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Friday, May 23rd 2003, 7:35am

[CLOSED - NEW THREAD COMING] So what's your Distro and Why?

Hello Friends,

Well, I use a Linux distrbution called Gentoo. I used the Debian distribution for a week and then Crux for a month prior to my discovery of Gentoo. Boy, was I amazed. It arguably has the best Linux package management system out there. Yes, even better than debian. However, I need to mention that it is a source-based dstribution, the package manager installs programs for source-codes retrieved from a central port, controlled by the Gentoo community. The port contains over 4000 packages.

All the packages are bleeding edge, usually the latest stable releases. I'm sure you've heard about optimizing packages for your CPU architecture. Well, Gentoo allows you to do just that. Every single package is compiled to your liking and optimized for your exact CPU architecture, be it Pentium 2, 3, athlonXP, athlon Duron, athlon, sparc etc.

The package manager, portage, enables you to upgrade all the packages in your system via a single command. Yes, that's sweet. One of the reasons I left Debian distor was the community. I never felt welcomed. There packages were somewhat outdated too. The Gentoo community is completely different. Very friendly, very helpful and Very informative. In fact, before installing Gentoo, I'd advice you hang around their forums for a week or two just too see how nice and inviting these Gentle men and women are. I learn new tricks everyday just by visiting the forums.

Gentoo's minimalist approach to package installation impressed me. Only packages absolutely needed to run Linux are initially installed. Afterwhich, you are in control of every other package you install. For example, I installed the basic system from scratch, (source-codes), of course taking advantage of the optimisations for my CPU; then I install any other package I need. Well, the phenominal support, the wonderful community and the (arguably) the best packagement management of Gentoo wooed me over. Little wonder Larry, the cow, was impressed. ;)

www.gentoo.org

Mystilleef

Drawbacks!:
1) Gentoo is a source-based distribution for the patient and daring. This means the initial installation of Gentoo may take hours. Installing Gentoo's base system took me 4-5hours. Installing KDE took me almost 12hours on an AMD 1.4GHz PC with 256MB RAM and 2GB of swap space.
2) Gentoo is not for everyone. It's just for those who want an insane amount of control over their box accompanied with the latest bleeding edge packages.
3) Gentoo will make you cry tears of joy. Don't believe me, just give it a try.
KDE Seeker.

2

Friday, May 23rd 2003, 5:19pm

You got my interest.

The website looks great. Ease of use and a wealth of links to software.

Maybe I'll give it a try here at work on a test machine.

3

Friday, May 23rd 2003, 9:13pm

erugger66, you will be pleased with the outcome.
I have been using it primarily because I like bleeding edge, but it also give you control over what you need/want.

I also hate trying to upgrade RPM based distro's and the dependancy nightmare - no more, Gentoo takes care of all that.

4

Saturday, May 24th 2003, 10:17am

Re: So what's your Distro and Why?

Quoted

Original von Mystilleef

Hello Friends,
Well, I use a Linux distrbution called Gentoo. I used the Debian distribution for a week and then Crux for a month prior to my discovery of Gentoo. Boy, was I amazed. It arguably has the best Linux package management system out there. Yes, even better than debian. However, I need to mention that it is a source-based dstribution, the package manager installs programs for source-codes retrieved from a central port, controlled by the Gentoo community. The port contains over 4000 packages.


I use Gentoo at home, too, and most of the time I think
it was a good choice ;-).

But there's another distro that really impressed me:
Knoppix, *the* distro that can run directly from a CD.
Especially since you can now save your configuration to a floppy disk
or to a network drive. Optionally encrypted.
And they keep their KDE pretty well up to date, too.

That floppyconfig option came in handy when I visited my family
during the last Christmas holidays. My sister has a WinXP-only
machine. I just needed the Knoppix CD-R and a floppy disk to feel
"at home" on the system, all without fiddling with her setup :-)

And it seems people keep creating Knoppix mods for special purposes.
For example I just read about a distro for kids
(http://newsforge.com/newsforge/03/02/03/1918221.shtml).

Very interesting development.

5

Saturday, May 24th 2003, 3:03pm

I am RPM based guy :)
Mandrake
Red Hat
but lately ports are really cool
CVS up :)

Freebsd :D

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Saturday, May 24th 2003, 4:05pm

I also prefer RPM s, although few are available for mandrake, i mostly build from the source.
And yes, these dependencies can be quite a hassle, but then at least you know what your linux is made of, and so need to install these other packages.
Quite an interesting experience, i must admit.

seb

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Sunday, May 25th 2003, 3:08am

I have used Mdk and redhat

at the moment im using RH9.0, and it seems to be running well for me, aside rom some problems i have had with RH messing around with the qt and kde libs.

9

Monday, May 26th 2003, 4:12pm

mandrake

hi!
I use mandrake 9.1 and i think it's great!
I've been using this distro for about 3 or 4 years (since v. 6.2) and the improvement is impressing.
I think that when using Mandrake it is very important ot have PLF, texstar and contrib added to urpi source. When you have it - you can install a lot of new things without compiling. I'm also a "compilation freak" so I use kde 3.1.2 compiled from the source.

I must admit that idea behind gentoo is great and I must test it in a near future :-)

best regards
y
However many ways there may be of being alife, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead.
Richard Dawkins in The Blind Watchmaker (1986)

10

Wednesday, May 28th 2003, 2:25pm

As a Linux user for the last 4 years, I have tried most Linux bistros out there, and THE ONE that does it for me is Suse Linux. I have currently Suse Linux 8.1 Pro and 8.2 Pro installed. For the last year or so I have been upgrading my kernel, drivers, KDE, games, patches etc on my Suse 8.1 and to my satisfaction I feel that this Suse 8.1 system is in better shape than the 8.2. I have just managed to recompile KDE 3.1.2 and it is great, although there is not much changes from 3.1.1.a. NO OFFENDING ANY OTHER DISTRO, my recommendation is Suse Linux and compile KDE from source instead of pre packed packaging.
The Best Games are for Download @ GCCLINUX

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Wednesday, May 28th 2003, 3:13pm

well, i compiled my kde from source too, since there are no packages for mdk for it.
And for somereasons i prefer source anywhay.
(so it´s not alwayas true that mandrake users are looking for teh "easy" way ;) )

12

Wednesday, May 28th 2003, 10:46pm

Redhat 8/9 with apt-4-rpm... the best of all worlds. Now if they would just stop fscking with the standard KDE package, all would be good.
Strid...

13

Thursday, May 29th 2003, 1:15am

So whats your favourite distro and why

And the winner is... Suse Linux... because it just works.
Honestly, the answer is not so easy as it depends of course on your pupose what you want to do.

As I am using my computer for work (as a desktop) I want to use the applications and not do a DTP text on the command ine ;-). Bear this in mind when you read my comments below.
I have regularly installed Linux on.. not sure lets just say many machines.


If you are a guy who likes troubleshooting company specific modified open source code than I recommend RedHat. They successfully managed to modify open source code to their likes and also include regularly bugs which are heavy to find, together with a unstable X server which regularly brings you back to run level 3 in case you forgot which distro you are using. ;-)

In case you like security features and a clean and intuitive menu f.e.in KDE than I guess Mandrake is top choice. I was really impressed about two things: 1) the menu is sorted by what you want to do and not the applications name and 2) by default you can set f.e the security level to paranoid which really does what it says, it will restrict all rights to a absolut minimum. No unnecessary started services and the PC is virtually unfindable in any network (no ping reply etc.).

However I regularly get stucked or at least slowed done during the installation process which seems to be the most difficult part for Mandrake.

Suse Linux is my choice for the everyday work. While I also compile source code myself I really appreciate that the Suse Team is strongly involved in KDE. ANYTIME a KDE version comes out or is announced the packaes are there within 48 hours (not like RedHat which arent there even after 1 or 2 weeks). Suse is FAST, but some might complain that they are not alwyas up to date and thats correct.
Suse seems to prioritize which packages are followed up by which policy(fast or slow). Obviously KDE is one of their strong points from the beginning.

On the other hand f.e they deliver the version 06 of the project manager software which is now 0.91. so here they really missed something, but fortunately the Suse community is quite big, so you can find even precompiled packages (rpm) on various pages which are not orginally from Suse but as I said they just work.

I even tested and installed rpm's from other makers sometimes to get the latest version and after perhaps correcting some problems (a missing link or library) even I get this software to run, (also I dont recommend doing this - compiling it would be the prober way).

At present I use KDE 3.1.2 and have rotated the first screen by 90 degrees which believe is a really new feature at present (not even announced yet). In such a case I often realized that for Suse Linux it works straight away after you installed it while I have sometimes problems with other distributions - especially RedHat.

If you are new to Linux and just want to try it without installing anything (something like a mini linux) then you should defintely go for the Knoppix distribution. It is debian based and what it can offer is second to none for beginners. You put the CD into the drive. Press enter once and wait 2 minutes - there you go.

Everything setup and working, Network, ADSL connection etc. Knoppix is a TRUELY experience for anybody who likes or dislikes Linux. There is really nothing that you can do wrong.
Best regards

Nils Valentin
Tokyo/Japan

nils(at)knowd.co.jp
http://www.knowd.co.jp/staff/nils

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14

Thursday, May 29th 2003, 8:26pm

Sounds very interesting :)
Now i might even try SuSe someday!

15

Friday, May 30th 2003, 6:52pm

I've tried mdk, Rh, slack, Knoppix & Debian...
the winner is...Debian ^_^
~~>MaXeR<~~

16

Friday, May 30th 2003, 8:53pm

open linux e desktop 2.4 is nice on the net

caldera open linux e desktop 2.4

17

Friday, May 30th 2003, 8:59pm

I use Slackware 9.0 on my firewall and workrig.. I am just installing Gentoo on my girlfriends rig, and I have to say I am... interested :lol:

18

Friday, May 30th 2003, 9:04pm

Using Red Hat 9 and Xandros 1.0 mostly...

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Saturday, May 31st 2003, 9:26am

Hi,
well my first distro was SuSE 6.3 then 7.0,7.3. I also tried RH, MDK und some other little ditributions like arklinux (try it you will be surprised how easy it is!!).
But then I moved to gentoo and will stay there. Portage is simply the best.

Dim

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20

Saturday, May 31st 2003, 10:03pm

can you also use the source to install things then? and can you make some sort of installation packages?