which distro should I try?

[xavier es]

In fact, if you are using a VM (virtual machine), go ahead and install both!

do more than 2, Ive tried 14 flavors so far.
I,m starting to get a better understanding of linux.
Using Pclos now but am planning to go Debian.

 

[nageov3t]

tried installing both ubuntu and fedora today, but both error'd out on me >< going to have to take another crack at it tomorrow.

I'm right in using a 64-bit image for an i7 desktop, right?

 

[Nothinman]

I'm going to assume that an i7 is 64-bit capable, however to give any real advice we'd have to know the errors that you got.

 

[Czar]

Ubuntu definetly, even though I loooove Windows7, ubuntu is staying on my laptop

And I have 3 other computers at home, all running Windows7 and I run a windows network at work. Still ubuntu on my laptop

 

[Fayd]

I actually went back to Kubuntu 9.10 from trying out Ubuntu 9.10 ,I know its bascially KDE via Gnome,however I found Kubuntu more snappier in general and looks a lot better(personal preference).

after trying all 3, i prefer xubuntu. the xfce environment is much nicer to look at imo. though i do like the ubuntu loading screen.

 

[Nothinman]

after trying all 3, i prefer xubuntu. the xfce environment is much nicer to look at imo. though i do like the ubuntu loading screen.

XFCE is available in the regular Ubuntu universe repository...

 

[xSauronx]

XFCE is available in the regular Ubuntu universe repository...

yeah im pretty sure none of the main pages say that for the variants, even though it would clearly save people some trouble and bandwidth.

i usually stick with gnome but i drop the bottom panel in favor of cairo dock and just use the top panel for a couple of things, like the system tray (last i used that on cairo dock it wasnt worth a god damn)

 

[Fayd]

XFCE is available in the regular Ubuntu universe repository...

*sigh*

i know.

 

[Nothinman]

*sigh*

i know.

So why the sigh?

 

[Fox5]

I find upgrading from one buntu distro to another (u to xu or ku) is rarely without problems. I don't do it anymore, I just install fresh. It's not like it's a big deal to burn a cd, pop it in, and just use the same user name and password so it takes over the home folder, just don't format your current partition.

 

[Nothinman]

I find upgrading from one buntu distro to another (u to xu or ku) is rarely without problems. I don't do it anymore, I just install fresh. It's not like it's a big deal to burn a cd, pop it in, and just use the same user name and password so it takes over the home folder, just don't format your current partition.

Which is one reason why I won't touch Ubuntu for my own systems. I've never had major problems upgrading Debian stable->stable or stable->testing and since I run sid on my desktops I always have a current system anyway.

 

[Satyrist]

Which is one reason why I won't touch Ubuntu for my own systems. I've never had major problems upgrading Debian stable->stable or stable->testing and since I run sid on my desktops I always have a current system anyway.

Ever have any particular issues with Debian sid?

 

[Fox5]

Which is one reason why I won't touch Ubuntu for my own systems. I've never had major problems upgrading Debian stable->stable or stable->testing and since I run sid on my desktops I always have a current system anyway.

Ubuntu was fine when it was just a repackaged Debian unstable (I won't touch debian stable, too far out of date). Ubuntu has more recently started bringing in things that are from debian experimental, or completely outside the debian universe, but these don't make the transition from one version of buntu to the other. Kubuntu and Xubuntu tend to just be debian unstable with whatever window manager they use installed, very rarely do Ubuntu's 'enhancements' make it over to them.

That said, I've been using the latest version of Ubuntu every-time it comes out, usually upgraded to one of the alphas shortly before release. I would like to try switching to debian-unstable at some point though, but I'm worried that the momentum and attention Ubuntu has brought to the linux world will cause proprietary software to be developed around it (drivers mainly, but possibly apps too) and that getting them to work on anything else will be a pain.

 

[Nothinman]

Ever have any particular issues with Debian sid?

Of course, it's called unstable for a reason. It's where packages first enter the repository so there's going to be breakage. However, it's usually not very bad and with apt-listbugs installed it's usually easy to tell when there's a major bug that will/might affect me and I usually just cancel the upgrade and just wait a few days. Occasionally something big will happen like a major Gnome release that takes a bit longer for all of the packages to upload and build but those are fairly rare.

I wouldn't recommend sid to someone who doesn't have the Linux experience to fix their system should something break. Testing is much safer and stable even more so if you can deal with the older packages.

I would like to try switching to debian-unstable at some point though, but I'm worried that the momentum and attention Ubuntu has brought to the linux world will cause proprietary software to be developed around it (drivers mainly, but possibly apps too) and that getting them to work on anything else will be a pain.

The only non-free kernel level things I have installed at home are the nVidia and VMware modules and both have always built just fine. Of course there's nVidia module source packages and those are maintained by Debian.

 

[Satyrist]

I know that sid is the branch that's truly considered 'rolling'.

Are any of the other branches (stable, testing) necessarily considered rolling as well?

I suppose that you did state earlier that you haven't run into problems doing an upgrade from stable-stable, or stable-testing. Would you say it's probably far better than Ubuntu at least?

 

[Nothinman]

I know that sid is the branch that's truly considered 'rolling'.

Are any of the other branches (stable, testing) necessarily considered rolling as well?

I suppose that you did state earlier that you haven't run into problems doing an upgrade from stable-stable, or stable-testing. Would you say it's probably far better than Ubuntu at least?

Testing automatically gets packages from sid after a period of time with no critical bugs. So one might be able to consider testing rolling but slower.

But stable is virtually set in stone. There is Debian volatile and backports.org that are supposed to provide new versions of fast moving packages like FF for stable. But I haven't really used either since I don't use stable on a desktop.

Well statistically speaking, Ubuntu has already had more releases than Debian, since they do two a year, so they're more likely to have had more issues. But in Debian being able to dist-upgrade from 1 release to the next is a release requirement for Debian while I think it's more of a "would be nice" for Ubuntu.

 

[Crusty]

Testing automatically gets packages from sid after a period of time with no critical bugs. So one might be able to consider testing rolling but slower.

But stable is virtually set in stone. There is Debian volatile and backports.org that are supposed to provide new versions of fast moving packages like FF for stable. But I haven't really used either since I don't use stable on a desktop.

Well statistically speaking, Ubuntu has already had more releases than Debian, since they do two a year, so they're more likely to have had more issues. But in Debian being able to dist-upgrade from 1 release to the next is a release requirement for Debian while I think it's more of a "would be nice" for Ubuntu.

In the past I've had problems using dist-upgrade from Ubuntu, but several releases ago they started telling users to use update-manager which would help you through the upgrade process. Since then I've had no issues upgrading from one version to the next.

 

[Nothinman]

In the past I've had problems using dist-upgrade from Ubuntu, but several releases ago they started telling users to use update-manager which would help you through the upgrade process. Since then I've had no issues upgrading from one version to the next.

Which is an indication of the problem. We've already got apt, aptitude and synaptic so why add yet another tool into the mix?

 

[Demo24]

I'm currently in the process of testing a few out. Been on ubuntu for awhile, but when I upgraded to 9.10 something went wrong and it didn't fully upgrade. Seems to take forever to boot these days, but afterward it runs fine. First time I've had a problem with ubuntu, other times it was my fault in doing something dumb.

Booted up Fedora 12 today in live cd form. It felt very much like ubuntu, but perhaps just a touch more polished. I might just try this for awhile instead of ubuntu.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I'm currently in the process of testing a few out. Been on ubuntu for awhile, but when I upgraded to 9.10 something went wrong and it didn't fully upgrade. Seems to take forever to boot these days, but afterward it runs fine. First time I've had a problem with ubuntu, other times it was my fault in doing something dumb.

Booted up Fedora 12 today in live cd form. It felt very much like ubuntu, but perhaps just a touch more polished. I might just try this for awhile instead of ubuntu.

If you're going to try Fedora, I'd say consider giving opensuse a shot as well. I just upgraded from 11.1/Gnome to 11.2/Gnome. 11.2 definitely seems more polished.

 

[weovpac]

If you want to learn more about Linux, you should look into Archlinux. You will need to install and configure things, since they are not done for you, but you will learn from this. The Archlinux wiki is great resource of information. Here are a few links for you:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_vs_Others
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide

 

[Demo24]

If you're going to try Fedora, I'd say consider giving opensuse a shot as well. I just upgraded from 11.1/Gnome to 11.2/Gnome. 11.2 definitely seems more polished.

Yeah, suse is what I started out on back in the 9.x range. Going to boot them up and see as well.

 

[freegeeks]

I run an Ubuntu workstation at work but I actually prefer Centos but this has more to do with my job as a sysadmin

 

[Jodell88]

If you want to learn more about Linux, you should look into Archlinux. You will need to install and configure things, since they are not done for you, but you will learn from this. The Archlinux wiki is great resource of information. Here are a few links for you:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_vs_Others
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide

I <3 Arch and Mandriva.

 

[classy]

I like Fedora better. Ubuntu is decent but Fedora seems easier to use. I think fedora works a little better on newer hardware as well. Either of those two should be fine. In all honesty Linux is Linux, only the user interfaces are different. And one more thing the updates on Fedora works flawlessly.