Ubuntu installs easily, and works properly. It detected all of my hardware, and you can listen to mp3 and watch .flv off the bat. Still, I find myself hating the distro... I can only assume it is because so many people love it, or because the touchy feely, warm and fuzzy, love everyone Ubuntu mission. I'm not trying to disrespect Ubuntu fans. I think the distro is one of the easiest to install and use.
That might be the main reason I dislike it. I've installed and used several distros and find myself frustrated with the difficulty of some of them, and on the other hand I love the fact that they are American, or they don't have any warm and fuzzy politically correct garbage, or they aren't pushing some agenda on me. I'd love to find the perfect distro that doesn't owe anything to some corporation or isn't pushing some agenda other than the open source gnu agenda. A distro that installs easily, detects most hardware, *installs proprietary drivers, and then works reliably. Is that too much to ask?
So if anyone knows of a distro like that let me know.

You don't really have to let me know, this was more of a rant than anything else. I just wanted to know if I was alone on this or if anyone else could identify with my plight... but if you do have a distro in mind let me know, I'll try it.

I've used Debian, Mepis, dsl, Puppy, Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora, PCLinuxOS, Gentoo, FreeBSD, Vector, Saybayon, and a few others I can't recall.


*I realize that doesn't fit the open or gnu agenda, but it is more convenient.

I assume media codecs is your main issue after hw detection?

try linuxmint?

If what you say is true, you should keep Ubuntu (which works), and deal with the issue of letting irrational impulses guide your decisions.

I like Ubuntu, but I really don't understand your post. You've made all these statements about your feelings, and nothing to backup your feelings.

Ubuntu meets all of your requirements as well, or better than, almost any distribution out there. It will detect almost any hardware, installs and runs reliably, and installs some proprietary drivers...

I've yet to have Ubuntu's correctness shoved down my throat. If you don't like it, don't use it. I hate M$'s politics as much as anybody, but I never let that influence whether or not to use their OS. You say it should be harder, then use a distribution thats harder, there's plenty out there.

If you consider trying to make something available to everyone for no charge "warm and fuzzy", then I guess I'm warm and fuzzy, something I've NEVER been accused of in this life time.

If codecs is your issue, using Google for about 4sec, will point you to Medibuntu, and will solve your problem. If you have the right programs installed, you don't really even need codecs installed (VLC)

IGF

It's just something about Ubuntu that doesn't sit right with me. I wasn't really wanting a distro suggestion so much as to see if I was the only one with an irrational dislike of the distro. I've used plenty of different distros and change them all the time just for fun. That might even be part of my problem is it installs and works and I don't have to tweak anything. Yes it is irrational. I just was wondering if I was the only one with this ... eh hem... problem...?

I found myself wanting more once "everything" worked (after switching to Un\buntu). I had my server, mythtv, laptop, desktop all working and suddenly - nothing to tinker with!

That is what made me go to gentoo last year for my laptop - I needed the intellectual challenge of finding the right kernel setup, conf files, ect.

Now, my work has me extremely busy again, and I don't have time to recompile - I am back to Ubuntu. If it is because everything works right out of the box - challenge yourself with something like Arch, Gentoo, the 'real' Debian, or LFS again as you said you have tried. Find something and stick with it for at least 6mo - 1yr, then, if you are ready to move on, switch again. With a smart partitioning scheme, there is no harm in multiple distro's

I have done the network card install of Debian and I have installed and used Gentoo for fun for a while. I've been off work for Christmas with my family and the spare time got to me.

ok.

I too share your dislike of Ubuntu....so "points fingers at such users" heh heh

pure irrational behaviour.....or impure rational behaviour as we humans are not rational at all.

I resisted the urge to recommend sidux as you do have to read the wiki etc to enable codecs.

I continue to resist even tho, I now know you must have some reading skills in order to run and compile Gentoo.

I also have this feeling of knives in my back....must be because life is a dream?

knives... that would be a good name for a distro... I haven't tried sidux. I might give it a try on one of my other pc's to see if I like it.

The Linux World, as fragmented as ever. Damned if you keep it easy, damned if you keep it hard.

Yup... I even admitted to my dislike being irrational... I think I just like to fix things that are broken, and I hate things that are broken and needing repair... What can you do?

ANY DISTRO WITHOUT ROOT ACCESS IS NOT REALLY LINUX !!!
you want a good reason for disliking it there it is
I dislike youbumtoo so much I have given it my own name
I had it installed once for as long as it took me to give up on finding root access
I also doubt any slacker would like it ether

Just because _YOU_ couldn't get into it's root mode for whatever reason doesn't mean it sucks.

And btw, your given name describes _YOU_ well [..jk..]

Dammit! Reported double post.

I didn't really get why they made it difficult to logon as root. Someone told me it was so users wouldn't mess up their install but that didn't make much sense since they could mess it up using synaptic and su.