[NTLUG:Discuss] Need Distro Recommendation, Please

[Tom Adelstein]

On Fri, 2005-04-29 at 15:08 -0500, Rick Matthews wrote:
> I have a couple of older PCs running Linux here at the house that 
> do a yeoman's job of providing the network with Samba shares, 
> caching web proxy, access control features, content filtering, 
> fetchmail retrieval of everybody's email, network caller ID, and 
> browser access to all stored pictures and mp3 files. Additionally, I
> always have a software project or three that I am working on (playing
> with).
> 
> They are currently running Fedora core 2 and RedHat 8.  I'm not happy 
> with the performance of FC2 (on old hardware) and I really need to get 
> the other one off of RH8.
> 
> Here's my wish list:
> - Free :)
> - All I've ever worked with is RedHat or a work-alike.  I like to learn
> new things, but I'd rather not start over.
> - No need (or desire) to run X.
> - I don't mind installing (and compiling) packages from tarballs, but 
> I like having RPM for the bulk of the applications.
> - Update via yum or apt. (Is there anything else in that category?)
> 
> What distribution(s) would you recommend?  Thanks in advance for
> your help!
> 
> Rick Matthews


Rick, this may sound strange - but I have had the most luck with Red Hat
7.3. The Fedora legacy project is keeping it up to date. 

Another popular distro that runs pretty well is SuSE 8.1.

Knowing you want the free part, you may have to look for a used copy on
the web and pay a few dollars.