'm running the latest version of Ubuntu on an eleven year old computer right now. It has a P4 1.5 ghz, 3 sticks of PC133 256MB, and a pretty low end vid card. It runs version 9.10 pretty well. There is a small amount of lag but it isn't nearly as bad as the XP installation that I had on it before.

[soybean]

Looks like a great method of determining your *nix distro. Ended up with OpenSuSE and Fedora. Was a little surprised that it said that a computer a couple years old couldn't run Ubuntu, which is why it only gave it a 95%

I ended up with OpenSuSE and Fedora also but it listed 8 others as a 95% match.  Also, I said I would be installing on a computer over a few years old and it does not say that a computer a couple years old couldn't run Ubuntu; it says "Your computer may be too slow".  Based on my experience, that response, even for a computer over a few years old, is nonsense. Ubuntu 9.10 runs fairly well on a P4 over 5 years old, with 512MB of RAM.

Also, the 95% rating is not based on a specific processor.  None of the questions asked for details of hardware specs.  The rating is based on the questions in the quiz, which were general in nature, not on specific hardware. 

[Cityscape]

These 2 are also really good:
http://desktoplinuxathome.com/distro.html (I like this one a lot)
http://polishlinux.org/choose/quiz/

[Cityscape]

GNOME on Ubuntu is a bit heavy.

If GNOME is heavy then KDE is really heavy.

Based on my experience, that response, even for a computer over a few years old, is nonsense. Ubuntu 9.10 runs fairly well on a P4 over 5 years old, with 512MB of RAM.

I had Ubuntu 9.04 run decent on a PC with 768 MB RAM and Celeron 667 Mhz CPU.

[shinegami]

I begin to use Ubuntu 10.04 with WIndow XP by using dual boot. This is the first time for me to install operating system inside my pc. I was totally surprised with how easy it is and even try using kde too. I only need to learn about sudo and several thing. I feel just like learning a new course but I'm willing to take the risk. I'm not really that risk taker when it comes to my Window XP, because I realized that I am just a beginnier and didn't even understand about programming as an example.

[SilentAssasin64]

I was given 100% with Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, and Kubuntu.

I do use the 10.10 64bit Beta, however, might throw on Fedora 13 or Arch tomorrow when my new VelociRaptor comes.  Leaning more towards Arch as it would force me to learn a thing or two in the process.  I've only installed it in virtual machines as of now, so it would definitely be a good learning experience.

Or maybe, just maybe, I could dip my feet into Gentoo.  Anyone know a good beginners tutorial for that?  Been around *nix for a while, but never really messed with a distro such as that.

EDIT:  Just took it again with a little different mindset.  Ironically enough it came up as a 95% match for both Gentoo and Slackware.  Just seconds after I originally posted this reply. 

[CBMatt]

Hmm, it says I should use Windows 95...

[Sonrise]

I prefer the Ultimate Linux 2.8 it seems to be the most stable and user friendly, not to mention it is packed with applications

[Bones92]

I think it would be better if it specifically took into account how much ram you had... it recommended two distros i wouldn't be able to use, period (already tried, they hated on me and wouldn't work). I'm actually dual booting Puppy Linux and SliTaz (which is better, i think, but slightly less stable), and it didn't recommend or even mention either.. but then again, not sure when they last updated this quiz either.