Which Linux Distro?

[shangralah]

eh i like windows cause its simple for me .... no one likes my xp except me  

[Grakrim]

My primary computer is running Gentoo, I think its quite good.  Although I don\'t know why you say its for power users, Leander.  I think, if anything, the Portage system makes it quite easy to use.  Of course, its not as easy as some distros, but its easy enough if you know what you\'re doing.  One warning though, if you\'re on dial-up I suggest you use the second CD unless you want the latest version of all your apps.  It took me about 3 days to emerge everything I wanted in (but, then again, that\'s true with pretty much all distros...).

I\'m also running Familiar Linux (a distro for handhelds), which is based on Debian/ARM, I have no complaints there.

Bogo: Even though Linux has established a large user-base, its still considered alternative by many.  I agree there\'s nothing wrong with Windows, but its certainly not the best OS (although the same could be said about Linux, there\'s really no perfect OS).  My Windows laptop is currently at the point where I get a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME BSOD every week, which requires me to repair the boot sector and MBR; only takes about 15 minutes, but its still annoying.  Every other Windows computer I\'ve had contact with has some problem with it, and the usual fix for a Windows computer is a clean reinstall (which I do every year on Windows computers anyway, as they tend to get unstable).  I\'m greatly impressed with XP, and I think its a real step forward in the franchise; but I think Windows really needs to be overhauled, much of the code hasn\'t changed since Win3.1 and many lead MS programmers have no idea how Windows works.

[Bogo]

Exactly. Windows is a fine OS. Microsoft got to where they are today by making a good product that was easy for people to use, then they MAINTAINED their high status via strong arming tactics and mass manipulation of sheep err the populus.

[Kixie]

*morphs thread into windows topic* go go power rangers!!! i mean, err anyways yeah xp is ok but i liked my 2000 a lil bit better. but i need to keep my xp on too cus too many programs dont operate on 2000, which is a major drag.

[hook]

oh, come on guys ...why don\'t you rather try to convert a Mac user into gettign windows... ...look, it\'s just two OSes, some prefere one, some the other, some the third (MacOS) and some something rather exotic (BeOS, AmigaOS...) ...if you like your windows install ...ok, i\'m happy for ya :] ...i\'m not ...and now that i\'ve used Linux for 6-7 years (2 years without windows, plus a few months at work) ...i can say that i\'m not going back ...not that windows is oh so unstable (which, comparing to my gentoo box still is on my PC, but that can be fixed), it\'s just that the Linux logic compels to better ...it\'s like why you prefere PlaneShift over America\'s Army ...windows is just not my type of OS (i was more comfortable in the DOS and win-3.x then in win95 and on) ...so give it a break, will you?!?

the more imporataint bit:
as for the distro, i\'d go for Gentoo (and i did! ) ...it\'s a very nice (meta)distro, very configurable and customisable, since it compiles from source (there\'s a binary option though), the user-community is strong and very VERY nice and helpfull, the online documentation is pretty good, and what you can\'t find, is usually covered in the massive bugzilla* and the forums. ...plus the portage tree is very large and every app/game/whatever you\'d like to have can be easily added to it, or even easier to ask on the bugzilla for someone to add it :]
if you\'re willing to bite through the install documentation (which is pretty clear, if you\'ve used the console at least a few times) and have the time to wait for the system to compile from scratch ...you\'ll be blessed when you finish ...it\'s a REALLY stable and full (as in options) distro :] ...maybe you\'ll be a bit scared at first because you\'ll have to decide (even on the install) on which out of around five to ten cron systems and system loggers you\'ll decide ...and not to forget the little sea of options when you have to decide on the de/wm ...but that\'s some of the things that Gentoo great in my opinion :]

distros i\'ve used so far (or use):
- Slackware (was for years on my computer, at highschool)
- Debian (at work, the past job)
- Mandrake (at the faculty, i\'m the admin)
- a RedHat 9 based distro (at work, i have to develop it)
- Fedora (at work, someone elses PC, but he\'s an idiot, so i have to admin it from time to time)
- Gentoo (currently and for the past year or two on my home comp, and since last month on my comp at work ...the currently best distro in my eyes)

* massive bugzilla doesn\'t mean there\'s tons of quirks and bugs ...it means there\'s tons of reports and solves of bugs, quirks AND new proggies/ebuilds requests.

[Kixie]

i wasnt really morphing the users just the thread...

[Boldstorm]

Thanks forall the replies I have pretty much decided to go with gentoo, now all I have to do is finish my new box. I am hoping this weekend to pick up the memory and and a few extra fans since that is pretty much all I need to finish it up. Also just need to decide what drives I am going to put in there but I have those laying around and a few to chose from so that isn\'t something I have to go out and get. About the only thing that should hold me up from finishing it by next week is if I decide to do some modding to the case before I get everything up and running. I have been thinking about adding some etched windows and painting the inside of the case which if I do end up doing I will do before I put everything in there. Anything else I decide to do can wait til later. Thanks again everyone!

[Bogo]

Gentoo has an _awesome_ community and lots of great documentation. By far the best distro I\'ve ever used.

[Leander256]

To clarify a bit my post, I just think gentoo is a very good distro if you already played around with another one, or some kind of unix. My goal isn\'t to parade around with my \"elitistic\" distro, I just want people not to be disgusted by linux because they tried something that didn\'t fit their needs (and they couldn\'t get to work).

For instance, many people new to linux are unable to fill correctly the /etc/fstab file during installation, I remember many people asking if they had to leave /dev/ROOT in the file (sometimes they didn\'t even ask, the problem was resolved when someone asked them to post the content of the file).

So if you\'re new to linux, you can install gentoo, of course, but you will need curiosity (or hunger for knowledge to swallow the Huge amount of information you\'ll get), and free time to deal with some problems you\'ll run into.

Anyway, good luck with your installation and welcome in the community

[Boldstorm]

I am not entirely new. I did have an older box that was dual booted with Windows 2000 Pro and Red Hat 7. I was definetly hoping to get everything done this weekend but I think the case is going to get some major work this weekend before I put everything in. I am going to paint the whole case and drive cages first and add some windows so that should put me behind about a week on the install of all the parts and linux.

EDIT: BTW Hereing how the install goes actually excites me more then it does scare me. I need to hurry up and get this box done so I can try and tackle the install.

[hook]

Originally posted by Boldstorm
EDIT: BTW Hereing how the install goes actually excites me more then it does scare me. I need to hurry up and get this box done so I can try and tackle the install.

) ...you\'re gonna love gentoo then ...oh, and when you install it, don\'t be too shy to come back and share your thoughts on the emerge/portage system :]

[tallimar]

ill admit im very new to the whole unix/linux OS, but i actually enjoyed my first encounter with linux.  it would figure that my first time would be on a distro in dev which i came across on the techtv website.  PHLAK is definately not for everyone, im still tackling the different mindset that i had developed from being a windows lackey for the last 10 years.  well anyways, if you want to check it out, heres a link; http://www.phlak.org

[Boldstorm]

Well went through with installing gentoo last night or at least attempting to. I didn\'t get around to hooking the box up to my network before I did it so I just went with a Stage 3 install everything went great until i tried to emerge xfree. I kept getting a few errors that it wouldnt run correctly after it was done. I pretty much figured out the problem though having to do with the nforce motherboard and ATI graphics. I had to get to work so I should be able to fix that by tonight and get everythign going ok.

[AendarCallenlasse]

Your typical Linux users

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-06-30

Couretsy of your friendly neightborhood elf.

 :]

[Rageburst]

sigh... just connecting to the internet via unix.... you gotta decide dynamic/static ip, connecting from another computer, blablabla... I still consider myself a total newbie at this point since there\'s so many things you can do with unix even at the stage where you are trying to connect to the net.

Then there\'s the matter of finding/coding firewall scripts if you really want to get gritty with security.

On the other hand, the benefits of having a unix OS means you\'ll have an easier time coding due to free software and superior coding environment due to free software from sourceforge and whatnot.