Which Linux Distro would you recommend for a windows consultant learning it?

[cw215]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I am an expert windows man with some Linux experiences, installed it a few times, played around with live CD's my question which is the best Linux Distro to install and learn from a consulting point of view. What would I see Linux Disto wise in a small to mid-size business?

Suggestions and recommendations including books for relatively new but not neebie Linux guy?

BTW I have installed the FON/Jasager project, still not that sure what to do with it yet but Darren's install guide was awesome and worked right for me the first time.

Many thanks ahead of time to the community.

Chris

[msp301]

I don't have any experience with anything server-side, but Xandros and SUSE are both good and they are designed to integrate with Windows-based networking:

1. Xandros Linux

2. OpenSUSE // SUSE Enterprise Linux

[nullArray]

We use Windows/OpenSUSE dual boot on all the machines that I work at..., so I'd recommend that.

[VaKo]

In Europe your quite likely to see SuSE variants like SLED, SLES or OpenSuSE. But mostly you will see Red Hat based distros such as RHEL or CentOS, so I would recommend using CentOS. Learning this will give you a grounding in what is pretty much the most popular commercial linux distro, used by places such as NASA through Alcatel Lucent. Ubuntu is also popular. However there all pretty much the same when you get down to it, the only major differences are things like the package management systems (rpms vs debs, yum vs apt-get etc) and repository's available, they all kinda work the same.

[Machstorm]

I recommend OpenSuse with the Gnome interface. It's a lot easier to use, but if you want a Vista like interface the KDE 4 does the trick.

[antirem]

Use ubuntu the first time.. just becaue there is a massive amount of support.

Once you feel comfortable in ubunutu learn some bash

Then you may want to move onto another linux distro (debian, gentoo, whatever feels right to you)

[h3%5kr3w]

since your still just getting your feet wet and your going to be doing it in a vm, I say do like we have, just go download a bunch of iso's and see what you like best. it is tedious, but in the longrun, you dont just learn someone else's favorite, you form your own fav. distro

oh btw, if your new to networking with linux/networking in general, you may want to use virtualbox (sorry vmware users, plz dont bash me) but because it is alot easier to network with virtualbox than vmware.(well plus you dont have to pay for the software to let you create your own vms.)

[C-S-B]

since your still just getting your feet wet and your going to be doing it in a vm, I say do like we have, just go download a bunch of iso's and see what you like best. it is tedious, but in the longrun, you dont just learn someone else's favorite, you form your own fav. distro

oh btw, if your new to networking with linux/networking in general, you may want to use virtualbox (sorry vmware users, plz dont bash me) but because it is alot easier to network with virtualbox than vmware.(well plus you dont have to pay for the software to let you create your own vms.)

I am an admin who supports both Linux and Windows coputers, I run Ubuntu as my main OS and run XP in a VM using VirtualBox. Have always used VMWare until recently I stumbled on VirtualBox. Using seamless mode, I have easy access to all the windows tools i need -all integrating with my linux desktop.

Bit like this without OSX as the host: