DEFINITIVE: Which Linux Distro? (poll)

[DjmUK]

I just want to know why Fedora/Mandrake/SuSe need 3+ CDs, while Gentoo only needs 2, and Ubuntu only needs 1? Does it mean that Gentoo/Ubuntu needs more work (read installation of software) to get it up and running properly? or does Gentoo/Ubuntu just not come with a lot of redundant stuff?

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Fedora / Mandrake / SuSe has a LOT of extra applications that desktop users would like. Fedora Core 3 takes 6.7GB to install 'Everything'.

Gentoo isn't really a Desktop system, it doesn't have a Graphical User Interface as default, and it only installs the sheer necessities.

All Linux distros can install all Linux apps, but not everyone wants to install all the 'extras' which is great for servers who want to run Gentoo without a pretty interface and redundant software that they will never use, and this gives the user complete control over 'what to' and 'what not' to install.

P.S.

Fedora Core 3 & Gentoo 2005.0 rocks!

[BluePhlame1337]

suse is awsome

[rezza Veteran]

Close, I guess- Ubuntu's pretty similar to Gentoo (haven't worked extensively with either, feel free to correct me there), but there's one *huge* difference-- Ubuntu is built for you.

There's a serious, serious speed difference in Gentoo when you make the kernel and programs yourself with optemisation versus downloading the prepackaged bins or just compiling with no optomizing.

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Oh, really? Have your run benchmarks to measure this "serious, serious" speed difference? I believe you'll find that the speed increases are marginal at best, and some popular compile optimisations used by many gentoo users (for instance -O3 in your CFLAGS) can sometimes slow down software rather than speed it up. I think you'll find it difficult to provide links to solid evidence which demonstrates a practical, noticable jump in speed when using hardware-specific optimisations.

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge gentoo supporter, and have used it pretty much exclusively as my main OS for a couple of years now, and I think it is still the best system for me to use (portage is just so ridiculously powerful when you learn all the ins and outs of the additional portage tools available), but I do honestly believe that the oft-touted "speed advantages" that gentoo has over other distros are pretty much non-existant in practice. Any reasonably recent, well-configured and setup linux system will run fast.

Gentoo is powerful for the flexibility it brings to the table more than anything else, imho.

[Knight']

I agree rezza, totally.

[Hurmoth]

I've always been a Fedora fan, but I decided to download and play around with Ubuntu 5.04 earlier today and all I can say is wow... very nicely done. Of course I've only used it for about three hours now, but from what I can tell so far, it is a much better distro then Fedora.

[Malisk]

Debian / Other Debian-based...

More precisely: MEPIS.

Holds similar quality as Ubuntu, but this distro was from the scratch designed for KDE, not Gnome.

Currently, the popularity ranking (based on distro page visits) on Distrowatch.com shows:

1. Ubuntu

2. Mandrake

3. Fedora

4. MEPIS

5. SUSE

6. Debian

7. Knoppix

... which speaks a bit of its popularity and curiosity it's raising. :)

I'm therefore a bit surprised that it's not even a choice here. :(

[Coeus]

Ahh?forget about distros. FreeBSD is the only way to go.

True UNIX at its finest. Nothing can compare to the ports system.

Anything else is just imitation:p:p .

[markwolfe Veteran]

Currently, the popularity ranking (based on distro page visits) on Distrowatch.com shows:

1. Ubuntu

2. Mandrake

3. Fedora

4. MEPIS

5. SUSE

6. Debian

7. Knoppix

... which speaks a bit of its popularity and curiosity it's raising. :)

I'm therefore a bit surprised that it's not even a choice here.  :(

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Well, our installed base here at Neowin seems to be different than the general population who visits Distrowatch.

Our order (as of today) is

1. Fedora

2. Gentoo

3. SUSE

4. Ubuntu

5. Mandrake

While Mepis may be a great Debian-based distro, if we add the "Other Debian" + the "Other - Please specify" categories up, and assume that they all were Mepis, it still would not add up any higher than Ubuntu (which dominates the Debian varieties here).

But, in the Open Source world, things change very quickly. Ubuntu has rocketed into the spotlight from a new distro freshly created. At the end of the year, we will have the ability to remove a distro or two and add in whatever new popular items have come up.

[random]

is there a linux distro out there that is able to fully "emulate" windows xp?

i'm looking for something that would be able to run almost all windows applications, along with autodetect hardware and install, but with none of the hassles of windows.

[speedy_86]

I have Debian sarge and unstable in use at home.

I'd like to try Gentoo but with the exams creepin up on me :x I don't have time to play qith it. Will do it in the summer though.

Cheers speedy_86

[markwolfe Veteran]

is there a linux distro out there that is able to fully "emulate" windows xp?

i'm looking for something that would be able to run almost all windows applications, along with autodetect hardware and install, but with none of the hassles of windows.

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I think that is called Windows.

You cannot jump into Linux expecting it to be just like Windows and have any sort of expectation of success.

In Windows, you are a user. In Linux, you must learn to be an administrator. It is extra work to get to learn to manage your system, but once that is done, you will find that Linux runs much more reliably and problem-free than Windows.

But you cannot start with a requirement that it runs Windows applications.

[Prosidius]

Why is Ubuntu so popular? What does it have that others don't?

[g-n-t]

lots and lots of money behind it.

[msg43]

Why is Ubuntu so popular?  What does it have that others don't?

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It's Simple

It everything a noob or a basic *nix user wants

it like fedora 3 w/out the bs (mp3,etc...) and it has a bunch of nifty features that are made see able

Great way to switch from windows to linux

[goofrider]

Debian / Other Debian-based...

More precisely: MEPIS.

Holds similar quality as Ubuntu, but this distro was from the scratch designed for KDE, not Gnome.

Currently, the popularity ranking (based on distro page visits) on Distrowatch.com shows:

1. Ubuntu

2. Mandrake

3. Fedora

4. MEPIS

5. SUSE

6. Debian

7. Knoppix

... which speaks a bit of its popularity and curiosity it's raising. :)

I'm therefore a bit surprised that it's not even a choice here.  :(

585722483[/snapback]

I believe SimplyMEPIS was largely derived from Knoppix. I could be wrong though.

Most Debian/KDE live CD distros are derived from Knoppix.

[goofrider]

Why is Ubuntu so popular?  What does it have that others don't?

585748123[/snapback]

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/releases/

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/relationship/

In a nutshell, Ubuntu is desktop-oriented, community-driven distro for x86, AMD64 and PPC, with a rapid development cycle based on snapshots of Debian Sid.

Long version:

Ubuntu has a 6-month release cycle, sychronized with each release of Gnome. At each release cycle, it takes a snapshot from Debian Sid and integrates Ubuntu's own changes, then it's repository is frozen at the end of the release cycle. Ubuntu achieves a more rapid cycle by narrowing its focus to to the desktop, restricting its target to 3 CPU architetures and shrinking the number of offcially supported packages. Ubuntu splits Debian's main section into two: Ubuntu main (officially supported) and Ubuntu universe (community supported). Ubuntu main only has a fraction of the packages in Debian main, the rest is in universe.

While it's taken from Debian Sid at each cycle, Ubuntu has it's own package repository (unlike, say, Knoppix, Progency, MEPIS, etc., which all relies on Debian's official repo). Each final release version of Ubuntu has its own frozen repository, so you don't have to worry about a newer (but buggy) package in Sid's archive breaking your system.

It also tracks Gnome closely. One of its missions is to include the latest version of Gnome as soon as it's released. Ubuntu Hoary went final in a matter of days after Gnome 2.10 did.

I find Ubuntu's installation painless. Debian tends to ask me too many questions during X server installation, while Ubuntu pretty much did everything automatically. Though Ubuntu is probably not quite as good as Knoppix in the hardware detection department. Ubuntu also includes some closed source hardware drivers by default, though it otherwise stick to a free software-only policy.

Ubuntu is commited to fit its installation on a single CD. You can download all the xtra packages using apt-get. Like Debian, you can always download the next release via apt-get and do an in-place upgrade, instead of downloading another ISO for the upgrade.

Ubuntu is also the first and only Debian distro to switch to X.org's X server. Debian Sid is still using XFree86 and X.org is still broken.

Finally, Ubuntu has a lively community similar to that of Fedora. It can be difficult to find support for Debian due to its breadth. It relies on some 30 mailing lists and has no official forums. Ubuntu's support is much more centralized, and its narrower focus also make it easier to find answers.

What Ubuntu doesn't differ from Debian is that Ubuntu has a strict free software policy, it's built on Debian Sid so it maintain the same rigid packaging policy and Q&A. Apt-get provides the same painless package management and version upgrades (never have to download more ISOs for each upgrade).

So there you have it. Ubuntu is to Debian as Fedora is to Red Hat, with some added commercial backing and free software philosophy.

Edited April 12, 2005 by goofrider

[meeseontheleese]

id say ubuntu, my im a heavy multimedia user, and so far it really hasnt been doing that well for getting my media to work correctly. so im thinking of switching to fedora core 3, if theres a way to not use kde and gnome instead (is there?)

[blik]

id say ubuntu, my im a heavy multimedia user, and so far it really hasnt been doing that well for getting my media to work correctly. so im thinking of switching to fedora core 3, if theres a way to not use kde and gnome instead (is there?)

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Yes, and gnome is the default WM in FC3 afaik. I dont think you'll get a better multimedia experience using FC3 either. Whats wrong with Ubuntu, or what cant you get working?

[meeseontheleese]

sweet, might make the switch to fc3 (whats afaik) then. Ubuntu is okay, but when i try to get mp3s to work on say amarok or rhythm box, no luck

( i get that /dev/dsp or something like that is busy or some other error). they work on totem, but one a song at a time, and i wanna switch on the fly from a program. Speaking of totem, when i try to watch a movie from it, it lags horribly. Also after a while or so ill get some failed sequences in my boot (dual boot with winxp), dont really know the reason. Might be how i mounted my ntfs partition, help in the link right here if you can

msg43 saying:

"....... it like fedora 3 w/out the bs (mp3,etc...) and it has a bunch of nifty features that are ...."

[blik]

^ afaik = as far as i know

And i think msg43 was reffering to the licensing issue with mp3's which now affects Ubuntu as well as Fedora/Red Hat. After reading his post I think he is promoting Ubuntu over FC3...

[markwolfe Veteran]

^ afaik = as far as i know

And i think msg43 was reffering to the licensing issue with mp3's which now affects Ubuntu as well as Fedora/Red Hat. After reading his post I think he is promoting Ubuntu over FC3...

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The MP3 licensing also affects SUSE now. Thank you, Software Patents. :rolleyes:

I am a FC user, but it is possible that you will run into the same problems as you did in Ubuntu. Possible, also, that things will be easier. Sometimes a different approach is what it takes to 'click'. If there was a perfect distro for everyone, then everyone would use it, no? ;)

[f0vela]

I really like Ubuntu. :D

I'm using it as my main OS. :D

[popoff]

Linspire Five!

[markwolfe Veteran]

Hmmm... Linspire has been getting a lot more positive press lately, with the release of their version 5.

I'd be interested in what their real marketshare is.

[msg43]

ARCH LINUX!!!

Best i686 distro around!