Do "advanced" distros make advanced tasks easier?

[MaxIBoy]

There are distros geared toward "advanced" users. Do these distros actually make advanced tasks easier, or should I just continue to do my hacking on Ubuntu?

[zmjjmz]

No, you can do just as much with Ubuntu.

[hrod beraht]

'Advanced' distros generally don't make things easier, but rather just make things more straightforward and don't try to hide the workings of the system from the user.

So yes, continue hacking away at Ubuntu. Eventually, when you know how Linux distros actually work, you'll be able to understand the differences between the distros. A few 'advanced' distros are genuinely different in one way or another, but most distros are surprisingly similar in most respects.

Bob

[SomeGuyDude]

For the end user, a difference in DE is a lot bigger than the difference in distro. Once you have the thing installed, knowing what commands install/uninstall/upgrade is pretty much the only way you'll see the differences.

[MisfitI38]

Yes, advanced distros absolutely make advanced tasks easier.
Making a cleanly installable package on Ubuntu, or compiling the entire system according to predefined components like those dictated by use flags, for instance, would be harder than it would be on Arch or Gentoo, respectively.

[cardinals_fan]

I'd say yes. I found Pardus a very difficult distro because the distro-specific GUI tools got in the way of doing things the manual, CLI way.

It's definitely possible to do anything with Ubuntu, but it sometimes requires going against the way the distro was designed, which is harder than starting from a blank slate.

[Grant A.]

I'd say yes. I found Pardus a very difficult distro because the distro-specific GUI tools got in the way of doing things the manual, CLI way.

And with that said, ViM FTW.

[RedSquirrel]

One thing I like about "advanced" distros is that they generally don't have separate packages for the development headers and libraries. In Debian/Ubuntu for example, you have to make sure you have the right *-dev packages installed. That's not necessarily difficult (build-dep and all that), but I'd rather not be bothered with it.

If you like hacking on Ubuntu, I would recommend trying some of the "advanced" distributions just to see if you like their approach better. You'll almost certainly learn some new tricks. :)

[igknighted]

If you want to strip down your OS and build it to your liking, using an "advanced" distro has two advantages.

1) Usually you can build it your way the first time, and not worry about un-setting defaults.

2) Many "easy" distros try to automatically configure things for you, and can over-write your own custom configurations (suse is notorious for this, but others, including ubuntu, will do it from time to time).

[Sorivenul]

If you like hacking on Ubuntu, I would recommend trying some of the "advanced" distributions just to see if you like their approach better. You'll almost certainly learn some new tricks. :)
+1

I don't know about "easier", as this is subjective, but "advanced" distributions do stay out of the user's way more than something like Ubuntu, Mandriva, or openSUSE.

[MaxIBoy]

I just kinda noticed I was overriding more and more of Ubuntu's defaults.


Thanks all for your replies. I've decided on installing Arch on a spare partition on my laptop (a slower machine,) purely so I can get a fast boot time.

[Vince4Amy]

On Slackware I find it much easier to make it work exactly how I want then I do with Ubuntu.