What Linux Distro were you using before Ubuntu? [Archive]

Ronny

October 14th, 2004, 02:30 AM

Hi Everyone! I am new to this board...

I just wanted to say that I will be trying out Ubuntu soon! I've heard a lot of good things about it and the fact that they use the Gnome desktop by default is Fabulous!!

I have used MANY distros though the most recent ones have been Xandros and Fedora all the way to Mepis.

I can see why a lot of people would be coming from Gentoo... User-friendliness is the majority vote these days along with the idea of being a very multi-media friendly distro. Now, I know Ubuntu isn't all that up on multi-media like Mepis is... but I hope they catch up to Mepis soon as I would rather run the Gnome desktop! I could always load the Gnome desktop into Mepis but I'd really rather have the OS built around the Gnome enviroment... than install it and have no support; as no one would know what to do, being they are KDE enthusiasts.

Oh well... can't wait to try out Ubuntu!! :)

Jspired

October 14th, 2004, 02:34 AM

Hi Ronnie.

Glad to see you here and hope you enjoy your experience with Ubuntu. It's a great distro and GNOME 2.8 is fantastic.

Grimmy

October 14th, 2004, 11:14 AM

Was using Fedora Core 2. Currently finding Ubuntu much better.

FLeiXiuS

October 14th, 2004, 12:01 PM

I was always a redhat/fedora/gentoo fan. But ubuntu has completely stolen all of the attention.

Nikola

October 14th, 2004, 12:14 PM

I've been RH/Fedora user, and as soon as I tried Ubuntu, I couldn't beleive Linux can be so fast. It is much, much faster then Fedora. Not as fast as BeOS, but big improvement :-)
Gnome on Ubuntu is fast as Xfce4 on Fedora (on Fedora, Gnome was unusable on my dual celeron 2x450Mhz with 256MB of RAM).

the Pink Chick

October 14th, 2004, 01:15 PM

I used debian for a longer time, and allways migrated from stable to testing to sid, and therefore destroyed it at long sight. Stables packages where out dated, testing was partly usable, sid was bleeding edge and broken most of the time.

So I turned away, used os2 and beos for some years. As each of it vanished, I turned to debian again - and was fustrated again about a mass of out dated packages.

Then I found archlinux, and was pleased by up to date packages and the modern package system. But I felt it was no modern way to edit every bit and script to set up a system from scratch, as I think most linux users would share 80 % of their settings, if they do well. Furthermore, archlinux' main focus is kde and english language environment. I asked several times for better support of native languages, was snubbed for that by several package maintainers, and felt this was no longer my home.

Ubuntu raise up in the news, and I immediately tested it. I am very glad using it.

gpiper

October 14th, 2004, 01:36 PM

For the most part, I had settled on Slackware 10 w/Dropline Gnome. Prior to that, I had bounced around between quite a few distros (Fedora Core 2, Arch, Debian, Mepis, Libranet, Xandros, Suse, ...) trying to find one that just "felt right" & could work with a Win4Lin-enabled kernel.

Slack was actually working out quite nicely, until I had/let Dropline upgrade from 2.6 to 2.8 last week -- it seems that 2.8 doesn't like non 2.6.x kernels, and I was running 2.4.2 in order to get the Win4Lin running. That got me started on another hunt to see if anything could satify my wants/needs, particularly given that I'd become quite partial to Gnome vs. KDE (something about KDE just rubs me the wrong way...).

Fortunately, I came across the Ubuntu notice on Distrowatch.com, and tried out the live cd. I was hooked soon thereafter, and installed the full pre-release warty. It installed in an amazingly easy fashion, and I haven't looked back since, even in spite of the lack of a Win4Lin-enabled kernel (I'm hoping that someone with more time/patience/skill than me will be able to rectify the absence of that functionality, given that my attempts at kernel compilation have been abject failures in the past...).

Ubuntu has, IMO, the best out-of-the-box "feel" of any Linux distro that I've tried, and in fact strongly rivals (again, IMO) Mac OS X Panther as the best desktop OS out there.

-ghp

Ronny

October 14th, 2004, 03:39 PM

Ubuntu has, IMO, the best out-of-the-box "feel" of any Linux distro that I've tried, and in fact strongly rivals (again, IMO) Mac OS X Panther as the best desktop OS out there.

-ghp

I personally really don't care for the Mac... I've used Mac OS 7 all the way up to OSX Panther and I feel that the Mac is one of the MOST UN-user friendly systems on the market today! I would rather use Windoze than Mac. In the Mac enviroment, you are forced to make FIVE clicks in order to do what you could do with TWO clicks in Winblows! The Mac OS frustrated me so... that I look back and cannot for the life of me understand WHY I stayed on that OS for so long!! Dazed and confused I guess... or got caught up in the nature of "I got a Mac and you don't...HA HA!" Immature... Yes, I know... But now I don't need to worry about all that anymore as I absolutely LOVE LINUX and Ubuntu has now taken my breath away!!!

Great Job Ubuntu Guys!!!

P.S. Please just change your new default OS theme! I want to add this OS to all my friends and family's computers and I really don't want the new theme coming up on their desktops. I will be left having to explain why this is! THX AGAIN!!

emperor

October 14th, 2004, 05:12 PM

trying to find one that just "felt right" & could work with a Win4Lin-enabled kernel.-ghp

Like you, I was a little unhappy that the Win4Lin folks for not making patched kernels for the main Distros anymore, but I finally had no choice but to "roll my own". I downloaded a 2.6.7 kernel from kernel.org, applied the patch and build a new kernel for Fedora Core 2. There is some good info on the Win4Lin site and kernel.org to help. From my earlier experience with trying to building a 2.4 kernel and failing, I found the 2.6 kernel build much easier!

We will have to build our own 2.6 Win4Lin patched kernel for Ubuntu if we want to run WIN95/98/ME. Personally I still use Quicken and do my taxes with TurboTax. With Win4Lin, I never have to boot Windoze anymore! :lol:

arctic

October 14th, 2004, 07:30 PM

my evolution towards ubuntu:
redhat - suse - ark - lba - yoper - munjoy - fedora - mandrake and now ubuntu on dual-boot with vidalinux (gentoo-based).

mark

October 14th, 2004, 09:43 PM

I currently grub between Ubuntu and Fedora Core 2 (my baseline) - however, when Ubuntu goes "gold", this may change...

Jakomcbean

October 15th, 2004, 09:16 AM

I came the way of Mandrake but only because it was the only distro to support PPC even slightly. I have used Gentoo also but didn't care for all the manual setup required to get my PPC machines working 100%. Ubuntu has simply been the distro that detected the most components of my system correctly. This means alot to me because I am constantly adding and subtracting machines from my home network. ( most of my machines are older G4's that have been taken out of service at work-production artwork for a display company ) Unbuntu runs extremely fast even on the oldest machines putting alot of life in these cast away computers.

Infatuated_iPod

October 15th, 2004, 12:27 PM

I was using fedora, but i only had it for a little while, before that i hade Suse 9.0, but i didnt like that very much either. Ubuntu is amazing.

im_ka

October 15th, 2004, 09:34 PM

i tried a _lot_ of distros...

coming from yoper and staying with ubuntu

cseg

October 15th, 2004, 09:45 PM

I think its odd that the Debian-based distros -- Linspire, Libranet, MEPIS, Xandros -- have the lowest scores. What does that mean??

Ronny

October 15th, 2004, 10:05 PM

I think its odd that the Debian-based distros -- Linspire, Libranet, MEPIS, Xandros -- have the lowest scores. What does that mean??

All it means to me is that people mostly follow the crowd... and if someone has a better marketing strategy, that's where they all go!

We as ubuntu users on the other hand are special... in the way that it takes a special kind of person to realize there is a real choice out there and the more intelligent and right brained people seem to make wiser choices. The rest are left brained and follow either the crowd or their egos.

My dad always said it takes a special kind of person to be of the elite!
The few, the proud, the Elite!

Take care... ;0)

jhigz

October 16th, 2004, 02:23 AM

My path to enlightnment...
Red Hat-> Slackware-> FreeBSD-> Mepis-> Debian-> Ubuntu
I must confess that it's been challenging at times, if not downright brutal. Since Ubuntu, I've never looked back...

jeremy

October 16th, 2004, 04:04 AM

mandrake -> Fedora -> yopper -> ububtu.

arctic

October 16th, 2004, 05:00 AM

kmoffat

October 16th, 2004, 09:57 AM

It might also mean that users of debian based distros are not looking to change! I have been using Libranet linux for years very happily, and still use it on my server and dual boot on 2 others. When libranet 3 comes out I'll most likely be using it. I'm looking at ubuntu and mepis as alternatives, and very much like both of these distros. Although mepis is kde based, I installed gnome 2.6 with no problem. Still, since ubuntu is so up to date (gnome 2.8!) and will be using X.org soon, I may end up here. BUT only if the theme is changed; no humans on the desktop, please!
:roll:

Mirak

October 16th, 2004, 02:00 PM

i find it funny that quit a few of us are switchig from yoper to ubuntu

especially considering i heard about ubuntu on the Yoper forums, so i ordered a few cd's (well 20) but still stuck with yoper, then it died, HARD. not only my install, but there servers as well. me being a newb i hevily rely on atp-get, also im not too fond of kde either, anyways during a reintsall of yoper, it was showing my HDD had bad sectors, total bummer. so i barrowed a HDD, while i figure out the prob with mine, and went with ubuntu. I LOVE IT, Yoper was pushing me away from linux, while ubuntu is pulling me in.

just interested to see how yoper was doing, i stopped in the irc room, 10 users on, 1 talking, and he wasnt even a yoper user. wanna know why..................................cuz it killed hid HDD too

YOPER......the HDD killer

ill be with ubuntu for a while

p.s. yoper was my first distro, and from the looks of thing ubuntu will be my secong...and my last......cuz im not going anywhere

cseg

October 16th, 2004, 02:31 PM

I think its odd that the Debian-based distros -- Linspire, Libranet, MEPIS, Xandros -- have the lowest scores. What does that mean??
it simply means that they are not as widely used as e.g. mandrake, suse, debian or gentoo. ;)Well, I wouldn't go quite that far. It simply means that folks who chose to use this particular Debian-base distro have not spent much time with other Debian-based distros. I find that interesting. Does ubuntu have more buzz than these other distros? Or is the fact that ubuntu is free the differentiating factor? But Xandros has a free-beer Open Circulation Edition. So is it the Software Libre aspect that makes the most difference?

That explains it: ubuntu users are just a bunch of leeches!

(ducks and runs away)

Just kidding. I have always been fond of Debian and I have probably used all of the Debian-based distros. Does anyone remember Storm Linux (was it Stormix?)

HungSquirrel

October 16th, 2004, 03:08 PM

Ronny

October 16th, 2004, 05:07 PM

That explains it: ubuntu users are just a bunch of leeches!

(ducks and runs away)

Just kidding. I have always been fond of Debian and I have probably used all of the Debian-based distros. Does anyone remember Storm Linux (was it Stormix?)

I didn't remember Storm Linux until you refreshed my memory! That was a great distro for its time! I wished they would have stuck around. I had even spoke with that company several times and they said they were going to eat up the market! I asked them if Linux will (one day) become the mainstream...they kind of got mad at that statement and said, "Linux IS the mainstream" (at that time). Funny...

Re: your above comment: I think the people here at ubuntu are probably the more intelligent ones out of all the forums I belong to. Other forums will attack you for any reason and hey... if youre a noobie...??? Watch out!!

People here are just plain nicer and I just like that! hehe :D

That's ok that a large number of the population stay away... I think... it would definitely change the energy of this forum.

I always say go for the niche market... youre more apt to have a success than if you market to everyone and their mother; as you will then be forced to deal with all the (lets put it nicely here) less intelligent beings out there in la-la land.

Well... just my opinion... everyone has one!

Thanks :twisted:

Ronny

October 16th, 2004, 05:18 PM

FLeiXiuS

October 17th, 2004, 03:10 PM

Technically, Yoper, but I still use it on my laptop. It's my favorite distro for speed alone. I'm just giving Ubuntu a shot because I like trying different distros. So far the experience has been great. 8)

Before Yoper, it was Slackware.

So, since you have been on ubuntu and Yoper... how would you rate the comparison of speed? THX!

Well other then what Yoper has noticed, I've ran Ubuntu on my ancient IBM ThinkPad 333Mhz and my experiences with it are acually very pleasing. I haven't seen a distro run any better then what Ubuntu has on this laptop. My thanks you the developers!

LongTooth

October 18th, 2004, 01:58 PM

I started out with Mandrake went to SuSE and ended up with Fedora Core 2. Between SuSE and Fedora I must have tried at least 20 other distros. Most didn't last very long on my machine. Of course a few wouldn't even load up. I've finally settled on Fedora as my distro of choice. But a debian distro has always been one I kept in the back of my mind. Ubuntu seems like I'm finally going to have my debian distro I've always wanted. Can't say I'll give up Fedora. They are doing great things with it. Their YUM package manager is as easy to use as apt-get. Of course being a Gnome man (KDE has never appealed to me) both Ubuntu and Fedora are made for me. It's a tough choice to make. I think I'll keep both!

FLeiXiuS

October 18th, 2004, 01:59 PM

I agree. Ubuntu and Fedora/Redhat will be my primary distrobutions! I'm very ancious awaiting for the Fedora Core 3 Final Release.

Ronny

October 18th, 2004, 04:37 PM

:shock: I started out with Mandrake went to SuSE and ended up with Fedora Core 2. Between SuSE and Fedora I must have tried at least 20 other distros. Most didn't last very long on my machine. Of course a few wouldn't even load up. I've finally settled on Fedora as my distro of choice. But a debian distro has always been one I kept in the back of my mind. Ubuntu seems like I'm finally going to have my debian distro I've always wanted. Can't say I'll give up Fedora. They are doing great things with it. Their YUM package manager is as easy to use as apt-get. Of course being a Gnome man (KDE has never appealed to me) both Ubuntu and Fedora are made for me. It's a tough choice to make. I think I'll keep both! :shock:
What makes Fedora more benificial to your needs than Mandrake 10.1?
I have used Fedora myself and couldn't wait to get it off my machine after a week of using it! It is so 'Techie'. As others have stated, the OS should make one's life easier and more funtional... not having to sit and learn coding and recompiling and whatever else... I have no desire to be a nerd/geek/techie or anything of that nature.

Some of the things in Fedora that were suppose to work ... did not work for me. Frankly, it frustrated the hell out of me. With Mandrake, everything just simply works! I have used Mandrake on and off for four years and always had great luck with it on any machine I installed it on.

No offense... to each their own... I really am just wondering what makes you believe Fedora is better than Mandrake. Thank You!

LongTooth

October 18th, 2004, 05:01 PM

Ronny:
Odd that you find Fedora too techie. I find Fedora just the opposite for me. I also don't care for the 'down in the bowels' distros. They have no appeal for me. Once again, Yum makes life a hell of a lot easier for the average user. And I see myself as on of those.

As far a Mandrake go, I have not had the pleasure of using it lately. One of these day perhaps. But for now, Fedora and Ubuntu are all I could want and one of the reasons is because they are not to geeky.

emperor

October 18th, 2004, 05:23 PM

My first distro was Mandrake 8 with the Yast package manager in 2001. I ended up corrupting the O/S and put Linux aside for several months. My first successfull Linux experience was with Red Hat 7.3 and then Red Hat 9. I also decided along the way that I prefer Gnome over KDE.

Next came Fedora Core 1 as my main Distro. I put Lindows on my daughters machine and she like it for awhile. Lindows/Linspire reminds me of AOL in that you can out grow it after awhile. Then I tried to install Debian and that was a nightmere until a decent net installer game along; so now it is possible at least to get Testing installed. I tried Libranet too but it was too old for my taste.

Now my daughter has Ubuntu on her machine and I have Ubuntu, Fedora Core 2, and Arch Linux installed. Arch linux took many weeks to get everything working, so I will probably leave it on my disk for ever and update it every month or so with pacman! I just replacement my main disk drive with a 160GB, so I got room to have several Distro's installed.

So, my daughter and I are giving Ubuntu a spin; my hope is that this is my dream Debian Distro too. However, I find I still have feelings for Fedora since her mother (RH) was my first love! :lol:

Oh, and I work I use Mandrake since this is the owners preference. Currently we are using 9.1 and will install Mandrake 10.1 offical when it is released. Our company recently created it's own embedded Distro for realtime control applications. Live is good! :D

stodge

October 18th, 2004, 08:58 PM

Just switched from Fedora Core 2, though I also tried Fedora Core 3 Test 3. Before that I've used Slackware, Caldera, Redhat, Lycoris and others.

Infatuated_iPod

October 18th, 2004, 09:40 PM

woodstock

October 18th, 2004, 09:53 PM

I came from a long line of distro junkies... It's a curse that I'm glad to be rid of.
Here is my extensive list of Distro's (not in order, but pretty close)

Mandrake
Redhat
Slackware
Gentoo
Slackware
Knoppix
Debian
Slackware
Arch
Slackware
Gentoo
Arch
Fedora
Ubuntu <--- still in use

I'm surprised my HD hasn't died on me yet. BTW, all of this was done with a dual boot alongside WInXP.

Yep, I had problems... but I found my cure. I guess you can just say that I was being picky. Some good came out of it though... I can configure my way in and out of ANYTHING now, with out having to refer to docs, wiki's and forums. I just know. So I plan on helping out here as much as possible.

Ronny

October 18th, 2004, 11:54 PM

Ronny: I totaly agree with you about the atmosphere of this fourm. It is just full of people who dont get mad if someone who is new to linux (like myself) has a "stupid" question.

In my opinion there is no such thing as a stupid question except one that is never asked.

Also, it should be the job of all of us linux users to help new people out! How else are we going to get people away from microsoft's garbage? If we give them crap about not knowing anything then they will just stick to windows, and we dont want that.

You are SO RIGHT!! I am fed up with the evil empire and their shananagans!! (to put it lightly)

I am proud to be a part of this group!

Thank you everyone for being so caring, understanding and helpful without furry or insults!!

Amazing!!
:!:

FLeiXiuS

October 19th, 2004, 01:43 AM

Being of help is my specialty. I'd love to be the guy to go to for detailed problems..if i can't help you then I'd redirect you to someone who can. I too, as all of us were, a linux newb. I know what its like to have a stupid question brought up front exampled for its greatness. Each and every question holds an importance. Please be open minded and share always...help is always available. :roll: :D :o :!: :P :wink:

ErikN

October 19th, 2004, 05:21 AM

Mandrake -> Fedora -> Slackware -> Fedora -> Slackware -> Ubuntu

I still got slack on this setup as a dual boot with Ubuntu, i have to say i am impressed, usually after a day i go back to slack which hasn't happened yet..

DougC

October 19th, 2004, 09:19 AM

Hi All,

My ditros have been:

Redhat 5.4 > mandrake 8.0 > SUSE 8.1 > stopped for a while > Gentoo > SUSE 9.1 > Yoper > Gentoo

havn't actually tried ubuntu yet, my VDU went bang a few days ago :( so I'll need to wait till I can afford the new LG flat panel I want before I go on. I'm gonna have a quick go with Arch linux first though but it's looking like ubuntu is gonna be a keeper though I hope they get KDE in soon (sorry but thats my preference along with xfce4, and yes I know you can get it in the universe repository but I would like to stay as stable as possible).

I always wanted to try debian but was put off by the out of date software unless you went to sid. Yoper was good but still rpm based and I had some issues and gentoo... well my PC just isn't fast enough to compile everything all the time other than that it's ok.

Hopefully I'll get my new monitor soon and give it a try (all donations to my monitor fund are welcome :wink: )

wizard

October 19th, 2004, 11:32 AM

I have used them all en i think en the one i used most is mandrake,
but i stay now with ubuntu i think it's a great distro en verry stable en there are a loth off packages availble.

JProgrammer

October 19th, 2004, 09:11 PM

I've had quite a story starting with Corel Linux on my parents computer in a FAT32 filesystem.

Corel -> Mandrake -> Red Hat -> Fedora -> Gentoo -> Ubuntu

Seems alot of us are from Gentoo... Did you all get sick of waiting for everything to compile or just sick of waiting for Gnome releases? Me it was both.

Also the lack of other "n00b" type distros might be the fact the Ubuntu is still in Pre-Release. Just crazy early uptakers who know stuff anyway... Well I assume anyone who can install Gentoo know's their stuff

defcon-1

October 21st, 2004, 12:27 PM

Mandrake>RedHat>Mandrake>FedoraCore1>Mandrake>Gent oo>Mandrake>Arch>Mandrake>BeOS>Mandrake>
Gentoo>Mandrake>Gentoo>Mandrake>FedoraCore2>Ubuntu

There are alot that I've forgoten, There have been so many. This is over a year and a half.

It looks like Ubuntu will be the first since Mandrake that sticks for more that a month straght :-)

Julle

October 21st, 2004, 04:26 PM

The first distro I installed was Mandrake. The reason of cource Mandrakes reputation as newbie friendly distro. After a while I got sick of how bloated Mandrake was. There was loads of programs of which I knew maybe one fift and used even less.

So I was looking for new distro and found Gentoo. I loved the idea that I would be in total controll and know exatly what was in my computer. The down side was complex install (at this point I had used Linux only few months) and the compilation took really long time in my 500MHz P3 laptop.

After a year and half with Gentoo I started to realise it wast for me. I wanted something simpler to maintain and use. I was on a lookout for new distro when I notised news about Ubuntu. I liked the name and liked the colours even more. I also wanted to try out Gnome and didn't want too many programs. I installed Ubuntu and absolutely loved it. :)

amoser

October 21st, 2004, 07:01 PM

I was running Yoper. Yoper is pretty good, if you stay inside the box they put you in. Their distro isn't compatible with anything out their, unless they build/compile it. Amd, thye removed the Visor module out of the Kernel, better for speed. Well, I use a sony Clie Palm, so I need the Visor module.

Oh a little tip, the Ubuntu Live CD, makes a great recovery cd.

~Alan

williamroddy

October 21st, 2004, 10:35 PM

Hello,

I was at the point where there was nothing new left to download and try. Being a retired and disabled veteran, I've had a lot of time, so I've used up a lot of CDs. I think I have tried -- no, used -- them all. Fedora is one avenue of promise, but it seemed to lack flexibility, having tried Debian and apt-get. Updating could be difficult, though that problem seems to have been resolved.

I wanted Xandros to succeed because I went back to Corel and Red Hat, when it was in the 5's. But for a Debian distro, Xandros was disappointing. I tried a lot of the build-it-yourself distros, but I found I was spending more time building than enjoying. Slackware was do-able, fast, but tedious as muddy shoes.

Meanwhile, I was buying every Red Hat, SuSE, and Mandrake that came out. I found SuSE to represent quality. It still does, but it's cost and it's update cycle make someone who has but a short time left impatient. I wanted to see the most Linux would become before I take the dirt nap.

Skipping past dozens, just for this writing, I found MEPIS, found it to be the best live distro, by far, the fastest install, more complete than most, and the easiest and best disc for system rescue, including Knoppix and KANOTIX, also superior distros. Of the half dozen machines I have here at the house, MEPIS and SuSE had been the only ones to on all of them at one time. I like MEPIS. And I love the community of fine people who have gathered around Warren, who is an an exceptional person. I thank them all for their kindnesses.

UserLinux almost got me, but it has to download everything in the store to be happy.

Then came Ubuntu . . and it was like being a kid again, you know, the feeling of love at first sight, the "awh, s***, I love this! But I can't tell you why" feeling, the feeling you got when you first ran your hand down a sleek piece of metal you wanted to call 'your' car.

I know it dumb but I've downloaded almost every "nightly build" Ubuntu produced, just to see where it was going. And now Ubuntu is on all my machines, will do anything I want it to do, do it with class, be cutting-edge, and satisfy my greed for the ultimate Linux experience. And I think I'm safe saying that because I see Ubuntu as more than an operating system, its a phenomenon, and I think that by challenging the best to do the best, we've just seen the beginning. I'm going on the great ride Mr. Shuttleworth promised us. I think he has the brains, the bucks, and battle experience to pull it off.

By the way, the philosopy strikes a very responsive chord in this old warrior's heart. Like the man said, the only victor in war is Death.

Thank you for allowing me to write this.

Toward peace,
Wil

carlosf

October 22nd, 2004, 01:23 PM

Was using Kurumin Linux (brazilian distro based on knoppix). It is till in the other partition...

williamroddy

October 22nd, 2004, 04:14 PM

Yes, Krumin is a Debian, Knoppix-based distro.

williamroddy

October 22nd, 2004, 04:15 PM

Sorry about the misspelling typo: Kurumin

elwis

October 23rd, 2004, 03:06 AM

Well I came along:

Red Hat 5.1
Mandrake 6.x
Mandrake 7.x
Mandrake 8.x
SuSe 8.x
Vectorlinux 4.x
Fedore Core 1
Mandrake 10
SuSE 9.x
Userlinux
Ubuntu
...Goal reach

Now I'm running SuSE 9.1, userlinux, Ubuntu and DamnSmallLinux on a very old machine. Ubuntu will probably be my No.1 Workstation, it feels gooooood...

beesee

October 23rd, 2004, 12:17 PM

Hey everyone, I'm new here and I hope you're all doing well.

I'm currently dual booting ubuntu and gentoo. Before that, I've used fedora/rh, suse, slackware, and mandrake. Even though this is the first time I've used a debian-based distro the transition has been quite smooth.

Erix

October 23rd, 2004, 12:50 PM

I was using Mandrake 10.1 Community.

nuopus

October 23rd, 2004, 04:46 PM

I was formerly using Gentoo on ALL machines including laptop and now using Ubuntu all the way around.

I just got sick of waiting to compile everything .... although there are more up to date software in gentoo than we have in Ubuntu and definately Debian sarge.

I guess I love this better because of the quick installation of the OS and the base software .... but am still frustrated with all of the outdated (and sometimes extremely) software I end up compiling some of it anyway. So Why don't we have Firefox 1.0PR again?

Bassism

October 24th, 2004, 06:25 PM

Started out on Slackware. Decided that it was too out-of-date, and didn't really make anything easy for you.
Moved on to Gentoo., which I loved. Then I decided that waiting to download source on dialup, then compile it wasn't cool. Also being in complete control of my system lost it's novelty once I had a bunch of stuff -almost- working how I wanted.
Ubuntu seems to fill my Linux void perfectly so far, though.

im_ka

October 24th, 2004, 06:39 PM

it's been a pleasure to read your post, wil.
especially this part (being aware that you're a veteran):

By the way, the philosopy strikes a very responsive chord in this old warrior's heart. Like the man said, the only victor in war is Death.

gabbman

October 26th, 2004, 12:50 PM

Just about anything in linux from the mid 90's to the present. But always kde based.

Thanks ubuntu for showing me that not all gnomes belong in gardens. :)

heruwdp

October 27th, 2004, 06:45 AM

hello

i'm using slackware for my desktop. trying ubuntu to learn debian and introduce all my friends how easy it is
:)

cacofonix

October 27th, 2004, 08:06 AM

I have used Mandrake 10 suse, vidalinux and I am now using Gentoo (and completely love it) just waiting for the ubuntu cd's to be delivered then Im gonna boot between ubuntu, gentoo and windows xp.

crashd

October 27th, 2004, 08:28 AM

before suse and kanotix but ubuntu is amazing! ;)

FLeiXiuS

October 27th, 2004, 03:31 PM

Wait till you see the ubuntu based knoppix! :-)

Branchsr

October 27th, 2004, 09:11 PM

Just ran Knoppix through the CD some time ago.

beeldings

October 27th, 2004, 10:15 PM

Let's see...

Before Ubuntu there was Fedora Core 2.

Before Fedora Core 2 I used Mandrake Linux 10 for about six months.

Then there was Slackware.

Somewhere between the time I ran Slackware and Mandrake, I tried using FreeBSD. I was able to install it, however I had problems with the display in that it was garbled. Since I really didn't know how to tinker with the system's configuration files at the time, I went back to the newb-friendly Mandrake. Mandrake's good, but I really don't like downloading four CDs just to install/upgrade my operating system. You can't beat Ubuntu's one-CD installation (unless you're using a live CD, and I've used the DSL and XFCE live CDs).

Am I forgetting something? Oh, I attempted to install Gentoo, but that didn't happen.

And around the time I converted from Windows to Linux, I tried Evil Linux. Evil Linux was alright, and it was pretty fast on my old PII (it used Enlightenment instead of GNOME or KDE). But it could not detect my NIC, so I could not establish a connection to the Internet.

Everything I listed is pretty much in chronological order, I used Mandrake the most, and as a result, I am more famililar with Mandrake and KDE than I am with Ubuntu and GNOME. But when I began using Fedora/GNOME and Ubunutu/GNOME, I began to feel more comfortable using Linux in general. When I first began using Linux in May 2004, I was intimidated by RPMs, compiling source code, running and executing programs/scripts from the command-line, etc. But now that I have seen how easy running Linux is, I am glad to have gotten rid of Windows. Now, if I could only figure out how to capture and edit video on Linux with my old Dazzle DVC, then I'll be a happier Linux user.

And if you're remotely interested...

Before I converted to Linux I used Windows. I've used Windows since the 3.1 days, and before that I would play on my friend's MS-DOS machine. Never in my life have I used a more unstable, insecure operating system when I ran Windows. I was going install XP on this machine, so I can burn my VCDs and DVDs, as well as play games, but...XP is bloated, XP requires Product Activiation (MS already has my money, why should I give them my personal information?), and there's the whole thing about Windows being prone to spyware/viruses.

markw

October 28th, 2004, 09:56 AM

I have used so many I don't remember. I have Used Slackare, Suse, Fedora Core 1 and 2, Gentoo(never got graphics to load), Mandrake and Lycoris. The most reacent was Linspire. I even paid for a subscription to CNR, however the fact that it is not GPL'ed (or something similar) turned me off. Now i'm on Ubuntu, and i'm done trying distros. :mrgreen:

beeldings, i toatally agree with you. I tried Windows 2003 server before going to Linux, and it was sssssooooo slow on my athlon 2400+. Also I got a virus which just made it worse. Ubuntu is SO much better.

j_baer

October 28th, 2004, 10:48 AM

My development roots extend all the way back to CP/M and have travel all the iterations of MS Windows and the various programming lanquages.

My first look at Linux was Corel some years ago, and I am a registed user of SuSE 9.1 and I will look at 9.2.

Much to the credit of the Ubuntu community, your efforts tops all and it is what I run on my desktop day in and day out.

Thank you,

JsPr

October 28th, 2004, 12:20 PM

:---) I couldn't vote. I used SuSE 9.1 before Ubuntu.

onegear

October 28th, 2004, 01:29 PM

My server is still running Slackware 10 but my desktops are all running Ubuntu.

Seti

October 28th, 2004, 02:15 PM

\\:D/ Knoppix on Toshiba Satellite A10 until now. Knoppix had occasional booting problems but that was prolly cause it was just a default kernel configuration. Liking Gnome more everyday! I still have Mepis on my desktop though and haven't tried Ubuntu there yet. Too busy with school right now, maybe on the holidays....

legend

October 29th, 2004, 11:44 AM

i was/am using suse on one computer (the wife's) and ubuntu and xp on my computer , even though i seldom boot the windows.

jdodson

October 29th, 2004, 06:08 PM

Just kidding. I have always been fond of Debian and I have probably used all of the Debian-based distros.

well i switched to ubuntu cause i was tired of all of the rpm hell that came with fedora. i gummed up my fedora box so i tried ubuntu before i was going to reinstall core 2. its my first jaunt into debian land, and i love it.

macsaint

October 29th, 2004, 10:40 PM

I started to use linux from the year 2000. It was redhat 6.2.
From then, I installed almost every new version of redhat, freeBSD,
Mandrake, several korean distros, gentoo, debian, Fedora, Xandros, and finally
have been used Suse 9.0 for 10 months.

After I installed Ubuntu my test machine (old laptop), I switched to ubunto totally.
So far, I am really happy with ubutu although I spent a week to setup locale,
samba, printing and etc.

I pray that I never jump to another distro anymore.. OTL..

JW

RandomCoder

October 30th, 2004, 01:50 PM

Well, I've tried everything, but spent most of my time with Slackware and Arch, most recently Arch, and I really like ubuntu, which is sort of ironic, since the distros I've absolutely hated include Debian and many of its derivatives.

fng

October 31st, 2004, 05:38 AM

redhat - suse - gentoo for a long time - now ubuntu

HiddenWolf

October 31st, 2004, 10:35 AM

I've been constantly switching between Debian and Gentoo

jdodson

November 1st, 2004, 05:04 PM

my first foray into the linux breach was when i checked out my friends first linux box. it was an old x386 machine running debian, he bought the CDS off some site. i was completley blown away at the command prompt. it reminded me of my old DOS days as a kid. the first distro i owned(still do) was corel linux. my wife and i bought it at office depot on a 19.99 in store instant rebate. i dual booted from win98SE to corel linux and it was cool leaning the shell and using KDE. my friend then moved to RedHat7.0 and i got the CDS. then 7.1 came out a week later and i snagged those CDS and installed a linux redhat7.1 server. i hacked on that forever. i have switched between mandrake and redhat then later to fedora. after installing ubuntu, i wont go back to desktop fedora. on my system, ubuntu is noticably faster and way easier to install packages.

corel -> redhat -> mandrake -> redhat -> gentoo(for a bit) -> mandrake -> fedora -> ubuntu

:-D

AsteriskNix

November 1st, 2004, 05:36 PM

Yoper also. Killed my box. Apt repository sucks, more dependency problems than redhat 6.0.

For people who liked Yoper's speed, prelinking and making Ubuntu just as fast requires these few things..

unlock the "universe" repository for Synaptic ( this gives you another 13,000 applications, Yoper doesn't )

search for "prelink" and install ( takes 45 seconds )

(optional) skim the docs man prelink

Before going to bed for the evening drop to a command prompt and :

sudo prelink -amvR

type in your password and let it run ( it takes a few hours depending on apps )

Better than Yoper, welcome to a real distro.

im_ka

November 1st, 2004, 05:54 PM

Vlammend

November 1st, 2004, 06:20 PM

Cannot really say that I had a distro before. WinBlows irritated me so much that I wanted to test Linux. Tried several and Ubuntu is the winner, I think. Best till now and the first using my hardware out of the box. :grin:

AsteriskNix

November 1st, 2004, 06:24 PM

Np. I love this distro. Please spread the word and pass that prelink info along to our other suffering Yoper brethren and brethrenettes :twisted:

Someone even posted on the Yoper forums that the head "developer" isn't even a programmer? Just leeched knoppix, gentoo and linux from scratch, snagged redhat and suse stuff glued it together, recompiled stuff, ran prelink and now he's famous.
What a joke. But, I digress.

*nix

theBlackDragon

November 2nd, 2004, 04:38 AM

I run Gentoo on my desktop and Ubuntu on my laptop and I think it's going to stay that way.

This has the big advantage that I can still experiment at will on my desktop without running the risc of royally screwing everything up without a safe backup machine and without having to run some out-of-date distro either... :D

regeya

November 2nd, 2004, 10:39 AM

Then came Ubuntu . . and it was like being a kid again, you know, the feeling of love at first sight, the "awh, s***, I love this! But I can't tell you why" feeling, the feeling you got when you first ran your hand down a sleek piece of metal you wanted to call 'your' car.

I may only be 29, but I totally agree! =D>

I love to read about some of the more atypical Linux users. So many of us have the same story: We were in college, we needed a Unix-type system to do our classwork, and we discovered Linux. I'm no different; in college I bought a couple of cases(!) of floppy disks and spent a Saturday in a computer lab downloading floppy images to install Slack on a PC that didn't have a CD-ROM drive (and I wasn't about to put a CD-ROM drive into a Cyrix 486-DLC-based system, a 486-on-a-386-board type system.)

The last distribution I used was Gentoo, and got frustrated that people couldn't be bothered to go about things the right way. Want to handle reverse deps? Go digging through the Gentoo Forums for some guy's Bash script. Want the latest bug fixes? Go digging through the Gentoo Forums. Having problems with installing X.Org's X server? Go digging through the Gentoo Forums. Development on Portage seems to be dead as well; sad, since mostly what they needed to do was clean up the Portage code. :sad: Discussion of Portage-NG seemed to degenerate into arguments about whether or not it'd have a SQL backend (stupid, stupid, stupid) and what language(s) it'd be written in.

Ubuntu even managed to convince me to push to replace an OS X Server Unlimited box with a cheap PC! Wowsers, I had less trouble installing Ubuntu on PC hardware than I had installing OS X on PPC hardware! :D That's darned impressive. Then again, maybe I think it's easier because I'm not afraid of the command line; when other people receive files without a filename extension, I'm the one who always fires up a Terminal.app and runs 'file' on the file. 8-) Somehow, amongst Macintosh users, using Terminal makes you l33t. How sad! Most Mac users are missing out on a powerful tool simply because they don't want to deal with a command line!

Anyway, I love hearing stories like yours, Wil, and I'd like to say "great job!" to the Ubuntu developers. You've restored my faith in a Free Software future, especially the desktop.

regeya

November 2nd, 2004, 10:44 AM

search for "prelink" and install ( takes 45 seconds )

(optional) skim the docs man prelink

Before going to bed for the evening drop to a command prompt and :

sudo prelink -amvR

type in your password and let it run ( it takes a few hours depending on apps.

Why go to that much trouble? After installing prelink, open /etc/default/prelink and make sure that the line reading PRELINK=maybe (or however it reads) is changed to PRELINK=yes. When the cron.daily jobs are run, prelink is also. Every 14 days (you can change this in /etc/default/prelink), prelink runs in full-blown mode; otherwise, it runs in quick mode.

Simple, easy, no need to intervene. 8-)

theBlackDragon

November 2nd, 2004, 11:31 AM

..., since the distros I've absolutely hated include Debian and many of its derivatives.

That sounds so familiar... I've had nothing but problems with Debian, the only reason it still runs on my serverbox is that I don't have the time to replace it with something else...

diebels

November 2nd, 2004, 11:44 AM

My first was redhat 5.0, real mess with boot floppies, downloading xserver from another machine with internet connection and installing it to mine. I tried suse, but it found it slow and outdated. Used manrake for a while, nice and up to date but buggy, and I didn't like to installing new releases all the time. So I went looking for a distribution with magical package managers that could upgrade to new releases without breaking. I considered debian, but it was older than me(did not realize that testing can be stable enough for desktop use). So I choose gentoo. I really liked using it and learned a lot. Gentoo is good if you're interested in learning. And what it learned me, helped me recovering ubuntu when I had some harddrive corruption and needed to chroot in from the install cd and fix things.

Gentoo is nice, but portage is to time consuming. I decided to use something with a better package manager. Looked at fedora with yum or apt-get, and debian testing or unstable. Then ubuntu showed up and it was the perfect choice. apt-get is damn fast compared to urpmi, yum or portage. And synaptic kicks *** too.

Kind of boring when everything just works. Think I'll be upgrading to hoary soon.

By the way, I still like gentoo, portage is not dead http://www.gentoo.org/news/20041021-portage51.xml and I hate stupid people like http://funroll-loops.org/ that haven't even tried gentoo.

kal_zakath

November 2nd, 2004, 03:03 PM

I tried many distro, in order I tried : Mandrake (8.0 at this time), SuSe (7.2, if I remember right), then back to Mandrake (8.2) then Mandrake again (9.0), then some Gentoo (was it 3.0 ? can't remeber exactly...), then Mandrake once again (9.2) wich defenitively pissed me of about Mandrake stuff, and I have used Debian for more than 1 year now with full satisfaction (I use it as desktop system (SID) and server (Woody)).

I just tried Ubuntu today and was quite impressed that it's so easy to install and that base packages are really well chosen : gnome 2.8 is great, all config tools are cool for starters but others ways of administrate system are still avariable for power users, and finally there is not too much packages but only the necessary to have a complete desktop system that runs "out-of-the-box".

I'm gonna switch to Ubuntu for all my desktop systems at home and at work, it won't take much time as I installed a complete Ubuntu system in less than 30 mins on a not so up-to-date desktop machine. Some additional packages are needed to have full french support (I'm from french speeking part of Belgium) but it only adds 5-10 mins to the install.

Of course, my servers installs will still use debian as the goal of Ubuntu and it's design isn't intended to be a server system.

Go on with cool work Ubuntu team !!!

Nomad

November 2nd, 2004, 11:04 PM

Libranet (community was a problem)
Knoppix (I was the problem, could not make it work)
UBUNTU (No Problems, community is great)

If this distro doesn't pan out I will take up golf. I hate golf.

herweg

November 2nd, 2004, 11:30 PM

Hmm....first one was Red Hat 9.0, which, in retrospect, was a very nice introduction to the world of Linux. I moved to Fedora when it was released, (still in testing) which ended up driving me to try something new. I think I went to Mandrake from there, version 9.something, which I absolutely hated. I also tried 10.0 community somewhere in there, and hated that too. I couldn't understand why everyone raved about it. So it was back to Fedora (final release) for a while, during which I tried various live distros like Knoppix, Damn Small, PHLAK. I gave Mandrake one more try when they released 10.0 final to the public, and finally understood the hype. I loved it for quite a while. After a while though, it started to get stale, and URPMI confused me. It was the desktop distro I was looking for, until I realized that it didn't really do lots of the things I wanted my desktop distro to do, and I was sick of compiling damn near everything from source. I found Ubuntu quite by accident, while I was looking for something light for an old Pentium 3 I have sitting around. I decided on Xandros for that machine, which is working out quite well, considering. But while I was searching, I found lots and lots of good press about this new distro Ubuntu, so I said, what the hell, Mandrake is boring me, it's time for something new. And it is, in fact, the something new I was looking for. So far, it has delivered in ways all the others listed above never even came close to. My sound on my desktop works, out of the box, despite my weird setup. (That is, works in Warty, I briefly tried Hoary, and it started breaking lots of things, so I reformatted back to Warty). This is the first distro I could get A/V working really well (thanks largely to the Multimedia HOWTO), the first that Wine actually worked for me in, the first one that I could get a lot of games working in, and the first one I could consistently keep up to date thanks to it's stellar package management.

Ubuntu rocks, and I plan on sticking with it for a good long while.

Magneto

November 5th, 2004, 12:22 AM

jwenting

November 5th, 2004, 01:37 AM

Started out with Debian back in 1998 or so but never got it running in a satisfactory manner (meaning stability, performance and having all the software and hardware support I need). Have been trying newer versions ever since.
Also tried various versions of Mandrake, Redhat, SuSe and even tried CorelLinux when that existed for a short while. Same story...

Ubuntu was the first ever that installed and simply works with my hardware (as any OS should, certainly on the by now 5 year old machine I use to run Linux) with only a minor glitch due to incorrectly detecting the display H and V synch rates (where others had detected nothing at all or not even attempted...).

nuopus

November 5th, 2004, 03:22 AM

I have used mandrake, redhat, suse and debian didnt care for any of them since 1999- But I liked Slackware alot so I had been using that extensively for the past couple of years- didnt have the patience for gentoo, until July of this year when I was disgusted by Slack10 and the bob freaks.
I started with Gentoo stage1 and I loved it. I went to rebuild my laptop from scratch a week ago and got pissed off when on day two mozilla-firefox spat errors during the build(due to my kernel lol) anyway I had a copy of Ubuntu that I had been waiting to try out.
Now I'm pretty much using Ubuntu- stable fast and apt-get is the best package system next to portage
I really like Ubuntu more than any other distro now- but if I hadn't used Slackware and Gentoo I don't know if I would feel this way.

But aside from the actual performance of Ubuntu- I like everything about the philosophy and thinking behind Ubuntu, as well as the community.
Ya I am using Ubuntu on 2 of my desktop machines exclusively now. BUT it hasnt replaced my laptop yet. I am still running Gentoo on it.

Ubuntu is nice .... but the thing that frustrates me to no end is the old software packages and extremely slow updates ... but this seems to be with all Debian based distros. I came to find that even using Gentoo ... I was compiling software just to get the latest like I was doing in Gentoo. Difference is that it is not as easy cuz portage took care of lots of things. So ... Ubuntu hasnt stopped me from compiling LOTS of software ... but I am not patient enough to build on 2 desktop machines! lol ... so on those Ubuntu is the best.

Magneto

November 5th, 2004, 09:54 AM

Ya I am using Ubuntu on 2 of my desktop machines exclusively now. BUT it hasnt replaced my laptop yet. I am still running Gentoo on it.

Ubuntu is nice .... but the thing that frustrates me to no end is the old software packages and extremely slow updates ... but this seems to be with all Debian based distros. I came to find that even using Gentoo ... I was compiling software just to get the latest like I was doing in Gentoo. Difference is that it is not as easy cuz portage took care of lots of things. So ... Ubuntu hasnt stopped me from compiling LOTS of software ... but I am not patient enough to build on 2 desktop machines! lol ... so on those Ubuntu is the best.

Hey look in the howto forum at my sources.list thread- i was downloading sources and compiling at first until I discovered that 99% of every package I could ever want is listed on apt-get.org or through other repositories hosted by ubuntu or debian
I guarantee when you go see that thread and add some repos to your list file you will change your mind. man gdesklets is working out of the box and came with a huge chunk of displays and sensors

my only complaint is the kernel sources packaging and not including the right libs to do a damn make xconfig but those are easily bypassed- i did also have to dump the buggy firefox version that was installed 1.0pre is sweet here while 0.9 sucks for me- in gentoo . 9 was reliable and 1,0pre was a crash monster

the only things you should have to compile are kernels and obscure small apps

cybrjackle

November 6th, 2004, 11:51 PM

I use and have used a lot.

Still use Fedora 3ish ;)
gentoo/debian on sun box

1. Fedora
2. Ubuntu
3. Toss between slack/gentoo

anklator

November 11th, 2004, 01:46 PM

i was running gentoo and sid, but i deleted sid partition and installed ubuntu, so i voted for gentoo(that still remains in my disk)

zeik

November 12th, 2004, 12:10 AM

Slackware, until I found Unbuntu.. :-$
I still love my Slackware though! :-o

ahood

November 12th, 2004, 08:12 AM

Hi All,

I switched from Xandros 2.0 Deluxe. I think it is an important secondary question is why I switched.....

(1) Although I appreciate the convenience that Xandros OS offers its users, I don't like the direction that the company has taken with the charging users for free software via their Premium Membership service (Xandros Networks). Note: Not all the software in the Xandros Networks shop is free, just some).

(2) Lack of updates of the main core apps (i.e., Mozilla suite, OpenOffice, etc.) in their repository (12 months with very little updates to new versions of the core apps is a long time).

(3) The enthusiasm of the Ubuntu community and the multitude of avenues for free and quality support (forums, wiki, chat, etc.). Note: This was the most important factor.

(4) Up-to-date packages that Ubuntu offers, means for fast, secure system.

(5) I find that the Ubuntu to be wonderfully simplistic.

I have also switched from Xandros because I have a desire to learn more linux (e.g., using the command line). I am experiencing that the convenience of Xandros is actually a barrier to learning the command line capabilities of linux. In other words, I am learning the command line quicker in Ubuntu than in Xandros.

After using Ubuntu for a couple of weeks, I would not recommend Ubuntu to a MSWindows noobie. There is more work in setting up the Ubuntu desktop once it is installed (java, mp3 playback, 3D video, etc.) than in other proprietary distros. However, once a user has used an easy-to-use linux and wants to make the next step in opensource software, I believe Ubuntu to be a very effective.

Just my two cents worth.

Al Hood

tekwerx

November 12th, 2004, 10:39 PM

SuSE. Started there around v6, then tried RH. Junk, so went back to SuSE, used it on and off till 9, then used 9, tried Xandros, Linspire, Mandrake, Gentoo, went back to SuSE, then to MEPIS, and now am on Ubuntu, permanently. It is so easy to install, configure, and get going. Im in love. :)

p00p

November 12th, 2004, 11:00 PM

I ran Slackware before, but now Ubuntu is going to replace Slackware for any desktop/laptop use. My laptop has been converted from Windows, and my desktop may follow if CS:Source and HL2 run in Cedega.

I gave a short Ubuntu demonstration to my school's computer club and just in a half hour of showing them the distro I got most of them begging for a CD. One converted from Slackware, one looked as if he might convert from Slack, and several others are Windows users. The rest just seemed quite impressed. One of the Slack kids was about to cream himself.

HungSquirrel

November 13th, 2004, 05:36 AM

One of the Slack kids was about to cream himself.
Funny, I had nearly the same reaction when I discovered what a wonderful package manager apt is. ;)

HiddenWolf

November 13th, 2004, 08:35 AM

Oh yeah.

Synaptic needs a bit of work, sometimes, but apt is the best.
Way faster then gentoo's, which is the only thing that comes close.

HungSquirrel

November 13th, 2004, 08:44 AM

Way faster then gentoo's, which is the only thing that comes close.
I daresay pkg_add on OpenBSD is faster, assuming you hit a local mirror. :)

bvc

November 14th, 2004, 09:47 PM

I voted mandrake, and I still have it. Have for 3 years. Ubuntu actually replaced my LFS.

Rodney

November 15th, 2004, 12:25 AM

Libranet

KiwiNZ

November 15th, 2004, 01:10 AM

My first ever Distro was Redhat 6.
I have used many different distros over the last few years including
Mandrake 7 through to 10.1
Suse 9 , 9.1 and 9.2
Fedora all three core releases
Redhat , all since 6 including RHEL releases
Debian, Slackware,Xandros ,Lycoris.......

before finding Ubuntu I guess my prefered distro was Mandrake

wondering_jew

November 15th, 2004, 03:46 AM

This is actually the first Distro i've really serioulsy tried to use, I took windows completely off and have used nothing but Ubuntu since the preview release came out...

medicin

November 15th, 2004, 05:29 PM

Red Hat 6.1, 6.2: Corel 1.2: Caldera (hated it): Red Hat 7.0 through 7.3,:Tried RH 8.0 and didin't like it: Mandrake 9.0 through 10.1 for sheer usablility and convenience it's the best one I've used so far.

Trying Ubuntu because I've been wanting to try a Debian based distro that isn't a nighmare to install and does what I it to do.

Verdict is still out...still doing most of my work in Mandrake.

Suzan

November 15th, 2004, 05:49 PM

I can't vote! My first distro was SuSE 9.0, then SuSE 9.1 and now Ubuntu.

And I totally fell in love with Ubuntu. My Linux-Love! :-)

@bvc: what a nice avatar! ;-)

freduardo

November 15th, 2004, 07:53 PM

Hi all,

I'm using linux for just over six months.
My previous distro was mandrake 10, of which I was very satisfied.
Still, the problem with Mandrake for me is that it doesn't really forces me to do new stuff (which probably makes it such a good distro imho). If ever I had any problem, I could always find some kind of a wizard to solve the problem graphically, without digging deeper and learning how it "really works".

Now that I switched over to Ubuntu, I got more "involved" with how my system works (I had to edit some files like fstab etc,... *exciting huh?* :wink: ) I feel like this distro makes me learn more about linux in general.

Still when Mandrake 10.1 OE is avalable for all to download (currently only club-members I think), I will certaintly give it a try. I'll probably end up dual-booting.

Oh yeah, just thought of something, I used fedora core 2 also...for about half a day, not my cup of thea :wink:

DaGr8Gatzby

November 16th, 2004, 05:52 AM

I was running Gentoo than my Hard drive died and I didn't feel like waiting a day and half to get my Gentoo system up. I'm also running OpenBSD on a built router and FreeBSD on a web server.

Magneto

November 16th, 2004, 08:10 PM

I was running Gentoo than my Hard drive died and I didn't feel like waiting a day and half to get my Gentoo system up. I'm also running OpenBSD on a built router and FreeBSD on a web server.
This is the same story I hear over and over. On IRC I was surprised at how many people were using Ubuntu for the exact same reasons. Truth is if I spend 12-20 hours compiling OO.org from scratch it still takes 20 seconds to load the first time and 7-10 seconds to load every time after that without rebooting the system. Those numbers are exactly the same in Ubuntu, so where's my benefit? Okay having most apps work exceptionally well because they're built specifically for my system is nice, especially when stuff doesn't act buggy. Guess what? Buggy software is buggy regardless of whether you build it or others build it and put it in packages.
The amount of time I have regainded from being able to use apt-get and the EXTENSIVE repositories out there to get software is tremendous. Running gentoo and staying up to date makes Warty look like Sarge. So I have a rock-solid stable system residing on my laptop while maintaining a 95% Warty system and utilizing software from Hoary, Debian and other small contributors.
Gentoo will spoil you with the ability to emerge practically any app in existence. People don't realize apt-get can do pretty much the same thing without the hassle of portage keyword issues.

I personally view Ubuntu's popularity with "power linux-users" like gentoo users as a seal of approval from those knowledgeable of Linux. And there is no shortage of affection from first-time/entry level Linux users either.

rbrimhall

November 16th, 2004, 11:29 PM

Red Hat 8.0 --> Red Hat 9 --> Fedora Core 1 --> Fedora Core 2 --> Slackware --> Ubuntu --> SuSE 9.2 (very briefly) --> Fedora Core 3 (tested it out but..) finally rested with Ubuntu. I spent the greatest amount of time on Red Hat 9 and Slackware (about a year each).

zerohalo

November 17th, 2004, 01:19 AM

Mandrake 10.0 -> Suse 9.1 -> Fedora Core 2 -> Ubuntu!
(Also tried Xandros, which lasted about 30 minutes.)

I also dual-boot WinXP ;-)

dataw0lf

November 17th, 2004, 02:21 AM

Slackware (1997 - 1999), Debian (1999-Nov 2004). Though, I'm still the hardcore fan of Debian or FreeBSD on my servers :-)
I'd just like to comment on the Ubuntu community. I've been browsing through these forums and idling in freenode's #ubuntu channel for a month or two. I'm extremely impressed; in fact, probably my primary attraction to the distribution. Just a couple days ago I made the decision to install it on my workstation, and join/participate in the forums. Keep up the good attitude guys; the plane is taking off and who knows where it'll end up.
dataw0lf

Viro

November 17th, 2004, 10:40 AM

Was using Gentoo and Fedora on my work machine before migrating to Ubuntu. Now, I've even got Ubuntu installed on my Powerbook (replacing OS X.3 Panther) and I like it.

Sensebend

November 18th, 2004, 05:49 PM

Debian Sarge

panickedthumb

November 18th, 2004, 06:31 PM

Lets see... I got my first computer in September 98, senior year of HS (my friend had to teach me how to send an email through Yahoo mail at the time. Seriously, I had NO clue). about November, I got my first Linux CD from the network admin at the high school. It was slackware. Yeah, my first ever dip into Linux was with Slackware 3.4. And only 2.5 months after I'd learned how to send an email *L* Then...
RedHat 5
RedHat 5.2
Here, I learned about Mandrake, and basically traded off between each new version of RedHat and Mandrake that came out until...
Slackware 7
Played with RedHat/Mandrake some more
Slackware 8
Mandrake xx (don't know the version number. It stayed on my PC about 2 days, and I decided to never, ever use Mandrake again.
RedHat 8
RedHat 9
Fedora Core 1
Debian Woody (maybe, don't remember the build)
SuSE for about 2 days, then
Slackware 9
Fedora Core 2 <- just so you know, yum sucks *L*
Debian sarge
Gentoo 2004.0, 2004.2 <- decided that I liked using my computer too much to wait days for OOo to compile new versions
Aaaaaand finally Ubuntu Warty -> Hoary
I don't see any reason to ever change at this point.

FeliceMente

November 19th, 2004, 07:03 AM

I used Slackware on the desktop computer, and now only use ubuntu on it, and Fedora on the laptop (but I'm probably going to substitute it with ubuntu).

dataw0lf

November 19th, 2004, 12:32 PM

I personally view Ubuntu's popularity with "power linux-users" like gentoo users as a seal of approval from those knowledgeable of Linux. And there is no shortage of affection from first-time/entry level Linux users either.

I agree. I was *extremely* surprised when I first started watching Ubuntu's progress and started seeing Slackware and Gentoo guys jump aboard. It was easy to dismiss Ubuntu as a 'noob distro', but after I got indepth with examining Ubuntu I was quite surprised at the depth (and the Debian roots helped alot too, I'm a HUGE fan of apt/dpkg). Ubuntu is probably the best desktop/workstation distro I've found so far. Plus, it's easy to sychronize between my Debian server and my Ubuntu workstation. Now, if they'd just come out with a Ubuntu version of FreeBSD... :)
dataw0lf

Magneto

November 19th, 2004, 02:24 PM

Now, if they'd just come out with a Ubuntu version of FreeBSD... :)
dataw0lf
they did its called OpenBSD ;)

BWF89

November 19th, 2004, 07:58 PM

Magneto

November 19th, 2004, 09:03 PM

I used Fedora Core 2 for about a day until dad wanted Windows XP back so we had to reload the computer. I'm still not actully useing Ubuntu but I'm going to save up to get one by shoveling driveways...
ROTFL Whoa who almost died off of that one? you or your dad?

why not dual boot if you have the space?

BWF89

November 19th, 2004, 10:26 PM

why not dual boot if you have the space?
I tried to install Fedora 2 on my backup drive (which I deleted to try to install Windows Server 2003) but it didn't work...

I followed the windows instrctions to make a new partition useing MS Dos TO THE WORD and it didn't work...

and after having to spend 8 hours reloading the computer my parents don't want ANYTHING having to do with Linux on the pc. Plus the fact that they litterly blame EVERYTHING that goes wrong on the pc on me. A week ago I was getting yelled at just about every day from my dad because he thinks me downloading GIMP, Firefox, Openoffice and other programs had to do with the computer not working right...

It's just alot easier for me to shovel driveways than to have to put up with the moronic reasoning and getting yelled at every day from my parents for "screwing up the computer"...

Magneto

November 19th, 2004, 11:28 PM

lol i hope it snows alot

panickedthumb

November 20th, 2004, 12:40 AM

I tried to install Fedora 2 on my backup drive (which I deleted to try to install Windows Server 2003) but it didn't work...

I followed the windows instrctions to make a new partition useing MS Dos TO THE WORD and it didn't work...

and after having to spend 8 hours reloading the computer my parents don't want ANYTHING having to do with Linux on the pc. Plus the fact that they litterly blame EVERYTHING that goes wrong on the pc on me. A week ago I was getting yelled at just about every day from my dad because he thinks me downloading GIMP, Firefox, Openoffice and other programs had to do with the computer not working right...

It's just alot easier for me to shovel driveways than to have to put up with the moronic reasoning and getting yelled at every day from my parents for "screwing up the computer"...
Dude, that sucks. Luckily my parents were scared of the computer, and even now only gets on about 5 minutes a week to send an email or something. So until I built them a computer (when I moved to college) they never touched it or cared what I did.

piedamaro

November 20th, 2004, 11:20 AM

and after having to spend 8 hours reloading the computer my parents don't want ANYTHING having to do with Linux on the pc.
8 hours? Upgrade the pc, or better, upgrade your parents! *lol*

[xploit]

November 21st, 2004, 02:16 AM

I orignally came from Red Hat 3.x , hows that for a long time :roll:

Since then, Debian Woody. Fell in love with apt-get. Tried Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Slackware, Gentoo, stuck with Knoppix for the logest time due to the bleeding edge, but it always seem to come up short. I installed Ubuntu and was blown away.

I love it. GOOD WORK! \\:D/

spartas

November 21st, 2004, 02:32 AM

uh, ubuntu is my first distro. I read about how people are praising it for what it is. I came from windows, where (most of the time) things just worked, and you were a slave to MS.

After installing ubuntu, things were broken. GDM, and my wireless card were broke. I almost regretted moving to linux, until I saw the light, and it changed me. Ubuntu is perhaps the best thing that ever happened to me. I haven't dealt with other distros, so I don't exactly know what ubuntu has over FC, or slackware, or even debian. But it works, and it works as expected. That's all I expect.

<< Has been using ubuntu about 3 months.

poofyhairguy

November 23rd, 2004, 07:57 PM

It's just alot easier for me to shovel driveways than to have to put up with the moronic reasoning and getting yelled at every day from my parents for "screwing up the computer"...

Amen, it nice to have your own machine.

And you can build computers so cheap nowadays...

snaga

November 24th, 2004, 01:16 AM

I first installed Linux via slackware floppies, circa 1994. I did so at Novell, which makes me wonder if I was the first there to install it.

I used that for awhile, and then switched to RH. Used that for quite a while.

I switched to Mandrake, I think the first version, for one reason, and one reason only. At the time, I think it was the only distro that provided iso files. That was great. CD writers were hard to come by, but work had one. The blank CDs were a buck apiece.

About 3 years ago I felt like I needed a change. I was tired of CD upgrades failing. I tried Debian, but really didn't like it, although I felt that it was what I 'should' use, for some reason.

I used Gentoo for about 2 1/2 years. I liked it, and still do. I still use it on my Sparc station server. But, on a whim, I installed Ubuntu at work, and loved it. I used it for a few weeks, and knew that I had to move to it at home. I did so in about 2 hours, which is the fastest I have ever installed before. <insert Gentoo joke here>

I think Ubuntu, and probably Mepis as well, are Debian as it should be.

dave

Magneto

November 24th, 2004, 08:00 AM

<insert Gentoo joke here>

Ive been using Gentoo for about 3 years now, it's almost finished installing. :grin:

ljoris

November 24th, 2004, 11:38 AM

I think we all are wondering where the new Ubuntu users are coming from!
If I forgot your "previous" Distro, vote for it by posting a message!

I didn't bother to read all this thread but ... you entered two or more Debian-based distro's and left out Suse (for example) ... what others are missing

Arbiter

November 26th, 2004, 04:12 AM

I was a Red Hat user from version 6.2 all the way up to Fedora Core 2. I became seriously dissatisfied with Red Hat partially due to their business model, but mostly because of the sheer lack of innovation.

With a whole slew of Enterprise products on the market, it seems that Red Hat's mission switched from creating a leading American-made, user-friendly distribution for all to use to trying its hardest to draw away Microsoft's server software customers. Granted, the Fedora project wasn't all that bad, but at the same time, it wasn't all that great.

With that, I started looking around for a new distribution. I tried Slackware, Mandrake, SuSE, and Gentoo...all had their merits, but all had some various problems I just didn't want to work out. I heard about Ubuntu on the forums on www.justlinux.com and it worked "out-of-the-box". I switched everything over from Red Hat/Fedora to Ubuntu practically overnight. :D

brlmedia

November 26th, 2004, 12:45 PM

started back in 1999 with caldera linux (I think that's the name) then tried red hat 6.2, etc, got away from it for a while, was stuck in the ms regime, lol. just got back into it first up mandrake 10.1, pretty, little unstable, tried fedora core 3 and rhel3, both nice but both wouldn't recognize the ol' sound crad, so out they went and in came ubuntu, thank god!! it's nice so far, hope to make it my main os for everything :)

Sniffer

November 26th, 2004, 01:08 PM

i have started with mandrake (hate it by the way) and then went to red hat and fedora, now with ubuntu wich i find awesome.

TOUGH DON'T TAKE ME WRONG

or i'm in bad luck but no one seem to answer my questions in here......so by now i'm feeling a little bit of LACK in support for ubuntu users, fedora forum was better in this aspect....

Sorry but have to be honest.

poofyhairguy

November 26th, 2004, 02:47 PM

hndrcks

November 26th, 2004, 02:53 PM

I still use it on my Sparc station server.

In "server land", on Sparc architecture, I prefer OpenBSD to the Linux kernel (although I must confess I have never had the patience to build a Gentoo system on Sparc...) I currently have a Sparc 5-170 (yes one of THOSE) and an Ultra 1 happily serving away. Rock solid, and the ports system handles dependency hell.

Previous Linux distro - K12LTSP 4.0, based on Fedora 1. Two thin clients for wife and child. Now being served via Ubuntu and Free NX!

Marauder1

November 26th, 2004, 09:22 PM

Been with Redhat, Slackware then Mandrake to Redhat again ,
jumped to Mepis the last six monts before Ubuntu.
I been using Gnome more then KDE in all the Linux systems
i've used this is the reason i switched to Ubuntu.
(And also for the Debian repositories).

Dylanby

November 26th, 2004, 10:29 PM

Like the previous poster I was using (playing around actually) with Mepis before Ubuntu. That is until I hosed the Mepis install by tinkering too much.

Ubuntu is really my first distro. I don't see that changing anytime soon, but it's going to be a looonnnnggg migration away from Windows as my main OS. This has more to do with my shortcomings more than those of Ubuntu.

ale

November 27th, 2004, 02:43 AM

wow great posts people!! all of you are right, but williamroddy wins! :D

the main reason i tried Ubuntu was the sleek presentation, the altruist attitude of the company - to bring a fun linux experience to the people. also, "Ubuntu" sounds very cool, unlike, let's say "Linspire". and i see now just how nice and polite this community is. :)

my first linux experience was RedHat 7 some years ago; i thought i liked it but soon let it rot; uninstalled it. then saw some article on Mandrake last year and how easy to install, "easier than Windows" etc - yeah right. also made a friend with huge linux experience, it helped, thank you Richard! back then it was the 2.4.x and Gnome 2.4. linux wasn't the best desktop experience, when programs hanged i had to wait too much to kill them or had to go in the console. not pleasant, so.. i uninstalled it.
then i found Debian. that ruled! i put in inside VMWare and started installing stuff. wow what a clean system! i then discovered Ubuntu and added the apt sources. i could upgrade Gnome to 2.8, X to xorg and do other nice stuff. finally i started clean with Ubuntu on the hard drive and i love it! :) so coherent, fast, responsive and superb looking, thank you Ubuntu!

i might be emotionally unstable, but i know some things. one is that Ubuntu will stay, no more dramas. i want to use the computer to write, surf, listen to music, program my small stuff. and this is the first linux that provides me with a Windows comparable experience. it's not only Ubuntu, but the huge leaps the linux components made during the last year - kernel, X, freetype, Gnome, the sound systems. the future has never been brighter.

sorry for the long post, what i wanted to say was that Ubuntu saved my soul - i will no longer burn in Hell for using illegal software, phew!

PickledOnion

November 28th, 2004, 07:12 AM

I used ( and still run as my main distro) Gentoo Linux.

Can't beat it for speed (if you know how to configure it and 99.99999% of questions and problems about it are from people who don't know a fomit-fame-pointer from a nptl USE flag).

Anyway, I'm always interested in trying new distros and this one caught my eye. Looks good so far and I'm looking forward to using it and seeing how it goes.

Forums look ok and seems to be quite helpful.

I'm quite excited about using it and seeing it in its full glory!

polemicz

November 28th, 2004, 11:08 AM

My main system has been Mandrake (currently 10.0) and I also have Debian Sarge, triple booting (no Windows thanks). I also have Fedora 3 on a laptop that I'm playing with. Very delighted so far with Ubuntu and am going to get more used to it before making it my main system.

Quest-Master

November 28th, 2004, 12:14 PM

I was using SUSE 9.1 Personal, tried Mandrake and didn't work for me at all, went back to SUSE, got extremely frustrated since it wouldn't pick up my dependencies, installed software where I could never find it, and supported Gnome pretty badly.

That's when I found Ubuntu and fell in love. :)

Boris

November 28th, 2004, 06:13 PM

Ok, I tried all important distros in the Linux history (sounds cool to say that).

The last I've tried, was Gentoo. I decided to completely remove it from my Hard Disk, because I was sick and tired of waiting for a program to compile... I was reading about this new distro called Ubuntu, and I thought "Mmmh, sounds new" and I wanted to try it.

I tried it, but now I recognised that I want to keep it! 8-)

I never seen a desktop so clean! And the installation... booting... not an error! I found my favorite distro, I really thank the people that created Ubuntu, you can't imagine how happy I am in this moment!!!

Thanks again! :D

tmyster

November 28th, 2004, 08:40 PM

Well, I have moved around alot but settled on Libranet 2.8.1 for all my household computers. Its a good distro and has lots of stuff. I have found my family gets really confused with all the available stuff on the distro which puts me on alert when something doesn't do what they think it should do. What's funny was how I stumbled on Ubuntu-Linux. Once I checked it out and saw how clean it was I think I am gonna move my computers to Ubuntu along with a few friends who are now very interested in getting away from windows. I love Debian in itself. So know Ubuntu is debian based makes it that much more attractive to me. I got some more testing to do for myself before the jump. But what I see now is excellent.

TMC

wallijonn

November 28th, 2004, 10:29 PM

Prodigy2, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Debian 3.0 (Woody), Suse 5, Suse8, SuSe9, RH7, 9, FC1, Gentoo, Slackware 9, 10, Mandrake, IPCop, Immunix, BitDefender, Ubuntu, VidaLinux.

My real loves were Debian 3.0, Slackware 9, Red Hat 9, Suse 9. Along the way I found which apps. I liked and which I didn't. I found which GUI Manager I liked and which I didn't. I outgrew KDE when it was buggy and when I had problems updating it. I got tired of Konqueror crashing on me, etc.

I wanted GNOME, Ximian Evolution, OpenOffice and Firefox. When I went with an ATI video card I wanted ATI support - so long SUSE, hello Ubuntu.

I'm amazed at the patience I used to have with Gentoo. I was never a fan of Portage, much preferring SUSE and RH's methods of installing packages. RH/FC had their own little idiosycracies when trying to not install a package or when removing a package. I got tired of removing KDE apps. I got tired of the GNOME home icons. I was tired of seeng my desktop looking like MS Windows. I was tired of installing everything when first installing a distro (the temptation is great in SUSE and RH/FC). I was tired of blowing away my system every 3 months and re-installing a new updated OS.

When it came time to update the first thing I was interested in was GNOME (because of RH's Evolution). I hated Mozilla the same way some people hate IE5. I was already used to removing KDEOffice and AbiWord and installing OpenOffice. But removing Mozilla always presented a challenge. I wanted FireFox. Again, Ubuntu was the only choice.

If I'm on the 'net, 90% of the time I'm running Ubuntu.

I work in Ubuntu at 1280x1024. But when I move back to Windows I have to work at 1024x768 - just because I can't stand it any higher.

I use caddies - so I run W98SE, W2KP, WXPP and Ubuntu.

If and when a multi-coloured boot screen, along with a splash screen is incorporated into Ubuntu, and all the tips, tricks and tweaks are incorporated into a final distro - then Ubuntu may appeal to the vast majority of users.

But for now Ubuntu is a solid distro which people can add onto instead of remove from. It comes with the best of the best in basic packages. It should appeal to those who, like me, are into tweaking.

Ubuntu has given me the excitement I first had with RH9, Woody and Slackware.

For those who would like to try a nice looking GlossyP theme, it is included herewith (if you are presently using GlossyP). Just install it into your hidden .themes folder (after extraction). Courtesy of Gentoo. No, I was never tempted to download and install their icons - I like a totally clean desktop.

kahping

November 29th, 2004, 03:28 AM

tested redhat 8.0 once before(winxp-rh8 dual boot); nothing really wrong with redhat, just that it didn't make me feel like i NEED to use it. felt like it was JUST and OS to me. no attachments to the OS whatsoever.

went back to pure windows after about a month or two :P

i'm really hoping ubuntu will be a totally different experience though. from the time i heard about it, i've been reading up everything i could about it from the website and i really like the direction the ubuntu devs r moving in.

ubuntu rulez!! (i hope)

inha

November 30th, 2004, 04:41 PM

I was on gentoo before ubuntu. I actually had a very nicely running system with all the software I needed but sheer curiosity and distrofever got the best of me and I decided to give ubuntu a try. And I'm not dissapointed at all. The whole system runs very nice and fast and the software spectrum is unbelievable. I never knew there was this much stuff available for debian/debian based distros.

Poldi

December 2nd, 2004, 06:19 AM

I was on OS/2 Warp 4.52 and eComStation 1.13 before.
(this might not exactly qualify as a Linux distribution, but the kernel is vaguely POSIX-compatible and I had XFree86 4.x running as well as Firefox, Apache, gcc 3.2, OpenOffice, Zope and Emacs (all in the OS/2 native versions) - so what the heck!)

Ubuntu so far is great. just the APM/APCI support for my Thinkpads does not work as well yet as it did with OS/2.

gabbman

December 2nd, 2004, 11:23 AM

I voted for Mandrake only because it was one of my first sucessful linux installs that actually worked, but the list you presented is very limited list to chose from, I've installed all ot those plus many more over the last 6 years. (ok I'm a distro_ho ).

But I believe ubuntu, has shown me the error of my 'sorted' passed and will have me settle down and give my hard drive a well deserved rest. :D

hubi

December 2nd, 2004, 02:55 PM

I still have Suse 9.0 which is missing on the voting list. I would change completly to ubuntu, unfortunatelly there is a bit of work to do before (make ISDN working) :-?

jeremymarx

December 2nd, 2004, 03:18 PM

I'd like to vote in the poll, but it is missing SuSE.... I had just upgraded to SuSE 9.2 the week before Ubuntu arrived. I had been running SuSE for several years before.

CAPTAIN RON FL

December 2nd, 2004, 05:35 PM

Well lets see. I am really new to LINUX. I have only been doing it since Oct. I really started out with DAMN SMALL LINUX. After I learned I could do iso's. I went crasy burning disk's. In fact I have quite a few that after I got to UBUNTU, I have not even tried and probably won't.

UBUNTU was the first one I tried to put on my hard drive. I had problems with sound and getting the CD player to work. Could not get help getting it fixed so I switched to Mandrake 10.1ce. They helped me there and were real friendly. In fact I found someone there that was also doing UBUNTU and he helped me get things fixed.

I uninstalled MANDRAKE and I reinstalled UBUNTU. I haven't looked back since. In fact I have my sister dual booting Windoz and UBUNTU.

I really only needed to wait a couple of days for more people to start using it and I would have found the answers to my questions.

Now it looks like if I have a problem all I need to do is search the fourms.

Thanks for the help that everyone has given me. This has been a fun and fantastic time for me. O:)

I am sitting here with two new computers . Soon they will have UBUNTU on them too. :)

THANKS AGAIN!!! Ron

Hendry

December 2nd, 2004, 05:52 PM

I loved Gentoo, but I didn't understand the Portage so well, so I switched to Suse / Fedora but this wasn't what I was looking for.. now I'm running Ubuntu for a couple of days and I think this IS what I expect from a Linux distri 8-)

bodhi

December 4th, 2004, 08:29 PM

Tried a few (Red Hat 9, Mandrake 10, FC 2, Slackware and Gentoo). I liked Gentoo best, at least until it played a nasty trick on me when I tried to upgrade my xorg (messed up really bad there :-() . I found Ubunti through Distrowatch and so far I am very impressed.

Jazza

December 6th, 2004, 07:49 AM

I use Fedora Core 3 as well as Ubuntu.

I like the both of them a lot though and cant choose one over the other, so i decided to keep them both. =D>

flibblesan

December 6th, 2004, 01:32 PM

Ex Mandrake user, now a happy Ubuntu user.

Hikaru79

December 7th, 2004, 02:00 AM

I was using an HD-install of Knoppix. Surprisingly good, for a LiveCD :) Ubuntu rules it though, of course \\:D/

JeffS

December 10th, 2004, 05:12 PM

I was (and still am) using Mandrake 10 power pack. However, I had it installed on both my Thinkpad 600 and my Gateway (which was my brother's old PC that he had no use for). So I kept my installation of Mandrake on my Thinkpad, then installed Ubuntu on the Gateway. On that Gateway, which has a 350MHz cpu and only 128 megs of RAM, Ubuntu just screems.

BTW - Ubuntu, is completely awesome. It's the best GNOME distro so far, and probably the best Debian based distro.

shimon

December 14th, 2004, 02:11 AM

debian

xkcdmagic8

December 14th, 2004, 02:42 AM

what! There was linux before Ubuntu?!? :P

shimon

December 14th, 2004, 03:31 AM

what! There was linux before Ubuntu?!? :P
yes

shimon

December 14th, 2004, 03:31 AM

you left out an option "Ubuntu Live"

andy_sp1ke

December 14th, 2004, 08:20 AM

I had tried mandrake 9.1, 10 and 10.1 also SUSE, Fedora Core 2 and was left feeling unsure about if I liked linux as i found systems of updating the my OS to be confusing. I also didnt like the modifications some made to KDE and GNOME as they meant i couldnt decide which i liked!!! Also i found some to be slow, poor hardware pick up and difficult to install somebits of software due to getting the right dependancies!!yes you guessed it ..... i was a newbie!

Now though, whilst far from an expert I reckon I have the hang of it! no more fear of the terminal!!

Ubuntu has addressed all the problems for me, i really like GNOME now and would use it over KDE (although i am going to try MEPIS and see what their KDE looks like at somepoint), the repository is a fantastic idea, update is easy using apt-get and coupled with crossover office i can do everything I want to do!! I even found adding a line i thought i got wrong last night to FSTAB to mount my NTFS partition actually worked!!!

anyway i think i have rambled on enough...conclusion...ubuntu rocks

andy

Karlos

December 14th, 2004, 02:24 PM

just arrived from libranet..!

techn9ne

December 15th, 2004, 01:05 AM

Suse 9.2

jakeslife

December 15th, 2004, 09:21 PM

I have been using linux on and off for a few years now, and I find that while most of the applications have crossover from Windows, there were still a few of them that I can't part with (Macromedia, DivX, Adobe, tons of games, etc.). I work in web design and development, so when it comes to getting a project done, I don't have much time to hunt around and get things to work so I can meet my deadlines.

After trying Suse, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware, etc., I finally conceded that I'm probably more of a Windows person. Then various Live CD's came along, so I thought I'd give it another go. Mandrake Move was the first I tried, along with Slax (and it's offspring), Beatrix, and a couple of weeks ago I found Ubuntu. I'm familiar with Mark Shuttleworth and his work, but didn't realize he was the force behind Ubuntu.

I wanted a distro that is easy and "just works," and one of my main things is installing and uninstalling applications. I don't want to have to sit in front of a bash prompt for hours just to get something to work, and my brief history with Wine was full of blood, sweat, and swearing. When I discovered Ubuntu, I studied up to learn how different it was from other distros I've tried, and finally burned myself a live cd and tried it.

I have to say that this is the absolute first linux distro that I've ever tried (live or not) that used Gnome as its window manager. I love it. Working in design, I like things that are slick like KDE, but I also like performance and stability. This is the first time I've considered giving up my entire hard drive for a linux distro, but that will come after I move into my new place! :-D

protocol

December 16th, 2004, 11:01 AM

Well, I was using multiple distros before hand. I started off with Slackware and moved on to try other distros for a couple of months like Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, JBLinux, and then back to Slackware. As of last year, I've been using Slackware and Debian. But after I found out about Ubuntu, I switched my Slack boxes to Ubuntu. Been using Linux roughly for about 6 or 7 years now.

bluehige

December 16th, 2004, 01:03 PM

i started with suse 9.1, updated to 9.2 recently, but i got a lot of compatibility problem, so i tried mandrake ( don't liked at all ) and then i've tried for a week :-) fedora core 2, i'm using linux since only 2-3 month, and for now, ubuntu is one of my favorites with suse 9.1 .

TopDog

December 17th, 2004, 05:48 AM

My first post :D

I had SUSE 9.1 Pro the last couple of months. Before that I had Mandrake for a year.

Mandrake is OK, URPMI is pretty cool, with lots of sources, but it was a bit unstable on my machine. So I tried SUSE witch was rock-solid, but after a while I found out they had done some strange things to that distro, so I felt a little bit tied-up.

Ubuntu was installed yesterday. So far it looks great. Have a few issues, but I saw some possible answers on this forum that I'll try out next week (going skiing this weekend).

See you guys around, this forum looks like a nice place to stay!

ChrisP

December 18th, 2004, 06:55 AM

Suse Personal 9.1. for a couple of months. A great experience with a no problem install and easy access to all the software i needed. Fantastic introduction that had me converted to linux within hours.

Foolishly ran the Ubuntu live cd and of course got curious about gnome and the ubuntu ethos. Have now replaced Suse with Ubuntu and again have enjoyed a problem free installation with everything recognised and working with zero hardware tweaking required \\:D/ I suspect i've been spoilt :)

So far im enjoying Ubuntu a lot but do miss some KDE apps like K3b and Konquerer.

The current plan is too get a bigger hard drive and have both Suse and Ubuntu. Also I must not try any more distros, i must not try any more distros, i must not try any more distros, i must ..........

Cheers, Chris.

lukem

December 19th, 2004, 09:49 AM

Suse 7.1 then 9.0 before warty.

Hellsteeth

December 19th, 2004, 09:51 AM

Most recently using Mandrake community 10.1.
Have previously used Slackware, Mandrake, Red Hat and Fedora2 and many "one floppy disk distros" which are all very cool.

snipes420

December 19th, 2004, 07:27 PM

I used to use windows xp and freebsd but now i only use ubuntu for both my desktops and servers. great distro.

TopDog

December 20th, 2004, 03:57 AM

So far im enjoying Ubuntu a lot but do miss some KDE apps like K3b and Konquerer.
K3b was the first thing I installed... works great, just a little bit ugly look since it's not in it's "natural" enviroment, but I can live with that :grin:

tfyp

December 20th, 2004, 01:17 PM

I used SuSE 9.1 before. (and before that previous SuSE versions) Then I got tired of all the bugs and problems and decided to get a better distribution. I decided to try out Ubuntu, and since it was far beyond my expectations, I settled with it.

Triad

December 21st, 2004, 04:34 AM

Slack, libranet, Fedora.
I have tried a lot of distributions, but I installed Ubuntu last night and it was great, not a solid 24 h to configure and add/remove packages.
I love it.
I put in my d-link dwl-650+ card and it worked right away.!!!
I use a compaq laptop and everything worked, (haven't tried the modem yet.)
Fantastic, all I can say is great work. I'm can't imagine switching in the near future.

safecracker

December 21st, 2004, 09:47 AM

I was using a few different distros and still am. Debian (used to be FreeBSD until recently) on my webserver, a customized NetBSD is most likely going on my A mesh routers, and I had Gentoo on this laptop. I switched to Ubuntu due to a recommendation from a coworker who works at Starnix in Toronto. I've used several distros (and coded with some dev teams as well), some of those include Slackware, Arch, Fedora, Red Hat, Mepis, SuSE and the list goes on.

I feel Ubuntu is targeting a different market then a distro like Gentoo, Gentoo let's you (or makes you) control every tiny aspect of the OS where as Ubuntu trys to take the frustration out of it. Ubuntu has earned a place on my good side.

nigelenki

December 21st, 2004, 10:30 PM

Gentoo.

Still using Gentoo.

I'm on AMD64 with hardened features. :)

charleyramm

December 22nd, 2004, 04:05 PM

Shouldn't there be a Windows option! [-X

haha

crane

December 24th, 2004, 04:47 PM

Shouldn't there be a Windows option! [-X

haha

lol

I was running Blag (based on Fedora core 1), slack, and clarkconnect.
I installed Ubuntu on my test machine and I'm reallt enjoying it. It will soon be my main distro. Although I won't stop using clarkconnect for my ftp/file/game/print server :-$

I found Ubuntu to be really easy to work with and all the peeps I've met in the irc channel are really friendly and fun to hang out with.

tokemaster

December 30th, 2004, 08:30 AM

I perceive myselft more or less like a Windowsaddictive. More or less I'd tired them all, all the "bigg ones" like Debian, SuSE, Mandrake, Fedora/RedHat, Slackware and so on. But I'd never realy liked any one of them... and as an spoiled Windowsaddictive, that dont want to type nasty commands and get my hand durty, just press Ctrl-Alt-Del when things get **** up, well it all went to that point that i reinstalled Windows...

After using Ubuntu for 3 days I'd trou out Windows, ( was 2 days ago ) and jet I have not feelt any abstinence :mrgreen:

zeroK

December 30th, 2004, 08:43 AM

I've previously used Mandrake, Debian and Gentoo. My laptop now runs on Ubuntu but I'm quite happy with Gentoo on my desktop :)

CowPie

January 1st, 2005, 06:07 AM

Xandros and SimplyMepis ont he side.

I prefer Xandros because it networks with WInodws much better than Ubuntu (in terms of Samba integration with Xandros FIle Manager AND finding network printers, about which I had a post about that no one has responded to!!). But it's slow and KDE takes up twice as much memory as Gnome on my old PC. Plus it does not have the amount of apps, the "universe" as Ubuntu has. All it has is a year old snapshot of Sarge...

SimplyMepis is good for plugins, heck I even got mplayerplugin working in Opera!! BUt it's much too unpolished...

Randabis

January 1st, 2005, 07:30 AM

SuSE 9.1 Pro

Ubuntu 1000x > SuSE

telmo

January 2nd, 2005, 07:42 AM

Fedora Core 3...

Kareema

January 2nd, 2005, 08:25 AM

Started with SuSE (like most German users) some years ago and stayed with it for three years. Found it quite hard to upgrade and tried pure Debian, which was a pain to install and configure (especially with new hardware). Used the very easy to use Xandros OS when it was released but found out that they had a very strange policy in regard to German localization (promises but no releases and that's not good for a commercial distribution). Migrated to MEPIS (SimplyMEPIS 2004) and helped to test the German version SphinxOS.

SphinxOS 4.0 is BTW a very good and easy to use commercial debian based distribution with KDE, especially designed for good usability and people coming from Windows (ships with Crossover Office and Cedega). It's IMHO a better alternative to Xandros OS for German users. I'm still using SphinxOS on my Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook C-Series and will continue to do so.

The reason why I started using Ubuntu Linux is my new Acer Athlon 64 laptop. Ubuntu is IMHO the best and most complete debian based distribution for the AMD64 architecure currently available. And the best: it is free!

Cloudchaser

January 2nd, 2005, 09:21 AM

RedHat 9

Sensebend

January 3rd, 2005, 08:31 PM

I'd run numerous distros, Mandrake 8-10, Suse 8.x, Suse 9.x, Debian, Gentoo, Knoppix and I just settled on Ubuntu.

RadomE

January 4th, 2005, 12:37 PM

I've used first Fedora, after Gentoo and now Ubuntu...

I think last one is da best 8-)

Capt.Morgan

January 6th, 2005, 02:08 AM

Currently, I have Fedora for a server and now testing Ubuntu on my laptop.

earobinson

January 6th, 2005, 08:35 PM

well i was using FC3 and not sure if i will switch back but i am still using bluecurve for my theme cuz it is the only way to go.

jazzed

January 6th, 2005, 10:23 PM

I have used many distros but never stayed in any for very long. I settled in Slackware for a while, but I'm enjoying Ubuntu more than anything I've tried in the past, and am using that as my main operating system.

Krusty

January 7th, 2005, 06:00 PM

I have used Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse, Caldera (in 1998), and YDL (for an iMac). Kinda quit using linux for about eight months, until I saw some new distro's to play with. I like the concept of Ubuntu for the desktop, but I would still use Debian, Slackware, RH, etc. for a server. I am running Ubuntu Wardy on a Virtual PC machine and an iMac 17" Flat panel.

Device

January 7th, 2005, 07:11 PM

Debian

CompShrink

January 7th, 2005, 07:28 PM

Well, I didn't read this entire massive thread, but read a good 7 pages into it, and my first reaction seems reasonable: "why is suse left out of the poll!?" Suse is very main stream, a lot more so then some of the other distros listed as options...

Anyway, still have SuSE 9.1 dualbooting, decided over christmas to try a bunch of distros (been using SuSE since the begining of summer, used linux off and on before, redhat/fedora, knoppix and the like) and this was the only one to stick on my hard drive past 3 days. Now been about a week and 1/2, and haven't bothered to boot back to SuSE since I got on this... It's amazingly faster than SuSE, which I know is pretty slow in the 9.1 release, as well as faster than the rest of them I tried, and had by far the best default settings out of the box. Only exception is multimedia, which was easily fixed, and it's understandable why the multimedia is that way.

alpha

January 8th, 2005, 07:43 AM

I know its a little late in proceedings, but could an extra option be added to the poll "Not used linux before" so then we have an idea of how many of us will be breaking new ground. :D

goedson

January 8th, 2005, 08:12 AM

Debian Sid. I'm currently dual booting and testing ubuntu. Debian and Ubuntu will probably share my desktop for the foreseeable future. ;)

Uuranor

January 8th, 2005, 08:19 AM

I tried some years ago the Slak, but it doesn't work very well for me.
So, I used Windows for very long time, until I installed Fedora Core 2 one year ago.
Two month ago I changed some components of my machine, and I installed ubuntu.

Arbite

January 8th, 2005, 10:12 PM

Fbsd

X-fact0r

January 9th, 2005, 05:06 PM

First post here, so bare with me now.... :razz:

I was using until 2 days ago Mandrake 10.1 official
(Tried around 6-8 different distros but kept going back to Mandrake. Been using Mdk for the past 2 years...)

arakno

January 9th, 2005, 07:27 PM

I used Slackware for about an year, then Conectiva for a few months and now Ubuntu.

Yukonjack

January 11th, 2005, 01:49 AM

Libranet since version 2.7 to 2.8.1

matt

January 11th, 2005, 10:26 AM

I was using Windows. I made the jump to Linux with Warty and couldn't be happier about it. :D

jaybee99

January 11th, 2005, 07:25 PM

I have used the usual suspects over the last few years, starting with RH 7.2, but I do like ubuntu. I think the combination of the debian old school/very stable background and the guy who'd like to make another fortune selling service to public sector etc in places that *really* shouldn't be exploited by microsoft is very interesting, things seem to happen fast, and it has a great community don't you think? keep it up :D =D>

Vulc

January 11th, 2005, 07:33 PM

upgrading to ubuntu from RH 7.3 was quite a leap into the future ^_^

jaybee99

January 11th, 2005, 07:36 PM

upgrading to ubuntu from RH 7.3 was quite a leap into the future ^_^

there have been a few late nights and fritzed partition tables in between the two... :smile: but things have come on a bit haven't they!

Dylanby

January 11th, 2005, 09:19 PM

...and the guy who'd like to make another fortune selling service to public sector etc...

I assume you're refering to Mark Shuttleworth?
The guy already made his fortune. My impression is that Ubuntu is more an experiment than a means to amass riches ('Not that there's anything wrong with that').

He genuinely loves 'free software'. You should check out his bio & writings at his home page if your interested:
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/

Yes...I'm grateful...his work (& that of the developers) got me hooked on Linux.

jaybee99

January 12th, 2005, 09:37 AM

I assume you're refering to Mark Shuttleworth?
The guy already made his fortune. My impression is that Ubuntu is more an experiment than a means to amass riches ('Not that there's anything wrong with that').

He genuinely loves 'free software'. You should check out his bio & writings at his home page if your interested:
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/

Yes...I'm grateful...his work (& that of the developers) got me hooked on Linux.
that's why I said 'another fortune', and I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all - no one could convince any organisation to use the OS without a support infrastructure (which I don't expect is well established in africa, but have no idea...?) and I got the impression his plan was to provide one and make money that way

rioaj

January 14th, 2005, 10:25 PM

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gifHello everyone. Im new to the linux world and so far i like it. I have looked at several different distros. and at first did not like ubuntu, but i when i first tried linux (red hat) i di not like that either. so i gave it another honest try, starting from scratch. this time evrything worked great and i am very impressed.
Ubuntu, you are truly great.....somtimes it takes a second try to really see what you have been missing.

Lynx

January 14th, 2005, 10:56 PM

Hey guys, I guess this is my first post on the forums. I have been using Ubuntu for about a month now, before that I had used suse 9.1 professional since my conversion from Windows in late august. I wanted a change as I didn't like the fact that suse was charging people for the distro and I thought it had a lousy package managment system and a pretty small, unhelpful and elitist community. After extensive research I decided on Debian as my distrobution of choice and stumbled upon Ubuntu. I downloaded the ISO and never looked back. I hope to become a productive member of the Ubuntu community (though I am still much the Linux neophyte).

trygvebw

January 15th, 2005, 09:57 AM

Why isn't SUSE on the poll list? It's the third/fourth biggest distro after all... :-?

jsgotangco

January 15th, 2005, 12:14 PM

I was using Fedora Core 2 before I jumped to Ubuntu...

NeoChaosX

January 18th, 2005, 09:16 PM

Mandrakelinux 10.1. It was a nice, easy-to-use distro, but RPMs were driving me up the wall. Ubuntu seemed to be the best of of the Debian-based distros, although I was a bit cautious since I was more of a KDE guy, thanks to Mandrake's GNOME setup being - to put it nicely - bastardized. However, I took the dive, and I was impressed by the simplicity of GNOME and the covience of apt. Heck, I even managed to get a few things working in Ubuntu (like printing to a printer on a Windows PC) that I couldn't in Mandrake. Now I'm a full Ubuntu convert, and very happy. :D

Randabis

January 18th, 2005, 10:47 PM

Why isn't SUSE on the poll list? It's the third/fourth biggest distro after all... :-?

I was wondering the same thing. :p

Error1312

January 19th, 2005, 07:51 AM

I used Suse 9.1 Professional. After taking a good look at the GNOME desktop, I started to love it. And after hearing of Ubuntu, I knew I had to try it.

And I'm happy I did, because it's really great! :D

digital_k

January 19th, 2005, 06:15 PM

I had used SUSE 9.1 Personal, that was my first experience with Linux ever. I was having a problem with kde and I came across something about Ubuntu on another message board, and the more I read, the more I liked it , so I promptly downloaded Ubuntu , made a cd, and installed it. For me at this point, I dont care to try other releases of Linux, this one (Ubuntu) will do. :)

davro

January 21st, 2005, 05:40 AM

Hi all,
I was using fedora core3 on my laptop and debian on my servers.
Now im using Ubuntu on my laptop, and the servers one by one will be converted.

Very impressed indeed any thing that can get hardened debian devels to move from pure debian, to another debian variant in hords are doing good.
Distrobuting CD apon request is a very nice touch.

Davro

LadyMoose

January 21st, 2005, 03:59 PM

I used Knoppix from 3.3 to 3.7, and I used to like it. Now I'm leaning more towards Ubunutu as I can do thing in Ubuntu that I couldn't with Knoppix. Plus I prefer the GUI, and Ubuntu has less crap that I'll never use. I just need a KVM switch so I can make full use of it.

HBK

January 21st, 2005, 05:56 PM

Where's lovely (urrgh :-&) SuSE? I'd been using SuSE Personal Edition 9.1 for about two months when I finally decided to try something "true" ;).

HBK

albersag

January 21st, 2005, 06:07 PM

Where's lovely (urrgh :-&) SuSE? I'd been using SuSE Personal Edition 9.1 for about two months when I finally decided to try something "true" ;).

HBK
Me usually use Suse . But now have decided to export my desktops to ubuntu.

All my work server rest in Suse at least until a new stable version would be released by ubuntu.

MikeBee

January 22nd, 2005, 01:51 PM

Originally used RedHat, then Mandrake, but got sick of bloatedness. Used Yoper for the last 18 months but got sick of bad hardware support and KDE. Tried Ubuntu the other day - very impressed. All hardware worked out of the box (including my Radeon!) so dead chuffed.

I have only used KDE for the past few years since the early gnome days when it wasn't very good. Now I am very impressed! 2.8 is fantastic and much better than the bloated KDE 3.3.

sedge

January 22nd, 2005, 08:26 PM

Hi I have tried :-
sUSE, Mandrake, Xandros,Debian,Yoper,Slackware,Mepis,Gentoo and Arch(well say no more the last two) etc,
And Ubuntu seems to be the best so far, printing was a problem cups-driver-gimpprint fixed it.
I am not to sure how it copes with my Dell E173FP flat panel TFT monitor and gFORGCE4 card, Nvidia settings refers to 1CRT but it works!
Keep up the good work.

nikopol

January 22nd, 2005, 10:14 PM

Just got rid of Mandrake today after years of using it - I feel a little strange no longer having the comfort of Mdk but I was getting more and more peeved with it as months went on. Ubuntu isn't perfect (yet ;) ) but it seems a lot less chaotic and closer to my needs.

eklim

January 23rd, 2005, 11:04 AM

used Mandrake before, then changed back to Windows. Hoping to try out UbuntuLinux soon! just got the CD :D

jadugarr

January 23rd, 2005, 02:22 PM

I have used a lot of different distrobutions over the years including mandrake, redhat/fedora, suse, slackware, mepis, yopper, and gentoo. I have to say that my ubuntu has been my best experience by far for the ease of installation and hardware detection and the ease of package managment. I loved slackware, but installing new software was almost as much of a pain as installing gentoo. I used Fedora Core 3 just before I tried Ubuntu and it looked nice, but felt a little sluggish and somewhat buggy. I have to say that ubuntu has one of the best communities I have ever experienced with a distrobution too. =D>

vificunero

January 24th, 2005, 06:45 AM

I still use Gentoo, Slackware and Arch Linux. I find Ubuntu the best way to test new gnome releases.

mrdibbler

January 24th, 2005, 01:19 PM

In order:

My favourite desktop is KDE (gnome is too bland for me - sorry).

Ubuntu was reccomended by a friend about 2 weeks ago.

Suse (about 3 days!), Gentoo (1.5 years), Xandros (6 months), Red Hat (2 months).

I still have Gentoo on my system (but am unable to get the USB stuff going - so that my USB mouse would work).

I probably will try to do a new install of it as I want to try out the 2.6 kernel in Gentoo - I see that distro as my learning distro, whilst Ubuntu is now going to be my main distro. Despite a few problems that I hope to resolve, I think it is a great distro with much to reccomend it. All linuxers should give it a try.

I must admit that Suse is not that bad, pretty stable, but as with Red Hat / Fedora. Paying to use a distro / paying for upgrades, pretty much goes in the face of the Free software manifesto. To follow these distros is to lock yourself into the same forever, upgrade cycle - trap that M$ forces you into.

My motto from now on is "Use Ubuntu!".

AMP

January 24th, 2005, 06:28 PM

I used Virtually (in VMware)
Cobind
Gentnoo
Suse 9.1
Slax
Slackware
Yoper
Naitvely
Suse 9.1
Xandros
Ubuntu

But I use Windows as main. I do this simply because Linux does not install programs as easyily as i would like, and games are harder to install. But the Biggest thing is there is NO NATIVE SUPPORT(drivers easy to get ndis wrapper is too much work) OF WIRELESS INTERNET! I have Belkin, Lynksys,Compaq. And Netgear, all with out support.

martyr

January 25th, 2005, 04:00 PM

I remember having used Mandrake and SuSE ages ago.
Lately, I have used CollegeLinux, Gentoo and Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is now the only Linux distribution I'm currently running. My server is on OpenBSD.

RU63

January 26th, 2005, 05:07 AM

Suse 9.1

kOoLiNuS

January 26th, 2005, 01:11 PM

I was switching between Mandrake, and trying to like more Fedora for it's vast community and market relevance when it becomes RH.

SuSE was nice for me, but having YaST i do find very stupid the use of apt4rpm + synaptic for extra packages installation.

Now Ubuntu has given me the quickest & most reliable hardware configuration and does leave me the right "sandbox" to learn

Cheers :-D

darkghost

January 27th, 2005, 06:57 AM

UHm...used lots of them this last year (04). Now January the 1st complete switchover to linux...no more Win on my PCs. So I've tried lots of distros to see the one to go with . I've not yet found a total satisfaction but the twos distro i like most are Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS (created by Texstar on Mandrake base).
Now...if only PCLinux was so good ad detecting hardware as Ubuntu, If Ubuntu had kde (I like gnome but find myself more comfy in kde - i like to split konqueror in 3 panes for moving files), if Mandrake was easier to update to the latest soft without problems....

Uhm...I still think that any distro has got some advantages over the "concurrents"...
why not to join all the advantages on one single distro? ;)

By the way Ubuntu (Hoary) is n.1 in my preferences followed by PCLinuxOS at near distance.

See ya
Darkghost

carlc

January 27th, 2005, 11:21 PM

I was using Fedora Core 3 prior to installing Ubuntu. I have also tried Mandrake, Slackware, and Suse. OK, I will admit that I have even tried Linspire. So far, my experience with Ubuntu has been great!

barbarian

January 28th, 2005, 05:19 AM

Debian>Mandrake>Ubuntu

Jad

January 28th, 2005, 07:27 AM

my linux life started with mandrake -> fedora -> suse personal -> NLD -> Ubuntu

Sgood1971

January 28th, 2005, 03:53 PM

Mandrake, SuSE 8.??, Mepis, Xandros, Lycoris, Linspire, DamnSmallLinux, Puppy, Fedora, SuSE 9.2 pro, and finally Ubuntu where I have decided to stay for awhile. I really enjoy it.

spockster

January 30th, 2005, 09:15 AM

i started with redhat moved to mandrake for a while discovered gentoo and thought that was my final resting place until i discovered ubuntu ,now its full steam ahead in the learning department .

hard_i

January 30th, 2005, 06:55 PM

SuSe > Fedora > Ubuntu

Kakalto

February 2nd, 2005, 05:16 AM

I managed to install Gentoo, as a complete newbie, completely by following the installation guide, and still had a couple of problems, eg. Sound not working, with no way to get it working, and then I heard about ubuntu, got it "shipit"-ed to me, and installed it.

And... I think, soon, I'll try out Fedora Core, and have it multibooting along with Ubuntu & Win XP. Just to see what all the fuss is about.

gw90se

February 2nd, 2005, 08:07 AM

Can't say used, because I never figured them out. Tried RedHat & Mandrake. Ubuntu seems so much easier to finally get a grasp of.

Paool

February 2nd, 2005, 08:19 AM

mandrake > yoper > slackware > ubuntu :mrgreen:

rdking

February 3rd, 2005, 04:51 PM

Well....Let's see. Over the last 5 months I have been doing a great deal of jumping to find a distro that really suits my needs. I am an engineering student with need for a desktop which enables spreadsheet, office, programming and Matlab.

i have tried many distros, Mandrake (too user oriented and heavy), FC3 - same deal...Then mepis and yoper...Yes slightly faster, but i had to give up gnome in trade for kde (not a fair trade in my book, though that is personal preference). Not to mention that the update packages tend to not clear dependancies as well, and broken installs are a frightful reality. The stability just wasn't there for me.

Well then came ubuntu...having been a debian user long ago..It is familiar and cozy. It was the only distro to properly identify all my hardware...the text based install was easy...with some common understanding of linux...and I like to know that the packages i can reach are varied and dependable. Congrats to the team on a good...a be it not fantastic installer and probe. My one true joy...A return to the gnome desktop which is, clean, proffesional and nearly perfect on first boot. Maybe 5 min to tinker and your done. Stability and looks combined, add in good package management and availibility....I hope this is the last jump I have to make in a while.

cheers and thanks

rdking

rkn

February 3rd, 2005, 06:47 PM

I started with 8 floppies of a fat-based Linux (i forgot the name), RH 4.5, Turbolinux6, Debian potato, mandrake 7.1. (at this point, I got rid of m$ from alll of our home pcs), Then various Mandrake & Debian (dual boot)
Now: Libranet, OpenBSD, Ubuntu, Debian (unstable).

I agree with kmoffit:
debian based distros are not looking to change! I have been using Libranet linux for years very happily, and still use it on my server and dual boot on 2 others. When libranet 3 comes out I'll most likely be using it. I'm looking at ubuntu and mepis as alternatives.

-BoB

paul cooke

February 4th, 2005, 04:56 AM

Started with mandrake 7.0 cos I was able to install it in loopback mode as a ginormous file on my C drive and launch it from ms-windows just by clicking an icon... this enabled me to get enough confidence to go for a duel boot setup and now some 6 years down the line, I've got four machines, two mandrake 10, one suse 9.1 and this box I'm playing with running warty prior to converting the others to hoary when it's released. No ms-windows at all anywhere in the house... I'm free... unfortunately, I'm stuck using NT at work, they've trapped themselves into it because they develop software for ms-windows... I don't code, I'm a systems analyst and produce the requirements specs for the coders to code up...

Sleeper Service

February 5th, 2005, 06:34 PM

Window$ until last year (though running mostly open-source applications) ... then Mandrake ... now Ubuntu.

Thing that beats me is how fast and slick Gnome is under Ubuntu. I always liked Gnome (though used mostly Xfce4) - but now it's like a whole new Desktop Manager.

I'm lovin' it :D

btw, Hi Paul - I used to live in Gloucester :)

kassetra

February 5th, 2005, 10:35 PM

I can't believe it's not in the poll... I was using SuSE...

Let's see if I can remember my distro trail...

RedHat 5.0 or 5.1
SuSE 6.x
Debian Potato
Debian Woody
RedHat 7 + Ximian
RedHat 9 + Ximian Desktop 2
SuSE 9.0 + XD2
SuSE 9.0+9.1+9.2+XD2+ULB (and some other various packages thrown in)

and in *EVERY* single distro I had massive problems with sound, mice, monitors, video cards, cdrom drives, package dependencies, library conflicts, update/upgrade issues, and I was always unable to get the software applications I wanted/needed (this is my production box) ...

Until now. :) I'm so in love with Ubuntu that I even took some time and made a real ttf font from the text logo. :)