distro seek

[infestor]

I am looking for a distro to try out containing these features (not kubuntu, no thanks :) ):



apt
kde (working stable)
graphical installation (not a must though but good to have surely)
not as out of the box as ubuntu
(if possible wide official or user repositories)

is there such distro which you might have tried or heard that is alright?

[chris200x9]

Debian? Or debian live?

[infestor]

Debian? Or debian live?

how about the installation?`if it is like arch which might take couple of days, i wouldnt bother.

[earthpigg]

I am looking for a distro to try out containing these features (not kubuntu, no thanks :) ):



apt
kde (working stable)
graphical installation (not a must though but good to have surely)
not as out of the box as ubuntu
(if possible wide official or user repositories)

is there such distro which you might have tried or heard that is alright?

could you tell us what you don't like about kubuntu, aside from it being to 'out of the box' for you, so we can get a better idea of what to recommend?

[snowpine]

Debian is the obvious choice. :)

I was just reading about SimplyMepis over on Distrowatch... have any of y'all ever tried that one?

[dca]

MEPIS.

http://www.mepis.org

[dca]

Debian is the obvious choice. :)

I was just reading about SimplyMepis over on Distrowatch... have any of y'all ever tried that one?

Very solid distro. Read up on it prior to use, even though it's based on Debian there are differences.

[lightningfox]

Debian, Mepis or Kanotix.

[infestor]

Very solid distro. Read up on it prior to use, even though it's based on Debian there are differences.

for instance?

[lykwydchykyn]

I used MEPIS for several years before moving to Kubuntu. It's very good.

Essentially, it's Debian stable with:
- updated kernel and drivers
- backported applications (firefox/openoffice.org/thunderbird/etc)
- backported KDE (currently kde 3.5.10, but the next release will have 4.3)
- liveCD installer, like Ubuntu

It has a longer release cycle than Ubuntu, and the community is quite nice.

[Hallvor]

how about the installation?`if it is like arch which might take couple of days, i wouldnt bother.

Debian has a graphical installer. Even a monkey can install it. :)

[snowpine]

I used MEPIS for several years before moving to Kubuntu. It's very good.

Essentially, it's Debian stable with:
- updated kernel and drivers
- backported applications (firefox/openoffice.org/thunderbird/etc)
- backported KDE (currently kde 3.5.10, but the next release will have 4.3)
- liveCD installer, like Ubuntu

It has a longer release cycle than Ubuntu, and the community is quite nice.

That sounds really excellent. I see a lot of "help me achieve stable core/rolling apps" threads on these forums.

Now that you mention it, isn't AntiX a branch of Mepis? I used AntiX for a while on an old laptop. It was a superb "low specs" distro and friendly community too if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the tip!

[lykwydchykyn]

That sounds really excellent. I see a lot of "help me achieve stable core/rolling apps" threads on these forums.

Now that you mention it, isn't AntiX a branch of Mepis? I used AntiX for a while on an old laptop. It was a superb "low specs" distro and friendly community too if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the tip!

Yes.

Keep in mind, the apps are up-to-date at the time of release, but I don't know how much rolling app updates are done during release times nowadays. Before I switched over, there was a community effort underway to create a more extensive backports repo, but I don't know how far those efforts got.

If you require bleeding edge apps the day they release, Mepis may not be a good choice; that's part of why I switched.

[gn2]

I was just reading about SimplyMepis over on Distrowatch... have any of y'all ever tried that one?

Yes, it's excellent, particularly the Antix variant which is my distro of choice for older hardware.

[Exodist]

I am looking for a distro to try out containing these features (not kubuntu, no thanks :) ):



apt
kde (working stable)
graphical installation (not a must though but good to have surely)
not as out of the box as ubuntu
(if possible wide official or user repositories)

is there such distro which you might have tried or heard that is alright?
Debian stable, currently Lenny

[ZankerH]

could you tell us what you don't like about kubuntu, aside from it being to 'out of the box' for you, so we can get a better idea of what to recommend?

Kubuntu GNU/Linux has one of the worst KDE implementations of all GNU/Linux software distributions. Debian and Arch GNU/Linux are much better in this regard. Since the OP wants an apt platform, and takes "a couple of days" to install Arch for some reason, the obvious choice is Debian unstable.

[infestor]

Kubuntu GNU/Linux has one of the worst KDE implementations of all GNU/Linux software distributions. Debian and Arch GNU/Linux are much better in this regard. Since the OP wants an apt platform, and takes "a couple of days" to install Arch for some reason, the obvious choice is Debian unstable.

well said...i guess i will check out debian (maybe mepis later on)...i totally agree on kubuntu's kde implementation...obviously i am not experienced to use arch linux yet (also read an entry at http://sozluk.sourtimes.org/show.asp?id=13952811 [sorry in turkish] in which a user shares his experience on arch. he tells it is a very nice distro but the setup takes lengthy duration)

[XubuRoxMySox]

+1 to MEPIS! The next update is in Alpha already (KDE 4.3). Mepis is built on Debian Stable - and it is indeed rock-stable. Great KDE implimentation, awesome community. I've been fiddling with Mepis lately for the "community computer." I was attracted to it by the fact that it's Debian Lenny (so it's super stable) and it's out-of-the-box support for multimedia and stuff. Mepis rawks!

On my personal machine I still like Xubuntu (Karmic) much better (and it's a lot faster and just as stable), and I still keep Crunchbang on the laptop. But for the 'puter that several kids use between dance classes at the studio, I'm definitely leaning towards Mepis now that I've had a chance to play with it.

AntiX is an official member of the Mepis family too.

-Robin


-Robin

[earthpigg]

@robin:

any reason you prefer KDE on the 'shared' computer?

from a certain POV, regarding children, it makes sense to toss a variety of DE's their way. maybe it will help shape their young sponge-like brains to be super-adaptable and able to be self-reliant and figure things out on their own?

you know, this (http://xkcd.com/627/).

:D

[kpholmes]

debian

[chucky chuckaluck]

Please click one of the Quick Reply icons in the posts above to activate Quick Reply.

edit: huh?

[chris200x9]

Debian? Or debian live?

I retract my suggestion, do sidux!

[chucky chuckaluck]

sidux might be worth looking at. it's based on debian sid (i think) and the last time i tried it, kde was the default desktop. though, now that i think about it, you might want to check which version of kde they're using. it might be kde3 (not that there's anything wrong with that...)

[Arup]

sidux might be worth looking at. it's based on debian sid (i think) and the last time i tried it, kde was the default desktop. though, now that i think about it, you might want to check which version of kde they're using. it might be kde3 (not that there's anything wrong with that...)

sidux is excellent, for unstable it manages to be quite stable and best of all, its the quickest distro out there but its not for newbies as its cli and quite daunting at that.

[Hallvor]

sidux might be worth looking at. it's based on debian sid (i think) and the last time i tried it, kde was the default desktop. though, now that i think about it, you might want to check which version of kde they're using. it might be kde3 (not that there's anything wrong with that...)

Sidux probably has KDE 4.3. Only Debian Lenny has KDE 3.5.

[Exodist]

If I am not mistaken you can get KDE 4.3 on Lenny's backports.

[XubuRoxMySox]

@robin:

any reason you prefer KDE on the 'shared' computer?

from a certain POV, regarding children, it makes sense to toss a variety of DE's their way. maybe it will help shape their young sponge-like brains to be super-adaptable and able to be self-reliant and figure things out on their own?
:D

Most of the kids are middle and high schoolers and already on Windows or Mac. I'm not sure whether or not I'll stick with Mepis on that 'puter (it's a whole lot slower than "Robin's Buggy LXDE Remix" was), but it seems "familiar" to the kids and ideal for educating them about Linux.

-Robin

[infestor]

i think it is a valid choice to go on with KDE since:


dependencies: http://people.freebsd.org/~adamw/gnome_kde_deps/
i like kde apps: kdesvn, kile, k3b, klipper etc.

[Dragonbite]

I am looking for a distro to try out containing these features (not kubuntu, no thanks :) ):



apt
kde (working stable)
graphical installation (not a must though but good to have surely)
not as out of the box as ubuntu
(if possible wide official or user repositories)

is there such distro which you might have tried or heard that is alright?

Why limit yourself to apt? Are you using a command line or application to manage packages?

I'm using Fedora 12 (KDE) and so far it's pretty good. It even detected my broadcom wireless card out-of-the-box.

There are the core repositories and then there are 3rd party repositories that can be added, such as RPMfusion (http://rpmfusion.org/) for free and non-free apps.

[~sHyLoCk~]

Sidux, PCLOS.


Sidux probably has KDE 4.3. Only Debian Lenny has KDE 3.5.



Yeah. Squeeze will have KDE4.3.1 though.[as I have heard].This will be Debian's first time releasing a stable KDE4 :D

[infestor]

Why limit yourself to apt? Are you using a command line or application to manage packages?

I'm using Fedora 12 (KDE) and so far it's pretty good. It even detected my broadcom wireless card out-of-the-box.

There are the core repositories and then there are 3rd party repositories that can be added, such as RPMfusion (http://rpmfusion.org/) for free and non-free apps.

if i know the package name exactly i prefer command line but if i am unsure i prefer a graphical app (like synaptic - i love it)

other than this, my main concern is that the distro should have wide official/user repos.

i experienced zypper in opensuse 11.2 but i couldnt make it see the local mirror(klid - denmark, only one in denmark available) so i downloaded really slow. plus the gui was horrific.

[Dragonbite]

if i know the package name exactly i prefer command line but if i am unsure i prefer a graphical app (like synaptic - i love it)

other than this, my main concern is that the distro should have wide official/user repos.

i experienced zypper in opensuse 11.2 but i couldnt make it see the local mirror(klid - denmark, only one in denmark available) so i downloaded really slow. plus the gui was horrific.

While I haven't tried it much yet, I have heard that Yum is better in the command line than Apt-Get. The PackageKit is the same as you'll find in Ubuntu's Add/Remove programs (which is not the best IMHO, but better than nothing).

The other GUI I have seen is called Yumex (yum install yumex), though I wasn't happy with the performance last I tried a few years ago.

The only other thing to contend with would be SELinux which would make your system more secure (theoretically) but also causes headaches at times and this would be something to learn at least a little of since Ubuntu does not include it by default.

[Wiebelhaus]

Build your own. (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems)