Open to suggestion

Khannie

I've got some new hard drives coming so I'm open to a distro change. I'm currently running gentoo. Find it really great, super fast, love that it has the latest and greatest in portage, but hate the upkeep required on config files etc. I have used ubuntu in the past and found it decent.

As the title says though....I'm open to suggestion.

Have any?

ethernet

I'll suggest openSUSE.

Was was first distro [at version 9.1]. Then used Mepis before doing the Ubuntu thing. It couldn't halt my system for the past few releases. Now back to openSUSE again. To my delight, I have managed to install MythTV as well. Much better result than last time ...

I find openSUSE easy to use but it's not dumbed down either. The main control centre, YaST, is still a little sluggish however. Package manager has improved considerably in 10.3 -- community repos at your ready after install.

Hotblack Desiato

+1 for openSUSE 10.3 I've been using it since 9.1 and it's definitely the best yet.

Khannie

Downloading the livecd as I type. Anyone else?

djmarkus

/me points to sig

bman

If you like a bit of a challenge, but nothing as intensive as Gentoo (from what I've heard about gentoo), then give Fedora a go. Fedora 8 (final version) has just been released afaik. I used Fedora 5, 6 & 7 and found it very good. It seems to have a massive repository and it worked (most of the time). Not near as "simple" as PCLOS and Ubuntu though.

Khannie

I tried fedora 4 (for myth) and wasn't mad about it tbh. This openSuse malarky sounds like it's worth a bash (badum-tish). First tried suse back in the 90's when it was the up and comer.

pid()

Why not create your own distro? It's not that hard to do - and you learn a great deal. That'd be a nice little project if you have the time.

Failing that, you could always play with Debian or Ubuntu. If you're running Gentoo then it'd be a step back in my opinion, but as you say you just want to experience other versions of Linux.

Why not have a pop at Solaris 10, or one of the BSD's (providing they support your hardware).

I'm in the middle of creating my own distro at the moment, and I'm also running Gentoo, Ubuntu and Solaris 10.

Khannie

pid() wrote: »

If you're running Gentoo then it'd be a step back in my opinion, but as you say you just want to experience other versions of Linux.

TBH, it's more that I don't have the time to maintain my gentoo installation. I love it, it just requires some attention, and I don't have that time. Other things annoy me, like I installed gnome, and there's no shutdown option, so I need to do it in a console because I don't have time to investigate how to get it in place...little things like that.

I'd consider ubuntu a step backwards too...but....for the most part....stuff just works and I like that. Plug in your camera....presto! etc. Not so in gentoo.

pid() wrote: »

Why not have a pop at Solaris 10, or one of the BSD's (providing they support your hardware).

I'd consider bsd because of the linux binary compatibility (for gaming) but I hate solaris tbh. Pain in the flute IMO.

pid()

Khannie wrote: »

TBH, it's more that I don't have the time to maintain my gentoo installation. I love it, it just requires some attention, and I don't have that time. Other things annoy me, like I installed gnome, and there's no shutdown option, so I need to do it in a console because I don't have time to investigate how to get it in place...little things like that.

I'd consider ubuntu a step backwards too...but....for the most part....stuff just works and I like that. Plug in your camera....presto! etc. Not so in gentoo.

Right, that puts things into perspective a bit more. I'd suggest going with Debian. You might have to do one or two minor tweaks but nothing major. If you find it to be a pain in the arse then try Ubuntu and see how you get on. You will find yourself feeling dumber after a few weeks though.

Khannie wrote:

I'd consider bsd because of the linux binary compatibility (for gaming) but I hate solaris tbh. Pain in the flute IMO.

Solaris pre 10 was a pain in the flute, and very insecure. Hundreds of little binaries that were suid root having their command line args easily overflowed. The one and only reason I run Solaris 10 is because I wanted to learn how to use it, specifically Zones. Read up on them, they're great.

You won't have the time to play with Solaris 10, given the comments you made above. Perhaps considering one of the BSD's might be a better option for you. Ubuntu works, but after a while you'll feel like you've lost touch with the under the hood stuff.

Khannie

pid() wrote: »

Ubuntu works, but after a while you'll feel like you've lost touch with the under the hood stuff.

This is what I love about gentoo. I really feel like I have a decent understanding of linux from gentoo.

Hmmm.

Hmmmmmmmm.

pid()

Khannie wrote: »

This is what I love about gentoo. I really feel like I have a decent understanding of linux from gentoo.

Hmmm.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Hehe, it's a difficult decision. Ease of use (which means you lose touch) vs Configuring stuff (time consuming).

The latter for me thanks.

djmarkus

There is a happy medium.

Khannie

Well....I tried the suse livecd. TBH, I was underwhelmed. Yast is a disaster compared to synaptic IMO.

Then I considered ubuntu x86_64.......and thought about the "step backwards" comment and decided that it was bang on....so....

.....It prompted me to decide to stick with gentoo, warts and all. I got my finger out and solved some of the problems I've been having with it. Upgraded the kernel, got a nice new fancy bootloader screen, etc. I've more to do of course, but overall I'm happy enough now.

Thanks for the suggestions lads.

Orion

Khannie - what version of Suse? From what I've read in 10.1 and 10.2 YAST was total crap. But allegedly it's a lot better in 10.3. I have the livecd on this month's Linux Format coverdisk and I'm going to stick it on the laptop to try it out. The mag tested out three distros - Mandriva, opensuse 10.3 and Ubuntu 7.1 - Suse and Ubuntu tied in their ratings with Mandriva lacking.

Hotblack Desiato

10.1 and 10.2 had ZMD - a version of Novell's Zen Management Daemon as the default update manager, it was dog slow and not very reliable. Thankfully it's gone now and replaced with openSUSE updater which is like the good old 9.x SUSEupdater. Of course you could have always uninstalled ZMD and ran Yast Online Updater (YOU) manually, or smart... Linux is about choice after all
Bit unfair to judge a distro by its live DVD. IMHO openSUSE has a lot more depth to it than *buntu, and it's not optimised to be run from a live DVD. (whereas *buntu fits on a CD)
What did you not like about Yast?
openSUSE has incorporated a lot of good stuff recently like unofficial repo support and the build service.
Don't forget to disable kerry and beagle in the install, though, otherwise it will be slooow at least until the initial index is populated. I really don't like the idea of having my HDD indexed, anyway.

ethernet

ninja900 wrote: »

10.1 and 10.2 had ZMD - a version of Novell's Zen Management Daemon as the default update manager, it was dog slow and not very reliable. Thankfully it's gone now and replaced with openSUSE updater which is like the good old 9.x SUSEupdater. Of course you could have always uninstalled ZMD and ran Yast Online Updater (YOU) manually, or smart... Linux is about choice after all
Bit unfair to judge a distro by its live DVD. IMHO openSUSE has a lot more depth to it than *buntu, and it's not optimised to be run from a live DVD. (whereas *buntu fits on a CD)
What did you not like about Yast?
openSUSE has incorporated a lot of good stuff recently like unofficial repo support and the build service.
Don't forget to disable kerry and beagle in the install, though, otherwise it will be slooow at least until the initial index is populated. I really don't like the idea of having my HDD indexed, anyway.

The situation with the package-updating software until 10.3 wasn't great alright. I was thinking I had spoken too soon about this last night though -- I was told there was an update for the actual software updater [YOU]. I downloaded and installed. It broke my package manager [and that of many others -- just look online]. Thank goodness I've managed to since fix it with some command line 'wizardry' and the dodgy update has been taken off the update repo.

Khannie

ninja900 wrote: »

What did you not like about Yast?

I think it just lacked the polish of Synaptic, which I've found to be superb in the past. It just looked amateur beside it IMO. If I was going to go with a binary distro, it'd have to be ubuntu x86_64 for now (or probably centos for a server box).

Portage is all command line, but I really like it. I spent another couple of hours fluting around with gentoo making it more me likey...nice splash screen startup, GDM installed, auto login setup, gksudo working (was getting a crappy "cannot open display" thing before) and so on.

Hotblack Desiato

ethernet wrote: »

The situation with the package-updating software until 10.3 wasn't great alright. I was thinking I had spoken too soon about this last night though -- I was told there was an update for the actual software updater [YOU]. I downloaded and installed. It broke my package manager [and that of many others -- just look online]. Thank goodness I've managed to since fix it with some command line 'wizardry' and the dodgy update has been taken off the update repo.

I installed the update to the updater last night*, went fine, it then told me there were 2 package updates available, and it installed them fine too.
These things do happen, but I've been using Suse as my main OS since 9.2 came out (was given a set of 9.1 disks at that time) and only got a broken update once.
Haven't tried applying that update to my openSUSE 10.3. Macbook yet...


* on my antique 750MHz Athlon desktop... still runs OK with a full KDE desktop, although spamassassin brings it to its knees when checking email. Those new Shuttle linux boxes do look tempting though.

pid()

Khannie wrote: »

Well....I tried the suse livecd. TBH, I was underwhelmed. Yast is a disaster compared to synaptic IMO.

Then I considered ubuntu x86_64.......and thought about the "step backwards" comment and decided that it was bang on....so....

.....It prompted me to decide to stick with gentoo, warts and all. I got my finger out and solved some of the problems I've been having with it. Upgraded the kernel, got a nice new fancy bootloader screen, etc. I've more to do of course, but overall I'm happy enough now.

Thanks for the suggestions lads.

Nice one.

Khannie

Actually....for anyone who comes across this in the future: The shutdown / logout / etc. options come with gnome if you use gdm instead of xdm (default).

joe_chicken

Ubuntu is the distro for me at the moment.

It has a healthy balance of usability and configurability (it's a word! )

Also, it's the most popular, and I like the idea of getting behind the most popular Linux distro. The reason being; the only way Linux will get bigger (and hopefully better) is with a bigger user base.

Just got the latest release last week (Gutsy) for my brand new laptop and am impressed again.

After downloading I had everything working in about 2-3 hours (ATI graphics card and wireless network card included)

Also, I'm impressed with Pidgin (formerly GAIM, which I found buggy)...

So much so, that I've removed all my other IM clients (Yahoo,MSN and Google) from every other computer I use and replaced them with Pidgin.