Best looking distro?

[ifred]

This may seem frivolous but I was wondering which distributions provided a default install with the most eye pleasing features. While I realize that this is a very subjective question, I think there are a few features that most people find pleasing to the eye . . . mainly nice looking fonts with anti-aliasing etc.

The reason I am asking is because when trying to round up converts to Linux\*nix the biggest stumbling block seems to be not how well the OS performs, but rather, how it looks. Folks look at a default Debian install and sneer at the blocky fonts and plain vanilla xdm but "ooh" and "aah" at a default Redhat install with bluecurve supplied eye candy.

So, is Redhat the only distro likely to impress with the eye candy, or are there others I can try in order to impress potential converts with how good Linux can look?

[pbharris]

i never really thought of redhat as having lots of eye candy, of course i never use thier defaults. anywho - i think some of the newer distros have lots of eye candy - e.g. lindows, lycoris

[Schotty]

Red Hat has the better fonts that I have seen. Although Open Office looked worse than my naked ass, and that is universally true on all linuxes.

LindowsOS
Lycoris
Mandrake
Red Hat
SuSE

Check those out. Basically there are certain things that make life prettier (fonts, themes, backgrounds, icon sets) that some distros feel like including. Others dont include anything, or very little.

Mandrake and Red Hat are the only free ones. Although the rest arent that much money.

[BurntAsh]

i think the more commercial distros try to look the sexiest out of the box. ie Redhat, Mandrake, and Suse. I still to this day have not tried out suse. anything for a newbie right now, i always always tell them mandrake. the galaxy theme is pretty slick.

[sarah31]

wouldn't knw i have used a few but i am not a big eye candy person they all pretty well look the same they all try and copy a windows or OS X look or a mixture of linux looks

besides you can dress about any distro up to your iking if you know how.

Best looking out of the box.. I can't recall the name of it, but someone made a RH9 clone which ships with Ximian Gnome 2 out of the box... it's so sweet it's unbelievable.

but everything can be made to look sweet, it's just a DE afterall.. I personally use lighthouseblue gtk2 and bluecurve windowdecos and icons (0.80 from Rawhide), that's my style.. others might like a more.. XP'ish look like the default KDE one, and there SuSE provides a nice look.

[cga]

[quote author=Schotty link=board=7;threadid=7664;start=0#msg69968 date=1062354741]
Mandrake and Red Hat are the only free ones. Although the rest arent that much money.
[/quote]

You can install SuSE via FTP for free.

[ifred]

[quote author=sarah31 link=board=7;threadid=7664;start=0#msg69976 date=1062360297]
wouldn't knw i have used a few but i am not a big eye candy person they all pretty well look the same they all try and copy a windows or OS X look or a mixture of linux looks

besides you can dress about any distro up to your iking if you know how.
[/quote]

This is true. While they all do have many features in common there are usually a few features (useful or not so useful) that drive people towards certain window managers . . . appearance is one. I vary between being a eye candy lover and a "lean and mean" enthusiast, however, when it comes to giving demos to long time windows users (at least the ones I know) eye candy is helpful. While configuration of any system to look good is possible, the less time I have to devote to that the better.

On a side note, I just tried Knoppix 3.2 and it is quite nice. Both in terms of appearance and convenience. It may just make it onto a hard drive around here somewhere. I always liked debian

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

[Schotty]

[quote author=cga link=board=7;threadid=7664;start=0#msg69978 date=1062362604]
You can install SuSE via FTP for free.
[/quote]

True. But I dont expect a Linux convert to do a ftp install to install their OS. Especially something like SuSE, which has a 7 CD set ;D I tried, and Time Warner doesnt always bring a solid connection to their customers. I had it die alot. THe solution was to make a local mirror and go from there.