Preferred Linux OS for Amateur Radio applications

[YO2LDK]

This is the one ! you have all you need ! and, it's LIVE :

SHACKBOX CARBON EDITION
http://shackbox.net/downloads/

 something little and good DIGIPUP :

http://www.w1hkj.com/fldigi.1.34.distro/digipup-1.342.iso

  73 !

[KG4CNA]

Another vote for Ubuntu. I've used several distro's over the years and Ubuntu beats them all, in my opinion. I still run old hardware, a 10 yr old self-built AMD based system with 1.5gb RAM and 80gb HDD. Using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on it. It's solid as a rock and runs flawlessly. I log with xLog and do digital with FLdigi.

Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop runs Lucid (10.04.1 LTS).

Most certainly NOT knocking Fedora (another great distro) as I've used it, as well as Mandrake (now Mandriva) and I tried Suse (didn't like). I like Ubuntu best because of the support community. Have a prob? Hit the forums or the IRC channels. Get answers/solutions pretty quick.

Ubuntu and Fedora both have lot of ham related programs.

Whichever you choose, they all have their fans and will try to sway you in their direction. Like a previous poster suggested, try a few different distros and see which one you like best. Doesn't cost a thing except some time

BTW: I still have a Winders XP Pro drive around...just don't remember the last time I had to use it.

Enjoy!
KG4CNA

[G6NJR]

Got to be openSUSE   i use Fldigi for digital modes Fl-logbook   plus loads of other stuff 

Pete
G6NJR

[KB4MB]

Just to shake things up - I use Mandriva and love it.  I have tried ubuntu and kubuntu and wasn't a fan.  However, in all distros there are little things sometimes that pop up that sometimes will through you a curveball once you start straying from normal day-to-day activities.

Example - I had to install Mandriva 2010.2 because my system was 4 years old, and everyone had switched to KDE4 (destktop and graphics package).  So, when I went to install cqrlog and hamlib, cqrlog couldn't read my rig anymore.  Took 10 minutes to figure out that this distro is very security concious now and locked the serial port to just the administrator (root).  Took one simple command to fix it and everything was right.  BTW, I use two different sound cards, one is dedicated to the rig, and the other is normal so the two don't collide.

Easy fix, when I rebooted, same problem, so I had to look up how to make permanent which took 5 minutes and it is fixed.  And once things are fixed, they stay fixed.

Having said that, usually any distro is fine.... compiling a program takes hardly any effort for the most part, and really there are only a handful of programs that you will use anyway.  The hardest program to setup was tqsl for the ARRL, but that is true no matter what O/S you are using.