The Definitive "WHICH LINUX DISTRO?" Thread

[Rushnak]

I've only tried out mandrake 9.1 - 10. I was quite impressed how @ how easy it was to install and use. I had to find some login software (my cable uses custom login software) But that wasn't to hard. Any idea on which distro i should try next? I really like mandrake, and I'm not a total noob around *NIX. So i was wondering which one i should try next. I think i'll go for gentoo, I've heard alot of great things about it. Then i might try freeBSD or something. I don't think i will bother about Redhat right now, considering it's generally based on mandrake. Or vice versa.

[jardragon901]

I use Arch linux because I don't have the time for gentoo that I used to (I used gentoo for a year and a half and loved it). While I think there is too much bickering between the Arch and Gentoo communities I feel that I have found a distro that suits my needs perfectly and if I feel the need to compile I can do it instead of using the prebuilt packages, but they are always there for a quick install :).

[debianfan]

no one use gentoo! it goes slower than debian on a p4 prescott with ht and dont waste ur time complating suff and APT is way better than rpm (it doesnt even work)

USE DEBIAN

[DaNIsH]

no one use gentoo! it goes slower than debian on a p4 prescott with ht and dont waste ur time complating suff and APT is way better than rpm (it doesnt even work)

USE DEBIAN

Thanks for the tip. I'll avoid complating from now on.

[debianfan]

Thanks for the tip. I'll avoid complating from now on.

never knew a post like that can be useful under 17min ;)

[DaNIsH]

never knew a post like that can be useful under 17min ;)

You're just so hard to disagree with. You obviously have years and years of experience with linux.

[nuka_t]

You're just so hard to disagree with. You obviously have years and years of experience with linux.

i wouldnt take advice from a guy that bought a prescott :whistle:

[CaKeY]

lmao

[debianfan]

the reson i said that was because

Debian faster than Gentoo? Matt Garman wondered why his C++ program ran dramatically slower when compiled on a Gentoo machine than when compiled with Debian Sid. He later reported that recompiling the Gentoo C++ libraries with less aggressive optimization flags (-O2 instead of -O3) eliminated the speed difference. William Kenworthy added that Debian and other distributions are conservative, but set up by very experienced people.

[forster]

what do you think is the best disto available today, what are you using or what is you favourite distro you've tried as yet?

Fedora Core 2 by a mile, if I couldnt use Fedora Id be using Mandrake

[DaNIsH]

the reson i said that was because

One guy having a problem with Gentoo, then fixing it, instantly makes Debian better! All hail Debian!!

Edited June 16, 2004 by DaNIsH

[Tek]

People always talk about how bad Slackware fans are, but check out debianfan. The only advice he gives here is 'use debian instead.'

There's more to a distro than it's package management. Slackware package system isn't all that good, but I don't ever use it so it doesn't bother me. If something needs upgrading, I upgrade it myself.

[scoobydoobie]

why are all these releases..3 or 4 cd's? Is it that they include a bunch of apps and stuff? Do you need to download all the cd's or can you get by with just 1 or 2?

[markwolfe Veteran]

why are all these releases..3 or 4 cd's? Is it that they include a bunch of apps and stuff? Do you need to download all the cd's  or can you get by with just 1 or 2?

You can get distros that are one CD. Lindows, Linspire, Xandros, Knoppix all are one-CD distros. There are many more.

But, yeah, the extra CDs include things like mail/ftp/web servers, etc. Plus many, many more apps.

[Tek]

The next version of Windows will probably be released on a DVD, so I don't think a 3 CD download is too bad. Normally you can get away with 1 CD, but then you'll have to download all the other packages you want manually.

[nuka_t]

The next version of Windows will probably be released on a DVD, so I don't think a 3 CD download is too bad. Normally you can get away with 1 CD, but then you'll have to download all the other packages you want manually.

no i dont think so. its only 750 megs ATM. they will optimize it before launch obviously, and they have high capacity disks so they can probably fit upto 800 megs onto it. however, if they threw in MS office and all the other good stuff that comes with linux, it would be even bigger than most distros.

[Tarzan2k]

Happy Gentoo user here!

[Starcom826]

I use mepis. Works with my hardware and has apt-get :).

[59501_1437839550]

Go here and look at their top 10.

I like Knoppix and/or Debian. Once they're installed to the HD then they're basically the same.

knoppix is debian

[59501_1437839550]

You can get distros that are one CD. Lindows, Linspire, Xandros, Knoppix all are one-CD distros. There are many more.

But, yeah, the extra CDs include things like mail/ftp/web servers, etc. Plus many, many more apps.

u can get bussness size distro too like debian sarge.... ;)

[markwolfe Veteran]

knoppix is debian

Knoppix most certainly is based on Debian.

However, if you run Knoppix, and you go into a Debian IRC room looking for assistance, you will promptly be shown the door and told you have Knoppix, not Debian.

;)

[Steffan]

do I need all 4 cds to install fedora? if not, then which one(s)?

[markwolfe Veteran]

do I need all 4 cds to install fedora? if not, then which one(s)?

Depends on what you plan in installing....

Usually, 1-3 are needed. I just did an install with Gnome only, and it just used 1 & 2, but it was otherwise pretty minimal. Get all 4 if you can. You never know when you might want a package that is on a CD you didn't download.

[nuka_t]

do I need all 4 cds to install fedora? if not, then which one(s)?

the more the better. im not sure about fedora, but in mandrake, after installing from the first cd, when it prompts you to insert the second and third ones, you can just put cancel and it dosent install from them, and you still get a working install.

[Bearded Kirklander]

Makdrake 10. Tried it, love it. It does not get much easier and stable than this. It doesn't even mess up my other FAT 32 partitions/drives! Leaves them totally alone. This is one great distro.