Life cycles - how long is yours?
 

Hi,

I am about to change distro. Dont get me wrong, Fedora is the best... :hattip: but it changes too fast. This year saw the FC12, and the FC13 mid-summer, the FC14 is due for Yule. Too fast for me :banghead:. If I have to re-install, re-configure and re-figure-out every six months, I waste too much time. I do have projects to get done too, ya know...:p

So, in short:

What is your distro and how long have you had this particular install so far?

Thanks

Thor

Now I'm working with:

Ubuntu 10.04, have it for a week or so.
Debian Squeeze a month (supermicro server)
Debian Squeeze 3 months (storage server for video / music)
Ubuntu 9.xx (don't remember) on a multimedia computer


I'm changing too often ... . I allways install with a separate /home so I don't loose too much information. One advantage of reinstalling is that I know how to install all my software by hard :).

I use Slackware. The Distro itself is not updated until Pat deems it ready. But when it is, it's one of the most stable systems you can get. The only problem maybe for you that Slackware doesn't have dependency installing automatically. Personally I like this way better. But Slackware doesn't have a specific schedule to be released so it may be a while.

Mandriva One, Free, PowerPack editions:

Desktop updates are provided for 12 months (desktop environments, browsers, major apps).
Base system & components updates are provided for 18 months (Linux kernel, Apache, etc.).
At certain times, Mandriva may choose to extend updates support for certain versions of Mandriva Linux.
Some products may benefit from an extended maintenance offering, for 18 more months.

Get a rolling Distro. Its version never changes. I use Arch linux. its great

As you see, I use Fedora, but I've never felt the need to adopt every new version. I always wait to see what sort of reaction a new edition gets, and I check whether it has anything in it that I need. Actually, I'm expecting to move to CentOS 6 when it comes out.

Have a look at OpenSuse. It has a longer life cycle, but is not too dissimilar in feel to Fedora.

Hi,

Thanks all of you. There is a mix here, short, long. I Use FC10, and am glad to see I'm not alone...

The question folds around security updates. If I'm pretty safe on the Net, is a new install really needed?

I'll download Arch and see what that does. I just tried Debian's netinstall but there seems to be a problem contacting mirrors...so I don't know what that is all about.

It's long(er) time use I'm looking for - I do NOT want to go back to hell...erhm...windows...

Thanks for the light in the dark!

Thor

And OpenSuse - there's annother name popping up all over the place - why not?

Eh, I'll try em both...

Thor

man...I ran out of blanks...

Just had a deep look into Debian - looks like the winner, if I get that *** sound going in applets...

Arch rolling release FTW! :D

I also have Ubuntu 9.04, but it sees little use anymore...

Arch Linux -- I've had this install for over two years! :)

Is'nt it somewhat "iffy" that I cannot get on to the Debian website from my Debian install? I can reach every site, except www.debian.org...

And some mirrors are unreachable as well...

This is weird.

Thor

I'm running Mandriva 2010.1. I originally installed Mandrake 7.2 back around 2002 and I have never reinstalled, just updated.

Now, some of the updates were thrilling, particularly in the early days. But the last several have gone off without a hitch.

No problems accessing the Debian site from a Debian machine here.

I am using Debian since 2004, and I see no reason to change it.

Why should I? I have been investing 6 years in learning all ins and outs of Debian. Starting over with a new distro voids all that knowledge. Even Debian is not perfect.

I recommend against distro hopping. Changing distro because you can't solve something is replacing known problems with a lot of unknown problems.

jlinkels

+1 for Arch rolling release.

Here's what's currently on my desktop PC:

Fedora Rawhide - installed Aug 22
Fedora 14alpha - installed Aug 15
Fedora 13 - installed Feb 27
Ubuntu 10.10alpha - installed Jun 12
Mint 9 - installed May 22

Good question!

A couple of months ago, I upgraded to Slackware 13.1 from version 12.0, which I had been using since July 2007. Prior to that, I was using 10.2 for almost 2 years. Before this, I was pretty much upgrading to new versions as they were released... all the way back to version 7.0.

As I get older, and other things in life take up more of my time, I find that I'm not so keen to upgrade something which works. :)

Ubuntu 9.10 since November 2009, then upgraded to 10.10 the day it was released.

Had an on-and-off love affair with openSUSE which ended about a month ago.

I'm also running any number of distro's in virtualbox at any given time-- Mint, PCLinuxOS, CentOS 5x, and PC-BSD 8.1.

My Gentoo init says 2007 :)

My "workhorse" distro is Ubuntu. I upgraded to 8.04 when support ended for 6.06.

I only use LTS versions; They're supported for three years. ;)

Cheers

So...maybe rkelsen's approach is the better one...dont touch it if it works...

Perhaps (if it is internet-safe) I should simply continue with FC10 until I'm fed up with it...
Then I will have to do the switch, Fedora changes way too frequently...

So... :D hey, that leaves me with a void PC that I can play around with! Wheeee!!!!

I used Fedora until 2008, F8 was the last verison of Fedora I used. Due to the short life cycle of Fedora I switched to Centos 5. I've been running Centos 5 ever since and never had a problem with it. When I do have time I do play with other distros in a VirtualBox.

Hi,

Ok, all of ya: T-N-X!!!

I think I found my distro: Arch.

Requirements:
-Rolling, no need to reinstall over and over : check
-Up to date : check
-Sound in Java : check
-Sun JDK/JRE : check
-Speed : check, but that's to be expected, it is a newer machine...
-Educational : big check, I need a disto I can learn something from. Granted, I could have learned more from LFS, but hey, I'm not that accomplished yet...:D

All in all the distro I was looking for!

Thanks everybody

Thor

I keep updating my Linux installations to ensure they're bleeding edge (and in most cases do it by adding new package repositories [like Maverick ones to Lucid]), but I have had Ubuntu since Jaunty and Mint since 7 "Gloria". If you count the years before I got the new network adapter and before I switched back to WinBloze (briefly), I actually used Ubuntu Hardy and gOS 2 "Rocket" as well. Those were the days, but now I consider Linux my passion.

I am very impressed with Vector linux. This is the one that stays on the computer I use the most. Sadly they do not have the option to upgrade but then I always reformat the drive before installing a new one.
I agree with OP that the upgradation should not be done simply beacuse there is an issue you cannot solve. Forums like these exist for this very reason.
Learning the distros is something one should try doing.
So distrohopping is not recommended