Red Hat Linux 6.2 Deluxe
It was the first distribution ever and still remains the standard when it comes to developer support and troubleshooting. Red Hat 6.2 is a bit different from the previous version as it now supports installation on DOS and Windows partitions. The partitioning process has been tweaked and you can now edit partitions using an easy to use graphical Partition Manager, thereby removing the need for third party tools.
You can choose between Gnome or KDE Desktop installations, or go in for your own custom selection. Hardware detection was smooth and everything from monitors to the SiS/GeForce 256 graphics card and SB Live! sound card worked perfectly. Red Hat comes with many windows managers, although some of the windows manager such as Window Maker need to be installed manually during setup.
Red Hat Linux comes with two-CD kit called the Linux application library. It includes some good application software such as IBM ViaVoice and Citrix clients. The power tools CD contains many more useful programs in RPM format.
Red Hat doesn't feature any office suite but includes Linux Conf which is a good configuration tool for almost every system parameter. Collaborating with the people using Windows remains can be done by configurig Samba manually.