Choosing a Distro [Archive] - Page 2

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madman2003

08-05-06, 03:47 PM

Being a gentoo user i see the advantages of it (otherwise i wouldn't use it :-) ). I'm a big fan of USE-flags and an operating system build around compiling, makes compiling extra stuff very easy. Just write/convert an ebuild and off you go. For some apps it's nice to have cvs/svn intergrated into the package manager. Binary distro's also limit you to specific libraries, with gentoo there is more choice should you need a newer or older version. There are situations were a binary distro is usefull, on my notebook (which i use much less) for example. I use arch linux there. It's pretty nice for a binary distro.

six_storm

08-25-06, 03:44 PM

I've tried RedHat and Suse Linux before, back in the day. However, I'm trying to get back into the Linux playground with Ubuntu and I'm liking it so far. It doesn't like Apple's hardware (iBook G4) sometimes but it works. I have a server on its way so that should help with some stuff.

I want to try out Gentoo also when I can get some free time . . .

grey_1

08-25-06, 04:01 PM

SysGhost

09-29-06, 10:48 AM

I've used several distributions and I have noticed that... there is always something to love and to hate in each distribution.

I hereby add my list of "Like / Dislike" for each distribution I have used / am using: (I have used other distributions aswell.. .but not worth mentioning right now)

Redhat: Like: Easy to install / setup - Dislike: RPM, aint the best way to manage software-packages nowadays
Mandrake: Like: Very easy to configure pheriperals with - Dislike: based upon RPM
SuSE: Like: A huge bunch of software are bundled with the installation CD's/DVD - Dislike: Seems to use a different setup for the configuration files.
Slackware: Like: Let the user to stay in control of things- Dislike: its package manager
Debian: Like: Easy to keep up to date, powerful package manager - Dislike: package manager are not as powerful as Gentoo's
Gentoo: Like: The powerful package manager, portage - Dislike: Need a HUGE ammount of time to install/update due the compilation of sourcecode.

I use Gentoo nowadays both on my servers/clients aswell as my home-computer because I like it's package manager "Portage" and it's use of the USE -variable
Another thin I like about gentoo, it's the documentation you find on the internet:
Gentoos official homepage: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/
Gentoo-wiki: http://gentoo-wiki.com/Main_Page

Some of gentoo's documentation even fit other distributions aswell, just adapt a bit and you're good to go.

It's the gentoo documentation that keeps me staying on it, and I usually leave my computers over the night/weekend etc if I need to install/update some big stuff. as the smaller packages install fast enough anyway. (and that I use 5 other computers in a distcc configuration too [distcc, see: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/distcc.xml ])

fatsheep

09-30-06, 09:36 PM

I can understand using Gentoo to learn about Linux but I just don't see how you could use it for your main operating system. From what I've read, applications take a long time to install and it uses tarballs for it's package system so there's no dependency handling... I haven't tried it myself yet so if this is incorrect please tell me. I might try doing Linux from Scratch just to learn about Linux but I'm sticking with Ubuntu for my main OS.

lucy2loose

10-04-06, 10:04 AM

For simple Linux setup on an old PC you can't go far wrong with something like DSL ( Damn Small Linux )
I run it on an old laptop with only 59mb of memory. It's a live web server with some test pages on.
Has a nice simple gui, firefox, xmms(mediaplayer)

I also have Suse 10.1 on a machine, very nice gui features, the sort of things Vista has but without the stupid hardware requirements. ( ie will do transparent windows without any fancy gfx cards, with actually do it using virtualPC or VMWare emulated video cards!)

A link to my kites page on my DSL laptop, apache2.
click here (http://danteuk.gotadsl.co.uk/danteuk/kites/)