Operating System

The quickest way to get yourself into a religious war amongst geeks nowadays.

Personally, I like Linux... I have (or have had):

• CP/M, MP/M
• TRS-DOS
• DOS (MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DeskView)
• Xenix
• Windows
• OS/2
• Mac
• Solaris
• HP-UX
• Linux (too many variants to count)

The best (for me) is Linux. It's sufficiently modern, it allows the right amount of tweaking, it is maintainable, it is robust.

I guess the most important factor (for me) in an operating system is robustness... and Linux tends to present more robustness than the others listed (I know, this is almost like begging for a religious war).
You can go horribly wrong with Linux... it's not for everyone, and it too has its weak points.

In our household we have over twenty computers, almost all running Linux — and everyone is happy.
Kids (5, 6, 7, 13 and 15 years) use it, never have problems, never need help, never ask questions. They used to run Windows... it was a nightmare to support.

Which Linux?

• Redhat 9 was pretty good.
• Fedora Core 1 & 2 were not so good
• Fedora Core 3 might have been good
• RedHat Enterprise Linux'es (RHEL/ES3 and RHEL/ES4) are rock solid but pricey
• CentOS is the same as RedHat? Enterprise Linux, minus the cost (and the support)

CentOS is winning over on every machine right now.
Easy, simple to install, robust, full featured...

Here is some rambling on Linux distros from newbie perspective: Linux explained for Windows users