shashi kant: Which is the best linux distribution(operating system with linux at its kernel) in your opinion. Don't just shout out the names but also give strong and genuine reasons to support your view.
Shiv Dayal: I will take two names. Liinux Mint for desk tops and Debian for servers. All rpm based distros are bad because their yum repos are way too small to be useful.
Krick Hrin: The choice of best operating system depends on the user. You can't decide the best one in general.
shashi kant: ok.. I am a computer science student. which is best for me out there.
If possible then also specify the best distributions according to the profession.
Shiv Dayal: Then Gentoo is best for you. :-)
shashi kant: why Gentoo and not Arc Linux!
Shiv Dayal: Because with Gentoo you will know many more things than binary. You will know how raw code is converted into binary.
Krick Hrin: Ubuntu fits perfectly for a student in all needs. There are tons of applications which are extremely easy to install from ubuntu software center.
For web servers, I think cent os is best one which is freely available.
Shiv Dayal: Cent OS packages are way too old as they follow RHEL. Ubuntu is good for desktops but I just like the color scheme of Linux Mint.
shashi kant: @kric Cent os has very small team of developers as compared to other distributions and often they become late in updating the OS and providing the bug fixes.
@shiv yes, Linux mint looks great and it also provides more customization in its gnome forked desktop environment while ubuntu's unity doesn't provide anything for the customization.
Shankar: Ubuntu has some star power behind it, and it's probably the most popular Linux flavor available right now. If you've tried Linux at some point, you've probably tried Ubuntu, and for good reason.
It's easy to install, customizable, offers some great features that weren't standard in distros popular prior to Ubuntu's popularity, and it updates every six months with new features and plenty of improvements. Ubuntu's mission was to bring Linux to the masses, and it's done an incredible job.
Ubuntu's community is massive, so there's plenty of places to go for help troubleshooting or making the most of your installation, and virtually every Linux-compatible program or applications works in Ubuntu without issue. The only divisive issue with it is the growing size of the distro (many complain it's getting bloated) and Ubuntu's Unity UI, which you either love or hate. Either way, if you're just getting started with Linux and want the experience without getting too dirty in the process, Ubuntu is a great place to start, and a great way to ease your way into the wonders of Linux.
Shiv Dayal: Ubuntu may be good for desktop but for servers Debian is far far ahead.
shashi kant: Ubuntu is very easy to install, offer nice features but all these are also available in Linux Mint. However Ubuntu uses Unity which gives very little power to customize its UI. You can hardly do any changes with its universal menu bar in unity. But Gnome gives you mammoth power to customize it according to your own wish.
