Favourite Linux distro

[thornc]

1) I need another distro to install LFS, they should just give you a CD like SuSe's live eval CD to compile from.

That's how I got around to try Slackware!! A minimal Slack install and you're set!!
And ALFS it's trying to do what you want!

2) Why wait for all that to compile? With today's PCs you hardly notice anything from compiling with optimizations unless it's a real number cruncher app and on my old Tbird 900 just X took 45 minutes to compile, I can have all of Debian installed and running in under that time.

Tryed debian last week, didn't like it much... It's a pain if you only have analog dial-up, I only had The Binary-1 CD. A few
nice things but it didn't appeal to me that much! Someday when 3.x get stable I'll look into it...in say 6/12 months...
And heck I only compile the base stuff of LFS, the other stuff refered to as BLFS (beyhond LFS) I usally get binaries and use
RPM or other package manager!!!

3) Architecture support, I run Debian on x86, Alpha and UltraSparc.

So what...Slack and others run under those too!?!? LFS should be able to compile just as well!!



Another thing, I'm having a huge problem in one of my computers can someone give me a hand
PLease read this thread!

 

[Nothinman]

Tryed debian last week, didn't like it much... It's a pain if you only have analog dial-up,

I think that's a given, apt/dselect are only really convenient if you have a fast connection or all the CDs.

Someday when 3.x get stable I'll look into it...in say 6/12 months...

Technically it is stable, there's only a half dozen or so release critical bugs and I'd consider it more stable than most distributions out there.

I only compile the base stuff of LFS, the other stuff refered to as BLFS (beyhond LFS) I usally get binaries and use
RPM or other package manager!!!

What's the point of using LFS if you don't do it from scratch?

So what...Slack and others run under those too!?!? LFS should be able to compile just as well!!

Actually a lot of upstream packages need fixes to compile properly on non-x86 arches, something the Debian maintainers know a lot more about than I do. Too many people only compile and test on x86 which makes for poor performing or not working at all code on 64-bit machines.

Probably the biggest plus to Debian is the QA put into the packages. The Debian system and it's packages are very well done, file locations are consistent, default settings are good. The difference to me is Debian feels like a whole system while distros like RedHat merely feel like a collection of packages.

 

[Workin']

The difference to me is Debian feels like a whole system while distros like RedHat merely feel like a collection of packages.

Thanks for saying that - I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but that is what I am thinking. I really like Debian (except for a few minor annoyances, mainly with them being far behind the curve - I mean, come on, the 2.4 kernel has been out for more than a year! I know you can change that, but still...). For the things the vast majority use, Debian 'woody' could be considered stable. 'sid' isn't even bleeding edge for the most part, IMO.

For my server, I (am trying to) run Debian (still setting it up, I want it to be "just right"). Red Hat seems fine for workstations, if you have the CD's it's really quick and simple to set up a machine, and all the packages for everything except OpenOffice are right there. And KDE 3 is pretty decent.

One thing I will say - Linux has come a long way lately. The first time I ever tried using it was Red Hat 5.something, and it still had too many rough edges for day-to-day use. But now, especially with KDE 3, any Windows desktop user could figure out how to use a Linux box for everyday office use and be perfectly comfortable. Some of the configuration is still a little rough, but once that is done the "end user" can be completely *nix ignorant.

 

[FOBSIDE]

redhat, only because that was my first distro. i just stuck with it.

 

[ibor]

same boat with FOBSIDE... first started with mandrake and kinda stuck with it. messin' around with gentoo and debian right now but still like mandrake better.

ibor

 

[Nothinman]

I mean, come on, the 2.4 kernel has been out for more than a year!

Yes, and the Debian developers still don't consider it stable enough for their distro. It does have some major issues that have yet to really be ironed out.

 

[mpitts]

Redhat 7.2 works great for me and the 25 servers I manage.

 

[Workin']

<<re: 2.4.x kernel>> It does have some major issues that have yet to really be ironed out.

Such as? All the other "major" distros have been using 2.4.x for a while now, no?

 

[Sunner]

Debian/sid for my workstations at home and work.

I started out with RedHat, liked it, but wanted something new, so I moved to Slackware, like it more and kept it for some time.

Then I decided I wanted to see what all the APT/dselect buzz was about, and so I installed Debian, and I couldn't be happier.

[edit]
Thinking of it, the starting out with redhat part is a lie, I ran Slack, I think it was 2.something, for a little while before RedHat.
[/edit]

 

[Nothinman]

Such as? All the other "major" distros have been using 2.4.x for a while now, no?

They also all have heavily patched kernels, I doubt you'll find one that runs a completely stock kernel.

The only things I can think of off hand is the poor IDE DMA support (I can never remember whether burning CDs works with DMA enabled on the kernel I'm using, 2.5.x isn't getting IDE patches by the dozen for no reason) and poor ACPI and IO-APIC support, I only notice this because my AthlonMP board used to not boot with ACPI enabled.

 

[Chaotic42]

Debian

 

[WhiteWonder]

Originally posted by: TheOmegaCode
I gave up on Linux. I just use win2k and FreeBSD right now. In time, I'm sure I'll come back to it...

remember when i broke Linux??? is that when you gave up?

 

[TheOmegaCode]

Originally posted by: WhiteWonder

Originally posted by: TheOmegaCode
I gave up on Linux. I just use win2k and FreeBSD right now. In time, I'm sure I'll come back to it...

remember when i broke Linux??? is that when you gave up?

I think it was either that, or a bad CD...

 

[Soulkeeper]

hmmmm why does the poll list slackware as cheep ??
slackware is a great distro

 

[BurnItDwn]

I've been running Redhat Linux since 5.0 came out and I am quite pleased with it. Though I am considering switching over to mandrake 8.3 sinch i have heard SO many great things about it ... take your pick, they are all good.

 

[jcmkk]

Those who said that they didn't like LFS because you have to have a kernel already installed obviously haven't been paying attention. LRs is LFS, but it includes a kernel.

 

[Nothinman]

Is still don't see why you'd spend so much time using LFS as a main workstation. If I want to learn how certain things interact sure, build the box a few times with LFS, see what breaks what, etc but why go through this all the time?

It's a lot of work to build a complete desktop system that interoperates well and in a defined manor and I believe the Debian people do it a helluva lot better than I can. Why spend hours figuring out which libraries I need from Gnome so that Gobe Office will run or so that I can use Cyrus-Imapd with MD5 authentication then figuring out which order to compile them in and hoping I have versions that don't have any strange bugs. There's many people already doing that every day so I can just type 'apt-get install cyrus-imapd' and be on my way to configuring it and actually getting things done in minutes.

I dealt with all that stuff years ago when I first started in Linux and didn't know any better, now I just want things to work and Debian lets me do that.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

i'd mostly agree with nothinman. gentoo and lfs are great for learngin and understanding what is going on under the hood, and they are definitely not *bad*, but when you want a system up and running in 30 minutes, debian fits the bill. when you want to install programs, you can do it without hassle, and fairly fast, probably faster than any other method.

 

[pac1085]

Im really starting to like Slackware. I started with 8.0 but I'm running 8.1 beta 2 right now and its running great. Good stuff.

 

[miniMUNCH]

I use RH right now but I really want to give Gentoo a try once I redo my system with rack removable hard drive(s)...

 

[m2kewl]

Originally posted by: Soulkeeper
hmmmm why does the poll list slackware as cheep ?? slackware is a great distro

Yeah - what's up with that?! :Q

PS, I'd say go with whatever distro floats your boat

 

[PG]

I'm posting from Mandrake 8.2 right now.
I got the Powerpack so I could get Star Office 6. Evolution seems really nice, I got the Nvidia drivers to work, and I installed Quake III for Linux. Best Buy had it on sale a few months ago for $10. The metal box is really cool.
I'm pretty happy, but I'm just looking to use this as a desktop. I'm not doing anything fancy like running a server.

 

[cleverhandle]

After experimenting the last few years with RH, Slack, Debian, and LFS, I've decided that none of them quite fit the bill, so now I run a mongrel Slack/LFS build. Basically, it's just the A, D, and part of the N series from Slackware - the core, development, and basic networking packages - with everything else built from source. That lets me skip the basic LFS building, which takes quite a while and really isn't very interesting after the first couple runs. It also lets me use Slack's filesystem structure and bootscripts, which I like quite a lot. Compiling the other stuff, like X, GNOME, and Mozilla seems much more valuable to me than compiling the core progs - you actually do get a number of significant compile-time options and learn quite a bit about the application infrastructure. To help minimize the effects of any stupid (and usually inevitable) mistakes, I have another very minimal Slack installation on another partition that I use to make tarball snapshots of the main installation at critical points - base packages, packages + X, packages + X + GNOME. Then if some important library or program changes, I can just start from one of those points and rebuild, which doesn't take long, provided I kept notes the first time through.

 

[vatanner]

My favorite is SUSE because I like gaming and the Nvidia drivers work best from Suse, on the last two distrobutions you didn't even have to install the 3d drivers, you could just elect to install them during the install. If you are new to Linux, ELX may be a good one to try, they are set up a lot like windows to make the transision easier, they have 'my computer' icons and such.

 

[RatedR]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
i'd mostly agree with nothinman. gentoo and lfs are great for learngin and understanding what is going on under the hood, and they are definitely not *bad*, but when you want a system up and running in 30 minutes, debian fits the bill. when you want to install programs, you can do it without hassle, and fairly fast, probably faster than any other method.

Ok, lets say your a LiNuX newbie (as myself), and want a good version to learn off of. Which one do you recommend? So far, (off other websites) I have heard more RedHat recommendations then anything. Also, what literature do you recommend to go about learning LiNuX? Any information would be helpful, Thanks gang!