Too much distrohopping becomes a chronic disease

[mbott]

Trying out Ubuntu Mate 14.04 x64 today on a spare drive!

Edit: The developers really did a great job with this! It sure looks nice too! Almost forgot what it was like having a screen saver and this is really light. Glad I did not fight the urge to try this!

You did this on purpose!

--
Mike

[d-cosner]

You did this on purpose!

Yeah, I did! I found some things to customize it too and it really looks amazing! This will allow you to change the greeter background to match your desktop wallpaper.

http://www.webupd8.org/2014/10/light...tings-gui.html

Also, I gave it a more Ubuntu look using the Ambiance themes from a ppa. Not only is this light and fast, it looks great too! I think this is a keeper!

[PondPuppy]

My desktop PC stays with Ubuntu (currently 14.04) but I have other distros on a couple of laptops. Manjaro is a good one, and I use Salix too -- like Manjaro, it's a fast-and-easy distro, but based on Slackware instead of Arch. There are two partitions on the 32-bit older laptop that get new distros now and then -- currently Elementary and OpenSUSE, but I'm not thrilled with either.

As far as data goes, nothing much lives on the laptops except the OSes and applications. The desktop and its backup drives are where all the files go. I could completely wipe either of the laptops and lose nothing of importance, so it's easy to do some distro-hopping.

I sympathize with Mips' point of view -- choose the distro which is best for you and stick with that -- but I kind of like tinkering with different GUIs and setups. To each his own.

[mbott]

My desktop PC stays with Ubuntu (currently 14.04) but I have other distros on a couple of laptops. Manjaro is a good one, and I use Salix too -- like Manjaro, it's a fast-and-easy distro, but based on Slackware instead of Arch. There are two partitions on the 32-bit older laptop that get new distros now and then -- currently Elementary and OpenSUSE, but I'm not thrilled with either.

As far as data goes, nothing much lives on the laptops except the OSes and applications. The desktop and its backup drives are where all the files go. I could completely wipe either of the laptops and lose nothing of importance, so it's easy to do some distro-hopping.

I sympathize with Mips' point of view -- choose the distro which is best for you and stick with that -- but I kind of like tinkering with different GUIs and setups. To each his own.

I have almost the same atitude and practice as PondPuppy. My desktop is my permanent Ubuntu system (14.04 LTS), except for tax time, when I disconnect the Ubuntu hard drive and re-connect the system to a win8 hard drive. My preference is to run TurboTax locally while I prepare our taxes. My laptop is purely for fun: surfing, music and experimentation with music being the most important part. Oh, I do keep my reloading log on it because it resides in the basement.

My foray into Ubuntu Mate is currently continuing. Bluetooth is the only real issue I've encountered so far and I'm guessing it will just be a matter of time until it's resolved. Anyway, it keeps me off the streets.

I'd really like to find a reason to renew my SQL skills, which have really fallen off since my retirement 6 years ago. Maybe when I'm done distrohopping.

--
Mike

[Bucky Ball]

Nice work, mbott. Really enjoyed reading that.

[Mike_Walsh]

I think I've had my fill of distro-hopping; 6 months is enough for me.

Tried ALL the 'buntus; PCLinuxOS. Mint, Zorin, SliTaz, Kolibri (just a toy, really; can't DO owt with it.....but I LOVE those 'eyes' on the desktop!)....and a whole bunch of Puppies (Wary, Racy, Precise, Slacko). Wanted to try Damn Small Linux too, but couldn't get it to run...

I've now settled down to Ubuntu on my Compaq desktop; Xubuntu on a 16GB flash drive.....and Puppy Linux 'Tahrpup' on my old brick of a laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1100 from 2002.

Never tried VMs; never got bitten by 'the bug'. Like Linuxyogi, I'd rather run the real thing.

Lubuntu & Ubuntu share a /home partition, and 'Puppy' file-shares with the two of them via SAMBA.....and prints over the home network, too, so....that'll do me. And back-ups are taken care of by a USB hard drive that I plug in once a week, and sync to. It then gets unplugged and put back in the bottom drawer of my desk till next time.

Only use Samba because we have a modern Dell lappie in the house running Windows 7; go figure. And 'Puppy' has a Samba client built-in as standard, so it's easier just to use it. Does the job.

I've still got 2 or 3 spare partitions on the external Seagate, though.....just in case!


Regards,

Mike.

[Erik1984]

I have never really distro hopped outside the *buntusphere but I did switch a lot between Ubuntu and Kubuntu as I like them both for different reasons, normally don't using one install longer than 6 months. But my current Kubuntu install (including one upgrade) is about 11 months old and I hope to keep this one for a while. The trick is having enough things to do to prevent you from messing too much with the OS, boredom is the enemy

[PondPuppy]

How many of you have a handful of distros on thumb drives? I've taken to using Porteus from a thumb drive in "always new" (amnesiac) mode when I'm going online over airport wifi, and I have a couple of Puppies that I carry with me as well.

[Mike_Walsh]

How many of you have a handful of distros on thumb drives? I've taken to using Porteus from a thumb drive in "always new" (amnesiac) mode when I'm going online over airport wifi, and I have a couple of Puppies that I carry with me as well.

Snap!

'Slacko' 5.7 & 'Tahrpup' 6.0.....+Lubuntu 14.04 32-bit.

I LIKE the Puppies; they were originally designed for flash-drives, anyway, as you probably know. I like 'Tahrpup' so much, I've done a frugal install onto my hard drive, alongside Ubuntu 14.04. I feel a bit guilty, 'cos 'Tahrpup' is getting WAY more use than Ubuntu at the moment!

And I like having one of the 'buntus with me, too.....so I settled for the 32-bit version of the lightest one of all.

Works a treat.


Regards,

Mike.

[mips]

How many of you have a handful of distros on thumb drives?

Only one I have is Kali, swiss army knife in case of emergency.