Distro Question

[Sashin]

I've read on other places that Debian and Slackware are better than Ubuntu, but much more difficult to use.

What are the exact advantages and disadvantages of these distros compared to Ubuntu? Exactly how difficult are they to use?

And what about Gentoo, how does that compare with the other distros?

[TomasJancik]

in gentoo you have to compile almost everything from source code, even the kernel so it's difficult to install the base system
i don't know much about slackware, but the software is there also instaled in some more difficulty way than in ubuntu
debian is "father of ubuntu", it's nearly the same system, it's not very diffucult to install and use it, but probably you'll need to know something more about working in terminal...

[Bachstelze]

Moved to Other OS talk.

I shall answer the question with a quote by Kristoffer Gildenlöw: "There is no better, only different."

Debian is very similar to Ubuntu, and they can even be considered identical in many regards. It does not hold your hand as much, though, and you're on your own since the very beginning. Once you know your way around one, though, you 'll have no problems with the other.

Slackware holds your hand even less. You're totally on your own, and you have to take care of pretty much everything yourself. On the other hand, it gives you more control on your system.

Gentoo has the same kind of approach than Debian/Ubuntu, but uses different tools. Most importantly, you compile things from the source code, which allows you to adjust your system to your needs more finely, at the cost of the compilation time.

[Sashin]

Sorry about putting it in the wrong thread.

Thanks for the replies, but what I actually wanted to know was if there were any advantages of using the other OSs as opposed to using ubuntu. Do they perform a great deal better?

[TomasJancik]

when you use gentoo, you need to compile it from source as i said. the advantage of this is that the system is then whell optimized to you hardware and is faster

[Bachstelze]

Thanks for the replies, but what I actually wanted to know was if there were any advantages of using the other OSs as opposed to using ubuntu.

I believe I gave a few...

Do they perform a great deal better?

No.

[BatsotO]

Technically Ubuntu is Debian-based, so i think there no technical advantage-disadvantage between the two. But as fa as I know, Debian put a heavy testing on almost each of every packages to be put in stable release repository, while Ubuntu have it own repositories. The difficulty is relatively the same, if you can't drive a car it doesn't matter whether it's a ford or a toyota, but once you get used to it, there's not much differences. The biggest matter is taste, you can try each and decide what you like most. Gentoo is source code base distro, so it'e rather advance, but if you like it, what stopping you?

[Sashin]

Okay, thanks alot. I needed to get that clarified.

[emshains]

Gentoo is a bit faster, a lot faster on old systems, because it basically comes with a kernel, x and firefox. You don't have to compile the kernel itself, and you don't have to compile everything from source. It uses a packaging system, that downloads all the dependencies as source code, then compiles them and then compiles the main package. It may be slower, when it comes to installing new packages, but it is faster, when you use it, because most of the software you've installed, is configured for your system, not like .deb's, which are binaries, and they are made to run on all x86/x64 systems, but that means they are compromised in performance.

[sub2007]

Slackware and Gentoo, as well as other distros like Arch, are minimal distros. After installation you are left with a terminal and a guide and it's up to you to build your X server, install your desktop environment/window manager and then everything else on top. This takes a bit longer in the initial setup but the advantage is that you have a system that works just the way you want it to. The distros tend to be faster than Ubuntu as you aren't laden with lots of kernel modules that you don't need. They also use rolling release so you don't have to reinstall your system every 6 months. If this doesn't sound appealing to you then you already have the answer of the advantage of Ubuntu - all this work is done for you so you don't have to do it yourself.

The advantage of Debian (I haven't used Debian though) is that if you use Debian stable then you have absolute rock solid stability. The disadvantage is that programs tend to be outdated.