Want to try another distro ...

[harisund]

Ok, first off .. don't mistake me. I love Ubuntu, and it is still my primary Linux OS.

However, I now have a relatively good level of comfort with this OS, and want to learn my way around another distro, specifically a non apt-get ditro.

System administration is something I do at school on a small time basis, and it is definitely not sufficient knowing jst one Linux OS, even if you know it pretty well. Things could get pretty bad if you are asked to troubleshoot somebody else's PC not running Ubuntu or any other similar scenario.

What do the Ubuntu users out there suggest? I am thinking Fedora Core, since that is an awesome distro as well (or am I wrong?) and a lot of places Fedora is being used (in universities etc.) Plus it is rpm based, and closer to Red Hat, which I would still think is relatively an industry standard.

Distrowatch says SuSe.

What do you say?

[scxtt]

you could try gentoo - and build stuff from source ... or FreeBSD and do that whole ports thing they have going on ...

[JerMe]

If you're thinking about System Administration, a LOT of university systems run Fedora Core. I'm not a big fan of Fedora, but if your goal is to become familiar with non-Ubuntu systems, I'd head in that direction.

If you're thinking about tweaking and customizing your Linux box, then Gentoo is the way to go. I started with Gentoo, and it was no easy task. Compile time alone will get any rpm/deb based user - think of spending a whole day getting your system up and running. Don't let that dissuade you from trying it out however. I still prefer Gentoo over Ubuntu (probably because I started with Gentoo first.)

I use both Gentoo and Ubuntu, and have dabbled in Fedora. I think you'll notice the biggest difference if you go the Gentoo route.

[harisund]

Yes, I was preferring to go down the Fedora route initially as well . Lot of universities do indeed use FC and would be convenient to learn it no doubt.

With gentoo, I am just not convenient with the wait time for the compilation. Is it really worth the time and patience?

anyway to make Ubuntu itself a bit more "challenging"? I mean, everything "just works" that there is hardly any motivation to tweak :( ....

[etc]

Definitely try the major distros - SuSe and Fedora Core, if you're concerned about industry standard linux distributions.

Also, try Arch if you're up for something "different".

[BWF89]

I am thinking Fedora Core, since that is an awesome distro as well (or am I wrong?) and a lot of places Fedora is being used (in universities etc.) Plus it is rpm based, and closer to Red Hat, which I would still think is relatively an industry standard.
I'd go with Fedora. When I have my own computer I'm going to be debating on whether to install Ubuntu or Fedora. Plus Fedora is developed right here in the USA. Their forums aren't anywhere near as active as ours but if you need help with it I'm sure theres enough experienced users here that they could answer anything you'd throw at them eventhough it's RPM based.

[fatsheep]

Suse sounds really good to me, I am going to download it as soon as I can free up some space for it.

[harisund]

Their forums aren't anywhere near as active as ours

I agree with that. Definitely :)

but if you need help with it I'm sure theres enough experienced users here that they could answer anything you'd throw at them eventhough it's RPM based.


What do you mean "even though it is RPM based"?

Yes, google searches for Fedora support questions reveal a lot really ...

[BWF89]

What do you mean "even though it is RPM based"?

Yes, google searches for Fedora support questions reveal a lot really ...
No, I ment if you were having problems with Fedora you could ask about it on these forums and you'd probably have no trouble finding people that know what their talking about to help you eventhough this forum is for the .deb based Ubuntu and Fedora is RPM based.

[scxtt]

the whole apt-get / synaptic approach can be applied to fedora ... it's just called yum and Fedora has been using it forever ... the only difference i've noticed is that the repos aren't as "full" and useful as Ubuntu's (or debian based distros) are ... i'm sure some people have yum repos (cause you can add them to your yum.conf (or whatever the sources.list equivalent is) but i've not seen many (haven't really looked tho) ...

[DoktorSeven]

Branch off and try BSD. PCBSD (http://www.pcbsd.org/) is an easy way to start.

[BWF89]

Each version of RedHat Enterprise Linux is supported for 7 years after it's first made avalible, is the same true for CentOS which is a clone of RHEL?

[Iandefor]

the whole apt-get / synaptic approach can be applied to fedora ... it's just called yum and Fedora has been using it forever ... the only difference i've noticed is that the repos aren't as "full" and useful as Ubuntu's (or debian based distros) are ... i'm sure some people have yum repos (cause you can add them to your yum.conf (or whatever the sources.list equivalent is) but i've not seen many (haven't really looked tho) ... um... package managers are pretty much standard on a distribution nowadays. It's nothing special. It's just that yum is PITA.

[scxtt]

um... i know - so what are you trying to say?

-- kyum in FC5 wasn't bad, just weak repos ...

[Iandefor]

um... i know - so what are you trying to say?

-- kyum in FC5 wasn't bad, just weak repos ... The way it was phrased implied that it was something interesting and novel.

[scxtt]

maybe it was the "um... " and the fact that you quoted me, but i guess i read it in a negative tone {which i know is silly, cause it's text :p} ...

[ComplexNumber]

um... package managers are pretty much standard on a distribution nowadays. It's nothing special. It's just that yum is PITA.
he can use apt on fedora if he wants to.

[BWF89]

he can use apt on fedora if he wants to.
I read on a Fedora website they reccomend againt it.

Does anyone know what the length of support each release of CentOS gets?

[ComplexNumber]

I read on a Fedora website they reccomend againt it.
what reasons(s) did they give?

[Iandefor]

maybe it was the "um... " and the fact that you quoted me, but i guess i read it in a negative tone {which i know is silly, cause it's text :p} ... I see lol.

he can use apt on fedora if he wants to. True, but I have problems with rpm as a format, not just yum.

[timczer]

I have been goofing around with a few other distros, for the same reason. Ubuntu is pretty solid, and tweaked about the way I want it. Nothing exciting left to do.

I am currently playing with the following:

FC5-seems to be pretty good, looks nice, works pretty well out of the box. I have a bad taste for FC because it was the first linux distro I used (FC3) and I screwed it up massively with not understanding the potential of dependency hell. FC5 seems to be much easier to work with,

DreamLinux-just getting this up and running, looks decent, I believe it is debian based as well (don't quote me on that, though).

Xandros-just put this in today, so can't say much about it. I had Freespire on this partition, but got constant errors when trying to install, which from reading up on it, is fairly normal, with no working solution to some of the errors (if anyone knows how to work around error 219 let me know).

Kororaa- a gentoo based distro with package management. This one has been a little frustrating working with the package manager, but is coming along, it is an easier intro into gentoo than the parent distro.

PCBSD-Easiest of the BSD's to install (I tried desktop and FreeBSD and couldn't not get a working installation). Be careful with BSD's, they must be installed on a primary partition, not as part of a logical partition. I have this going for a while and I kind of like playing around with it.


The most challenging part of these is finding the correct way to add them to the Ubuntu grub menu (someone should create a database of grub entry templates for the various distros).

Of the several distros I have tried (also freespire, Suse, Symphony, FreeBSD, Desktop BSD) the two I am most intrigued with are PCBSD and Kororaa as they both were fairly easy installs, and seem to be entry level distros for their flavor of linux (I know, BSD is unix).

[ComplexNumber]

True, but I have problems with rpm as a format, not just yum.
can you give any examples? i've never had any.

[harisund]

Thanks for all your replies everyone!

I doubt if I would go with Gentoo, since I don't have as much patience to wait through a compilation for every software I want.

I think PcBSD and Fedora will be nice options.

Thanks again!

[Iandefor]

can you give any examples? i've never had any. A lack of suggests and recommends is one (One example I heard was that sendmail depends on kerberos in RPM format, even though it's more appropriate to call it a recommend), the lack of priority metadata and the inability to handle new sections without actually modifying the RPM format itself.

[Tatey]

Arch Linux, seriously. The /simplest/ linux distribution that is lightning fast and easy to understand. It's binary distro with a twist, whilst all the packages are optimized for i686, you can compile them from source and incorporate them into your package manager. One of the biggest issues I have with Debian/Ubuntu is once you create a custom source package, it's not longer tracked in your package manager as such. Sure, you can build a .deb, but Arch has a single very easy to understand PKGBUILD file. Give it a try, www.archlinux.org.

In short, it's alot like slackware with a decent package manager, or a simpler version of Gentoo except binary based.

[RAV TUX]

I would not recommend PC-BSD or FC...

after a lot of testing I have found dyne:bolic to be the best "other" distro option

I've tested: SUSE, FC-5, dyne:bolic 2.1, Dreamlinux 2.0 works, Morphix Combined Gnome 0.4.1, Dreamlinux 2.0 XGL, Gentoo 2006.0, FreeBSD 6.1, GoblinX 3.1, Startcom Kessem, Morphix combined-Gamer 0.4.1, Morphix Combined-Icewm GUI 0.5 pre-5 rc2, Morphix combined-light GUI 0.5 pre4, Sabayon (RR64) 3.0 RC1 mini-edition, Dreamlinux Studio Edition 1.0, SimplyMepis 6.0, 64Studio 1.0.6.0, Grafpup Standard 1.0.4 beta, dyne:bolic 2.0, Musix, Solaris 10 6/06, Zenwalk, Berry Linux 0.71, PC-BSD 1.0, Yoper 2.1.0-4, Yoper 2.91 blacksand, Mepis 6.0 beta2, Boston University Linux Zodiac, System-7, Dreamlinux 2.0 beta, Yoper KDE 2.2.0-6, Morphing-Morphix 0.1, Zeta 1.1(BeOS), Kinneret 0.7.3, DeadCD 0.4 final Ghost, Ging(Debian/BSD), Scientific Linux 42, geexbox 1.0 rc2, musix 0.39, Debian K11 Hurd, Kinneret 0.6 rc5 yardem, gnoppix, knoppix 5.0.1, Musix 0.40, Morphix combined heavy GUI 0.5 pre4, Morphix combined light GUI 0.4.1, Debian XFCE, Xplora, Santa Fe Linux CTR3, Puppylinux 2.00-seamonkey, Puppylinux barebones 2.00, feather linux 0.7.5, BeOS developer Edition, Zeta 1.1, Kaboot Science 0.1.1, lite-Kaboot, Kaboot complete, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, and of course Ubuntu.

This is all I can find right now I most likely have another pile of distros that I have tried out.

[RAV TUX]

DreamLinux-just getting this up and running, looks decent, I believe it is debian based as well (don't quote me on that, though).



Dreamlinux is based on Debian, Morphix./Knoppix

Dreamlinux is based on Debian and Morphix, which means it takes advantages of their best features and adds its own modern development tools.