Linux linux linux...

Zacariaz · Post by **Zacariaz** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:15 pm

I know we have had this discussion a number of times, but if it's not too much trouble, I would like to take it again.

I have been running xubuntu for a a month or two now. It works, but I wouldn't exactly call it stable and though it's fairly user friendly, I have more or less decided to live without the "user friendliness" and use a more stable system instead.

My first thought of course was Debian Etch/stable, but it seems that the only reason it's as stable as it is, is due to extensive testing, which of course means it's not exactly up to date.

I have been googlin' hard to find some answers, but as you know, people never seems to agree on anything.

So, here I am, asking the people I know actually knows a thing or two about the subject: "What should I choose?"
The keywords is: stabel, secure, maintained and expandable.

I have of course considered trying my luck with a LFS system, but it seems a bit premature for me, although a certain person at this forum tried to convince me that it was actually not that hard...

Thanks

01000101 · Post by **01000101** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:32 pm

I personally like just plain Ubuntu 7.10, but Fedora 9 is great as well. Also, fedora is basically RHEL just the prev generation, so its deffinately stable.

itisiuk · Post by **itisiuk** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:33 pm

I use fedora 9 in vmware running on windows vista, and ive never had a problem. and its really user friendly too.

Zacariaz · Post by **Zacariaz** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:34 pm

Maybe my bad experiense with ubuntu has to do with the fact that I'. running 64 bit?

Combuster · Post by **Combuster** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:43 pm

I would plug gentoo here, as it has all the points you want. However in regard to user friendliness the choice is pretty debatable as it is kindof overwhelming for newcomers. If you're decently familiar with linux you might just like it though.

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:47 pm

Another for Gentoo. It hits all of your keywords.

A note on Fedora: Fedora generally uses the newest of the new in terms of software, so if you're looking for proven stability, that might not be your choice.

Zacariaz · Post by **Zacariaz** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:49 pm

I had almost forgotten about Gentoo, I'm gonna do some reading and get back to you.

thanks for now.

edit:
regarding Gentoo, my first question is about Portage vs. dpkg/apt/aptitute (the Debian way). I am used to the Debian way and of course I'm concerned. Any notes?

piranha · Post by **piranha** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:18 pm

I personally use OpenSuse, as the dev tools are very easy to install, and the new version come out in 9 days or so.

It's quite stable, and quite easy to use.

-JL

Zacariaz · Post by **Zacariaz** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 5:40 pm

Well, I'm going to try installing Gentoo shortly, but if I can't get wireless working I won't get much further as I'm not home at the moment.

Thanks for the help and keep posting if you have any comments.

iammisc · Post by **iammisc** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:24 pm

Zacariaz wrote: Well, I'm going to try installing Gentoo shortly, but if I can't get wireless working I won't get much further as I'm not home at the moment.

Well as long as there is a linux driver for your wireless card, you should conceivably be able to get it working. However, depending on how popular your card is, you might be in for a lot of digging around. A lot of drivers for rather rare cards or cheap cards are very finicky. For example, my wireless card will only work with WEP if you configure it once with all the settings, bring the interface down , bring the interface up, configure it with the same settings and then run dhcpcd. However, gentoo's quite powerful and I have no doubt you'll be able to fix any problems you might have.

panxu · Post by **panxu** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 5:58 pm

I stopped shuffling between distros(red hat/fedora, ukx-buntu, gentoo, opensuse, mandriva) after I find Arch.
And here is a wireless tutor in archwiki

Zacariaz · Post by **Zacariaz** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:21 am

I never dreamed that installing gentoo would be so much trouble.
In past I have messed around with debian, fedora and ubuntu, but none them put up much of a fight.

jgraef · Post by **jgraef** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:18 pm

Hi,

I tried several distributions of Linux and for me Suse 10.1 is a very stable system. Ok, YaST's package manager is a bit slow, but that's the only contra I can think of at the moment. My Suse Linux runs now for a few years and no reinstallation will be required in nearer future. I tried to install Suse 10.3 a few times. At the beginning it works fine and looks nice. I especially like Beryl and the One-Click-Installation (I know that you might think that these things are only for newbies, but I just like it). But after some days Suse 10.3 just crashes for my machine. I had 'mount' pagefaulting and I think if this happens you can forget it. I then just returned to Suse 10.1. For me this is my favourite.

piranha · Post by **piranha** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:49 pm

Opensuse11 comes out soon, and it has much faster package management.
Maybe that would work...
-JL

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:44 pm

piranha wrote:Opensuse11 comes out soon, and it has much faster package management.
Maybe that would work...
-JL

Suse has package management?