As mentioned above, however, some vendors wrap proprietary software around the Linux kernel, or a mix of free and proprietary support software. For very practical reasons, I recommend using only the usual free supporting software. First, this is the same setup that Linux developers use, so you know it will work, both now and into the future. Second, it is a very low cost system. Third, it is easy to upgrade components of the system by downloading new versions via the Internet.
Some people have philosophical problems with proprietary software.
I do not address that issue here. My experiences with Linux My setup I first installed Linux in April 1994. I used a floppy-based Slackware distribution. I have a 120MB root partition, a 170MB local partition, and a 16MB swap partition. I used to upgrade my system a piece at a time, and only in the rare instances when I needed a new feature.