A nice, simple, easy distro?

tauhshi · 11-27-2006, 04:29 PM

Hiya, I'm looking for a distro with the simplicity of Slackware, power of Fedora, beauty of SuSE, and the easines of Ubuntu. For a while, I've been using Ubuntu, but want something different. I can't excatly explain why, it's just Ubuntu has gotten old. I'm looking for a new distro that is easy to use, but still has the power of a power user. What I want is a distro that both a beginner and an expert can use, love, and enjoy. The things holding me back from installing and trying every distro are:

Lack of blank media (I have about 3 DVD's, and 7 CD's)
Hardware support

Ubuntu has _full_ support for my setup, albiet some minor discrepinces with my ATI Xpress 200M, and is a "go to" for me. I've used Mandriva, SLAX, and SuSE and always had problems with their package management. I need a distro with the range of software of Ubuntu.

And for those of you who are going to ask me about my hardware:
Output for lspci

Quote:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 10)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5a3f
0000:00:04.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5a36
0000:00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5a37
0000:00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 83)
0000:00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller ATI (rev 80)
0000:00:14.2 0403: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 437b (rev 01)
0000:00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge (rev 80)
0000:00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge (rev 80)
0000:00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
0000:00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
0000:00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
0000:00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
0000:01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5975
0000:06:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:06:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc.: Unknown device 001a (rev 01)
0000:06:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB-712/4 Cardbus Controller (rev 10)
0000:06:04.1 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Memory Stick Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
0000:06:04.2 0805: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Secure Digital Card Reader Controller (rev 01)
0000:06:04.3 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc: Unknown device 0520 (rev 01)
0000:06:04.4 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc: Unknown device 0551 (rev 01)

As you can see, Ubuntu refuses to aknowledge my ATI 200M . . .

pljvaldez · 11-27-2006, 04:33 PM

Try Debian. Use the new Etch installer. If you read the install manual, there's a section about hd-media (installing from an iso stored on the hard drive).

tauhshi · 11-27-2006, 05:00 PM

Ok, I've looked into Debian, and it looks great. Only one thing, what are the differences between sarge and etch besides updated packages?

pljvaldez · 11-27-2006, 05:14 PM

To the user, mostly updated packages. But here's a good description from the Debian website.

In all reality, stable is for servers which can't break (all it gets is security updates). I would say unstable is more stable than most bleeding edge distros like Fedora Core, but it lags a little bit in updated packages (like Gnome 2.16 or Beryl for example). Testing is kind of a middle ground. I like to run testing or unstable on the desktop and stable on servers and my work laptop since I can't waste time screwing it up.

EDIT: One of the biggest differences you'll notice is a newer kernel. 2.6.17 in Etch (I believe) and 2.4.27/2.6.8 in Sarge. But mostly updated packages...

Daws · 11-27-2006, 05:34 PM

From the debian site:

Quote:

"sid" is subject to massive changes and in-place library updates. This can result in a very "unstable" system which contains packages that cannot be installed due to missing libraries, dependencies that cannot be fulfilled etc. Use it at your own risk!

I have been dist-upgrading a sid box for well over a year and a half now and the only problem I've had was a nasty xfs bug infecting the 2.6.17 kernels. Apart from that I have never had a major system failure or any dependency problems. I agree with pljvaldez, sid is more stable than most other bleeding edge distros. Having said that libc6 (glibc) is still at 2.3.6. I'm waiting for the day 2.4 or 2.5 hits sid ... hehehe chaos.

tauhshi · 11-27-2006, 07:27 PM

Ok, having some trouble here getting Debian. I'd prefer to use the DVD install method, but the torrents are not working. Should I go ahead and do a network install?

EDIT: Nevermind, WLAN cards are not supported . . .