Expanding my horizons

[Bofur]

I've been running Ubuntu for awhile now and I'm still beating myself up for not discovering it sooner. However, I would like to try different pieces of pie rather than just one. Lately I've had my eye on Mandriva and OpenSUSE, but I can't decide between the two. From what I've read opensuse has a really bad repository and Mandriva is a little more technical than Ubuntu. Of course I'm up for learning new things, but I want to know what you guys think. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of these two operating systems? Thanks!

[bread eyes]

Opensuse has a really isn't that bad. Mandriva is okay.

[Bofur]

Anyone else?

[Frak]

Try Gentoo, if you like it, you should try more technical OS's like Mandriva, Slackware, or Debian. If you don't like it, stick to less technical OS's such as Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Fedora, and PCLinuxOS.

[DoctorMO]

I don't know, both of my experiences with Mandriva and SuSE have felt like the distributions are a bit [can't spell contracending and spell checker won't fix it]. sometimes telling you how things must be done instead of providing you with the tools to get the job done, they feel a little too much like windows in that regard.

One of the things I like about ubuntu is that it tries to be ubuntu, not windows linux.

[Spike-X]

I think the word you're looking for is 'condescending'.

[Tux Aubrey]

DoctorMO said:


One of the things I like about ubuntu is that it tries to be ubuntu, not windows linux.

+1 That's exactly how I feel after trying lots of different distros over the past six months. For all the "Linux isn't Windows" talk, it seems that "user friendly" means either "as much like Windows as possible" or "Power of Linux well hidden from user".

To the OP (Bofur), I agree that Suse would not be all that much of a different experience. Mandriva is a possibility and I quite like playing with Knoppix (and Dreamlinux and Elive that are derived from it). Damn Small is also a good learning tool too. There is enough Debian familiarity about these but also some different ways of doing things.

I certainly found that using different DEs on Ubuntu is a good way to prime yourself for different distros. That way, the differences in the underlying distro, rather than the DE, can be appreciated. Virtual Machines and LiveCDs make the whole experience a lot less traumatic than it used to be.

Enjoy the journey!