Doing a report on Linux distros soon...

[canbeli]

I'm going to do a report on comparing the different Linux distributions, but I cannot afford that many, so I'm going to do 2 to 3 different ones. Reason: I only have 7 GB hardisk left.

Any ideas?

1) What areas should I include. (already included: First Boot, Menu arrangement (default), Installation time, Steps to install, Installation instructions)

2) What other distro should i compare? (Need 1 more. Current: Fedora Core 3 test 2, Mandrake Linux 10.1, thinking of adding Slackware to the list...)

3) Any other ideas/suggestions.

Though, I am sorry that I will have to take quite some time in this, as I can only start work after 11/10/2004, and I'm going overseas from 16/10/2004 to 14/11/2004. I also have to download all the packages...Arg!

:p

[SaguratuS]

Be sure to do gentoo, install may be a little nasty, but does it ever pay off :)

[pixil9]

well you could always do one on knoppix and do a cd boot.. no install

[canbeli]

Yeah. But that will be easy. I heard that for Gentoo, no packages are ready to use when it is first installed.

[SaguratuS]

Yeah. But that will be easy. I heard that for Gentoo, no packages are ready to use when it is first installed.

Well, for packages and gentoo, it's much more so a get what you need thing. The portage system is what makes gentoo a prime distro. Need firefox?

nick@root ~ $ emerge -s firefox

Searching...

[ Results for search key : firefox ]

[ Applications found : 2 ]

* net-www/mozilla-firefox

Latest version available: 1.0_pre

Latest version installed: 1.0_pre

Size of downloaded files: 31,637 kB

Homepage: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/

Description: The Mozilla Firefox Web Browser

License: MPL-1.1 | NPL-1.1

* net-www/mozilla-firefox-bin

Latest version available: 1.0_pre

Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]

Size of downloaded files: 7,953 kB

Homepage: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox

Description: The Mozilla Firefox Web Browser

License: MPL-1.1 NPL-1.1

To install - (from precompilied binary)

emerge mozilla-firefox-bin

(from source)

emerge mozilla-firefox

Not bad eh? It'll get all the prereq's as well, and installing KDE will bring along all the standard stuff as well.

[SaguratuS]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention -- to update ALL the software on your system, it's as simple as typing:

emerge sync (gets the latest file lists)

emerge world (updates pretty much all packages, doing emerge -p world will tell you exactly what it'll do first)

[canbeli]

Nice guide. So you are implying that i should try Gentoo? OK...partialy settled ;) Any other opinions?

[POTUS]

Give Arch Linux a go. Very good distro.

http://www.archlinux.org

[SaguratuS]

Nice guide. So you are implying that i should try Gentoo? OK...partialy settled ;) Any other opinions?

Heh, I'm a die hard gentoo fan after trying a majority of all the distros out there, the customization / speed / YOUR distro factor just makes it all around cool. Almost every gentoo install is unique from the beginning :)

[canbeli]

Hm...my tech friend says that Gentoo runs fast and so on. So perhaps i will try that.

[Daem0hn]

GENTOO, then umm, fedora and debian

if you do debian and gentoo, you can compare their package management systems (apt-get and emerge)

i use gentoo

* > rpms

[SaguratuS]

GENTOO, then umm, fedora and debian

if you do debian and gentoo, you can compare their package management systems (apt-get and emerge)

i use gentoo

* > rpms

I agree, anything is better than RPM's. Apt-get is nice, however their database is extremely small, and the program is fairly limited. Meanwhile, check out this screeny, and tell me that this just isn't cool :)

(Unfortunately I'm running at 1280x1024 until I get my 6800, so sorry for the small / bad quality screeny)

Edited September 28, 2004 by SaguratuS

[vhane]

The most important thing to watch out for: don't let your report put too much emphasis on the installation process. You only do that once in a blue moon anyway. Take the time to use each distro for a few weeks. That's the only way of making a review that's not skin deep. Consider how each differ from each other, and weigh the pros and cons of the differences. Consider what role the distro will be asked to do. Are you reviewing a distro for server use? Or for workstation use? For example, a server will require stability. For a workstation, you probably want ease of use and availability of the latest software.

Hope that helps :)

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I agree, anything is better than RPM's. Apt-get is nice, however their database is extremely small, and the program is fairly limited.

The default repositories for Debian have 14,700 packages. I'd hardly call that extremely small.

apt-get is rather robust but it can be combined with the Synaptic Package Manger GUI if you are having trouble with the command line.

[Knight']

Heh, I'm a die hard gentoo fan after trying a majority of all the distros out there, the customization / speed / YOUR distro factor just makes it all around cool.  Almost every gentoo install is unique from the beginning :)

Get the gentoo toolkit, (ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~your_arch" emerge gentoolkit) and use

esearch firefox

instead of

emerge -s firefox

MUCH quicker, and the tool kit provides tools to maintain your packages.

Edited September 28, 2004 by Knight'

[+BudMan MVC]

I would suggest you do NOT test any type of beta or dev or unstable distro - if your looking to compare distro's, you should only compare STABLE versions. Since it would be unfair if you came across a bug in a test distro - they are test versions for a reason, etc..

For example - you have FC3 test 2 listed as one of your distro's - you should use FC2 final instead.

[Knight']

Hm...my tech friend says that Gentoo runs fast and so on. So perhaps i will try that.

If all you're doing is writting a report, then for big packages like OpenOffice use the binary packages, it'll speed your install time no end. And if you're going for Gnome stick to 2.6 for now, 2.8 is hard masked for a reason - it's still unstable - it's not worth the hastle just yet. Wait until it's at least ~arch.

This... In my view at least goes for all packages.

Edited September 28, 2004 by Knight'

[canbeli]

OK, thanks for all your opinion guys. I'm going to use Mandrake 10.1, Gentoo, and Fedora Core 3 test 2. I heard that Fedora 3 Final was coming out soon, is that true? Sorry BudMan, but i think that the test 2 release works quite well, especially if I am not running so many apps on it. And for later use after the report, I will use Fedora. So...I will do a little on installation, and about first boot. Also all the menus and defaults, plus what you can set. Maybe I will also compare apps' loading times.