Name me a good linux

[Rmachines]

I Haven't played with linux for a while. Any ideas what is a good linux to use, i just want something to run on VMware which gives a nice glossy desktop with the usual day to day functionality of windows.  Just want something s bit diffrent, its not for use as a server or anything other than the usual day to day stuff.

[Dolly]

last one i used was Mint 11, i was happy enough, day to day normal use was excellent and it seemed to speed up a slower/older computer that was on windows.

http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

[Rmachines]

Mint is currently quite high on my list.

Any one know what ubuntu and kubuntu is like? and what's the difference between  KDE and GNOME?

[Jay]

Ubuntu Unity has had mixed reviews, but mostly negative from what I've read. KDE comes with more stuff built in/user friendly more Windows like, when I used it back in the day - but Gnome + Beryl (now Compiz Fusion?) was my weapon of choice.

But why would you not want to use Windows for day to day tasks, that Windows can do ?    Linux is a horrible horrible beast with missing/broke dependencies and should be left to Web servers.

[Rmachines]

I do and will use windows day to day but i want an alternative on those days where i feel sick of windows,  as i worry i may one day turn to apple     I have used linux servers which are always the best imo,  but never used it as a day to day thing,  this is mainly to fiddle more than anything.

[Jay]

Try PCBSD  http://www.pcbsd.org/

I used it a few times back in the day, it was good back then so assume it's great now. It's BSD so a real UNIX and uses the ports system for software which is generally much more reliable than the Linux repositories - and you don't have the dependency issues Linux suffers with when using the BSD ports

[Jay]

It
Is
Good.

[Jay]

Sort of like linux, but the software available in it's "app store" (Ports as it's called) is pretty much 100% reliable, 97% of the time.

[jamie_pyrite]

I really rate Ubuntu, once you turn off G3/Unity because it's awful. Just as bad in Fedora 16.

I run Fedora 16 with the 2.4 interface as my everyday work machine and it's fantastic. Very fast and stable.

[PenguinGTI]

I'm by no means a tech expert or geek or anything but I've recently made a switch to Apple. Windows 7 was nice when it was released (I missed out on Vista so was a bit of a jump from XP), but I found it grew old quite quickly. Aside from some new icons it really wasn't all that much better/smoother/more accessible for what I wanted.

I kept going with it until my laptop died when I decided to make the switch to Apple.

Definitely won't be going back. I know the purpose of this thread is for you guys to simply get something a bit different rather than getting new machines but I'm definitely glad I'm rid of Windows.