Linux distro decision
Hey guys. I realize there are lots of threads about linux distros, and i dont mean to make more, but i just want a little custom guidance.
so im very familiar with windows XP and mac OS X. ive downloaded and made ubuntu and mandriva cd's, and booted from them.
ive been told that its "cheating" or however you want to put it, and im not really learning very much. and that is true, ubuntu pretty much set itself up and had a very windows xp look and feel. i want to get into linux, but not be overwhelmed. i played around with the linux shell for a while, but i didnt get any further than just "cd and ls". what do you think would be a good balance of learning but not being overwhelmed?
and what did "cheating" do for me? what stuff didnt i do?
it's true those distros are very windows like(especially mandriva). Anyway try to downlod bactrack http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html, There you have to set up most of things by yourself and it's briliant for pen-testing,but it's only live cd. But I must say mandriva learnt me important basics in the beggining…
I generally suggest mandriva to beginners, it's fairly simple to get setup, but it doesn't have all the limitations / bad habits implicit in ubuntu.
That said, right now i'm a debian fan, but I have boxes running slack, Gentoo, openBSD freeBSD and opensolaris.
I'm considering an RC9 box too, I haven't had an rpm machine in ages.
I was looking into some distros this arvo that I hadn't tried before. I guess the one that stood out for me was openSUSE.
It comes with the KDE desktop which, from what I've read, doesn't feel as bloated as GNOME. The other desktop manager to consider installing would probably be Xfce. It's a lightweight, aesthetically pleasing desktop manager which won't slow you down. http://www.xfce.org
openSUSE also uses RPM packages which can be managed using Your awesome Setup Tool (YaST). This provides probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to install and manage software on any linux distro.
Another reason why openSUSE stood out for me was because it's targeted towards a variety of users. This means it's going to give you room to grow, and is suitable for linux newcomers and developers alike.
It is also one of the bigger, more well known distros out there which usually equates to good driver support. Developers are also more likely to have tested their software on openSUSE or even provide binary packages for it, which can often save you a lot of time.
Anyways thats just some of the things I look out for. You should just figure out what your needs are and weigh up each distro and see which fits best.
Check it out for yourself: http://en.opensuse.org
Johnson wrote: I was looking into some distros this arvo that I hadn't tried before. I guess the one that stood out for me was openSUSE.
It comes with the KDE desktop which, from what I've read, doesn't feel as bloated as GNOME. The other desktop manager to consider installing would probably be Xfce. It's a lightweight, aesthetically pleasing desktop manager which won't slow you down. http://www.xfce.org
Look into more. I use E17, which is not for everyone. GNOME, KDE and Xfce are cool.. but not great for doing anything othe than "desktop crap".
Check out, fluxbox, openbox, evilwm, e17 e16.
openSUSE also uses RPM packages which can be managed using Your awesome Setup Tool (YaST). This provides probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to install and manage software on any linux distro.
Dude. No.
YaST sucks balls. slapt-get is better…
Good package managers IMHO are (in order) aptitude apt-get yum urpmi
They have a good record for dealing with dependencies. YaST doesn't.
Another reason why openSUSE stood out for me was because it's targeted towards a variety of users. This means it's going to give you room to grow, and is suitable for linux newcomers and developers alike.
This doesn't really hold.. I don't like suse's patchset for the kernel for a start, which doesn't hint at being developer oriented. The suse project is headed toward RHEL if you ask me. They're setting up their own FC/CentOS testbed..
It is also one of the bigger, more well known distros out there which usually equates to good driver support. Developers are also more likely to have tested their software on openSUSE or even provide binary packages for it, which can often save you a lot of time.
Ubuntu is well known…….. Debian is bigger :P
Anyways thats just some of the things I look out for. You should just figure out what your needs are and weigh up each distro and see which fits best.
Agreed.
DigitalFire wrote: hmmmmmm alright. i think i might go for mandriva.
but what exactly did ubuntu do for me? what are the steps of setting up linux that it cut out?
and what "bad habits" does ubuntu encourage?
Well, you never had to setup xorg or your locale. These things can be a giant pain in the arse the first time but if nothing else you'll learn how to ask for help, and a lot about how to find out about your computer.
Also ubuntu has sloppy logging, so the correct way of diagnosing problems is often not feasible.
Plus ubuntu has really piss poor permissions, the user/root layer is very fuzzy.
Also the ubuntu kernel is a bloated pig, and I'm not a fan of their patchset. If you like ubuntu's feel, get started with debian.