Debian (lenny) 2.6.21-2-amd64

Well I have been playing with Debian now for a few days. I must say it is quite different from FC (to me). There are a few things I really like about it though. Simple and small install and it boots very fast. I must say though I still like yum better than apt-get. Maybe I am not used to it yet.

One thing I have found to be hard for me and that is installing 3rd party stuff like x264, ffmpeg, vlc, etc. ( fun video extras )

Is there a better distro for these or am I just not savy enough yet?

I plan on trying others as well just to get a feel of what's out there.

And again, thanks for all the input.

It shouldn't be too hard to install those things on any distro - just search for it, it has been asked countless times. There are however distributions that enable multimedia codecs by default (PClinuxOS is the only one I can think of right now) And the ones that make it really easy to install 3'rd party drivers and multimedia programs - Ubuntu for example.

That shouldn't be any more difficult than on any other system. If you just launch synaptic package manager, you simply tick off the relevant boxes and that's it. Of course, you need to have the multimedia repo(s) set up or there won't be anything to install in the first place. As for VLC, yes, that could be a bit problematic. Until a few weeks ago (I haven't checked back since) VLC for Lenny wasn't available from the main multimedia repos; I had to install one of the nightly builds instead.

I would recommend Debian to anyone that wants to use Linux and learn a lot in the process. I would recommend you get one of the base install CDs, with either Gnome or KDE and do a basic install. From there, you can add what you want, which means no bloating if you don't want it. The faster the better.

Back to the OP original question ..

For Server use I would say Centos, Debain Stable, RHEL, or Suse EL, Ubuntu LTS Server

For Desktop use I would still stick with a Stable distro Like Debian Stable, Suse, or Redhat EW, Ubuntu LTS Workstation.

I wouldn't use Fedora or standard Ubuntu as a corporate Server or Workstation OS, because to me they are both development distros, used to test new software, they change and update on a fast pace, and in a Corporate environment you are looking for stability over the long term, not updating to the latest and greatest every 6 months.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with those distro's, I just don't feel the corporate environment is their appropriate place.


This is simple in Debian Stable, but you are running a testing version. I wouldn't expect testing or unstable to have everything in place all the time. their purpose isn't necessarily stability and ease of use, they are development versions.
For Debian stable installing VLC was as easy as aptitude install vlc mozilla-plugin-vlc done...

Well, yes, going back to Etch would definitely solve those issues. And it's not as if Lenny is all that more advanced than Etch, not at this time.