Found my Linux!
Thelemech
Victoria Icrontian
Just thought I'd drop the thought that Ubuntu Linux is Great:D!!!Tried a few Linux distros thru the years and was pleasantly surprised at this Debian variant- I highly recommend it to those new to Linux, those who like to experiment with different OS and those seeking asylum from Windows.
I use Windows Xp - probably will for years to come but it sure is nice to have a reliable alternative.
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True ! It is nice to see a Linux that Granny can use
I wonder how much competition the newer versions of Linux like Ubuntu, Suse and Red Hat are giving to the commercial Pc industry that Windows dominates.
I remember a friend swearing that Commodore 64 would evolve and dominate the Pc world for a long time to come!
The main thing I have noticed and am slightly bothered by is that a system that I paid 3000$ for a little more than a year ago running XP Pro whose performance is comparable to an older P3 1Ghz that I paid 250 bucks for around the same time running Ubuntu.
Hopefully Vista will be such an improvement over Xp that it will save my investment.
Please try vista as soon as possible.
Its less of an improvement then windows ME was over windows 98.
Microsoft had better take it's head out of the sand.
I am using Ubuntu now on a P2 400 MHz 320 Mb ram and it is nice and stable and relatively fast.
For linux to really prosper they need to have the community cut down to a few distro's (one would be ideal but that'll never happen) and really concentrate on them. Consolidate drivers, distribution channels etc...
-drasnor
neXtstep was much better so was BeOS.
The amiga needed dirty hacks to just do 3d.
That's another thing; distros exist by and for their users. Users select distros they like or find useful and there is no one distro that can service everyone's requirements with equal effectiveness. It's about compromise. Jengo likes Sabayon because he loves the Portage package manager but doesn't want to deal with the hassle of configuring Gentoo. I prefer Gentoo because I don't find the configuration that hassling. Loads of people use Ubuntu because the Ubuntu devs only accept a very high quality of code and generally strive to ensure users don't get landed in dependency hell or fall into any of the other pitfalls new users typically encounter. Ubuntu isn't suitable for me because I regularly need to run software that isn't completely stable and I need a distro that can handle that gracefully.
That being said, the reason commercial software developers won't touch 'Linux' is not because differences between distros preclude any kind of universal distribution because that is flat out not the case. The differences between distros are not at a level that any user-level software package has any business trying to use.
A prime example of this is Unreal Tournament 2004. Epic thoughtfully included a 'Linux' installer on the UT2k4 install CDs that will work on any distro. All it does is install everything UT needs to /opt and sets the environment variables that make it work. My OS of choice (Gentoo) has a package (games-fps/ut2004-data) that does the same thing. Gentoo's package manager also monitors what version of Unreal I'm running and will also upgrade me to the latest patch level so I can play on the Internet. The Gentoo package maintainers are the guys responsible for all the automation and integration, not Epic. The moral of the story is that if the devs release the software and there's demand for it then the maintainers will step up and integrate the software. Standards exist that will ensure compatibility across every distro (e.g. POSIX, freedesktop, OpenGL, OpenAL, SDL) so lack of unifying standards is not an excuse.
No, the mindset of the commercial software developers is probably something along the lines of "Because the average Linux user probably paid for exactly none of the software he uses then he will probably not have any compunction to buy ours, particularly if capable free alternatives exist." I have yet to see any commercial softwares that deviate from this rationale.
It also bears mentioning that the vast majority of Linux software devs couldn't care less about things like "market penetration", "mindshare", and the like because they aren't businesses and aren't interested in making money through sale of intellectual property. The people that write Linux software use that software for themselves and/or are paid to write it by companies interested in improving the state of the software (e.g. SVN). If anyone else finds the software useful, great. Doubly so if they help find bugs or other problems with the software or offer fixes and feature improvements and the like.
-drasnor
Debian was kind of like Ubuntu but it wasn't quite as user friendly in my opinion. It might have been a little faster, I'm not really sure. I can't remember the specifics but I had a lot of password/account problems with it. The installation didn't go very smoothly either.
Slackware didn't really offer anything I wanted. It just seemed like a basic operating system without all the ease of use Ubuntu has.
Linux from Scratch was a great learning experience and as I programmer I am looking to compile again sometime and this time use it as my main OS and write applications and scripts for myself. I think I'll try using Fluxbox as my window manager. That should be lots of fun, it will take some time though which I don't have at the moment.
In the mean time though, Ubuntu is a great OS. I've had some problems with it and still do time to time but overall its an excellent platform and the community makes it even better.
I've always ran Slackware at some point in time, ahh those days of 30+ floppies... Since Slackware 12 has been released, I'll have to check it out. Slack is always on the cutting edge, definitely not for the new linux user though...
Sabayon was the only distro where Beryl worked for me right from the start.
Debian sid (Unstable) here.
Just out of curiosity, what are the advantages of Debian over Ubuntu? Ubuntu is supposed to be a distrobution based on Debian that improves user friendliness and such but I have heard that Debian is noticeably faster than Ubuntu. Is this true?
However that means it's less compatible with hardware, not updated as quickly and has less options.
So on the desktop side of things Debian has no advantages over Ubuntu.
You learn much more when you use it and its not crippled out of the box.
You learn much more because none of the customization has been predone by ubuntu (Also most of the graphical configuration utility's in gnome just show grayed out boxes.. or don't work). Also Sid likes it break things (The most common is when an updates break compatibility with the proprietary nvidia driver... Then you have to go delete the old module and reinstall it, or (What I normally do) recompile your kernel with the latest version then boot into the new kernel and install the nvidia driver again.)
edit: The main reason I use it is because I started using it on my server and not only did it make my life easier then the other distro's I had tried in the past but had better support.
That said, although I prefer Ubuntu, I realize it's not the "enthusiast" distro. But my reasoning for switching to Linux wasn't to be an enthusiast, it was just to stick it to Redmond.
Progressing on from there, the lack of Linux support for a lot of great apps is disappointing and resulted in me dual-booting WinXP and Ubuntu, but since many apps are focused on being web-based, I get to stay in the Ubuntu partition quite a lot.
Been looking into straight Debian and Slackware 12 looks like a new learning experience I am definitely going to pursue - also Rock Linux looks worth an install.
Tried to get the Fedora/Free Media on the first but they had reached there maximum by noon my time.
It looks like Debian is something I will be analysing in more depth - I like the idea of control over what I am using - and knowing what runs my machine.
Just to see what all the Fuss/Mess is about - I have heard both good and bad about it - and yes It is the free opensource version of redhat.
Know something bad about old RedHat?
-drasnor
Sounds like a few sleepless nights - but I am into that kind of thing. "Compiling your own kernel" sent shivers down my back!:)
How's the documentation?
Explanation: Gentoo uses flags to determine which packages and what options are set for those packages. Every package is keyworded for various architectures and telling it to accept the architecture name with a ~ in front means to install the untested and possibly unstable versions of those packages. Ordinarily one would set the untested/unstable flag on packages that you need the latest version of or aren't available as stable packages on a case-by-case basis in package.keywords. By putting the flag in his global config file he told Gentoo to install the untested version of every package on his system.
-drasnor
looked at Ubuntu, xbuntu, Kubuntu,
trusted friend suggested gentoo.
no smoke yet, but it seems to compile like a bat out of hell.
I may have to find a special mouse driver..
later.
Hey ... keep us updated on the Gentoo 7!
Haha, nice.