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Lord Illidan
August 2nd, 2006, 11:16 AM
Hi guys...
I have some bad news...or good news, depends how you take it, hehe..

I've been using Ubuntu steadily for over a year now. I've experienced my fair share of ups and downs on it..more ups than downs, to be correct. I've also spent a lot of time on this forum, and I hope I helped many people and encouraged discussion. Being part of this community is fun.

However, I now want to travel a bit further into Linux itself. I want a distro that is more DIY than Ubuntu.

At first I considered Gentoo..yet I have no time for compiling all that stuff.
ArchLinux seems a bit too advanced for me, atm.

I then started to gravitate towards slackware.
Then I remembered a small distro I had installed before installing Ubuntu, Zenwalk Linux. At that time, it had impressed me, but not that much. Some things didn't work, mainly nvidia drivers and the like, and it was hard to use.

Now I've given it a revisit, and I love it. It's faster than Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Xubuntu. Much much faster. Even with KDE and Gnome installed, apps start up in a few seconds or less. Nvidia drivers work. Codecs work.
To be fair, Ubuntu does all of those things, too. But I want to exercise my linux skills a bit more.
It's true, the lack of apt-get is a thorn in my side. Although netpkg is quite good, the GUI leaves a lot to be desired. Yet, I look at this as an opportunity, perhaps I could even write something myself for it.

The forums are also good...not that many members, true..but I get the feeling that Zenwalk is getting more relevant than many distros today.

It's also amazing how a community based distro can give a better user experience than larger distros like Suse or Mandriva which have industrial backing beside them. At least, in my experience.

I'll still pop in these forums from time to time though. And I wish the best of luck to many members, and I also look forward to seeing the Ubuntu Christian Edition.

Cheers.

jordilin
August 2nd, 2006, 11:50 AM
It's a pitty leaving Ubuntu!! You could consider installing both distros if you have enough disk space. I'll try to convince you not leaving Ubuntu:
1 apt-get rocks
2 Lots of software packages, more than any distro out there,
3 Ubuntu community is by far the very best of any linux distro community
4 is based on Debian, and Debian, in my opinion, is one of the more stable and rock solid distros in the world
5 Tons of howtos provided by users
Well, if that's not sufficient, then good luck with your new distro. Thanks for your contributions.

Mathiasdm
August 2nd, 2006, 11:54 AM
It's okay, it's not a crime to switch distributions :p
I still haven't found a perfect one (though Ubuntu is getting close enough).

Lord Illidan
August 2nd, 2006, 11:54 AM
It's a pitty leaving Ubuntu!! You could consider installing both distros if you have enough disk space. I'll try to convince you not leaving Ubuntu:
1 apt-get rocks
2 Lots of software packages, more than any distro out there,
3 Ubuntu community is by far the very best of any linux distro community
4 is based on Debian, and Debian, in my opinion, is one of the more stable and rock solid distros in the world
5 Tons of howtos provided by users
Well, if that's not sufficient, then good luck with your new distro. Thanks for your contributions.

I do have both distros installed on my pc, together with Win XP. I am not leaving Ubuntu permanently, I just want to spend more time with Zenwalk.
As for 1 and 2...I know, those are the top reasons for choosing Ubuntu. But I feel I've been spoiled a bit.. I want to be a bit more hard core.
As for stability, Slackware was always a stable distro.
As for the howtos...yes I will be missing those ;)
And as for the community...hmm...I will miss it too..Here feels like family.:-k

jordilin
August 2nd, 2006, 11:57 AM
I do have both distros installed on my pc, together with Win XP. I am not leaving Ubuntu permanently, I just want to spend more time with Zenwalk.
As for 1 and 2...I know, those are the top reasons for choosing Ubuntu. But I feel I've been spoiled a bit.. I want to be a bit more hard core.
As for stability, Slackware was always a stable distro.
As for the howtos...yes I will be missing those ;)
And as for the community...hmm...I will miss it too..Here feels like family.:-k
Glad you haven't erased Ubuntu from your drive :mrgreen:

prizrak
August 2nd, 2006, 02:00 PM
As long as it's a Linux distro it's all good. We can't afford to have Linux users switch away from Linux :)

graabein
August 2nd, 2006, 02:32 PM
I get what you're saying Lord Illidan. I wish I had a box to play with and try different more "hardcore" distros on. I've looked at Arch Linux and Slackware. I'll take a look at Zenwalk.

I won't touch my current setup of Ubuntu Dapper dual booting with Windows XP on my main box though, and where I live now I simply don't have the room for another computer.

But anyhow I feel one can participate on the Ubuntu Forums without actually running Ubuntu. Ex-users are also welcome I say!

G Morgan
August 2nd, 2006, 03:40 PM
There's nothing wrong with trying to expand your knowledge. It's not as if this is a 'grr, Linux is teh Suxx0r, I want my MP3's' thread. Good luck with whatever distro you try.

bonzodog
August 2nd, 2006, 06:06 PM
Come and join our little club!
I switched back to A slackware derivative as I missed the speed and total stability. Zenwalk is just cool, and I love xfce. It's a small distro, and the nvidia drivers will work if you follow the standard method for installing them from nvidias site - the normal method for the nvidia drivers di not work in ubuntu for me because of an abnormally compiled kernel.

Zenwalk 2.8 is the latest with the latest version of udev and kernel 2.6.17 as standard, which supports a wider range of wireless devices.

Lord Illidan
August 3rd, 2006, 09:12 AM
Come and join our little club!
I switched back to A slackware derivative as I missed the speed and total stability. Zenwalk is just cool, and I love xfce. It's a small distro, and the nvidia drivers will work if you follow the standard method for installing them from nvidias site - the normal method for the nvidia drivers di not work in ubuntu for me because of an abnormally compiled kernel.

Zenwalk 2.8 is the latest with the latest version of udev and kernel 2.6.17 as standard, which supports a wider range of wireless devices.

I got Nvidia working, Amarok working, Gnome working... It's bliss. I still miss apt-get though!