suggestion for linux distro?

Question

I am a beginner for networking n linux, which distro of linux is most popular in industry, n so which distro should i install n practise on? I have presently win 8, n i will install in dual boot?

Answer 1

Depends what part of "industry" you're looking at. Most of the large companies are on Red Hat Enterprise Linux- to get practice with that, you should either install Fedora (a much faster iterating version of RHEL) or CentOS (a clone of Red Hat). A lot of smaller start-ups who want to avoid Red Hat's support fees use Ubuntu.

Answer 2

Many linux distros come with "live" modes i.e. you can boot your computer and run the OS off the CD, trying it out with modifying your hard drive.



You can do a dual-boot but I would also recommend doing a bunch of research on that... and backup your computer before you do anything.



Another approach would be to try out VirtualBox, and setup a virtual machine with the linux distro of your choice. This is a computer-within-a-computer approach and might be easier to do.

Answer 3

For Industry use there is also Suse (Desktop and Server editions) Gentoo and CentOs are also popular.



Remember also there are many flavors, some custom made for particular industries.



Also many companies also rely on Unix for file or web servers.



Do some research and pick one to master, then other distros will be easier.



The link below has brief outlines of each and further links to reviews and download pages.



Good Luck