Any reason to use fedora/opensuse/slack ...etc?

[Open-SuSe-A-Me]

Whats up all...

just wondering if there is any reason to use any of the so called "more advanced" linux distros...i have tried a couple of distros but nothing compares to (k)ubuntu so far. from my experiences:

opensuse - pretty close to kubuntu in terms of user friendliness, pretty kde design, but some things just didnt work as nicely as in kubuntu...

debian etch - figured i'd try it out as its what ubuntu is built from. i was greeted by IceWeasel (hillarious). anyway the first thing i did was try to install amarok from the package manager and i got errors. kubuntu was reinstalled IMMEDIATELY.

and a few others...anyway (k)ubuntu works so much better than anything else i've tried and i always end up reinstalling it. my question is:

is there any reason to NOT use ubuntu? is it better to use a different distro which may be more advanced? will i learn more or will it just cause headaches for me? i am interested in getting this forums opinion.

thanks!

[SunnyRabbiera]

Well its all about choice really.
Thats one thing linux offers that Windows and OSX cant is the ability to have diversification.
Each one has a purpose for someone.
Like Debian, it's preferred by people who like to take the full opensource approach to things, plus Debian is great for servers.
Fedora same thing
Slack seems to be for the hardcore linuxer, the elite of the elite seem to like it as they like to have control of what is installed.
Fedora is one of the cornerstones of linux, its made many strides in its time to make a distro that is stable and quite functional... though I still dont like it that much.
The reason is choice, plain and simple

[billgoldberg]

Whats up all...

just wondering if there is any reason to use any of the so called "more advanced" linux distros...i have tried a couple of distros but nothing compares to (k)ubuntu so far. from my experiences:

opensuse - pretty close to kubuntu in terms of user friendliness, pretty kde design, but some things just didnt work as nicely as in kubuntu...

debian etch - figured i'd try it out as its what ubuntu is built from. i was greeted by IceWeasel (hillarious). anyway the first thing i did was try to install amarok from the package manager and i got errors. kubuntu was reinstalled IMMEDIATELY.

and a few others...anyway (k)ubuntu works so much better than anything else i've tried and i always end up reinstalling it. my question is:

is there any reason to NOT use ubuntu? is it better to use a different distro which may be more advanced? will i learn more or will it just cause headaches for me? i am interested in getting this forums opinion.

thanks!

Why would another distro be more advanced?

People saying another distro is more advanced most of the time mean it's harder to use.

There are distro's like Arch that come with almost nothing installed on it and you then need to build things from scratch. This means that most of the time things will be a bit faster than Ubuntu.

But if you want you can do the same with Ubuntu (instead of adding, removing).

--

The reason I like Ubuntu better than the other distro's I've tried:

- debian based (I can't stand rpm)
- huge repo's
- easy to install
- good documention (on the wikis, forum and other websites)
- good support (forums, irc, ...)
- apt (I heard some people like pacman better, but the last time I tried it there was no graphical front-end available for it. That might come in handy some times)
- community
- the fact that it's backed by Canonical means it will continue to exist. Unlike some other distros that fade away (pclos).
- and I also know it pretty well, every distro is different, so if you use a new one, you'll need to relearn a lot of stuff.

The only thing I don't really like about Ubuntu is that they only provide security updates for the packages. Meaning you don't actually get the newest version of the software.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Well yes typically the word "advanced" in linux terms means distributions that are harder to set up then ubuntu...
Though debian is quite easy if you know what to do, I may go to debian unstable some day, I may not.

[tuxerman]

But in my opinion, Kubuntu seems to be getting slip-shod with each release. Certain things are not as neatly packaged as in, for example openSuSE. And why dont Kubuntu-devs change the default icon theme, style etc to something more neat?

I am not in a position to comment on the KDE4 version as I havent tried it out yet.

I've always been a KDE-fan and have always managed to ward off temptations to switch distros because of the huge support of the ubuntu community. This is such a great place to be in!

[Open-SuSe-A-Me]

yes the support here is great. i started this thread after a linux-novice friend of mine called ubuntu "newb-untu" which is why i was wondering if i was missing anything with *buntu.

[Barrucadu]

Well, if you like Ubuntu - stick with it :)
I started distro-hopping earlier this year because I got bored of it just working and wanted a challange, I ended up on Arch, and mean to try CRUX, Slackware, Gentoo, and LFS (amongst others) at some point.

[jonabyte]

I use slackware on most of my servers. In fact, it is how I really got to learn to use Linux and the cli.
Now this can be accomplished with Ubuntu Server. :)

[sandysandy]

its about choice.

i multi boot Ubuntu with OpenSuse11, Mandriva, Sabayon, FreeSpire, and find all of them good.

sabayon and Freespire work out of box.

regards

[kpkeerthi]

Top 10 questions I would ask myself before choosing a distro:

1. How easy is it to install the distro?

2. What packages come preinstalled and how much you would need to shove off or add to suit your needs?

3. How good is hardware auto-configuration? Can I afford to spend time to manually configure things?

4. How good is package management?

5. How often packages are updated? Do I really need latest and greatest?

6. How long before next version is released? How easy to upgrade to the next release?

7. How helpful is the community support?

8. WIKI / Documentation - Available & up-to-date?

9. Performance - Boot time and general overall snappiness?

10. I need <insert-anything-here>. Does this distro has it?

Choose the one that suits your need. You've got plenty to choose from.

[K.Mandla]

Moved to Other OS Talk.

[ibutho]

Whats up all...

just wondering if there is any reason to use any of the so called "more advanced" linux distros...i have tried a couple of distros but nothing compares to (k)ubuntu so far. from my experiences:

opensuse - pretty close to kubuntu in terms of user friendliness, pretty kde design, but some things just didnt work as nicely as in kubuntu...

debian etch - figured i'd try it out as its what ubuntu is built from. i was greeted by IceWeasel (hillarious). anyway the first thing i did was try to install amarok from the package manager and i got errors. kubuntu was reinstalled IMMEDIATELY.

and a few others...anyway (k)ubuntu works so much better than anything else i've tried and i always end up reinstalling it. my question is:

is there any reason to NOT use ubuntu? is it better to use a different distro which may be more advanced? will i learn more or will it just cause headaches for me? i am interested in getting this forums opinion.

thanks!

Ubuntu is actually built on Debian Unstable thats why sometimes it has bugs that are not in Debian Stable or Debian Testing.

As for using other distros, you don't have to unless you want to. If you want to be a Linux system administrator, you may need more experience than just using Ubuntu because most companies run Red Hat, Debian or SUSE.

[Vorian Grey]

I'd say that openSuse and Fedora really are more advanced than Ubuntu because they are two distros that are really working on advanced stuff, compared to Ubuntu who only uses it after it's released. I'd say the main reason to use the Big Two is to stay right on the cutting edge.

[karellen]

Fedora has the reputation of being really bleeding edge and openSuse very user-friendly thought a little slow (mainly because of Yast) compared to other distros

[C!oud]

It's all about what you like. If you like Ubuntu stick with it don't let any hard core linux users tell you otherwise. As for me my Os of choice is Slackware since it gives me complete control and it runs a lot better than Ubuntu does on my computer. IMO Slackware + openbox = \\:D/

[jayson.rowe]

There are lots of "advanced" users that like (K/X)Ubuntu b/c we don't want to be mucking around w/ our systems constantly.

It seems you are a KDE user, so if you wanna try something else, check out Frugalware - I have a bud that swears by it - also Mepis is pretty good, and it's built on Debian as well. Also, from what I hear, it's hard to go wrong w/ Arch+KDEMod. Slackware is very solid too - and very KDE centric as well - you'll learn a lot setting up a Slackware or an Arch box.

I use both Ubuntu and Foresight (I'm a GNOME user) and I like them both.

[starcannon]

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Choice is half the point of Linux as far as I'm concerned.

I like things easy, and I find Ubuntu to be the easiest for me, if I didn't use Ubuntu then SUSE would be on my list.

If I wanted to get into geekout mode I'd go with Gentoo

If I wanted to get into hypergeek mode I'd go with LFS

Anyway, I'm sure the reasons for using different distro's is as vast as the reasons for differing religions, politics, and the assortment of other choices people make day to day.

[paintba||er]

I prefer a minimal installation of Debian because it isn't filled with unnecessary bloat. I can add only the things that I need.