Debian or Ubuntu
As for my workstation computer (Josua), I have made up my mind to switch from SuSE Linux to another distribution.
I have never used another Linux brand but SuSE, starting with a late 4.X version in 1996, but I was never really happy with it: many programs are very badly configurated and integrated into the distribution, SuSE support has alway been arrogant at best (and very limited), upgrading from one version of the distribution to the next has always been an adventure of the special kind, with lots of problems, and did not work for me ever since version 9.1. SuSE has been taken over by Novell and if I needed any further arguments for the switch the SuSE Linux portal would provide it - in my view it is very unstructured and unhelpful and seems to confirm that Novell/SuSE is no longer really interested in the simple user / enthusiast, but only in corporate customers with bucks to spare. Well, this my view and my impression, it need not be objectively true for anybody else.
So, although I have the SuSE 10.0 package here at my desk, I am going to switch - the decision has been made.
What remains a bit undecided, though, is which “brand” of Linux I am going to turn to - my choice is going to be between Ubuntu (which Bernhard was so kind to give me a CD version of the April 2005 release), Kubuntu (Ubunti woth KDE instead of Gnome) and Debian .
Initially I tended to choose Debian, because it seems to be the more “grown-up”, serious, “advanced” distribution - but then Ubuntu is based (though not exactly all-compatible with) on Debian, has Debian´s excellent packet managing system, but also offers frequent new and up-to-date releases with “bleeding-edge” software rather than Debian´s tested-and-reliable-but-way-behind-actual-state-of-the-art approach (or so it seems to me). And I know that I get unhappy if I think my software is not really up-to-date 
.
Jacob seems to be quite happy with his migration from Debian to Ubuntu, and if I understand Nat correctly, he is, as well…
I am going to read some more on Debian/Ubuntu and make my decision by the end of October (with the next Ubuntu release out! .
My gravest worry: will I be able to make a smooth transition with my /home-partition. I want to keep it as it is and hope this will not generate problems.
Ubuntu, SuSE, Linux, Kubuntu, Debian, choice+of+distribution
Bernhard has already ordered 40 copies auf the upcoming Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) and is looking forward giving you one of them as soon they arrive. From my humble point of view I would definitly recommend Ubuntu for your desktop systems. If you have some hard core servers running which don’t have any need for a graphical user interface you can check out the current 3.1r0 sarge release which I primarily use in my professional linux environment.
For the migration of your home directories I don’t see a big problem though. For those migrating move the current files to another machines (either by NFS or FTP) and after finishing vice versa.
~woody~
Bernhard: will Ubuntu give me enough choice of programs? Otherwise thanks in advance for the CD!
There are not that many packages than debian has. But i think it’s enough for everyones needs. They provide a couple of different servers for different applications. Maybe you should also take a look at this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Linux
This is almost embarrasing but me being a programmer and having machines to do it, I still have never installed Linux on any of my Machines. I need to change that soon, I am just lazy and have no other real excuse.
Hi Logtar,
well, if things work for you, Linux will not be a necessity. I started to use Linux in 1996 when e.g. building a firewall, running a webserver, running a newsserver where difficult to do with Windows (or at least rather expensive). With the up-to-date Windows versions and all the OEM packages you get with hardware it is - in my view - rather a political question: Open Source vs. Closed Source (although my impression is that these two worlds are indeed nearing each other).