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Old 05-27-2006, 01:33 PM   #1
SquishyMarbles
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What are some BIG Linux distros (not really a noob!)


Alright, I've had some time to play around with FC5 and I'm not entirely happy with it for various reasons (I'm updating stuff now, so maybe that'll fix some problems). I'm really thinking about trying another distro.

The only problem is that Fedora Core is the only distro with a package collection that I am familiar with. It's got a huge number. I've got the 3.0GB DVD ISO, for example, and it comes on like 5 CD's. I just checked out Ubuntu and it's only 1 CD at 600MB. SuSE is confusing thanks to Novell's marketing. The bottom line is that I don't know of any other distros besides FC that include a lot of packages. Can anyone help?

That's enough for my basic question, but here's some of the rationale. I'm really into trying new things on the OS, just like I fiddled with getting httpd and thttpd on FC5 to serve up a webpage (at least I think it was thttpd). I really want to try Tomcat next, and it's included with FC5. I really like how FC5 includes both Gnome and KDE, as well. Is there any other distro that does all this? I know that I can just install a distro then add packages later, but right now I'm really just focused on trying things, not necessarily finding new things to try.

My experience has been that RPM packages have been a little easier to find than DEB packages. So, again, any help? =)
 
Old 05-27-2006, 01:56 PM   #2
slantoflight
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All the distros you mentioned all have large package collections and have the ability to switch between KDE and GNOME. They have online repositories. With the rpm based distro you often have to find third party repos. This one right here will cover you for basically everything you need.


Fedora Core 5

http://rpm.livna.org

Or more to the point. You'll be wanting to paste this into your command-line terminal.

rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-5.rpm

You'll probably want to enable the development packages just in case. You don't wan't to run into dependency hell.


Granted, its not AS big as Debian apt-get, it should suffice. Since you already have Fedora Core 5 installed, you might as well stick with it. The only thing I find lacking is its lack of a well polished control panel like Suse's. Adding/Removing apps is still a little ugly. In KDE the menu is completely disorganized. If only we could have Suse's polish with Fedora's bleeding edge and Debian's packing system and Slackware's speed. You switch to one thing you miss another.

Last edited by slantoflight; 05-27-2006 at 03:03 PM.
 
Old 05-27-2006, 01:57 PM   #3
XavierP
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Debian, Gentoo, Mandriva and many others have huge package collections. Check out www.distrowatch.com for details.
 
Old 05-27-2006, 01:58 PM   #4
manishsingh4u
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Quote:
My experience has been that RPM packages have been a little easier to find than DEB packages. So, again, any help?
Why do we need to find any package? You can just
Code:
apt-get install anything
I have used Fedora Core for about a month and I liked it. Now I am on K/Ubuntu 5.10. It may be on a single CD but I can install anything by using the above command. No need to find anything except some packages like Mplayer, skype, etc.
If you want a big collection of packages on your desk, I would recommend Debian 3.1 (14 CDs make sense).

Last edited by manishsingh4u; 05-27-2006 at 02:02 PM.
 
Old 05-27-2006, 01:59 PM   #5
J_K9
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SUSE does exactly what you described. It brings a lot of software out of the box, you can fiddle with it a lot (it brings AppArmor, which is an added advantage), it brings both Gnome and KDE, and it has a large user base - and as a result many packages are easily available _if_ you're looking for something which isn't there.

Another distro you may like is Debian. With a full 16 CDs, it brings one heck of a lot of packages - but, unlike SUSE, it uses the deb packaging format rather than rpm. However, it brings far more apps than SUSE does out of the box, and you'd be surprised how vast its repositories are. Usually, an application is little more than an 'apt-get install' away.

Enjoy

[edit] 13 CDs, 16 CDs.. I wasn't too far off

Last edited by J_K9; 05-27-2006 at 02:00 PM.
 
Old 05-27-2006, 02:00 PM   #6
b0uncer
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Well Ubuntu, for example, provides a "huge" amount of packages. Includes both KDE and Gnome. The reason why FC5 has 5 install cds and Ubuntu only one is that Ubuntu includes a set of apps that you get: you don't, for example, get twenty three different Excel-alike spreadsheet-calculation applications, by installing Ubuntu. If you install FC5 ("everything"), you probably get more than one of those. Of course Ubuntu is not limited; the other apps are there, but to be downloaded from the net. Reason? I don't like downloading and writing 5 cds to get a distribution installed (or buying them!), I prefer one or even less. You'll do with that one. If you like to use different applications, you can replace them or get new ones simply by opening a graphical or a command-line app (your choise) and grabbing them with one command or two clicks. Arch linux is just the same; you get one install cd with a set of apps, and the rest are available on the net. Loads of them. "Huge" amount.

If you ask me, the only good reason for a multiple-cd or a dvd-installation set is that somebody does not have an internet connection. And in that case s/he needs to get the discs from a store. But nowadays internet is easy to get to, so I really prefer as small installation media as possible over a huge amount of discs to be burned (or downloaded anyway), since it eats up time and I most definitely get at least some things I do not need. Downloading a small installer and using the internet connection for the apps is faster because you can choose what you download. That's where Arch and Gentoo work great.

The "big" distributions are easy to find. Fedora Core, RedHat, Ubuntu, Arch, Debian, ... The list is long. And for quite every distribution you get the apps you want; you can compile them from source, if it's the last resort. Or you can use convertion apps if you don't find a nice .deb but do find a nice .rpm (if you cannot install rpms like that), and make a .deb out of a .rpm. Package managers help you find your apps from the net. But if you mean you want a distribution that gives you a big amount of precompiled apps that are easy to get, get Ubuntu or Fedora Core or Arch Linux. Arch uses a command-line tool (like Fedora Core) for the update, but Ubuntu has a nice graphical UI for that. Simply search an app, click it, choose Install - and the app even tells you if you need some extra packets to satisfy dependencies, and gets them for you too. Nice, eh?

I understand your will to jump from Fedora to some other distribution (I've felt it too one of these days a while ago at a friend), but the important thing is that there is no such thing as "problem-free OS". Every OS has problems, so do Linux distributions. To get a "working" environment, don't use the very newest apps, since they have most problems at first (usually).

But try Ubuntu, anyway. Or if you prefer KDE, then download the Kubuntu package. Or the one that comes with XFCE on top of it. And after the install grab them all if you like (Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Fluxbox, Blackbox, IceWM, ...), and have a nice rest-of-your-life wondering where all the packets come from..
 
Old 05-27-2006, 02:02 PM   #7
b0uncer
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One more thing: if you use Yum as your package manager in Fedora Core, it's damn slow. Apt-get is much faster (at least in Ubuntu, that is), as is pacman (the Arch Linux's package manager).
 
Old 05-27-2006, 02:22 PM   #8
craigevil
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Debian rules. Using the sources.list I have over 22k packages available. You can use any desktop with all distros and most of the tools you are wanting are available for pretty much any distro as well.

Not having a GUI tool for every task isn't that big a deal , all it takes is editing a text file and your good to go.

In any distro if you can't find the right rpm,deb or whatever package it is simple to install from source.
 
Old 05-27-2006, 03:46 PM   #9
SquishyMarbles
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Holy crap. Thanks for the help, guys. Some of you have done a good job promoting apt. Obviously I've heard about it, but I always like yum just fine. So are all of you saying that the Debian repos are bigger than the Red Hat RPM repos (like the ones that come with FC)? If so, it may be time for a switch...

I've actually had a pretty good bit of problems with FC5. For one, my yum cache got all filled up, and I don't know how, then I did the "move to trash" thing, and the whole folder just disappeared off the map but it didn't free up any space. Pup the package updater refuses to work for me. I just installed Opera and the icon won't show up (probably Opera's fault, but who cares). Beagle doesn't work in root by mandate, and seems to only be searching my home directory under my user, which sucks because I wanted to find the yum cache folder easily to make sure it didn't get filled up again when I started Pup. I'm really not willing to look for anything else that's not working. I just want to kick it off my computer. This is just indicative of a complete lack of polish.
 
Old 05-27-2006, 03:55 PM   #10
ethics
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FC 5 is a pile of rubbish i found, great dissapointment after FC4, that being said i was always kind of fond of Yum.

I like it's search feature, took me a while to find it in apt-get since it's actually apt-cache, and pacman i search the http pages of the repo.

Anyway you have moved the cache to trash, same as windows does to recycle bin, it's still taking up space, try this in konqueror:

Code:
system:/trash
shoudl take you to the trash can where you can delete it.
 
Old 05-27-2006, 04:13 PM   #11
btmiller
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Another way to clear out the yum cache is:

yum clean cache

You can also use:

yum clean all

To clean up all the stuff yum leaves (see the yum man page for more details).
 
Old 05-27-2006, 05:10 PM   #12
SquishyMarbles
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Thanks ethics. I actually just did "Go->Trash" in the file manager, and it worked. I've already blown off the install where I had the yum cache problem. I did a yum update from FC4 to FC5, and I thought that trash can problem was a small goofup in that process, but it turns out its in the fresh DVD install that I just did, too.

btmiller, thanks, but I did "yum clean cache" and "yum clean all" from all different angles, and it never worked. There was over 900MB of stuff that got there SOMEHOW, and nothing could clean it except a move to trash...and then not even that, because of the trash can problem. Like I said though, problem solved, because I blew off the whole OS (this isn't my main computer that I keep talking about, btw).

Anyway, I've been convinced to try Ubuntu. Congrats on anyone who's slyly trying to create converts, if there is anyone like that. =)

Last edited by SquishyMarbles; 05-27-2006 at 05:11 PM.
 
Old 05-27-2006, 06:20 PM   #13
cs-cam
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Arch + AUR has a lot of packages.
 
  


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