Another distro ?

[weasel fierce]

So Ubuntu rocks :) But I have lots of empty hard drive space, and sort of want to try out some more Linux. So wheres a good place to go from here ?
Something thats fairly straightforward, but a different "flavour"

I know the very basics of Ubuntu and ..well.. thats it :)

Also, how hard is it to partition my drive now, and install a second OS, without deleting my Ubuntu install ?

[jasmuz]

To be really good at something you must stick with it, if you really want to know how to use GNU/LINUX, stick with only one flavor, and become a true System Administrator. There are over 2,000 Linux flavors to try, so it can be very confusing.

[aysiu]

It's not that hard. How about Mepis?

[weasel fierce]

Oh, I want to stick with Ubuntu. I just want to use the remaining harddrive space for something, and try out something else as well.

[psychicdragon]

A distro using rpm + KDE like SuSe or Mandriva (or whatever it's called now) might be a good choice. Still easy to install but quite different from Ubuntu.

If you've got a lot of free time :grin: you might like to try out Gentoo.

[macgyver2]

To be really good at something you must stick with it, if you really want to know how to use GNU/LINUX, stick with only one flavor, and become a true System Administrator.

And if you wanna be really really good you might wanna take a look at Linux From Scratch (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/). I played around with that when I used to have more time. There's also Slackware...I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I used to talk to one of my profs about it and took a look...it'll really teach you a lot. I myself ran Gentoo for 3 years and that was also a good teacher.

Each of these will require more tinkering time than a straight-up Ubuntu install, but in my opinion the time spent is definitely worth the knowledge gained, if it's knowledge you're after.

[bored2k]

Different but straightforward (for the most part) ?
- VidaLinux is based on Gentoo but hides the incredibly tormentous installer (uses Anaconda). Gentoo based.
- XandrOS is so straightforward its not even funny. Debian based.
- Mepis. Debian based.
- SuSE. RPM based.
- Gent**argh.. nevermind.

[az]

Install debian. It's installer will autodetect you other OSes and install them in grubm just like ubuntu,

[Gary Powers]

So Ubuntu rocks :) But I have lots of empty hard drive space, and sort of want to try out some more Linux. So wheres a good place to go from here ?
Something thats fairly straightforward, but a different "flavour"

I know the very basics of Ubuntu and ..well.. thats it :)

Also, how hard is it to partition my drive now, and install a second OS, without deleting my Ubuntu install ?

No way will I give up Ubuntu, but I also have Debian Sarge (netinstall is great), Vidalinus 1.2 (gentoo based) and Foresight Linux. Not sure what to make of the latter. I would suggest Vidalinux 1.1 as a point of departure.

Gary

[nrayever]

why not solaris 10?? i was giving a shot to try it, but i got some technical problems, /dev/user ----- got tired after 2 hrs. so i didn't really tryed it. the 15 minutes i really try it, i can tell u it's a really nice gnome. :grin:

[benplaut]

why not solaris 10?? i was giving a shot to try it, but i got some technical problems, /dev/user ----- got tired after 2 hrs. so i didn't really tryed it. the 15 minutes i really try it, i can tell u it's a really nice gnome. :grin:

ahh... solaris... i want to try it when i have the time :)


how about PC-BSD?

[agger]

why not solaris 10?? i was giving a shot to try it, but i got some technical problems, /dev/user ----- got tired after 2 hrs. so i didn't really tryed it. the 15 minutes i really try it, i can tell u it's a really nice gnome. :grin:

I'd recommend Knoppix and the different Morphix variants with live CDs.

I'm using FreeBSD on my old home desktop and am quite happy with it.

dyne:bolic (www.dynebolic.org) is a very lightweight, quick'n'dirty multimedia distro if you want
to tamper iwth sound and video - insert the Live CD, and your PC is converted
to a complete recording & video studio cum streaming radio and TV
station.

Many things don't work out of the box, tho', but its hardware autodetection makes
it a good way of getting a back-end computer up&running quickly,