Is there a place online that has a list of Linux Distros that are being tested? Something Like DistroWatch maybe. Thanks.



Webwolf

Tested for what? You can download them from distrowatch and test them yourself.

Tested for bugs, problems, etc, before they are released. DistroWatch has all distros. What I am talking about are just distros that are being tested for bugs, probelms and so on. Including brand new ones that haven't made it to DistroWatch or anywhere else.


Webwolf

Distribution reviews can be found here in LQ, just check the reviews section, or you can check distrowatch.com. There is a site for each distribution with some important links like reviews etc.

edit: Before they are released? How can a distro be publicly tested if it isn't released yet And I agree with twilli227 - reviews are only reviews, the best way is to try it yourself and see how it works.

So what I am hearing is this. No matter what distro it is, no matter how unstable it may be, no matter what unkown problems they may have(especially brand new distros,) it will be released for the public and then we can test it?


Webwolf

Most distributions have a QA (quality assurance) system with releases. In other words, the developers release several RC versions and try to bugfix those before they make a stable final release. Many distributions also release beta versions that anyone can test to report bugs. How stable the release version is depends mainly on the amount of testing and bugfixing. Debians stable releases have the reputation for being propably the most stable and problem free. If your looking for something that has gone through much QA, Debian Stable and Redhat Enterprise Linux is propably what you are looking for.

I guess what I am asking is this. I have Mandrake 10.1 Community and Ubuntu 4.10 RC(which I plan on keeping.) I also have room to try out different distros, one at a time, to see if there are any problems, I have enough basic knowledge to help from the average desktop user's side. Then report the bugs and help in a small way. So is there a specific list for Release Canidate's/beta's? Or is DistroWatch the best place to go.

Thanks.

Webwolf

Distrowatch is propably the best place to go. They also report about RC/beta releases, but of course all distribution specific websites report their own releases. Btw, seems like you already are testing Mandrake 10.1 Community can be seen as a RC version - it's a prerelease version which purpose is making sure any critical bugs don't slip into the final release. The Ubuntu final version was released this week btw (wednesday), so you might want to apt-get dist-upgrade if you haven't already I like that distribution too, have it on my other computer.

Lol, I guess Mandrake Community would be considered that. I have never had any problems with Mandrake so I never saw it as testing. As far as Ubuntu goes, I can't believe I missed that. I am downlading the stable realse now. I am really impressed with it. This is my first real Debian based distro and I am impressed with it. Ubuntu, in my opinion, gives my Love of Mandrake a run for its money, lol.

I will be sticking with Distrowatch then. It is an excellent website.

Webwolf

Yeah I agree, I check distrowatch ~5 times every day or so Btw, you won't have to download the final Ubuntu release... Debian is famous for seamless distribution upgrades. Only thing you have to do is apt-get update ; apt-get dist-upgrade and you will be running the final release. And when the next Ubuntu release is out after 6 months or so, you can upgrade to it with apt-get... Doing fresh installs for each new version is a thing mostly for rpm based distributions (SuSE/Fedora/RedHat/Mandrake etc). Ubuntu is, in my opinion, by far the best user friendly desktop distribution out there.

LOL, figures I just read this post after I downloaded half of the Ubuntu ISO. I didn't know about the upgrade option in Debian based systems. I think I will reboot into Ubuntu and look around some more.



Webwolf