Journal drinkypoo's Journal: Which Linux to try next? 13
I intend to try running Linux on my latest HP laptop and want some advice on which one I should try. I have ruled out Ubuntu (going downhill already) as well as Mandriva (javascript or bittorrent required for download - can't use the latter on my current connection) and Sabayon (website requires flash or javascript or something to show any content except some logon of some sort, whatever that's for.) I know some of this seems kind of arbitrary but I don't want to get involved with any Linux which is clearly not being marketed to me, a person who surfs the web with javascript turned off. There is also no way in hell I will use Fedora (don't want to be RHEL alpha tester) or SuSe (Novell+Microsoft sitting in a tree.) What's actually left, but good old Debian?
Knoppix (Score:1)
Installed to the HD. It's a nicely preconfigured Debian.
I can't go back to RPM or non-at/aptitude distros. What's 'downhill' about Intrepid?
How much is the pupy in the window? (Score:1)
I am partially annoyed with ubuntu myself - a lot of minor stuff is annoying me, so the temptation is to blow it away.
If you can live with older versions and not much updates - puppy linux might be good for you. I can't so I just have it around for emergencies.
Gentoo - I am thinking about this but how long is a full install (I am supposed to be looking for work, not borking my machine).
BSD?
Re: (Score:2)
Why is everyone hating on Ubuntu??? I have had very few problems with it, what kinds of things have you run into?
Re:How much is the puppy in the window? (Score:1)
Not hating annoyances, enough to move if I can find a worthwhile destination (64bit) but survivable until then.
1) Any time you want to compile something and it doesn't work there is generally little help (use the repo version is the common answer). Sorry testing stuff for other "the community" requires compiling. You do want people testing firefox, handbrake (not yet available in ubuntu repos) and vlc don't you.
2) there may be a good reason why Evolution is tied to the meta-desktop package and you can't r
Debian (Score:2)
It not just a classic.
Re: (Score:2)
I just tried booting Debian Lenny netinst and it hangs after USB initialization. I only waited two minutes before hitting ctrl-alt-del, then I got bored. The installer successfully rebooted. Ubuntu was doing the same thing. All of this was 32 bit on Core 2 Duo, which should work fine but I'm trying a 64 bit Mandriva just for laughs. I have a kind of poor network connection so I can only try one or two distributions a day :)
Consider Centos... (Score:2)
Centos is the 'free as in beer' version of RHEL. They take the source RPM's and make a free version of it. As a bonus, all the commercial software that certifies (and installs) on the commercial variants of Linux will usually install on this. That, and each release gets a five year support window. Hardware support is pretty good, and any trick that works on RHEL (or Oracle Enterprise Linux) works on this too. Real ISO downloads too.
You don't have to dig for RPMs. Yum works nicely. Tis what I use on m
Does it have to be Linux? (Score:1)
Are you all set on Linux?
If you're willing to try out something else, try FreeBSD -- if you've never used a non-Linux POSIX environment, it might take a bit of getting used to, but you might find you really enjoy it.
If you don't want to go the BSD route, there's always Gentoo.
That being said, I've always come back to vanilla Debian Stable after every foray into something else when it comes to Linux... it just lets me do what I want to do, and doesn't get in my face about it. I always download the minimal b
Re: (Score:1)
Oh, and I use Backports to install the stuff I want that isn't in Stable. First I get a stable Stable image though, so I can restore easily when I need to.
Re: (Score:2)
I've done BSD, I've done Gentoo. BSD doesn't run everything I want to run - notably games can be sticky. I know that compat libraries make most things work. Don't want the headache. Gentoo is just a time sink; I've had too many boned packaged when I ran gentoo anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Of the systems I've tried, I liked Gentoo (love portage, but as you mentioned, it can be time consuming) and Ubuntu the best. Mostly, I like Ubuntu due to apt, and not anything specifically Ubuntu. I've never tried it on the desktop, but I'd probably be happy with Debian there. I know a number of people who swear by Debian Sid as more than stable enough for home users (significantly better than ~x86 on Gentoo).
I've played a bit with Arch and know a couple of people who swear by it, but I haven't used it eno
If you want to try some things... (Score:2)
Sourcemage or rPath.
Or do what I do and install ubuntu-minimal and add whatever graphical stuff you want yourself. It's basically Debian plus some more drivers and a more frequent release schedule, without the graphical silliness they add.