Free Software - Operating Systems

Category dedicated to the operating systems freely usable in our computers, for free.

• Windows: If you want to keep the OEM version of Windows that is installed in your PC there is no issue, if you decide to not accept the EULA sometimes you have the right to get a discount on the price of your PC (if the maker allows it)
• Linux: The world-famous kernel from where a whole lot of distros started (known as GNU/Linux Distros). These distros can be adapted to any kind of working and family environment, you can find the most suitable distro for you on: DistroWatch

These are the Distros I tend to suggest the most:

• OpenSuSe : just install it and you'll have a system with good performance and ready to your working sessions, with all the software you need, or very little of it missing.
• Gentoo Linux : "The Geek Dream", this is a metadistribution that is quite complex to install and manage, since it doesn't have any pre-compiled packages, but compiles everything from source, the variety of options can leave you quite a bit confused, but it has a great flexibility as well as maximum performance thanks to the fact that you compile applications right for your PC. Unresistible if you want to "get your hands dirty", by the way it's the linux-box I write my posts from.
• ArchLinux : Gives you almost the same flexibility of Gentoo Linux, but without the package to compile. Fast and Extremely customizable. You need to try it.
• PuppyLinux : The perfect Distro if you have an old PC you need to resurrect. Extremely Fast and Extremely lightweight and most of all: complete.
• Manjaro Linux : A Distro i found out only recently thanks to a friend of mine, it's a ready-made version of ArchLinux and is extremely simple to install and works practically everywhere. Absolutely to try.
• Dragonfly BSD : If you want to go over Linux and try a BSD-Based System, try this one.

Differently from OpenSuSe (Classic) and Puppy; ArchLinux (and consequently Manjaro), Gentoo and OpenSuSe Tumbleweed are so-called "Rolling Release" Distros, so every package will be updated as soon as a new version comes out, without needing to wait the next round of Fixes, this allows you to have the most up-to-date system as well as safe and stable.