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Old 07-29-2015, 03:51 AM   #1
rhubarbdog
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Why so many distros


Over the last while I've used various distros, mandrake, red hat, damn small, ubuntu and mint. All have found me, all i did was get back into computing, learned some visual basic (sorry), like linux it was there free and ready.

Next step do some real programming, got and installed a linux that was a bit beefy for the laptop, no gui install, no gui running. Learned C.

Well here i am 10 years later,able to help, but who should i help.

What distro do you use, what's it's history, where did it last fork, is there a unique selling point. Before i can decide whom i may assist I'd like to educate myself.

Please don't post variations on a theme and please this is not a review of distros. If the only reason you use a distro because you and your peers think it's the best and that's all you've got to say then i'm really not interested
 
Old 07-29-2015, 04:06 AM   #2
fatmac
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Well here i am 10 years later,able to help, but who should i help.
Distros are basically just different default programs on the basic Linux setup, so just scan the posts on here, & if you think you know the answer, pitch in. (That's how I started.)
 
Old 07-29-2015, 07:53 AM   #3
rtmistler
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Do you mean who should you help here in LQ? How about looking at the Programming forum?

MHO is that Linux is ALL about C, after all it's written in it.

Although I do a ton of Windows/Linux GUI work as well as Apps for mobile devices, I'm primarily a Linux embedded developer. Check out my blog entries on Linux Applications Programming.

I use whatever works for the processor in question, but also what the client wants since we're an Engineering Services company. I will steer things towards the direction I feel is best if allowed though. Debian derived distributions I like a lot. I had a client using Ubuntu command line on a BeagleBoard. I half shuddered in hearing that, but honestly I was not reshaping their Linux distro, and just writing applications code for them. What I know is that for ANY distribution, you generally write C code, its portable to each of them and usually works. But also I'm not writing stuff that's highly dependent on rare libraries, instead the more common libs.

Once again, my thinking is that if you're doing general applications development, you really should be "Distribution Agnostic".
 
Old 07-29-2015, 11:17 AM   #4
DavidMcCann
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If you're asking whom you're qualified to offer help to, the answer is obviously
1. those having general beginners' problems
2. those having a problem with distros you know
3. those needing help with C
4. questions where you just have some experience.

So, I'd never look at new posts under programming or security because I know nothing about those areas, but I do have some expertise in things like distro selection (I've examined over 100), keyboard drivers (I use three, all custom), and sound devices (I have USB speakers - getting those to work in Debian used to be pretty close to rocket science). There also the inevitable questions which posters should have been able to answer for themselves, like "which distro can I use on a p7 server?"

As for your second question, about the distros I use:
1. CentOS. It's simply Red Hat without the support or the annual bill. It's very conservative and very reliable and supported for years.
2. Salix. That's Slackware with double the amount of software ready to run and added dependency resolution. It too is very conservative and very reliable and supported for years. It runs on my old Thinkpad, which is not up to Gnome 2 but can cope with Xfce. (Don't try Xfce on CentOS or Fedora if you're easily depressed...)
 
Old 07-29-2015, 01:19 PM   #5
273
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I'm a little confused by this question. The way I use this site is generally to see which questions have been posed or posted to recently, what sparks my interest and what I may be able to help with. That means I probably post more regarding basic Debian questions as I am familiar with it but, just the other day, I managed to help somebody in the Slackware section because I had experienced the same issues under Debian.
To me there are many distributions but only one Linux.
 
Old 07-29-2015, 01:28 PM   #6
goumba
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 273 View Post
I'm a little confused by this question. The way I use this site is generally to see which questions have been posed or posted to recently, what sparks my interest and what I may be able to help with. That means I probably post more regarding basic Debian questions as I am familiar with it but, just the other day, I managed to help somebody in the Slackware section because I had experienced the same issues under Debian.
To me there are many distributions but only one Linux.
Exactly. This is how I do it as well.

Besides the package management differences, if you know one Linux distro, you know pretty much the basics of all. I post to any forum, and if I know the answer but perhaps may be concerned about a specific regarding the distro, I give the answer qualified with "I don't use X, but I've fixed this in Debian by..."
 
Old 07-29-2015, 02:23 PM   #7
rokytnji
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Well, I am just a scooter tramp biker with a AntiX netbook. Helping Ubuntu users who cannot boot because of improper shutdowns.

AntiX and Mepis has interbred and now MX-14 came to born among the Mepis community. So that is your fork requirement.

Core Libre, Core, Base, Full. 64bit and 32 bit isos are offered.
Choices of lots window managers in full. Meta-package installer for Desktop Environments. Low ram usage for older gear.

AntiX comes with lots of tools. Command line and GUI/GTK.
The community has some sharp minds running AntiX and MX-14.
(Not me, I just Mod at the AntiX forums)

You have stable, testing, unstable, and experimental debian choices at install for what kind of repositories you wish to run (experimantal is not a choice at install, but can be inserted later as you apt-get dist-update && apt-get dist-upgrade to sid 1st).

I was pretty clueless when I started using Gnu/Linux.
The AntiX and Mepis Community clued me in quick on linux file structure.

Slackware, Gentoo, Puppy, Fedora, and others can say the same on some.
But not on all features offered.
Just my personal opinion though. Which we know everyone has at least one.

I would not have the post count or rep points here if not for AntiX.
I'd just be another outlaw biker that has no clue what "live iso" means.

Not sure if this answered your criteria.
I am just jazzed I am not in a initramfs screen anymore on this netbook.
So just gushing.
 
Old 07-29-2015, 02:25 PM   #8
dugan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rhubarbdog View Post
What distro do you use, what's it's history, where did it last fork, is there a unique selling point.
Slackware. Oldest Linux distribution and the first one I could get properly working (back in the late 90s). I don't care who forked it last, because I use the trunk, but the latest forks I know of are MLED and Salix. For me, the selling point is that its default install is designed to make it as easy as possible to safely modify.
 
Old 07-30-2015, 03:05 AM   #9
brianL
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidMcCann View Post
2. Salix. That's Slackware with double the amount of software ready to run
Correction. Salix is a trimmed down version of Slackware. OK for those who want one piece of software per task, rather than several.
 
Old 07-30-2015, 03:36 AM   #10
salasi
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You might want to have a look here; there are several similar things, and while this isn't completely up to date it is better than some. You could also look at Distrowatch.

As to 'Why so many distros', in some cases, there seems to be a 'because we can' element to this. In others, there are very legitimate variations (you know, 'Red Hat, without the support limitations' seems to be a very legitimate use case, as does 'Ubuntu, but with a different GUI, unsupported by the mainstream 'Bunutus', and, more recently, a 'with/without systemd' version of everything). In some cases, though, you wonder whether a patch set or some alternative repos wouldn't have served the purpose just as well.
 
Old 07-30-2015, 06:05 AM   #11
Germany_chris
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I'm confused??

I like bourbon, ice cream, and coffee but not in that order.

Linux is Linux is Linux just answer the questions you can.
 
Old 07-30-2015, 06:36 AM   #12
rtmistler
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Another case where an OP ought to perhaps come back to the thread and maybe clarify things.
 
Old 07-30-2015, 11:16 AM   #13
DavidMcCann
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brianL View Post
Correction. Salix is a trimmed down version of Slackware. OK for those who want one piece of software per task, rather than several.
Come off it Brian - you can't think I'll let you get away with that one! I said "ready to run" and I also mentioned "dependency resolution". I was comparing the programs in the repositories. If you're going to count stuff from Alien Bob and SlackBuilds, you might as well count every program available as source!
 
Old 07-30-2015, 02:39 PM   #14
brianL
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidMcCann View Post
2. Salix. That's Slackware with double the amount of software ready to run
Come off it, David!
To me, "ready to run" means out of the box, immediately after installation. Double the amount of software? A full install of Slackware 14.1 is over 7 GB. Less than that cannot be double. Seems logical, even to an Oldhamer.
Yes, Salix has dependency resolution, but whether that's desirable or not is a matter of opinion.
 
  


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