I am thinking of moving away from Canonical based distros. (Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Kubuntu/Lubuntu) and would like to try one of the "harder" distros Slackware/Arch/Gentoo.
So of these three, which would you go for?
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I am thinking of moving away from Canonical based distros. (Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Kubuntu/Lubuntu) and would like to try one of the "harder" distros Slackware/Arch/Gentoo.
So of these three, which would you go for?
I've heard Arch is good fun.
Altho, I prefer Fedora, myself. :p
You left off Linux From Scratch. If you are going for the learning experience, you may want to consider that as well.
It would be a great time to install Slackware as version 14.0 has just been released and it is a truly rock solid version of this great distro. I would not call it better than the others that you have mentioned, simply well worth a look at :).
I'm a massive fan of Gentoo.
The reason for that is that, unlike Arch, it doesn't self-destruct every time you update it. USE flags also give you a lot of control, and you can really see a difference in a well-optimised Gentoo setup and an Arch on something slow like a netbook. Gentoo also offers much more flexibility with init systems, toolchains, kernels, and such.
With Gentoo, you also feel more... integrated with the system. Having compiled everything and edited all the files yourself, your system feels more like yours. I've also found that the community is much more open in Gentoo(But Arch do have the best Wiki by far).
Arch is definitely easier to install, but the few times I've tried Arch, the system goes belly up every time I do a -Syu, and I've never had any actual problems from doing a -uND world(Aside from when I accidentally went to stable from unstable... Glibc didn't like that).
As far as Slackware goes, I've never personally used it yet, but one of the post-docs in my university was chatting to me about Linux. Slackware is why he uses a Mac. :P
Better? That would depend on the individual criteria and personal taste of each user.
It's like asking, which car is better, they will all get you there with various degrees of speed and comfort. Is anyone qualified to say definitively which is better?
We are all qualified to say which we prefer better though, again a personal choice.
It's linux they are all good. Try them all.
Out of all the ones listed probably Gentoo for me, I hav3e tried arch varients and never really cared for them, Slackware is okay but if you want more up to date software something Gentoo based might do some good.
Try out Sabayon, the latest version seems to be well liked.
Have a closer look at Slackware 14, software is pretty up to date these days.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadmanRB
Arch user here. I have to say: I haven't experienced any of the instabilities that LiamOS mentioned, although I keep trying to convince myself that I should be expecting them. The rolling-release nature of Arch was the biggest reason that I decided to try it.. (And the biggest reason I like it, too.)
Never having used them, I can't say much about Gentoo or Slackware, although Gentoo is somewhere on my to do list.
If security is your concern, Slackware and Gentoo but in terms of package manager and packaging ease, Pacman in Arch rules.
I have not tried slack 14, the last slack based one I used was based on slack 13.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew.46
Manjaro is Arch without the setup.
Where's the fun in that?Quote:
Manjaro is Arch without the setup.
I've been using Arch on my home workstation for ages now, and I've never had an update break my system. Just make sure you read the Beginners Guide when you are installing and it's all pretty straightforward.
I think now is a good time to install Arch as it's now fully moved to systemd, there should be no big changes in the immediate future, just package updates.
If you want the fun they also have a netinstall image which is what I use ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheesemill
To me, that'd be a great reason to not use Arch, as I'm not too happy with the way it and udev are going. I don't know about slack, but in Gentoo you can use whatever init system you want, and aren't confined to systemd. Gentoo also has a fork of udev allowing separate /usr without an initramfs, which is very handy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheesemill
I agree. I gave up on Arch and switched to Debian sid (Siduction Linux, actually) because of systemd. If Debian gets to the point of requiring systemd, I will find something else.Quote:
Originally Posted by LiamOS
Tim
Arch probably has the best documentation of the 3 just in case you screw up.
I cant see Debian ever going for systemd as it does not gel with their bsd & hurd kernels and other architectures they support.Quote:
Originally Posted by ratcheer
Hands up everybody who has used the fabulous Arch documentation? My most recent usage was the definitive wiki page on the state of play with Bluray and Linux:Quote:
Originally Posted by mag1strate
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/BluRay
Can't be matched by any other distro, but I will stick with Slackware all the same :)
From what I've learned from others that use the different distro's Slackware is a good teacher and next to that Gentoo.
I've been running Debian a little over 6 months and it runs rock solid and stable!
Yep. With all other distros I've used I felt like a hamster running on one of those circular wheels just trying to keep up with all the changes and foul-ups caused by the changes. Debian is so stable it is almost boring, but that is good. I think.Quote:
Originally Posted by UltimateCat
Note that this is true even though I am on sid. I do a dist-upgrade every day and I'm on the latest kernel (currently 3.6.6, but expecting 3.7 any day now) and packages. But everything works and it just keeps on working.
Tim
@ratcheer: Wait until Debian releases Wheezy, then Sid will start updating again, probably with a backlog in the first few weeks.
Even I have to agree about Arch's awesome documentation. It's not just the Arch wiki, it's the everything-Linux-related wiki.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew.46
Yes, that's what I hear.Quote:
Originally Posted by cwsnyder
Tim
There is no distribution better than the other, it is a subjective statement, and it is best resolved by trying them all out and deciding for oneself which best suits you.
Go check out distrowatch.com and try out the top fifty, eventually make a decision and settle down with a distribution you like, until you have the urge to start hopping around again. Maybe by then you will have figured out virtualbox, or gnome-boxes to try all distributions out in a virtual environment so one does not have to reinstall constantly.
Strange how distribution hopping does not occur with Windows users, maybe it is the lack of choice?
This :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Cope57
gentoo fo-sho
I'm a very satisfied Arch user, but my experience with Gentoo is limited and with Slackware not at all.
bad news for you - systemd is in Debian testingQuote:
Originally Posted by ratcheer
Its also likely to be a dependency of Gnome 3.*, so forget that, as well as Fedora, SuSE, Mandriva.Quote:
Installation
To install systemd run:
# apt-get update
# apt-get install systemd
Looking through this thread I haven't seen one actural criticism of systemd - is anybody aware of ways it is inferior to sysvinit or upstart for a home or small business environment?
I've been using Arch for the past year, on network standard but using testing on a netbook. No problems at all with main system, but a couple of glitches with testing - but advice regarding problem/solution by the time I've gone to their website.
I'm too lazy to install gentoo. If i want an app I want it quickly and pacman will give me that. Unless you have a super fast cpu and can compile stuff nearly the speed that pacman can download and install packages i would avoid it. I've never personally tried slackware but i hear it's super stable. That being said arch has been super stable for me. And if an update ever breaks something for me I just roll back the offending package. Arch makes it simple to figure out how to fix a package update. View pacman.log and see if anything relevant to the breakage was updated. Install old version of package from the pacman cache.