Different flavours, do they all taste the same?

[lordyosch]

Noob question time...

I've been Ubuntuing for umm, well, since 8.04. Only in the standard gnome way.

I've downloaded Kubuntu, had a look had a play, went back to 'normal' Ubuntu.


I've recently, for no good reason other than I can, downloaded Fedora 12, Mandriva, Mint and probably a few others along the way.

Other than the obvious KDE/Gnome differences, would I really notice much change in how I used my PC -or what it could do?

I've not had the time to immerse myself in new things as I need my PC to work, and Ubuntu does everything I need. -Its just curiosity that drives my downloading!


Cheers,

Jay

[arnab_das]

watch out for project timelord on Kubuntu, fingers crossed!

[lykwydchykyn]

Biggest differences between various distros are:

- Different package management systems have different strengths and weaknesses, and the tools they offer to work with package management vary in their feature set.

- Release/Development cycles are probably the most important: some distros focus on long release cycles for stability, others on short release cycles to keep on the cutting edge, some have no release cycle and just constantly update to the latest stuff, etc. There's a lot of subtlety to release cycles and the effect it has on the long-term experience.

- Custom config tools: most distros offer various system configuration tools specific to that distro.

- Package selection varies. Debian (and hence Ubuntu) has one of the largest binary repositories around (maybe only contested by Arch + AUR, I don't have stats on that), but even so you find oddball stuff in other distros that isn't in Debian/Ubuntu.

Apart from theming and general polish, most of the differences aren't readily apparent in the short-term. Usually takes some long-term usage to really determine what system works best for you.

[nothingspecial]

I always come back to *buntu.

But I have reached the stage where I customise it beyond recognition. I use the server edition and build it from there. I mean that (of the ones I`ve tried) no linux distro is exactly what I want.

But I (sort of) know what I`m doing (a bit) with Ubuntu so it makes sense to do it that way.

[Small_Nuke]

Biggest differences between various distros are:

- Different package management systems have different strengths and weaknesses, and the tools they offer to work with package management vary in their feature set.

- Release/Development cycles are probably the most important: some distros focus on long release cycles for stability, others on short release cycles to keep on the cutting edge, some have no release cycle and just constantly update to the latest stuff, etc. There's a lot of subtlety to release cycles and the effect it has on the long-term experience.

- Custom config tools: most distros offer various system configuration tools specific to that distro.

- Package selection varies. Debian (and hence Ubuntu) has one of the largest binary repositories around (maybe only contested by Arch + AUR, I don't have stats on that), but even so you find oddball stuff in other distros that isn't in Debian/Ubuntu.

Apart from theming and general polish, most of the differences aren't readily apparent in the short-term. Usually takes some long-term usage to really determine what system works best for you.

^this

There's other small things that are different that you can notice sometimes however. Some distros have a bug or two that may make it a little rougher than *ubuntu, but they're mostly the same with the exceptions mentioned above. Some have larger communities than others, and that may show on thier public forums in the form of staleness, and not a whole lot of new posts.

You'll begin to notice that the packages used aren't that different, but the way the devs put them together is what makes or breaks the distro.

[kk0sse54]

Different flavours, do they all taste the same?

I've never tried eating an Ubuntu CD before but I figure all the variants would taste the same

[docus]

Biggest differences between various distros are:

- Different package management systems have different strengths and weaknesses, and the tools they offer to work with package management vary in their feature set.

- Release/Development cycles are probably the most important: some distros focus on long release cycles for stability, others on short release cycles to keep on the cutting edge, some have no release cycle and just constantly update to the latest stuff, etc. There's a lot of subtlety to release cycles and the effect it has on the long-term experience.

- Custom config tools: most distros offer various system configuration tools specific to that distro.

- Package selection varies. Debian (and hence Ubuntu) has one of the largest binary repositories around (maybe only contested by Arch + AUR, I don't have stats on that), but even so you find oddball stuff in other distros that isn't in Debian/Ubuntu.

Apart from theming and general polish, most of the differences aren't readily apparent in the short-term. Usually takes some long-term usage to really determine what system works best for you.

That's a really helpful reply =D>

[squilookle]

You will sometimes find that you either like or dislike various distributions for reasons you can't quite put your finger on. You will also find that some work better with your hardware than you expected, while others don't work so well.

It's good to try some of the others just to see.

[lordyosch]

Thanks for the responses guys.

As I said, I've downloaded and VM'ed several but beyond a boot and a quick look I've not really tried much.

I have to say, the only one that could possibly tempt me away is Mint, cos its just like this but with less setting up after install (maybe).

Generally though, I'm more than happy to stay on Ubuntu. But isn't it cool that if one day we decided we didn't like it any more there are loads of other flavours out there and they're all free!

Brilliant!


Jay

[SunnyRabbiera]

Each flavor is different and yet very simular, its like coffee, tea or soda they all have the same basic ingredients but the end taste varies.
You got decaf, you got cherry, you got lemon, you got mocha, you got French vanilla, you got peach, you got berry, you got all kinds of choices that I would spend hours writing down.