If it were not Ubuntu...

[cyberbuff]

Ok guys, I know all of us are mad about Ubuntu. But if you are asked for a second option, which distro will you go for?:rolleyes:

[Frak]

Debian

[kd7swh]

part of me is itching to try fedora core. It is RPM-based though.
I don't know if I want to go back to that. apt-get is too sweet.
Debian is a good distro but it is harder to install and administrate.

[~LoKe]

Suse.

[LMP900]

Most likely Fedora.

I used FC5 and had a really good experience with it. I haven't had a chance to check out FC6 yet, because I'm quite content with Edgy, but I'll probably check out the newly released live CD soon.

[viper]

Suse

[macogw]

FC6, just to try something RH-based. I've heard good things about it.

[BoyOfDestiny]

Debian

Fedora (although hmm RPM's... I had a bad experience with them earlier on...)

Gentoo... I wonder how their GUI installer is going...

[23meg]

Debian.

[Shay Stephens]

I have messed with redhats stuff and never been satisfied. So if I had to use something other than ubuntu, I would most likely go debian.

[Hex_Mandos]

Mint! Um, if that doesn't count, DSL

[dbbolton]

sabayon.

[kinson]

I think SUSE looks interesting, I'd probably give that a try if it wasn't for Ubuntu.

Other than that, I'd probably try Debian, then Mandriva.

Cheers,
Kinson

[coder_]

Debian
Gentoo
Zenwalk


I'm hoping to install Gentoo onto my 2nd HD soon. And Debian is just so awesome -- the customization! Also, I think the ports-ish thing Gentoo has is pretty neat, even if it'd take a couple of days to compile KDE ;) I'd be fine without Ubuntu.

[bikeboy]

Probably Debian. When I first decided to try Linux I had heard of Debian and it looked to be what I wanted, but I was a bit hesitent and in the meantime came across Ubuntu.

For something non Debian-based it would be Gentoo or Slackware I think, although that's after having used Linux for > 1 year.

[maxamillion]

I would go back to debian, I ran it on my desktop for roughly 7 years. Ubuntu just makes my day to day desktop operation easier.

[3rdalbum]

I'd really like to try SUSE or Fedora. (or Copland...)

[yopnono]

Really don't know but i guess... FC or Debian. But I prefer DEB over RPM.

[Somenoob]

Debian

[eriqk]

Debian.

Groet, Erik

[Sonrep]

MEPIS, I've heard it's the best linux distro.

[unisol]

i tguess it would be debian

[neowolf]

FC or Debian.
I see a trend emerging here :p

[Lord Illidan]

Fedora Core, Debian or Zenwalk.

[Dragonbite]

Winows :o (ack! anything but that!) ;)
I would probbly go Fedora / CentOS (=RHEL) for most of my hardware.

I've lost waaaay too much time compiling Gentoo on the systems before to go back to that at this time. Maybe if it were an "extra" play system with gigs of RAM, and 3+ GHz clock speed I may consider it.

If I were to have a more powerful system or a Laptop I would probably look at openSuse.

I've heard good things about Arch, Zenwalk and Mepis.

ack! I hope to not have to go to another distro... I've spent way too much time looking around at distros before I've settled down on Ubuntu (at least for the past year).

[Redlance]

CBM Basic. :twisted:

Nah i'd go sabayon 8)

[derjames]

(1) Debian (2) Gentoo (3) SUSE

[steven8]

Ok guys, I know all of us are mad about Ubuntu. But if you are asked for a second option, which distro will you go for?

I'm not mad at Ubuntu.

Second choice though: gNewSense

[kazuya]

Sabayon , Zenwalk, Mepis, or Pclinuxos.

Hey Lord Illidan, has Fedora improved that much. Someone speculated that it had become faster for kde than many other distros. Is this true? How is package management on that distro. I used to hear breakage stories.

[rocknrolf77]

Sabayon for learning portage. And something debian based, tried suse and fc6 and the only thing I can think of is how slow everything is with updates and package managment. Prefer apt anyday. And what else can offer that many packages that easy. :) Viva la Apt!

[Dragonbite]

Sabayon for learning portage.
I didn't know Sabayon is Portage-based.

[woedend]

arch linux. ubuntu is great for setting my friends up easily, but arch has been the fastest and most stable for me thus far and is what i will continue using until it...is no more.

[arvster]

Gentoo or anything based on Gentoo, if I had enough free time. If not, then it would be Vector Linux- that thing was really fast on my "not-so-new" hardware.

[rocknrolf77]

I didn't know Sabayon is Portage-based.

I have a little fear for gentoo so I thought sabayon was good to try. It's a live install so it's a much easier way to have have a portage system. You also get a gui for portage (kuroo). Even though I'm not much of a kde fan, I actually like their deafult kde desktop. You should try out the live-dvd, it's packed with stuff. And aixgl/xgl in the live-dvd. :)

[Lord Illidan]

Sabayon , Zenwalk, Mepis, or Pclinuxos.

Hey Lord Illidan, has Fedora improved that much. Someone speculated that it had become faster for kde than many other distros. Is this true? How is package management on that distro. I used to hear breakage stories.

It has speeded up in FC 6..
Regarding packagemanagement, I use smart on it. Not as good as synaptic imho, but better than it was.

[PatrickMay16]

Now that's a problem for me. I have only ever really used Ubuntu. I don't know what else I could use.
I think I would use Debian.

[Asham]

I have tried OpenSUSE 10.2 a bit and although I experienced it as being quite slow, I kinda liked it. It's got a nice looking default user interface and an "attractive" start menu.

[fuscia]

sabayon

[RandomJoe]

I'm old-school - Slackware! Been using it since '95 or so in all kinds of roles. Ubuntu just makes the desktop easier.

I don't have the patience for Gentoo, and maddeningly enough have never successfully installed Debian! Something about the installer (last try maybe 1-1.5 years ago) always gave me fits.

[ComplexNumber]

Ok guys, I know all of us are mad about Ubuntu. But if you are asked for a second option, which distro will you go for?:rolleyes:
ubuntu woudn't be my 1st option because it has too many downsides with few too many upsides to compensate. my 1st choice would be fedora, then suse. for a kde distro, it would be pclinuxos then suse.

[LanceM]

debian

[Stemp]

Debian

[bobbybobington]

opensuse

[Erik Trybom]

Debian I guess. But I'm kind of interested in GoboLinux as well.

[Hendrixski]

I was using Debian before this. I do want to try some of the non debian based Linuxes, like Fedora Core, or SuSe. Eric Raymond has been saying good things about Linspire, I may want to try that as well.

[bihe]

1) fedora
2) archlinux
3) debian

[ssergeje]

Debian 8)
It is stable, it has apt-get and lots of repos, it isn't bloated.
Also Mandriva is getting better and has a free CD. urpm is similar to apt :-k
SUSE is bloated and slow. I always had hardware & soft issues with Fedora and YUM is sloooooow.
Didn't use anything else for a long period on my PC

[dbbolton]

sabayon
werrrd.


but i changed my mind. i'd go freespire or xandros. because i love the feel of xp so much.

[iPower]

Mac OS X ;) :P

[Xzallion]

Gentoo, OpenSuse, or Mandriva would be my choices, in that order. But I love Ubuntu, and don't think I will be going anywhere for awhile. ;)

[chaosgeisterchen]

Arch.

Easy to maintain, great community and gives me exactly what I want to have. It's running at the speed of lightning and KDEmod is an enormous improvement.

[sloggerkhan]

Gentoo is super cool... but you spend a lot of time compiling.

[beercz]

Debian

Used to use debian as my desktop OS before switching to Ubuntu.

Still use debian on my servers.

[chaosgeisterchen]

Gentoo is super cool... but you spend a lot of time compiling.

I would therefore recommend Arch. Sounds idealistic, but it's a very familiar opinion of ex-Gentoo-users that they migrate to other distros because of the unbelievably long comiling times. Arch get the things done in a lot less time because it's based on binaries. But it's still very slick and can compete with Gentoo in terms of overall performance.

[qalimas]

Arch or Debian, I'm unsure which, if the time ever comes to chose, I'll give both another run and see which I prefer. I love Arch, and I love Debian. Arch takes a bit of work though, and Debian has a known stance to be difficult with things like mp3s and all that good stuff.

[smoker]

i have mepis and sabayon downloaded to try when i've time, but i'll be using ubuntu for the foreseeable future!

[AndyCooll]

Debian.

After that SUSE or Fedora Core

:cool:

[kvonb]

I'd go back to PCBSD, not really good for gaming, but very nice otherwise, and rock solid!

Always did like FreeBSD as networking is very logical and uncomplicated (from a server/ISP perspective anyway).

[Praxicoide]

probably dreamlinux or debian

[Jorge32]

I used dynebolic, which basically is made for play, create and edit media. and it's pretty fast. In fact I think it runned faster than Ubuntu sometmes, it was made to be bootable from the CD.So the Idea is pretty much of a transportable OS to every computer you use, and can be used without installing it, or removing windows. It would be my second chance, I think I would have installed it permanently on the PC.

[missmoondog]

right now i have zenwalk 4.0 (slackware based) installed on 6 of my machines. dumped ubuntu when they started having all the issues with flashplayer and xorg updates screwing my machines up. had been using ubuntu since hoary days though. great distro and probably will come back to it sometime, but zenwalk with xfce just smokes on my older machines.

[seijuro]

For me? FreeBSD

for someone else with less *nix experience probably Debian, Mandrivia, or Gentoo

[njee]

I always loved BeatriX, not necessarily for my PC (am a bit too demanding for that) but as a "thing" for reclaiming old computers I loved it.

PcLinuxOS is another distro I always really liked, especially some of the new editions like the mini-me and stripped down versions.

If Ubuntu was still a twinkle in SABDFL's eye though, I'd probably be on openSuse.....slick distro through not tight enough on the package selection for my tastes...

[BLTicklemonster]

.. there's other distros?




:p

[fuscia]

I always loved BeatriX, not necessarily for my PC (am a bit too demanding for that) but as a "thing" for reclaiming old computers I loved it.


never quite got how firefox, evolution and open office could be considered 'light', but beatrix is easily the best mascot.

[Artificial Intelligence]

Arch and/or Debian

[RAV TUX]

Ok guys, I know all of us are mad about Ubuntu. But if you are asked for a second option, which distro will you go for?:rolleyes:

easy question, I would use the other distro I currently use along with Ubuntu,...Sabayon Linux (http://www.sabayonlinux.org/)

now with that question answered I will move this thread to the "Other OS" forum with a redirect.

[Hagar Delest]

SimplyMepis because it does a lot that I don't need to do to configure ... a Debian.
NB: Mepis has switched from the Debian packages to the Ubuntu ones few weeks ago.

[M_the_C]

Windows...:lol: joke.
Now that I am more experienced I might have another go with Debian.
I have also heard good things about Gentoo.

[kazuya]

I am like one of the earlier posters. Right now Zenwalk as well. It smokes everyother rpm-based or debian-based distro I have tried including Ubuntu. I use it more than Ubuntu as it is more adapatable for all my computing needs and computer systems irrespective of hardware type. Older PCs with only 64 MB of RAm all the way to 1 gig RAM PCs all work great and faster with my Zenwalk install.

Only exception may arrive when I go to 64bit computing as they do not yet have a 64 bit version. So I would be running a 32 bit OS on a 64bit machine. System still flies, but for a 64 bit system, I would put Sabayon 64 bit version on that.; But Zenwalk on all other PCs.

Having said this Ubuntu is still one of the easiest to get going. I would continue to recommend it. The community is one of the greatest bar none. And the OS is beautiful to behold. Edgy almost brought me back. I still keep Edgy for my guest, wife and others as it is very easy to work with. Ubuntu is going to some real places.

[NewDisciple]

Just downloaded Solaris-BeleniX 0.5.1 open source last night, which is an open source Live CD ISO. It is slick and fast; much better than previous versions. As of now it is my number one pick followed by PCLinuxOS.

[Dragonbite]

The tally (manually so with a healthy margin for error) seems to come down to:
29 for Debian
13 for Suse / openSuse
12 for Fedora Core
10 for Sabayon
7 for Gentoo
6 for Arch
6 for Zenwalk
5 for Mepis
5 for PCLinuxOS
3 for Mandriva
2 for FreeBSD
2 for Windows
1 for BeatriX
1 for Centos
1 for Copland
1 for Dreamlinux
1 for DSL
1 for Dynebolic
1 for Freespire
1 for gNewSense
1 for Linspire
1 for MacOS X
1 for Mint
1 for PCBSD
1 for Slackware
1 for Solaris-BeleniX
1 for Vector-linux
1 for Xandros

[mips]

Sabayon.

I no longer have any of the ubuntu versions installed.

About to install OpenBSD on my laptop.

Will always have a soft spot for Debian/Kubuntu.

[josys36]

I have worked with Mandriva and liked it and Ubuntu about the same. The reason I decided to stay with Ubuntu was the forum and community. I have yet to find better, and this has really made my switch to Linux much easier.

Jason

[kinson]

Maybe the owner of the thread should add a poll to this thread. It would be a lot easier for us to go through the stats ;)

[haxer]

I must say i fancy backtrack much also slackware

[Dragonbite]

Maybe the owner of the thread should add a poll to this thread. It would be a lot easier for us to go through the stats ;)Then what am I going to do to kill time at work?! :confused:

[kEinstein]

Then what am I going to do to kill time at work?! :confused:

True :-#

[mips]

The reason I decided to stay with Ubuntu was the forum and community. I have yet to find better, and this has really made my switch to Linux much easier.


The ubuntu community is probably ubuntus strongest point as far as i'm concerned.

You should try sabayon, great distro. i hope their community grows to the same level as ubuntus.

[kinson]

Then what am I going to do to kill time at work?! :confused:

Lol ! True ;)

I browse these forums all the time at work too :P

[Tyl3r]

First choice: Parsix
Second choice: Zenwalk

[Frak]

Then what am I going to do to kill time at work?! :confused:

I, in essence, get paid to view the forums, as long as I solve the problem, its okay whatever I do, server Admin/Maintaner

[kinson]

I, in essence, get paid to view the forums, as long as I solve the problem, its okay whatever I do, server Admin/Maintaner

Nice signature :p

[Frak]

Nice signature :p
Thanks, I took the craziness of Steve Balmer, and the sweaty armpits into acount, and then just his nature to open source apps, and that video it links to, and I got that, the Regestered blah, well thats pretty obvious.

[jbtito03]

Fedora or Gentoo

Cheers

JB

[Eddie Wilson]

SimplyMepis and or Sabayon. If I bought a pc with linux installed I would try Linspire.

[jclmusic]

probably debian or slax

[The Joe]

I would go for Fedora Core 6. My top 3 is
Ubuntu
FC6
Debian

[Rodneyck]

Right now, I would have to say....

Dreamlinux (might be switching to this soon as my main distro)
SabayonLinux (even though it uses Gentoo/emerge ](*,) , still, very slick and cutting-edge)
Fedora 6 (did not test this a very much, but initial impression was good)

[lothar_m]

most probably debian or gentoo.

[null0]

gentoo

[Monsuco]

Most likely Debian, Freespire, Mepis, or possibly something like Knoppix hard disk install. I might try PC-BSD or SuSE as well.

[cyberbuff]

For me? FreeBSD

for someone else with less *nix experience probably Debian, Mandrivia, or Gentoo
Since I am newbie, I find it really hard to install.

[happy-and-lost]

Debian. Can't wait for 4 to come out. The current release doesn't support my hardware very well.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Debian most definately, but perhaps my own modded debian as there are things in debian that irk me.
Another option is PClinux, as it has synaptic and even though its RPM based its very good... I used it once before seemed very good.
Other ones... ehh, Sabayan might do but I am still a little leary of gentoo.

[lyceum]

I'd have to say Mint. Without Ubuntu I would have given up on Linux/GNU. Mint is the only other one I have tryed that I kept using without headaches. But I liked it because I can't tell between it and Ubuntu.

[Frak]

I just thought gNewSense would be a great alternative, all open source.

[steven8]

gNewSense is quite good.

[cyberbuff]

Debian. Can't wait for 4 to come out. The current release doesn't support my hardware very well.
__________________
Windows (n): A 32 bit shell for a 16 bit operating system,
originally written for an 8 bit processor on a 4 bit bus by a 2 bit company
that can't stand 1 bit of competition! - Anon

Nice quote!

[Canis familiaris]

Perhaps SuSE or MEPIS