Linux - DistributionsThis forum is for Distribution specific questions.
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I'm not here to ask "which distro is right for me?" or "what's the best distro?" this place is full of questions like that. I want to know What's your favorite distro? What distro do you use and why do you like it? Is it easy to install? Is it fast? Easy-to use? Hard-to-use? Tell me what your personal favorite distro is and a little bit about why. This is about personal opinion, not necessarily about technical superiority, (although if that's why it's your favorite, feel free to share ) Version is irrelevant, so if your favorite distro came out in 1999, or is no longer supported, or whatever, please feel free to share. And please, no flame wars on this thread, flame each other through your email, not the forum.
I personally like Gentoo because of it's packaging system, and the fact that you can get ebuilds for the latest and greatest out there. In second place would be Debian, although I am becoming less and less fond of the apt packaging system since it is binary and is it not as up-to-date with the latest package versions, forcing me a lot of times into building packages from source. I like the idea of running a mixed system (stable/unstable), where Debian limits this slightly, requiring you to upgrade the entire system for the smallest unstable package. As opposed to a source based system that would let you build according to your current configuration.
This is the distro I use and recommend, Why because it works right out of the box. No need to configure Everything, everything just works. It also comes as a 1 CD install that is a live CD that you can install later if you wish.
My favorite is Gentoo as well. It can be difficult to install if your not good with directions, but if you get it up and running you can't beat it in my opinion. For developers especially since there is no need to install dev packages or anything of that nature. GCC is already there to use. So yeah I love it.
Distribution: Slackware 10.2, Debian Testing/Unstable, Ubuntu Breezy Badger, working on LFS
Posts: 228
Rep:
My new favorite distro is Ubuntu, which I absolutely hated until I got XGL working on it. I still use Debian for day to day stuff and LFS for tinkering, though.
My favorite so far is also slackware, though the lack of a full-blown dependency resolving package manager like portage or apt is sometimes an inconvenience.
I've recently tried ubuntu and I think it's also quite nice. Very easy and its hardware detection is also quite good, and it comes on only one CD.
My favorite is definitely Slackware. I prefer using the command line for configuration and administration. And even though there are lots of packages available at linuxpackes.net, I like to install by compiling from source, and I've never had problems compiling using Slackware. I also like Slack's speed compared to other distros I use, or have used in the past. There was a huge speed increase over SuSe 10 on the same machine, and slight speed increase over Fedora. I also like a lean installation that lets me add what I want, and I don't care for what I would call the "fluff" of lots of software that I'll never use that comes standard with other distributions.
I've seen a whole slew of different builds of Linux, and, admittedly, a good part is just personal preference, but are there any *real* favorites, or the other way, *real* clunkers to stay away from?
I've got SUSE 10, Kubuntu, and "plain old" Ubuntu.
Of these (or others) are any more or less suitable for "learning"?
Well, the quick answer is no. There is no be-all end-all distro, although every distro's supporters will tell you that there distro is. :-) I think Mandrake is the most widely accepted "learning" distro, but you have many options. Linux is so highly customizable that you will have to know exactly what you want to find the right distro.
Start thinking about where you want to strike the balance between control and ease of use. On one end, you have Mandrake which offers very pretty gui config tools at the cost of a relatively low level of control. On the other end is Linux From Scratch, in which you literally configure every last thing by hand.
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) Version is irrelevant, so if your favorite distro came out in 1999, or is no longer supported, or whatever, please feel free to share. And please, no flame wars on this thread, flame each other through your email, not the forum.
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