A good, solid Linux distro to try out for 6 months

[blah...]

So I've been an Ubuntu user for two years now, and I've loved Ubuntu. But this release, Natty Narwhal is not running well with my ATI video card, and so I figured instead of installing another *buntu based distro, this could be a good learning experience! I've been looking specifically at Fedora Beta 15 and Arch, are they solid? Suggestions are welcome, and I hope to be back for 11.10. :)

[el_koraco]

I'd say go for Debian or Slackware. You'll appreciate the learning experience.

[snowpine]

Check the Ubuntu Wiki or this forum's Search feature for help with your ATI card. You will have similar problems in any distro unless you figure out how to install the correct driver.

To answer your specific question, Fedora 15 is in "beta" and therefore I do not consider them "solid." I do however use and recommend Fedora 14.

Lots of info at http://distrowatch.com
In my opinion you can't go wrong with anything in the top 10.

[collisionystm]

So I've been an Ubuntu user for two years now, and I've loved Ubuntu. But this release, Natty Narwhal is not running well with my ATI video card, and so I figured instead of installing another *buntu based distro, this could be a good learning experience! I've been looking specifically at Fedora Beta 15 and Arch, are they solid? Suggestions are welcome, and I hope to be back for 11.10. :)


Fedora 14 is solid. But a totally different ball game.

I have not tried Arch or Slack-ware.

[gsmanners]

+1 for Debian. You're already used to Ubuntu, so you're halfway to Debian. Then try Arch if you get bored with that.

[NightwishFan]

Link in my sig.

[themarker0]

I'm using Mandriva right now, its very well made. Rosa doesn't looking promising for its next release.

[blah...]

All right, so the main distro I'm getting here is Debian, and so I'll try it! I'm specifically getting the "testing" version of it as only Linux kernel 2.6.38 supports my wifi card. Some questions though, how much more difficult is it from Ubuntu, and can proprietary drivers be used as easily as here in Ubuntu?

[Tibuda]

If you can install Ubuntu from the minimal disk or if you want to learn how to do it, you can try Arch, Slack, or Gentoo. The main diff between them is: Gentoo installs apps compiling from source, Slack installs from binaries but don't handle deps, Arch installs from binaries and handle deps. It depends on how much control do you want.

If you want something more out-of-the-box, you could go with Linux Mint, Fedora, Mandriva or Fuduntu.

[blah...]

If you can install Ubuntu from the minimal disk or if you want to learn how to do it, you can try Arch, Slack, or Gentoo. The main diff between them is: Gentoo installs apps compiling from source, Slack installs from binaries but don't handle deps, Arch installs from binaries and handle deps. It depends on how much control do you want.

If you want something more out-of-the-box, you could go with Linux Mint, Fedora, Mandriva or Fuduntu.I have installed Ubuntu from a minimal install, so no GUI isn't too scary for me. Having said that, I don't really have much time to install Gentoo as I need this computer for school, and I was mainly gravitating towards Arch as I've heard many good things about it, and installed it in a VirtualBox. As for Slackware, I admit I don't know much about how it works.

[jerenept]

Sabayon <3 <3
sabayon.org (http://sabayon.org/)

[Simian Man]

Debian and Ubuntu are so similar that (a) you won't really learn anything new, except maybe the package names that the Restricted Drivers program installs for you, and (b) they will usually work and not work on the same sets of hardware.

Try something that's actually different.

[Timmer1240]

Open Suse is pretty solid

[Timmer1240]

http://susestudio.com/ you can actually build your own ISO your apps your way here its pretty darn neat!

[kseise]

If you are looking to leave Ubuntu, why not leave for Debian. Bring some downstream ideas back upstream. Debian is rock solid and stable and it's time to work on the next release. Giving back to Debian helps contribute back to Ubuntu. If you debug something with the ATI drivers under Debian, the change will filter back to Ubuntu. It's a win-win situation.

[3Miro]

Debian and Mint are as close as you can get to *buntu without having one.

Outside the Debian/Ubuntu family, Fedora comes closest in terms of community size and software availability. Fedora is a different animal, but it is worth trying.

Slackware, Arch and Gentoo are great if you want to learn more about Linux (i.e. not just using it, but spend quite some time learning how it works).

Other than that, Sabayon, OpenSusa and Mandriva come to mind.

[Tibuda]

Debian and Mint are as close as you can get to *buntu without having one.

Mint, except LMDE, is a *buntu.

[3Miro]

Mint, except LMDE, is a *buntu.

Well, they have a different menu, don't they?

Yes, Mint is probably too close.

[blah...]

Alright everyone so I'm currently installing Debian Testing :) If that doesn't go too well, I'll go to Fedora, and if that goes sour, Arch is in order. Linux Minto is a bit too sinilar too Ubuntu for my taste, and as for the others, I'm planning to give them a run in a virtual machine.

[Tibuda]

Well, they have a different menu, don't they?

Yes, Mint is probably too close.

No, I mean that Mint uses the Ubuntu repositories.

[3Miro]

No, I mean that Mint uses the Ubuntu repositories.

Oh, I forgot about that ... yes, that does make Mint a *buntu distribution.

[boydrice]

So I've been an Ubuntu user for two years now, and I've loved Ubuntu. But this release, Natty Narwhal is not running well with my ATI video card, and so I figured instead of installing another *buntu based distro, this could be a good learning experience! I've been looking specifically at Fedora Beta 15 and Arch, are they solid? Suggestions are welcome, and I hope to be back for 11.10. :)

I think this thread belongs in other distro talk. Anyway I think the answer to your questions depends on what you mean by a good learning experience. If you want something that just works better with your ATI card then just start trying live CDs of Fedora, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS, etc. If you want to learn more about linux in general try Slackware, Arch, Debian, or Gentoo and I would say of those four Slackware will give you a working desktop right out of the box that will be different from a Debian-derived distro. Keep in mind Debian and Fedora are much more free in the FSF sense so if you have a great reliance on restricted drivers, proprietary drivers these are not going to be as easy to have working out of the box. For example a default Debian install doesn't include firmware for my Intel 5100 wireless card even though it is in the mainline kernel. Personally I think you shoud try Slackware but that is because no distro has ever taught me as much as Slackware.

[krapp]

If you are looking to leave Ubuntu, why not leave for Debian. Bring some downstream ideas back upstream. Debian is rock solid and stable and it's time to work on the next release. Giving back to Debian helps contribute back to Ubuntu. If you debug something with the ATI drivers under Debian, the change will filter back to Ubuntu. It's a win-win situation.

Only if Ubuntu does its part! My Radeon HD 5730's performance is much more satisfactory under Debian than Ubuntu.

As for the OP, Debian is the next logical step. It's just a little less user-friendly, apt-get and aptitude still work, and the repositories have similar holdings to those of Ubuntu. Be warned however that you might fall in love with Debian and want to stay on Debian 6 Stable until 7 comes out (could be as much as 2 years from now!).

[snowpine]

Debian is only tricky to install if you go for the minimal "netinstall" CD. If you install from CD 1 and choose "Desktop Environment" you get the full Gnome desktop and basic suite of necessary applications, just like (classic) Ubuntu.

[NightwishFan]

It is a bit tricky if you do not install with a net connection. :) I see nothing fairly difficult about using Debian. It is much easier to modularize the system though. (No forced plymouth, no buggy make-kpkg). Apt tools such as apt-get souce/dpkg-buildpackage and -dev packages for everything make playing with source code such a breeze.

[RoflHaxBbq]

Debian.

It's really not that hard.

[ade234uk]

Alright everyone so I'm currently installing Debian Testing :) If that doesn't go too well, I'll go to Fedora, and if that goes sour, Arch is in order. Linux Minto is a bit too sinilar too Ubuntu for my taste, and as for the others, I'm planning to give them a run in a virtual machine.

I actually installed Fedora 14 as I could not get on with Unity. I will be back to Ubuntu in a couple of months once things sort themself out.

Really impressed with Fedora 14 so far and not noticing any difference between this and Ubuntu. I think you will like it.

If you need to install everything at once use a package called easylife on Fedora. I had a running desktop in less than an hour.
http://easylifeproject.org/

The only thing that is a pain is getting sopcast installed. The only downside to Fedora is the community feels a lot smaller.

[blueturtl]

Deeee beee aaannnn!

[keithpeter]

Hello All

Hum... solid... how about the current stable CentOS (5.6) or Scientific Linux (6.0)? These are both RHEL clones/recompiles with slightly different goals. Would enable you to learn about the RHEL world. Both have updates for ages...

[madhi19]

Debian stable! Maybe boring but it rock solid otherwise Mint.

[_outlawed_]

So I've been an Ubuntu user for two years now, and I've loved Ubuntu. But this release, Natty Narwhal is not running well with my ATI video card, and so I figured instead of installing another *buntu based distro, this could be a good learning experience! I've been looking specifically at Fedora Beta 15 and Arch, are they solid? Suggestions are welcome, and I hope to be back for 11.10. :)

You can switch to Gnome 2 if your card isn't liking Unity.

[BrokenKingpin]

OpenSUSE if you are looking for something polished and user friendly. Fedora is fine to play around with I suppose, but I find it quite buggy and can't recommend it for a primary install.

Also, Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is also not a bad idea, which is a rolling release distro. This is based on Debian instead of Ubuntu (as the name suggests lol). It is a great distro, but not as user friendly as Ubuntu.

[mutantstargoat]

There's always Linux From Scratch if you want an unforgettable learning experience.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

[aaaantoine]

Arch works well for me.

If you decide to use it, you're gonna need to take some time to set it up the way you want it. The install medium will start you with the bare essentials for getting your system up and running, and then from there you decide what you want to add to your system.

There are a lot of niggling issues that come up as a result of this installation method (compared to my relatively smooth setup experience with Ubuntu), but once you've got everything set up you don't really have to worry about it anymore.

And to give you an idea of what that's like, I said that I would continue to run Arch as long as my laptop software (or hardware) doesn't suffer any catastrophic failure, and if it did, I would install Ubuntu again. I said that in January 2009, a month after installation. I'm running on basically the same Arch installation since then.

The rolling release method is also good because it allows for a number of little updates/breakages over time rather than one massive update/breakage every six months. ;) The other end of that particular spectrum is Debian Stable. It's a matter of taste, really, and there may be a distro that fits your tastes perfectly.

This is only kinda related, but I do want to try out Linux Mint at some point.

[dhave-dhave]

If you want to increase your knowledge of Linux and are willing to take some extra time, go with Arch, Slackware or even Gentoo. All three require a lot of manual configuration to get things set up properly, but you'll learn a great deal. It would be good to have a working computer on hand so you can get help via docs and forums.

Arch has excellent documentation, so that might be a good choice, but I also managed to install and use Slackware and Gentoo -- I used each for about a year or so -- and I'm no guru. Gentoo also has very good docs, but it takes a long time to install and maintain because you compile everything from source. I found the user communities for all three distros to be helpful, although, in the forums, you'll no doubt run into some replies such as "search the forums first" or "go read the docs, then come back" (not always expressed so politely).

Some people say building Linux From Scratch is helpful. LFS isn't really a distro, but rather a guide for putting together your own Linux installation. I've been through the LFS "book" twice and have found it instructive. It's possible, though, to go through LFS without really paying close attention to what you're doing and why. That's not especially helpful.