Which Distro?

[White Shadow]

I've been running the Drake series 7, 7.1, 7.2.
I'm looking at going to a new distro but I don't know which one. I'm debating between slackware 7.1, Debian and SuSe. I want to learn a little more bout linux and Drake is just to easy. Any advice is helpful.

Thanks,
WS

[This message has been edited by White Shadow (edited 29 November 2000).]

[Counterstrike]

I think a poll of the boys here at LNO will reveal one predominant distro.

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/cool.gif Slackware http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/cool.gif

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Slacker_3]

hmmmmm I think ummmmmmm ummmmmmm SLACKWARE!

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The one and only...
www.slackware.com (http://www.slackware.com)
Slackware Resources
www.linuxmafia.org (http://www.linuxmafia.org)

[Shad]

LFS :P anything else is for weenies.

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Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[rod]

Originally posted by Counterstrike:
I think a poll of the boys here at LNO will reveal one predominant distro.

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/cool.gif Slackware http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/cool.gif

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Yep he's right..... boys use Slack. REAL MEN and WOMEN use DEBIAN. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif


[This message has been edited by rod (edited 29 November 2000).]

[MADHATter7]

This question has been the start of many a distro war, I suspect. But, here is my take:

SuSE is something like Mandrake, RedHat and related distros. Pretty easy to install, configure, use, etc. (However, I've never used SuSE --so get a few more posts first)

Slackware seems to be the distro of preference here at the LNO, a lot of memebers here use Slackware. I do use it some, but haven't gotten into it very heavily yet. It's main features are control, stability and it is light. (meaning not bloated with lots of extra utilities, features, etc.) Given time and practice, Slackware is one of the most powerful distros there is. (Like I said, this is from what I have read, I have only a little time on Slack)

My distro of choice nowdays is Debian. It seems to be best suited for me. It also is stable, powerful, pretty light and has the BEST package tool, bar none. Debian is also a true open source release. (i.e. not released by any company) It is maintained by a group of volunteers who communicate and work over the Internet.

BTW, it is a good move to try Slack or Debian early in your Linux life. It will teach you alot about how things work. (They are not as GUI/wizard centered as Mandrake)

Hope this has helped you...

[rod]

You left yourself wide open for that one... Counterstrike.

[ColdPack]

Originally posted by rod:
You left yourself wide open for that one... Counterstrike.

I must say that I have tried many a distro and debian still has a solid hold of me. I would strongly advise giving debian (or one of it's commercial variations like Storm, Libranet and, soon, Progeny) a try.
I don't have the time to list all of the reasons why it's so great... it just is.
(In no way is this to be taken as an anti-slackware post... I just find debian more pleasing.) http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif


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"Sometimes I think war is God's way of teaching us geography."
--- Paul Rodriguez

[11000]

A link to the Distro NHF: http://linuxnewbie.internet.com/nhf/intel/distros/distronhf.html

If you want to learn Linux, then Slackware or Debian is the way to go. There's no fancy GUI config tools that do all the work for you, so you actually will know what's going on behind the scenes. Since some of it is personal preference, try them both if you want, that way you can decide which one you like better.

I personally think Slackware is the best. Once I learned BSD-style init, there's no way I'd go back to SysV. Slackware strives to stay true to UNIX, and well, the CLI just looks awesome! http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif Basically you'll learn more in one week with Slackware then you learned in months with Mandrake.


[This message has been edited by 11000 (edited 29 November 2000).]

[ph34r]

If you *really* want to learn about linux, then don't use a distro. Do a LFS system - after that, go ahead and use Debian (or a deb-based one like Libranet or Storm) or Slackware.

[btberch]

Well I used drake 7.0 and 7.1 for the most part of 8 months and suse 6.4 for a short time in there also, but last week installed slack 7.1. I had tried earlier versions of Slack and never took the time to get x up and working. Just would re-install drake. Took me 3 tries to do xf86config right, hit enter the first 2 times when i shouldn't, and well worth the learning experience. Learned more since friday than in the first 8 months of using linux as far as the system is concerned.

I have a linux only box and do all my business records with linux. Works great.

Debian, I don't know, but the only reason I see people using it is apt-get......could be wrong though, just my thought.

[jae1677]

Try as many as you can and find one that suits you. They are all good. You just have to play around untill you find the one that you just have to use all the time.

New versions of each dist come out so often that it's hard to decide on one to stick with.

I've tried;

corel 1 + 2
redhat 6.0 + 6.2
debian 2.0 + 2.2
caldera 2.3 + 2.4 + tecnologie preview
slack 7.0
suse 6.4
mandrake 7.0 + 7.1 + 7.2
storm hail
best linux
max os
turbo linux
freebsd 3.1 + 4.0 (ok, not exactly linux)
BeOs (not linux either)

After all those I like the mandrake stuff the best and that is my primary OS. (7.2 currently) I went out and bought a 2nd hard drive just to try out different linux versions. If at all possible leave enough room on your hard drive to try a new OS and see if that is the one you just have to have. Computers should be fun. Linux makes them fun. There is always a new trick or toy to play with in Linux. Each dist has it's own + and - points to it. You just have to find YOUR LINUX.

ENJOY

[elinor]

BTW - some of us are GRRLS...

Decide what you want from a distro, and then choose the one that suits your particular needs. The user, not the distro, is what counts.

[larryliberty]

So far I've tried Red Hat, Mandrake, Turbo, SuSE and Slackware. I started the LFS thing, but stopped when I realized I needed to know more about bash to understand the startup scripts. After learning more about bash, LFS seemed to be superfluous. Anyway, I like Slackware best, though on my next PC I'll try FreeBSD!

[vvx]

What is linux? It's a bunch of packages, and a kernel all packaged up for you. Is there any single distribution that is any more powerful than any other? No, because it's just a bunch of packages, you could upgrade any linux distribution to be the most powerful web server you could ever want. Hell, you could even take tomsrtbt, put it on a hard drive with a nice big partition and use it to host a major web site. That said, my current recomendation for the slack/deb thing (besides that debian knocks the socks of slack) is use whatever is readily available to you, and what more of the people you know are using. They're both pretty good, and share many of the same advantages. So, if most of your friends are using debian and you go with slack, you'll have that many fewer people to run to when you have problems.

[milanuk]

Way to go, guys. Here I was hammering away at this long diatribe about various benefits of various distros, and the more I typed, the more I want to try Slackware again. I haven't really done much with it since 3.0 or 3.2, and back then, it didn't have a lot of support for my then-bleeding-edge Matrox Millenium video card in X, and I was too fresh from Win3.1/95 to want to live in a CLI. Debian is great, and what I currently run, but the age of some of the packages in stable is ridiculous, even for a volunteer effort. And the times when I've tried moving to unstable has been around 1) the big libc6 stink and 2) various times when X was broken big time. Ugh.

Monte

[Craig McPherson]

Anyone who doesn't use Debian is my eternal Blood Enemy who I swear undying Vendetta against.

Therefore, you have to ask yourself, do YOU want to be my eternal Blood Enemy?

Your answer should influence your decision.

(And no, Corel and Storm don't count. I spare those people's families, though. I'm at truce with Libranetters... at the moment. DEBIAN is the word, not Debian-based)

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http://users.ipa.net/~cmcpher/paminv.gif DEBIAN (http://www.debian.org/) http://users.ipa.net/~cmcpher/paminv.gif
It turns girls into statues!

[This message has been edited by Craig McPherson (edited 29 November 2000).]

[White Shadow]

Wow, Thanks all. I think I'm going to get debian and slackware and try them both. Thanks again.

WS

[Keyser Soze]

you should use windows98...uh...LMAO. Slack is nice. Use whatever you can get your hands on, the more the merrier. WHy use just one, use them all, be hard.

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Ummm. What do you mean why did I put fiber in at home? I just got bored, and the only way to make it better is to just make it complicated as hell, and then I forget I'm bored. What other reason for a segmented, routed, linux+Novell+NT+2000 hybrid ethernet/FDDI/Token ring network for your home is there?

[Craig McPherson]

http://users.ipa.net/~cmcpher/newad.jpg

[Counterstrike]

Originally posted by rod:
You left yourself wide open for that one... Counterstrike.


http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

[evil_roy]

make sure you choose a distro with apt-get.

There's only do much you can learn by typing
./configure
make
make install

apt-get install is the best linux friend you'll ever make.

[MovingTarget]

SLACKWARE