Which is the best Linux Distribution for you?

Choosing a right linux distribution is depend on your taste, requirements, and availability of internet connection. Here I am summarizing the idea of a best linux distribution suited for you.

For Desktop users with latest hardware:
1. Fedora: Many will not be agree with me in this choice. I choose fedora because it provides you latest software and latest version of kernel. You need to do a little hard-work after installing Fedora, but afterwards it works very fine. The other reason is its games spin. You will get a plenty of games. Moreover Fedora is up-to-date with latest hardware. To install proprietary drivers you need to do a little work but in fedora you will get best replacement drivers for those proprietary drivers.

2. Mageia: This is an awesome distribution with a nice way to manage all your drivers and softwares. It has a lot of features and support for printing and scanning out of the box. It realeases a new version after a long time of testing.

3. Ubuntu: This is most used linux distribution out there. It has nice integration of software center and terminal apt-get. The best thing about it a very large user community and a lot of forums to help you out with your problems.

For Desktops with old hardwares:
1. Fedora LXDE: Again here is Fedora because it provides best support for old hardware. Instead of GNOME use LXDE desktop environment for installation.

2. Puppy Linux: It is another good way to use you old PC. It is extremely lightweight and run like butter with your old PC.

3. LUbuntu: It is Ubuntu based Linux distro but uses LXDE desktop environment instead of Unity.

For No or slow Network connectivity:
1. LMDE: It is Linux Mint Debian Edition. This edition comes all the media codec required and very less software updates.

2. Linux Mint: Use it if you have little access to internet. This also come with all the media codecs out of the box, so no need to install media codecs and flash-plugin after installation.

3. Debian: Use debian which comes with media codecs out of the box. Hence your PC is ready to use after installing Debian

For Laptop Users:
1. Fedora: Now again many users will not be agree with me in this choice, but believe me this is the best distro for laptop users. It is the best in detecting your mobile broadband connection via 3G or 4G dongle. The dashboard is awesome using GNOME3. Using Fedora there is very less time when you need to touch your touchpad. Press the window button and you will see all your open windows there and then you can type any application name to access that app.

2. Ubuntu: With its nice and elegant look it looks superb with a laptop. Sometimes you may feel frustrated with Unity desktop but you can learn the shortcuts and then it will just fit in your requirements.

3. OpenSuse: This is again one of the best Linux distro for wireless connection management. Very stable and nice one to use with your laptop.

4. Linux Mint: The Cinnamon desktop environment is really excellent and easy to use. It gives you a nice feeling and a lot of desklets. Your laptop will work awesome as it uses Ubuntu software base.

Linux Mint 16 XFCE installation guide with snapshots and Review

Linux Mint released XFCE Desktop Environment of its Version 16. Its an extremely fast and wonderful Desktop providing a lot of lot of softwares like media codecs and flash-plugin OUT of the BOX. XFCE is a lightweight environment and good if your system hardware are not up to mark as latest core i series or higher RAM.

Here we will see how to install Linux Mint 16 XFCE on your desktop or laptop.

1. First download you Mint 16 XFCE from here and  burn it to a DVD or make bootable pendrive. Now boot your PC with the bootable drive.

 2. After booting a screen like below will be seen. On top left there is an CD icon labeling "Install Linux Mint" Double click on it and a window will ask for language. Select your language.

3. If everything is fine then it will allow you to click "Continue" on the window below.

4. If you have nothing else on your Hard drive and just want Linux then select first option or if you want to install it along with :Windows OS" then select "Something Else".

 5. It is easy here to create your own partition table unlike Fedora. If you are having free space then just click on "+" sign and add partitions. otherwise select partitions and click on change. In any case you have give mount-point and format. There are only two partitions which are necessary. /(root) and swap. But I would like to suggest four.

If you are having a Hard-drive of more then 500 GB then I would like to suggest these partitions with suggested size:
(i) / of 30 to 50 GB   ext4 format (Minimum 10 GB)
(ii) /boot 1 to 2 GB ext4 format (Minimum 200 MB)
(iii) linux-swap 4 to 10 GB (Remember .. swap is not mount point.. You have to select format as SWAP instead of ext4)
(iv) /home 20 to 50 GB ext4 format

 6. After continue select you location, keyboard layout and create your User account while Mint is installing in background.

 7. Linux Mint installation in progress.

 8. Installation completed. You can explore more on live CD but any change will be discarded as soon as you reboot. So reboot the system to fresh installation.

 9. Login screen. click your login name and give password.

 10. Various snapshots of the screen with different applications and arrangements.

 

Linux Mint 16 XFCE is a good combination of packages from Ubuntu repo and there own developed desktop interface on top of XFCE environment. It is really easy to use if you are first time using linux as it has Windows like bottom panel with fast response. Easy to use Software Installation utilities and automatic updater with information providing on safe to install giving rating from 1 to 5. 1 being extremely recommended and 5 being on your  risk.

Pros:

1. The desktop interface on top of XFCE which is easy to use and gives fast response.

2. Contains packages from XFCE group which are faster for old systems.

3. Most of the media codecs and flash-plugin are available out of the box.

Cons:
We have found none but we would like to mention that Mint is supported until the next release and they do not have a upgrade method. However you can still upgrade by first changing the repo to newer version and then running

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get upgrade

But it is riskier.

Verdict: Linux Mint is awesome distribution and one should go through it. If you are newer you will be amazed by its speed and if you are using Linux for a long then just give it a try., It will not let you down.