best linux version?

I am looking to install linux onto an old P2 333 machine, just to get familiar with it and whatnot. I am looking at various distributions of linux: Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, and others.

What would you consider to be the BEST distribution for an intermediate/advanced PC user? I want to use it to program in c++, possibly make a web server and ftp server, and various other tasks. This is moreso to "test drive" linux for the first time. I am vaguely familiar with UNIX.

Also, are device drivers compatible with any version of linux? I mean, with a driver for a GeForce 4 ti4600 for redhat also work on Mandrake and SuSe?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I would choose the distro that best supports your hardware.

So does that mean that device drivers are NOT cross-distribution compatible?

Some driver packages made by third parties only work with certain installations, however the kernel source contains the drivers for just about everything you will need unless your machine contains fairly unusual hardware.

RedHat or Mandrake would be the easiest for a beginner to get into. I have always prefered Red Hat.

Thank you for the info, Phantasm. I will try to do more research into hardware compatibility.

Can you tell me why exactly you like redhat better?

Just easier to use and setup up, general slicker interface, and pretty much the industry standard.

Such an old machine should be supported by all decent distros. I would be worried about the performance of that machine. New distros are very bulky, you should look at their recommnded specs for X enabled setup.

I have had very bad luck with the nVidia binary driver packages. Their driver sources will work with any linux distro with semi-decent kernel.

In my opinion, Mandrake is the easiest Linux distro I've tried.

I am currently using Slackware...however i used Red Hat back in the day and liked that much better for as much as using it for servers and such.

I have a friend who uses Gentoo distro, he lives by that one.


www.gentoo.org

Take a look everyone..seems decent to me.

The best linux version is a highly debateable topic. In general, they all do pretty much the same stuff but some have some extra bells and whistles that others dont. Just choose the one that you're more comfortable with or choose one based on your experience level with linux.