Linux distros (briefly)

[Josh Randall]

A very brief tour of the distros I'm playing with right now:

Ubuntu. An offshoot of Debian, this is the rising star of the Linux world.
Always free and a huge database of programs.

Arch. You want to learn the innards of Linux and your box? Get this one and
have some fun. (if you have the time

Gentoo. Got MORE time? Then get this one. You gotta compile as you build
your system. Best docs around.

Fedora. Want to be a beta tester for Red Hat Enterprise? This is your baby.
Pretty good and IS Red Hat, btw.

Blag. Need the codecs to run your multi-media box? This Fedora based disto
has them. One ONE CD, no less. Good!

Slackware. Want to hang out with the big hitters? This is it. This distro
has a long history, and oldsters who cherish it.

What's the *real* differences? Well, all have GNU (i.e NOT Unix) That's the
major parts of the operating system written by Richard Stallman in the 90's.
ALL need the kernel to run it, though. The necessary kernel is either UNIX,
Linux, or NetBSD. Linux is the most popular (written at first by Linus T),
but Debian has a distro using BSD. Both are constantly in development, which
is the main reason for all the constant new versions of Linux.......Although
Slackware goes a LONG time in between. (a good thing if you don't like to
fool around with your OS, btw)

As a user, though, all you need to know to get you started is this: All the
Linux distros use the SAME kernel under the hood (with the exception noted).
What they have done is add a better/worse/graphic/bloated/ or friendly
installer. Most are pretty good nowadays. In addition, they use one of 2
major package managers. RPM based (Redhat, etc) or APT (Debian, Ubuntu,
etc). There are a few more specialty ones, but all are used to DL and
install/remove packages (programs and it's required files). If you use a
monster install like Fedora, you may never use it, btw. If you use a slimmer
one, you'll need it. Not that hard.

In addition, most distros take the GUI's (mostly GNOME and/or KDE) and tweak
them, and then copyright the package. There are a lot more GUI's you can use
though. Most people don't bother with the rest unless for specialty
purposes. So which one for you? Heck if I know! Since this a free software
NG, I suggest you search the sites and get or DL the ones that are free. One
caveat:
Documentation and support! Some are great, some are so-so. Most users use
the free forums and such. Big biz usually buys Red Hat and pays for it.

Bottom line: If you are thinking of unhooking from M$, now is a great time
to get started!

JR

 

[Mark Marsh]

A very brief tour of the distros I'm playing with right now:

Ubuntu. An offshoot of Debian, this is the rising star of the Linux world.
Always free and a huge database of programs.

Arch. You want to learn the innards of Linux and your box? Get this one and
have some fun. (if you have the time

Gentoo. Got MORE time? Then get this one. You gotta compile as you build
your system. Best docs around.

Fedora. Want to be a beta tester for Red Hat Enterprise? This is your baby.
Pretty good and IS Red Hat, btw.

Blag. Need the codecs to run your multi-media box? This Fedora based disto
has them. One ONE CD, no less. Good!

Slackware. Want to hang out with the big hitters? This is it. This distro
has a long history, and oldsters who cherish it.

What's the *real* differences? Well, all have GNU (i.e NOT Unix) That's the
major parts of the operating system written by Richard Stallman in the 90's.
ALL need the kernel to run it, though. The necessary kernel is either UNIX,
Linux, or NetBSD. Linux is the most popular (written at first by Linus T),
but Debian has a distro using BSD. Both are constantly in development, which
is the main reason for all the constant new versions of Linux.......Although
Slackware goes a LONG time in between. (a good thing if you don't like to
fool around with your OS, btw)

As a user, though, all you need to know to get you started is this: All the
Linux distros use the SAME kernel under the hood (with the exception noted).
What they have done is add a better/worse/graphic/bloated/ or friendly
installer. Most are pretty good nowadays. In addition, they use one of 2
major package managers. RPM based (Redhat, etc) or APT (Debian, Ubuntu,
etc). There are a few more specialty ones, but all are used to DL and
install/remove packages (programs and it's required files). If you use a
monster install like Fedora, you may never use it, btw. If you use a slimmer
one, you'll need it. Not that hard.

In addition, most distros take the GUI's (mostly GNOME and/or KDE) and tweak
them, and then copyright the package. There are a lot more GUI's you can use
though. Most people don't bother with the rest unless for specialty
purposes. So which one for you? Heck if I know! Since this a free software
NG, I suggest you search the sites and get or DL the ones that are free. One
caveat:
Documentation and support! Some are great, some are so-so. Most users use
the free forums and such. Big biz usually buys Red Hat and pays for it.

Bottom line: If you are thinking of unhooking from M$, now is a great time
to get started!

JR

I started using Ubuntu about two weeks ago and its so easy to use and
install applications especially with the Ubuntu Starter Guide and the
Synaptic Package Manager.

 

[Sparky]

Thanks for the write-up JR and agreed: Now's the time to start
playing/using Linux. It's really maturing very nicely.

I started using Ubuntu about two weeks ago and its so easy to use and
install applications especially with the Ubuntu Starter Guide and the
Synaptic Package Manager.

Mark, et al;

I've been running ubuntu 5.04 (dual-boot) for over two months now. I
am looking to replace it.

Ubuntu gives a great out-of-box experience. (Relatively) easy to
install, hardware detection was as good as M$'. Useful apps, and of
course, synaptic for updates and app management is wonderful.

This is a perfect Linux distro for a fresh-install, standalone desktop
that will be used for websurfing, emailing and Office-type apps.

However, there are annoyances/limitations that have led me to drop it,
mostly having to do with administration in a heterogenous lan.

1a) Disabling of Root: Ubuntu is designed to protect the user from
hurting him/herself. One way they've done that is by disabling root.
Instead, Ubunt'ers use sudo. For most tasks, this is fine. However,
this unnecessarily complicates admin tasks such as lan-printer
management. Cups is disabled and users are instead told to use Ubuntu's
print admin utility.

1b) Their Printer utility is easy to break, favors local-attached over
network and is not easy to troubleshoot. Error messages are practically
non-existant.

2a) autofs vs mnt: There are plenty of linux distos out there that,
during set up, identify and add partitions. With Ubuntu, get ready to
"sudo nano the /etc/fstab." <ahem> Not insurmountable, but an
avoidable annoyance.

2b) Grub (dual-booting): Don't like the fact that there's only a few
seconds to select which os to boot? Still want your pre-existing OS to
boot by default? Sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst.

3) Network-awareness in applications. Fine. Work through identifying
and adding partitions to mount, you're set. Well, no. Ubuntu's
OpenOffice 1.1.3, Evolution (nifty outlook clone) and others are not
able to recognize networked drives.

4) Multimedia: Non-blessed packages must be downloaded to play mp3's.

5) Documentation and Support: Compared with other, more established
flavors of Linux, Ubuntu's Doc & support are haphazard.

Yes, there are solutions to all of these problems. Yes, Ubuntu will
improve with time. Yes, the user will learn many things and become a
brighter, shinier and an all-around better citizen and lover.

I would recommend Ubuntu for anyone doing a simple, fresh install on a
desktop box. No multi-boots, no NAS, no net-printers. Then it is easy
to admin. However...

If you are comfortable w/moderate admining (eg adding a printer, any OS)
and,

If you are installing into an environment that is; heterogenous,
networked and contains legacy bits & pieces,

Then there are better distos. Ubuntu's bigger sister, Debian, for
example.

(donning asbestos longjohns)

regards,
-Sparky

 

[kcaj]

Thanks for the write-up JR and agreed: Now's the time to start
playing/using Linux. It's really maturing very nicely.

Mark, et al;

I've been running ubuntu 5.04 (dual-boot) for over two months now. I
am looking to replace it.

Many including myself are using Mepis. Mepis
is still number 4 on distrowatch.
http://distrowatch.com/
Some Ubuntu users have switched to Mepis. Mepis
has been high on the list @ distrowatch for some time.
Nothing is perfect, but many Mepis users receive
help from the mepislovers website and it is
as friendly and helpful as possible. Most find
Mepis to be the easiest Debian Linux Dsitro
to run off CD or to load to hard disk. The girl
who runs the mepislovers server has been offline
a night or two for server maintenance and may
be offline early in the morning EST. It hasn't been
off but 2 or 3 days this year. I find the help on
mepislovers to be better than the main Mepis site
run by the programmer, but both have all the
information you'll most likely need.

http://mepislovers.org/

http://mepis.org/