Which is the best linux distribution?

I'd say that Mepis is the most user friendly and stable in my experience. I hated Ubuntu since it wouldn't even work right with my keyboard most of the time. Mandriva isn't bad, but it suffers from the same ugliness of other Linux Distros. Even though I say Mepis is the most user friendly, it still isn't as user friendly as Windows. Be prepared to do a fair bit of learning to get used to it. You may still have trouble finding good drivers for hardware as well.

I think I would say Mandriva because it's easy to install and it's higly recommended for new linux users like me :) The installation is easier than Windows ^^ You just have to download the Live CD, then boot with the CD and install Mandriva. Plus, you can test it without installing it by using the Live CD. But I've also read good things about Ubuntu, even if it's seems to be for advanced users. You can also use Redhat, which is very easy for new users too. Good day !

The best linux distribution in terms of resources is debian distribution.but the problem with it is this one requires a lot of installation space and cant be installed if you have low memory.as far as user friendly purpose is concernd,i think you can go for suse linux,it needs just 2gb for installation .it also has a good graphical interface.now if you want to use net connectivity also in linux,i would prefer ubuntu latest version.this is very compatible to interent and some of the free software can be donloaded using commands.You can use knoppix inorder to avoid hardware installation.i would prefer suse distribution for you,its a very good one.

well m not using linux since long so i dont know the present status !! but earlier it was red hat ! i had used red hat n knoopix fr more then 3 years

i have used Linux about 3 yrs back. here in my company, mainly red hat Linux was used. i have not used it by other distributor. I found it good enough.

Hi All! This is my 16th post here in mylot discussions, and here goes . . . At this point, there is no 'best' Linux distribution, because each Linux distribution has it's own philiosphy (regarding package management, updates, etc etc) which makes it unique among the others. Some say Slackware is the best, because of its simplicity, but others will say 'no way!' because Slackware is mostly console-based as compared to other GUI-based distributions. Point is, check the distributions philosophy, and if you can live with that, then use it and stick to it. Currently I am into RPM-based distributions and I am using CentOS. But I want to try the KISS-principle of Slackware, so I might try that someday.

I have not used other distribution except for ubuntu which i got it free from their site and found it really good but made my system a bit slow, otherwise it is really better than windows.

I don't think we can select the best Linux distribution in general. There are so many distributions and one can choose the best distribution the meets his/her needs: so there are distribution easy to install and use like Ubuntu and Mandriva, other distributions like Gentoo very fast and customizable but not very easy to use, and many other kinds of distributions.

Best I heard was Debian.....but its extremely difficult to install ...