a different distro

mattgaunt

mattgaunt

mattgaunt

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20 May 2007
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441
Hey everyone

I wanted to try out a distro that isnt like ubuntu i.e. its not all done for me, i want a distro which when i install it i hav a pretty bare system to then install what i want - i had a go on arch linux but i just didnt have a gd experience with the forums and looking for help.

So was wondering what u guys suggest?? is gentoo sorta thing im looking for?

Gaunt
 
Gentoo would be a good choice. The Gentoo docs are easily the best I've seen. Download them and have a read to see if it scares you off or excites you.
 
Gentoo is exactly what you are after. Nothing is installed that you don't want (or need).

It does mean its a bit of a PITA to install though :) Read through the docs carefully before you start so you are prepared for what you have to do (and if you only have one PC, print them out!!).
 
You could always get help on these forums if you want to give Arch another go. There are plenty of us Arch users on here. The Arch forums isn't exactly a friendly place.

Personally I do not like Gentoo, due to the time it takes.

Slackware however has been around forever, seemingly identical to Arch Linux, but without a decent package manager. So the user base and thus the support will far exceed Arch's.
 
Gentoo might be a bit more than what you want - have a read though and if you like it, great!

Debian is what Ubuntu is based on and therefore works similarly but does less for you and almost (if not all) the stuff in their repositories is free (as in speech, not beer). I'd recommend it
 
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I know nothing about linux and was able to play with gentoo reletively pain free, with the documentation and forum help.

I once stupidly did a stage2 install on a AMD K2 333mhz it took around 2-3days. :-)
 
depending on what you want to use it for:

slackware - very unix like
cntos - Enterprise level server distro
Gentoo - powerful and compiled for your hardware
LFS - never used it but ive heard people rave about it
Mandriva - easy to use and easy to tailer to ** spec.
 
i'd say fedora or centos really, their yum system make things so easy to use, or better yet debian, ubuntu was based on debian except they installed and done the works for you,
 
Gentoo if you're feeling hardcore, otherwise try Arch again- I found the community over there excellent and you can always ask ehre if you get stuck.

If you follow the wiki, it's not too hard though :)
 
no arch doesnt have a live CD because arch itself is jus a bare bone install

Thanks for the help guys - i think ill have a little look into gentoo

I doubt ill have another crack at arch for the mean time - jus really didnt like the forums - really put me off.

Im very much into the idea of everyone helping each other with linux and open source software and jus didnt fit right there - but ill have a little look at gentoo

Im pretty interested in linux from scratch as well since on my course i am seriously considering building my own O/S so i might also hav a look at that over x-mas.

Anyway thanks again guys

Gaunt
 
think i'm going to finally install gentoo or mandriva on laptop. need update both servers as well.

What are you going to use the distro for?
 
well i just wanted it for bit of everything

Playing music and videos, programming and jus general use - but did want it to be bit faster than ubuntu

Gaunt
 
i wouldnt go with a server based distro then, centos and slackware are more server orientated.

gentoo is good if you have the patience to learn how to set-up a linux system.

Debian is faster than ubuntu (should be anyway) but will need a few tweaks

stuff like pclinuxos is getting a good rep atm. Maybe look at mandriva and fedora. (although i'd stay away from fedora personally) obviously you can look at stuff like DSL which should be a lot faster but will need tweaking. when you install install as little as possible. and recompile the kernal after install.

let us know what you go with and if you have any problems
 
Fedora 8 runs quite a bit faster than *buntu on the same hardware in my experience. It's a nice distro too - plenty newb friendly in most ways, but very much more configurable and 'hands on' without having to start at a CLI with no GUI.

Mint was mentioned above. Even though it's based on Ubuntu I have to agree that it's a nice newb (or not) distro, and does work faster than a default Ubuntu install. I just prefer Fedora :)
 
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