Need to find the right distro whichs not like slckwre but not too limited like mndrke

mikeymorgan · 10-20-2005, 12:25 PM

Hi, im a bit puzzled at the moment. I know a little about linux as it is, but i still cannot find the right distribution for me. Ive tried slackware, love it and all but its lack of packaging system, and many other things kind of drove me away. I dont like the too simpilised distros like ubuntu, mandrake and a lot which prevent you from getting your hands dirty. Could someone suggest me a distribution? Any help would be highly appreciated.

juanbobo · 10-20-2005, 12:51 PM

Debian is a good balance between ease of use and user control I think.

mikeymorgan · 10-20-2005, 12:54 PM

I thought debian would be suggested. Where do you think i could buy a cheap cd or dvd set of sarge or etch?

XavierP · 10-20-2005, 01:12 PM

How about something like VectorLinux? It's based off Slack but has package management. Or try Gentoo.

juanbobo · 10-20-2005, 04:58 PM

Vendors of Debian:

http://www.debian.org/CD/vendors/

mikeymorgan · 10-20-2005, 06:09 PM

Erm ive tried gentoo, but erm didnt get that far...

gunnix · 10-21-2005, 04:26 PM

Hi, I suggest you to try out FreeSBD (similar to linux), Debian testing or Arch linux.
All 3 have terrific package management, and you'll get your hands dirty

Currently I'm impressed a lot by FreeBSD and I think it's better then debian (faster boot, better sound), but that's maybe only because I got a bit bored with debian and I wanted something new...

mikeymorgan · 10-22-2005, 05:50 PM

Ive always wanted to try FreeBSD. How hard is it to install compared to slackware? And how different to Linux is it?

BittaBrotha · 10-22-2005, 09:38 PM

Try Archlinux, Crux Linux or Freebsd. These are some that you can get down & dirty with. A good challenge.

Also you may look at Sourcemage, a good source based distro but to me, easier than Gentoo.

www.distrowatch.com

juvestar15 · 10-22-2005, 11:37 PM

I'm in the same boat as you mikey, it's a tough choice. I've mainly used SUSE, Ubuntu, Gentoo, Debian(sid) and Arch Linux. They all have nice package management which is an absolute must for me. SUSE and Ubuntu were easy, but you can make them hard, you probably have to force yourself to though. Gentoo was very good, packages are up to date and lots of support, I stopped using it because I wasn't making use of what gentoo is all about. I would install things without setting the right configurations and so on. It's an excelletn distro though and would will probably go back to it when I can sit down and read through the manuals.

Debian Sid is suprisingly good, It's been on my computer for 2 weeks, installed a lot of things and hasn't crashed so far. To be honest I've had more problems with other distros that are in their "stabe" stage. I used Gnome with it because KDE was a bit of a hassle to get going. The distro I used the most was Arch Linux. Just by browsing /etc and looking into config files I was able to do a lot of things that didn't require me to search on the net for. It was lightning fast and had a nice package management system. In the last week though they didn't have software I needed so I was compiling and trying to find dependencies. I got pretty fed and thought I'd try something new.

If you don't mind compiling times and reading up on it, Gentoo is definitely the go. Otherwise Debian etch/sid. Then if you don't mind compiling the odd program here and there because a distro has little packages, go with Arch. These are just my preferences, I want to give Vector a shot now, I'd never heard much of it until it was mentioned in this thread.

mikeymorgan · 10-23-2005, 06:29 AM

how can i get my hands on a iso of debian sid? or a cd?

XavierP · 10-23-2005, 07:30 AM

Download Linux via LQ.

mikeymorgan · 10-23-2005, 07:43 AM

I cannot find debian testing or sid on the download linux thingy

gunnix · 10-24-2005, 06:18 AM

FreeBSD is different from linux with naming of devices, differences in tools because no GNU tools are used (or less). I think GNU tools can be installed but they aren't by default (and bsd tools are probably better anyway). The biggest change is ofcourse the kernel.. it supports less hardware then the linux kernel, but not that much less. I never had any problem with it.

Also filesystem used is different then in linux etc.

But program whise it's actually almost all the same like in linux. FreeBSD has about 14000 ports I think, so comparable to Debian's amount of packages.

In FreeBSD there is one big advantage tho, because the ports system let's you compile programs and install them very easily (bit like gentoo's portage) and you also have the binary package system (with pkg_add) that lets you install binary packages very quickly (bit like debian apt-get). So you get the best from both worlds.

When I first tried
freebsd I didn't understand very well how to install and update packages very well (because there are many tools do do it I guess). So here I've put some tips to do it (configure pkg_add, etc): http://users.skynet.be/six/gpure/tech/freebsd.txt

grtz

gunnix

lestoil · 11-01-2005, 10:06 PM

If u want easy debian than dl xandros or free version of libranet. A sid-based live-cd such as kanotix or mepis or knoppix can give tryout and these can be installed to hd. One cd not 13 or 2DVDs.
If u want SLW-like with arch's pacman try frugalware0.2. Or ARCH.
There are bsd live cds also that can be installed. But are they ready for primetime--read distrowatch reviews. Have fun.