Choose for me!!!

[ubuntuman001]

okay, I have about 5 GB of free space on my hard drive, and I would like to try out another distro. give me your opinion on which one you think I should try!

[Sye d'Burns]

I choose what's behind door number two, Bob!

Seriously, what type of distro are you in for? Ease of use? deb, rpm, source? Give us something to work with here.

[23meg]

Check out the "Other distros" thread in this forum and pick one. BTW it will be best if we all confine our "other distro" crusades to that thread.

[kanem]

"Easy" distros are too similar; different packagemanager, same stuff. But irritatingly not up to par with Ubuntu which makes the whole effort wasted.

I say have some fun and really learn about Linux; Gentoo, Slackware or Linux from Scratch. When I get more storage space I'm going for LFS.

[RAV TUX]

Check out the "Other distros" thread in this forum and pick one. BTW it will be best if we all confine our "other distro" crusades to that thread.
23meg this is exactely the reason why I think you need a sticky on the "Other Distros" thread to avoid the post of these form of threads more then a Dozen of "Other Distros" have been posted and half were probably Mepis.

You had a great idea in having me start the "Other Distros" thread but it's usefullness gets lost if it is hard to find. I had to do an advanced search to find it.

heres the link, again this thread was started at 23meg's request:

"Other Distros"
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=196286&highlight=distros

[Sye d'Burns]

I don't really see a problem with the occasional other distro thread.

If there were a 'one other distro thread to rule them all' thread it'd be more difficult to follow 20 different conversations confined to one thread than it would to not click 'yet another distro thread.'

[23meg]

I don't really see a problem with the occasional other distro thread. It happens more often than occasional.

If there were a 'one other distro thread to rule them all' thread it'd be more difficult to follow 20 different conversations confined to one thread than it would to not click 'yet another distro thread.'
Not if at least the majority of users were aware of the threaded display mode and made use of multiple branches within a thread, and formatted their posts nicely with bold text, colors and multiple sizes to make certain posts (those regarding the discovery of a new distro, for example) stick out.

It should still be OK to post comprehensive distro reviews as separate threads.

[Sye d'Burns]

It happens more often than occasional.

Not if at least the majority of users were aware of the threaded display mode and made use of multiple branches within a thread, and formatted their posts nicely with bold text, colors and multiple sizes to make certain posts (those regarding the discovery of a new distro, for example) stick out.

It should still be OK to post comprehensive distro reviews as separate threads.

Even so, I'd be much more inclined to consolidate the 'how do we best kill MS this week' posts and the 'Ubuntu color cornucopia' threads than those distro threads that actually have relatively little in common. :-D

As to the formatting of posts, I've got greater hope of peace in our time. :p

[23meg]

I'd be inclined to merge anything that repeats; the less clutter, the better.

[RAV TUX]

I don't really see a problem with the occasional other distro thread.

If there were a 'one other distro thread to rule them all' thread it'd be more difficult to follow 20 different conversations confined to one thread than it would to not click 'yet another distro thread.'

actually this wouldn't be so hard if you did an advanced search before posting.

advance search the distro of your choice in the Ubuntu Cafe and then you could find it pretty easily.

This would even be easier if the tag "Other Distros" was added to the tag list.

[RAV TUX]

I'd be inclined to merge anything that repeats; the less clutter, the better.

merging all these other distro threads in the "Other Distros" thread would be great and less chance of other distro spam from non-ubuntu or even ubuntu users.

for example do a search for Mepis and you will be given hundreds of threads.

do a search for most other Distro and you will not recieve as much

(If you like I can post in all the other distro threads to post in the "Other Distros" thread making it easier for you to find and merge these threads.

[Sye d'Burns]

(If you like I can post in all the other distro threads to post in the "Other Distros" thread making it easier for you to find and merge these threads.

23meg, I think the powers that be ought to make you a mod just for the simple fact so many people think you are one already! :)

[forrestcupp]

Sure, but aren't you guys rabbit chasing, which is another no no? I think only about one reply out of 2 pages is about the initial subject.

Go for Gentoo; Portage is cool.

[RAV TUX]

Sure, but aren't you guys rabbit chasing, which is another no no? I think only about one reply out of 2 pages is about the initial subject.

Go for Gentoo; Portage is cool.
I have two pet bunnies, Sarina and George I don't chase them that would scare the hell out of them and be a bit of torture. I perfer the sweet approach of talking to them gently and then petting them, then holding them in my lap.

Gentoo is nice btw.

[Sheinar]

You should try Arch. Pacman, the AUR and the BSD-like initscripts make it worth checking out.

[fuscia]

try netbsd. or, damn small.

[ubuntuman001]

well i guess im more inclined to try something different, like kanem said:
"Easy" distros are too similar; different packagemanager, same stuff. But irritatingly not up to par with Ubuntu which makes the whole effort wasted.

I say have some fun and really learn about Linux; Gentoo, Slackware or Linux from Scratch. When I get more storage space I'm going for LFS.so what actually makes gentoo and slackware so different from something like ubuntu? i know that gentoo uses portage and that slackware uses tar.gz for package management, but what else is so different?

[23meg]

well i guess im more inclined to try something different, like kanem said:
so what actually makes gentoo and slackware so different from something like ubuntu? i know that gentoo uses portage and that slackware uses tar.gz for package management, but what else is so different?
Gentoo's package manager downloads sources and compiles software from scratch on your machine rather than downloading binaries. This brings a slight performance benefit that makes some users prefer Gentoo over binary distros. Be ready to do hours of compiling if you try it out.
23meg, I think the powers that be ought to make you a mod just for the simple fact so many people think you are one already! Right, to remind once again: I'm not a mod. Mods are people who have their nicknames in red, with "Ubuntu forum staff" written under them.

[wmcbrine]

I'm assuming the OP has only used Ubuntu up til now? If not, that's the first question...

If you want to get a feel for what modern Linux is like, IMHO, there are two broad branches, based on their choice of package management systems (because they're pretty much the same otherwise): DEB, and RPM. You've covered DEB with Ubuntu, so your next distro should be RPM-based -- probably Fedora or SuSE.

Gentoo and Slackware don't fit in either branch; I guess I'd call them part of the "pain in the ***" branch. ;) This is certainly an important segment of Linux, too, but it's not what "normal" folks use. (I'm not normal, myself; but I think I'm done with that kind of distro.)

Also, 5 gigs is pretty tight nowadays. That might end up limiting your choices.

[Sye d'Burns]

Gentoo and Slackware don't fit in either branch; I guess I'd call them part of the "pain in the ***" branch. ;) This is certainly an important segment of Linux, too, but it's not what "normal" folks use. (I'm not normal, myself; but I think I'm done with that kind of distro.)

Also, 5 gigs is pretty tight nowadays. That might end up limiting your choices.

While I'm not going to argue the point that many people consider gentoo and slack to be from the 'pain in the ***' branch, I consider them the 'damn fine education' branch. (Especially slackware, it still holds a prominent partition on my drive) Once you've worked with slack or gentoo a while, you'll never again fear compiling anything from source, editing config files, doing anything from console. You do develop a deeper understanding if give it an honest shot.

That said, they could also be called the 'school of hard knocks' but I would hiiiighly recommend trying them.

[vayu]

I'd be inclined to merge anything that repeats; the less clutter, the better.

So I guess you wouldn't want a distro with a Bump Top desktop. :)

[ubuntuman001]

I'm assuming the OP has only used Ubuntu up til now? If not, that's the first question...

If you want to get a feel for what modern Linux is like, IMHO, there are two broad branches, based on their choice of package management systems (because they're pretty much the same otherwise): DEB, and RPM. You've covered DEB with Ubuntu, so your next distro should be RPM-based -- probably Fedora or SuSE.

Gentoo and Slackware don't fit in either branch; I guess I'd call them part of the "pain in the ***" branch. ;) This is certainly an important segment of Linux, too, but it's not what "normal" folks use. (I'm not normal, myself; but I think I'm done with that kind of distro.)

Also, 5 gigs is pretty tight nowadays. That might end up limiting your choices.actually, i'm dual-booting ubuntu and fedora, but I could delete fedora and install something like gentoo or slackware (i prefer graphical installs) and the space would become about 10GB instead of 5.

But i don't know what to pick yet, i'm just gathering opinions and researching...

[Sye d'Burns]

As far as ease of install goes, Slackware is on par with the alternate ubuntu install. ncurses but easy enough. If you aren't using the fedora install, it might be a good idea to gather up the full 10gig. 5 does have the potential to get cramped.

Another distro you might be interested in is Arch. Similiar to slackware with a package management system decent package management system.

[K.Mandla]

Arch, if you don't mind tweaking things to get them to work. Very fast, and very ... tweakable.

I liked Fedora Core 5, for the short time I had it installed. It's very blue. No, I take that back: it's not very blue, it's VERY blue.

[etc]

Another vote for Arch. I'd try it out except I'm too lazy.

[RAV TUX]

If you want something different try dyne:bolic, Berry linux, Gentoo, Yoper, Dreamlinux, Puppy, Morphix, PC-BSD, Zeta(BeOS), Debian/Gnu Hurd k11(Hurd OS) or the hybrid projects by Debian & Gentoo which combine Linux and BSD:

Gentoo/FreeBSD (http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/bsd/fbsd/index.xml)

Debian GNU/kFreeBSD (http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu)

yellowTAB ZETA(BeOS) (http://yellowtab.com/products/)

magnussoft ZETA(BeOS) (http://www.zeta-os.com/)

[croak77]

I say skip trying another Linux distro and try something differnet; BSD, NexentaOS, or ReactOS.

Anyone tried NexentaOS yet?

[RAV TUX]

I say skip trying another Linux distro and try something differnet; BSD, NexentaOS, or ReactOS.

Anyone tried NexentaOS yet?

I actually started the download but don't remember if I finished the download.

[drfalkor]

ReactOS suck's more than windows XP ( I mean its bad then ).. sorry, it just my toughts ;)

I would saved that 5GB space for something else :)

[Rhapsody]

I've actually got a spare 25GB partition that I plan to use for another operating system. Kubuntu will remain my primary OS whatever happens, so whatever I put on there will most likely just be a hobby project. This has made my list of candiates rather extensive.

ReactOS - I'll be killing off Windows XP soon, but having some sort of Windows hanging around would still be nice. Plus I wouldn't have to clutter Kubuntu with Windows apps running in Wine.
Haiku - I tried BeOS once, seemed nice. Of course, there is ZETA, but that's commercial. I'm limiting myself to operating systems that I can use for free here.
Debian GNU/Linux - Well, seeing where Ubuntu came from would be nice. It'd give me a nice, ultra-stable environment to work in as well (especially if I cut it off from internet access, which I plan to).
Slackware - Similar thing. It'd be hard to get working, but as I said, this is hobby stuff.
Debian GNU/Hurd - Ah, now this one is rather more esoteric. It may not work well (or at all) but although people may know what I'm talking about when I say I have Linux installed on my PC, the Hurd would be a real talking point.
Windows for Workgroups 3.11 - Yeah, this one is silly. But the nostalgia value is pretty high (this was the first version of Windows I ever used), I already have the necessary installation disks (and MS-DOS 6.22), and I'd be curious to see if it even works on a PC this modern. What would it make of an AGP video card?

I'm still open for suggestions too. As you can see, I'm definitely not limiting myself to Linux distros, and silliness is much valued here.

[fuscia]

fill it up with beethoven string quartets.

[AndyCooll]

I've tried quite a few distros over the last year, e.g. Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Since I got hold of VMware player (and now VMware server) trying distros and OS's just got so much easier! I'm going to have a look at one of the BSD's and maybe one of the harder distros (I'm thinking Gentoo and Slackware here).

I've also become interested in looking at some of the other OS's. I disagree with another posters views in this thread regarding ReactOS. At the moment it's still an early edition (0.3) and unstable, and developing a bit too slowly for my liking. However it has plenty of potential and it would be great if I could run my XP apps on a free XP open-source compliant OS.

:cool:

[bruce89]

Try this - http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php

[richbarna]

okay, I have about 5 GB of free space on my hard drive, and I would like to try out another distro. give me your opinion on which one you think I should try!

Why not try a bunch of live cd's ?, (like it says in your sig)

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

I just tried Berry Linux, it's nice.

Berry Linux is a bootable CD Linux, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. If you have network devices, auto-configure DHCP and you can use Internet. And you can enjoy OpenOffice, MS Office compatible office suite, or use GIMP by free.
Berry Linux can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. But it's able to install on hard disk. (Needs 1.7GB free space. Using Berry Linux Installer) Berry Linux is based on Red Hat Fedora Core 5.

Here are the features :-
http://yui.mine.nu/berry/efeatures.php

[forrestcupp]

ReactOS suck's more than windows XP ( I mean its bad then ).. sorry, it just my toughts ;)

I would saved that 5GB space for something else :)

That's not a fair statement since they aren't even close to being complete. There is a lot of potential for ReactOS when they get farther along. They are having to take extra legal preventative measures right now which is slowing them down.

I'll stick with Linux right now, though. I've forsaken my win32 api life.

[aysiu]

I'd be inclined to merge anything that repeats; the less clutter, the better. But when I suggested megathreads, you voted against it (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=174298)? I voted against.

In most cases threads that are candidates for merging into megathreads are megathreads in themselves; they're usually too big to read from end to end. The signal to noise ratio is already low in them, and merging them would make it even lower, making it even more difficult to pick up some signal. People often post to big threads without reading what's already been said, and the discussion branches off too much to be of any possible value.

okay, I have about 5 GB of free space on my hard drive, and I would like to try out another distro. give me your opinion on which one you think I should try! I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

[ubuntuman001]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/wow, i gotta say im a little embarrassed...i even had that link bookmarked!

[RAV TUX]

I've tried quite a few distros over the last year, e.g. Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Since I got hold of VMware player (and now VMware server) trying distros and OS's just got so much easier! I'm going to have a look at one of the BSD's and maybe one of the harder distros (I'm thinking Gentoo and Slackware here).

I've also become interested in looking at some of the other OS's. I disagree with another posters views in this thread regarding ReactOS. At the moment it's still an early edition (0.3) and unstable, and developing a bit too slowly for my liking. However it has plenty of potential and it would be great if I could run my XP apps on a free XP open-source compliant OS.

:cool:
I found Gentoo to actually be easier then Ubuntu but that may just be me.

If you try BSD start with PC-BSD fastest boot/install and very easy to use.

for a knock-your-socks-off awesome distros that is better then OS X try Dreamlinux, I prefer the studio edition.

And I agree with the recommendation of Berry Linux by richbarna (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=95418), great Distro out of Japan.

also give Yoper a try.

[23meg]

But when I suggested megathreads, you voted against it (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=174298)?
I've changed my mind. If it were now I'd vote for it. There's too much noise to care about my concern in that thread and those who start the same threads over and over don't deserve such detailed consideration. Whether they have their own thread or not, they beat the same dead horse the same way, causing "noise" that cancels out "signal".

[aysiu]

I've changed my mind. If it were now I'd vote for it. There's too much noise to care about my concern in that thread and those who start the same threads over and over don't deserve such detailed consideration. Whether they have their own thread or not, they beat the same dead horse the same way, causing "noise" that cancels out "signal".
Well, is there any way to make this happen? Because I feel that first of all... there are way too many threads and most are redundant.

Secondly, when someone posts a redundant thread, you often have to convince them it's all been done before by linking back to previous threads. If there's one megathread, they see people have posted about 1634 times about KDE v. Gnome (if not more than that).

[bruce89]

Secondly, when someone posts a redundant thread, you often have to convince them it's all been done before by linking back to previous threads. If there's one megathread, they see people have posted about 1634 times about KDE v. Gnome (if not more than that).
It would be a nightmare finding your way through them all.

[aysiu]

It would be a nightmare finding your way through them all.
Why would you have to read through them all? People don't read through the old threads now.

Let's do a little comparison:

The way it is now:
Lots of redundant threads
People thinking they're brilliant because they came up with a thread that's been rehashed numerous times
Other people having to actually search for all the old threads in order to show it's been done before

The way it could be:
Only a few major threads on old topics
People very quickly realizing it's all been done before
People knowing exactly where the old thread is

In both cases, there are 2000 or so posts people haven't read. The only difference is that in the current model the 2000 posts are in 200 different threads. With megathreads, they'd all be in one thread and not clutter up the boards.

[bruce89]

There is no denying it, it's a interesting idea, but I am not sure how it would work in practice. I do notice a lot of repetition in a lot of the threads, and I get fed up of putting forward the same arguements over and over again. One I keep repeating is the defaults not being about what YOU want, but what most people want.

[aysiu]

There is no denying it, it's a interesting idea, but I am not sure how it would work in practice. I do notice a lot of repetition in a lot of the threads, and I get fed up of putting forward the same arguements over and over again. One I keep repeating is the defaults not being about what YOU want, but what most people want.
Well, megathreads won't stop people from rehashing old arguments or refuting arguments over again.

Megathreads basically just organize clutter--keep all the same arguments in one easy-to-find place instead of having several of the same discussions happening in multiple places simultaneously.

From a practical perspective, it would just take someone reporting a bad post, "Redundant thread. Please merge with KDE v. Gnome megathread" and a moderator merging the two threads.

Speaking of redundant threads... if you want to continue this conversation, please do so here (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=174298), so we can get the administration's attention.

[richbarna]

I think I made a mistake?
Is this the "choose me a distro" thread....
or a "thread about megathreads" thread. (only joking ).

I completely agre with you aysiu, everything needs to be tidied up.
And yes people do keep posting the same old stuff and claiming a new discovery ;) (thanks for those old links that you keep sticking to my threads by the way).Lol I am learning not to post before searching now :)

[bruce89]

I think I made a mistake?
Is this the "choose me a distro" thread....
or a "thread about megathreads" thread. (only joking ).
As aysiu said, the discussion about megathreads is now at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=174298

[richbarna]

As aysiu said, the discussion about megathreads is now at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=174298

My quote had (only joking) after it. And yes, I have posted on the other thread.
I was joking about a thread about distro's being changed to a thread about problems with threads. (you see the irony, no?)

[bruce89]

My quote had (only joking) after it. And yes, I have posted on the other thread.
I was joking about a thread about distro's being changed to a thread about problems with threads. (you see the irony, no?)
I (sort of) realised that when it was too late.
Very ironic!

[richbarna]

I (sort of) realised that when it was too late.
Very ironic!

Lol, bit like a Town-Planner being stuck in a Traffic Jam :D

[wmcbrine]

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 - Yeah, this one is silly. But the nostalgia value is pretty high (this was the first version of Windows I ever used), I already have the necessary installation disks (and MS-DOS 6.22), and I'd be curious to see if it even works on a PC this modern.When I last upgraded my motherboard, I found I could no longer run BeOS, OS/2, or even Windows 98. Which is why this is a pure Linux box now. :)

[Lord Illidan]

Damn Small Linux...

[jimcooncat]

I'd play with:

CP/M (just joking)
QNX
OpenBSD
FreeBSD
maybe another round of Gentoo
Suse

... given time I don't have, of course.

[wmcbrine]

CP/M (just joking)If you haven't used it, you should try it, seriously. But you'll need an emulator. It's kinda like MS-DOS 0.5, but not quite.

QNXI knew I was forgetting something... that's the other one that stopped working with my new motherboard. It doesn't run in VMWare, either.