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Thread: Moving distros

  1. #1
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    Lightbulb Moving distros

    Hi all, I started off on Ubuntu linux with the hope that it would teach me more about my computer, and it has indeed.
    However, I've found that my increase in computer knowledge and Linux expertise has slowed dramatically.
    Is there another distro I could use with is less "dumbed down"?
    I've tried switching to Arch, but that was a bit too big of a jump for me.
    Is there a halfway step?
    Thanks!

    p.s. Could you please include WHY said distro would be good?
    Thanks
    TELL me how to fix my problem, I'll be back in a week, same problem.
    TEACH me how to fix it, I'll be good from then on.

  2. #2
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    Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn

    Re: Moving distros

    I was about to recommend Arch, until I saw the part that you said it's too hard to use Sorry, my limited knowledge about Linux distros won't give me anything useful.
    But I don't see anything not worth learning from Ubuntu. If you dig deeper, really deeper, you'll eventually find yourself not learning from Ubuntu, but from Linux in general. Install a DE, install multiple DEs, break your system (if you'll willing to do so of course) and try to fix it.
    Last edited by zombifier25; April 25th, 2012 at 02:51 PM.

  3. #3
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    Re: Moving distros

    Quote Originally Posted by zombifier25 View Post
    too hard to use
    Not necessarily too hard as much as the rather grouchy community of users who seem to despise helping people. I was able to get most of it, but I had a few issues with the newest kernel's incompatibility and awful people which put me off arch until I'm capable of doing things without their help.

    Is there a midpoint?
    TELL me how to fix my problem, I'll be back in a week, same problem.
    TEACH me how to fix it, I'll be good from then on.

  4. #4
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    Re: Moving distros

    I was going to say Arch myself...
    I've configured one Arch installation thus far; it was not without its challenges but it was successful. The key to Arch is the wiki- there is seriously a wiki page for just about anything you can run into. Search the wiki and google THOROUGHLY before asking questions on the forums- which is a good practice anyway.
    The questions I did post on the Arch forums were always answered politely, quickly, and knowledgeably. A few were simple redirects to wiki pages that I had somehow missed in my search, but no one was grouchy about it.
    I would say Arch is next in line for you, plus it might help you polish up your Google-Fu skills.

  5. #5
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    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: Moving distros

    Honestly, you aren't going to dramatically increase your knowledge of Linux simply by installing/using another distro. Installing the less-user-friendly distros like Arch and Gentoo don't really teach you much about Linux in general, rather they teach you how to read their wikis and install their respective distros. And once you have them running and your preferred desktop environment running, you will basically be at the same place you are now. If you want an educational experience, try to install Linux From Scratch in a virtual machine. It may take a few weeks and alot of careful reading, but you will learn how Linux is actually built afterwards.

    But LFS is time consuming and difficult for the novice, so my suggestion -- go buy some books on Linux!
    "The Linux philosophy is laugh in the face of danger. Oops. Wrong one. Do it yourself. That's it." --Linus Torvalds

  6. #6
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    Re: Moving distros

    If you are comfortable with the command line, then you could try Slackware. Install it manually with verbose on, and you will learn all kinds of stuff about the way linux is built.

  7. #7
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    Re: Moving distros

    Quote Originally Posted by Dngrsone View Post
    If you are comfortable with the command line, then you could try Slackware. Install it manually with verbose on, and you will learn all kinds of stuff about the way linux is built.
    ... at the very least you learn how to install Slackware...


    404

  8. #8
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    Re: Moving distros

    im actually going to have to recommend you take another look at arch, arch is AWESOME, in that it is exactly what you make it to be, good or bad, its difficult at first to set up, but once you do I would say its no harder to use or maintain than even ubuntu...but you do have to read the crap out of the arch wiki, maybe watch an install video on it, check these out:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjTTl_9aUXc
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azySq...feature=relmfu
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xF60...feature=relmfu
    http://www.linuxdistrocommunity.com
    http://www.matthewjpage.com
    Intel i7 3.40 Ghz, 8 GB RAM, 1.5 TB HDD, AMD/ATI Radeon HD 6770
    Quad Boot : Windows 7, Ubuntu 12.04,Gentoo, and Arch Linux

  9. #9
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    Re: Moving distros

    Quote Originally Posted by Version Dependency View Post
    Honestly, you aren't going to dramatically increase your knowledge of Linux simply by installing/using another distro. Installing the less-user-friendly distros like Arch and Gentoo don't really teach you much about Linux in general, rather they teach you how to read their wikis and install their respective distros. And once you have them running and your preferred desktop environment running, you will basically be at the same place you are now. If you want an educational experience, try to install Linux From Scratch in a virtual machine. It may take a few weeks and alot of careful reading, but you will learn how Linux is actually built afterwards.

    But LFS is time consuming and difficult for the novice, so my suggestion -- go buy some books on Linux!
    Disagree- configuring a Linux system from the command line up (as is the nature of Arch) teaches you about all the building blocks of so many things we take for granted- dhcpcd, iwconfig, xorg, etc. Being faced with "either I learn how to build this system or my computer is nonfunctional" is pretty good motivation to really dig into how to do it.
    LFS is a pretty far fetched recommendation for someone who is unsure with Arch.
    Besides Arch, there's always Gentoo as well, for even more of a learning curve.

  10. #10
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    Re: Moving distros

    Start with a Debian Netinstall and build a system from nearly scratch, using the commands you already learned from using Ubuntu.

    Change repos to Sid and run for awhile until you're comfortable fixing problems. After that, move on to something a bit more complex like Arch or gentoo (both now have more newbie friendly intro distros like Chakra and Bridge, or Sabayon).

    But since you've learned through Ubuntu, try pure Debian first and see how well you do. Lots more commandline work.

    -- Jeff

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