Which Linux to try next?

[Donshyoku]

I have toyed with various Linux distributions over the course of the last few years. Ever since I got broadband really, as with many others I would assume. Mainly, I have played with the more mainstream ones like RedHat, Fedora, Knoppix, Ubuntu, Mandrake (haven't tried it since it has become Mandriva), and a few other random ones. The only ones I have used extensively are Fedora and Ubuntu, moreso Ubuntu. But I have ran into a few holes in it that neither I, nor Google, nor the Ubuntu forums can resolve. I even updated to the Breezy development version, and that has really turned me off to Ubuntu for a few reasons.

At last, I want to try something new. I was thinking of Fedora Core 4 as I liked previous versions, just hated RPM Hell. Now I hear that yum has been drastically improved to compete with apt. Is this true, worth another download and try? Or is there another, even more obscure, version of Linux I should give the next run through?

Note that I prefer Gnome much more than KDE. I would like it to have good support for audio/video/TV tuning applications and drivers. I want something that will work well to start with, but can be tweaked later as I learn more.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[DidlySquat]

What problem did you have with Ubuntu and why do you think you will not have the same issues with other distros ?

 

[timswim78]

SUSE runs KDE, but its multimedia kicks the crap out of Fedora and Ubuntu. Maybe you can run gnome with it, but I don't know how.

 

[keeleysam]

I love my Fedora Core 4 boxes.

 

[kamper]

Given the ones you have tried, it might be time to give Debian or Slackware a shot... just for the sake of touring all the major distros.

 

[Donshyoku]

To start from the top, I do believe that the problems I was having are Ubuntu specific. First and foremost, I cannot get Sound Juicer to rip to OGG, it crashes out the entire system to the point that I have to reboot manually. I updated to Breezy to see if this problem was resolved, but didn't test this idea. I played a bit with Breezy and just have a lot of irks with Smeg, the menu editor. I also dislike the fact of how a lot of the menus are set up now, namely the Add/Remove Programs Dialogue and the update notification system. It seems to be getting very Windows-esque, and they are falling into a lot of the annoying pitfalls that Windows did with overdoing and overcomplicating what should be a simple task.

I have considered trying OpenSUSE now that it is free, if in Beta, and OSS. I looked at a lot of screenshots and read a lot of previews, and it sounds cool, but I am really turned off by KDE. I saw some systems running in Gnome, but I am not sure how hard/easy this is to do. And I am really unfamiliar with the system, though it sounds like it may be pretty foolproof to use. Can you give me some more details on what you like and don't like about it? I am intrigued, but not quite ready to waste bandwidth and my time to download all 5 discs (or one DVD the size of 5 discs, heh!)!

On that last note, I have tried Slackware 10.1, but I am not quite that well versed in Linux to get it running. I have tried twice to install, once I managed to get past the partitioning, I got it installed (I hate package choosing via text, but that is minor), but then it booted me straight to a terminal. I couldn't startx or find another way to get past it, and ultimately gave up. I also heard that they are doing away with Gnome in the next release (in beta now), and as I said, that is not a turn on for me.

And Debian... how many freakin CDs was that!? Heh, I keed. I really don't see what Debian would offer me that I haven't seen in Ubuntu, but if you could make a compelling case for it, it may be worth a shot. Not to well versed on this distro either.

As for now, I am going to look more into Fedora Core 4, try to find a DVD ISO that I can download over the night and try tomorrow. I haven't dabbled strongly in Fedora for a while, and may like the changes it now offers.

That said, I am still anxious to hear some more about the other distros you reccomended in case I find myself here tomorrow night without a satisfactory distro!

Thanks, again!

 

[LuckyTaxi]

try FreeBSD

 

[Donshyoku]

Not to be rude or inconsiderate in finding the information for myself, but why should I try FreeBSD? What makes it stand out as good platform, and how does it differ from any other Linux distribution? Not to badger you, I just like to hear some first-hand experiences that fuel reccomendations.

 

[The Linuxator]

I gave up on Ubuntu once it failed on every PCI-e setup that I have, it never managed to get the graphical system to work, and then at that point I got into fedora core 4 and now all my sytems gaming/Media/laptop all have fedora Core either as dual boot or as my main OS, fedora core 4 has oone hell of a support community , and so as many others like ubuntu but fedora tends to be more widley used being a derivative of redhat and we all know how well known redhat is around the world.
RPM hell is becoming much more colder than it used to be minor applications nowadays have any dependency issues the only one I think of is Mplayer arrrgh don't get me started on Mplayer.

 

[Donshyoku]

For now I am downloading the FC4 DVD ISO. I will give it a shot in the morning, and I hope to play with yum a bit, as I have honestly never even touched it. If I could have the support of RPM and yum, I think I would be square. I have liked FC in the past, but got rid of it due to RPM support, but I am seeing a lot of metapackages around now, and yum is improved, I think this can be a good thing. I am wary to try out the SUSE 10 beta, but I may, just for geek's sake, try it out when it is released stable. If FC4 doesn't do it for me, I think it may be an avenue worth exploring.

Peace, until morning!

 

[Doh!]

Originally posted by: timswim78
SUSE runs KDE, but its multimedia kicks the crap out of Fedora and Ubuntu. Maybe you can run gnome with it, but I don't know how.

I run SUSE w/ gnome & no problem. Gnome should be trouble-free w/ most, if not all, distros.

 

[SpaceSquad]

http://distrowatch.com
-> pick one of 486 distros on record there

 

[The Linuxator]

LOL the op in here is confused because there are so many distros arounf to pick one, and you tell him pick one of the 486 available , whats the point of the post lol.

 

[Donshyoku]

I am a long time fan of DW, but it leaves a bit to be desired when I want to know some real experiences. Seeing a package list and various other info is cool, but I want some info from the front lines!

According to IE6, FC4 DVD is about 227% done. Thanks, IE... I am at 751MB of 2.56GB. It will be done in the morning for a good stress test.

 

[kevinhin]

Mandrake is the only distro I ever use. Too easy to install.

 

[The Linuxator]

So have you got to testing Fedora Core 4 yet, in case you have done that tell me if you need any apps recommendations I have got my apps all setup from freshrpms and DAG repositories now FC4 is in my HTPC streaming Trance 24/7 other than that it's playing my dvd's and video files, I love how it makes my HTPC run constantley without the need for reboots and crashes like in my previous Win 2k/XP HTPC :disgust: and keep in mind that my HTPC is an old IBM :thumbsup: Intellistation E-pro PII 450mhz 256 MB PC-100,
10 GB hdd haven't rebooted it in 2 months and counting. while on the other hand it allows me to run eclipse on my Thinkpad for Java programning.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

Originally posted by: Donshyoku
Not to be rude or inconsiderate in finding the information for myself, but why should I try FreeBSD? What makes it stand out as good platform, and how does it differ from any other Linux distribution? Not to badger you, I just like to hear some first-hand experiences that fuel reccomendations.

I first got a taste of Linux when I started using Redhat 7.2. It was "cool" and I was amazed at what I was missing in terms of the similarity to Windows, not to mention to the availability of free software such as Apache, Sendmail, PHP, etc...

Well, all that comes at a price and I paid for it big time. I went from Redhat 7.2 to Mandrake and then to Suse. I even tried Lycoris but each time I was turned off by their package management. I always wanted to convert all my PCs to Linux but each time I went to installed mplayer or some dvd player, I had to find all its dependecies but that didnt assure me of a successful install. Some of the apps might be outdated so fetching a newer RPM would also mean a mismatch of dependecies.

I said enough was enough and I thought it was silly to have to spend countless hours finding various files in order to install one stinking program. I found Debian but that grew old on me too quickly. I fell in love with FreeBSD when n0cmonkey mentioned OpenBSD. However, for some freaking reason I have yet to master the install procedure!

Anyways, I did some more research in the BSD family and fell in love with FreeBSD. It's simple and the ports management system is a dream come true. No more visiting various websites looking for dependecies to satisfy the installation program. One "make install clean" installs whatever program I want (well, most programs anyways). The one thing that FreeBSD has made me do is that I dont even need a GUI anymore. I remember debating whether I should run GNOME or KDE. I threw so much RAM at my systems that GNOME and/or KDE would still be slow! At the end, I bought an Apple since I could never get either Windows Manager to do what I want. Everything on my iBook just works and thats how I like it.

Dont get me wrong, I have 3 freebsd servers running at work. My cron scripts update my system and I hardly touch it unless I'm checking logs of upgrading the kernel. I would love to get back into Linux, but I just think more needs to be done in terms of the GUI and having it all mesh into the user environment. NOTE - I havent touched Linux since Redhat 8 so I'm not sure what Fedora 3 even offers. I'm not bad mouthing the Linux distros, but I sure do love my BSD family.