A quick question on distros

[darkmaze]

I was just wanting to get everyones opinion. How long should you use any os before you can really say whether it's for you? I always thought Maybe 3months ..........

[Brunellus]

about two days. If you don't survive 48 hours, then you might not be using the right distro.

[mstlyevil]

I can tell within a few days of use after the install and configuration.

[briancurtin]

i would say i know for sure if im going to stay in about 4-5 days. i tried FC4 for about a week and dumped it. everything else ive tried i decided after a few days that i was staying. i knew i was staying with arch for a while after like 20 minutes

[NeghVar]

for me its usually by the second day, altho ive dumped a few after about 20 minutes.

[taurus]

After the first reboot for me when I see the layout of the distro...

[stuporglue]

I can tell within a few days of use after the install and configuration.

I agree. I used to distrohop a lot. If I changed distros after three months, it was usually because my needs had changed (I left Gentoo because I needed software NOW for school...not in 4 hours), or because I lost interest (YellowDog was good, but I wanted to try Suse). Anything I stuck with for more than two days would have been good enough for general use.

Choosing an OS isn't like choosing a wife. You can distro hop all you want and even tripple boot. The purpose of an OS is to make your work/play easier. If it does that and you enjoy the experience and the community, then the distro/OS is a good one for you.

Incidentally, I've found that Ubuntu gives me everything I need. I've be on it for over a year, and it's really tamed my desire to try other distros.

[poofyhairguy]

I was just wanting to get everyones opinion. How long should you use any os before you can really say whether it's for you?

Till I first download Bittornado. If a distro can allow me to install it without some random community package (or whats hosted on the real website) then I stay.

So basically, I only use distros with that in the repos........

[akiro.yamamoto]

I've jumped from distro to distro but over the past year my distro is Ubuntu.
At one point I had 6 distro installed at the same time :oops: now I'm down to two
Ubuntu and SUSE 10...... Choices choices :)

[magnusbb]

I've been using Breezy now since September, and I'm really satisfied with it. I would say, that it takes a few months (at least for me) to get fully comfortable with an OS (or a distro) - since for all my different uses of the computer, I can't cover all aspects during just a few days.

After a few months, I will also know whether the OS is stable, works with my applications, my settings, my hardware and so on - whether the OS brings me something special or not. To this date, Breezy has proven to be such an OS. I look forward to Dapper, but I'll stick to Breezy for now.

[SeanTater]

I've seen Suse (KDE), FC4, Pclinuxos, Linspire, and Kubuntu. I still use PClinux and Kubuntu, Suse takes too long to download, FC4 has no kde option. I'm considering Arch and maybe a delve into debian..

It took me roughly 10 minutes to decide whether I like them or not. I've learned that I have the following criteria:

HUGE repositories; I want to be able to google a linux program and find every single one ready to install in 30 seconds

KDE; It's not that I dislike gnome or anything else, I simply very much a KDE person

Free; (Now), At first, I was unaware that linux was free. So I bought Linspire, I do not regret that, I would not have been able to switch a relative to linux if it had not been for my knowledge and use of Linspire.. But now - I perfer free, I'm not ready to pay for something I may or may not like.

Active; I like big, busy forums where I can ask and answer things and have the thread halfway down page two of the list of threads in ten minutes.. As an advantage, Ubuntu releases every six months, has freely and easily available betas, and instantly updated software -- Fantastic!

[majikstreet]

well, I do my research a lot before installing a distro.. It depends with the time..

I've never tried gentoo because I've heard about the compiling times lol.