Choosing a personal distro, comments appreciated

Deadly Ferret

Deadly Ferret

Deadly Ferret

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I have been on linux.org, looking at the different distros. I'm currently trying to decide between Ark Linux and the Fedora Project, both of which I like the sound/look of.

I used Linux for a few months about three years ago, tried Mandrake, SuSe, and Gentoo. I never really got to grips with it, and found it too unwieldy. Nowadays though I tend to only use my machine for four tasks: browsing, email, watching media, playing music - so I reckon it's time to use it again as I can't really go wrong just doing those things, and I'm sick of worrying about security with Windows.

Anyway, if anybody informed has any opinions on which of the two above distros is best, whether based on ease of use, security, or anything else, I'd appreciate reading them. (Or if there is a distro which you think would suit me more.) :)

Oh yeah, when I used Linux before I quite liked the dark shell (Black Box?), so I'd hope that the one I end up using has it available.


PS: Please don't suggest Ubuntu. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something about it I just don't like.
 
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ok

Kubuntu

or Mandriva (below)

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Well as you don't want Ubuntu then i would go Fedora.

Fedora is great but over bloated for me and Just not as noob friendly but still very good.
Ubuntu is well supported and maintained, great for noobs. That incudes Kubuntu (as mentioned above) and xubuntu maybe give them a try?
Arch i have no experience with but it seems to be based on KDE so ties in well with the kubuntu recommendations.
 
the best distro i have used lately is mint. i have found a free virtual machine software which im sure all you guys know about (i didnt unfotunately lol) so im going to try out a lot more distro's without having to knacker up my HDD. which quite often happened. (it was a bad experience with dream linux :p anything with KDE i believe is a great distro. but i have swayed towards gnome. try mint.
 
Mint on Wikipedia said:
Linux Mint is an operating system. This Linux distribution for desktop computers is based on and compatible with Ubuntu and uses the repositories from Canonical Ltd. While at the core Linux Mint is mostly based on Ubuntu, the design of the desktop and UI results in a different user's desktop experience.
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Deadly Ferret, what is your WM of choice?

I've moved away from Ubuntu, as there's something just too forced about it these days. I chose Arch, very minimal install upon which you can then build your system. It's very quick but not as well supported as Ubuntu/Fedora. However, the Arch Wiki is quite comprehensive.
 
I'd suggest Xubuntu too... it flies cause it's nice and slim compared to Kubuntu, but it has all the support of Ubuntu/Kubuntu, in case you do run into problems.

The repositories are frequently updated - I've yet to find an application that I've not been able to install from a repository (not that I've tried, but all of the stuff I've wanted/needed has already been included).

Like Brummie, I've never used Arch but have used Fedora, so if it really is only down to those two distros, I'd say that Fedora will meet your requirements. That's not to say that Arch won't... it's just that I don't know if it will or won't. Fedora was/is a nice enough distro, but I'd still suggest giving Xubuntu a whirl first.
 
I'm a complete noob with linux and am using fedora currently. Can't make any comparisons but fedora has been really good for me so far. Thumbs up from me!
 
Fedora is not that good really, they rush through releases and have very, very short distro span. Despite no major changes to kernel, architecture or structure, they have gone through 4 major version releases in 2 years, and while jumping from FC7 to FC8 in just 5 months they already discontinued any form of support for FC5 and 6, including no security updates. It's a silly, silly distro. If it has to be RedHat, go for CentOS.
 
v0n said:
Fedora is not that good really, they rush through releases and have very, very short distro span. Despite no major changes to kernel, architecture or structure, they have gone through 4 major version releases in 2 years, and while jumping from FC7 to FC8 in just 5 months they already discontinued any form of support for FC5 and 6, including no security updates. It's a silly, silly distro. If it has to be RedHat, go for CentOS.
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This is true to an extent, I've used fedora a lot because we're a redhat enterprise based setup at work and consequently I like redhat best. I've never actually tried centos, always been RHEL if not fedora (though I'm considering building a highly customised arch install in the near future.
 
Fedora, in my most humble of opinions, is too big and bloaty. Of the bleeding-edge distros it tends to be the one with the most broken things included. Fedora 8 is particularly bad in this regard.

I suggest you try Mint, OpenSuSE, and Kubuntu. The beauty of Linux is twofold in this instance; you can try as many as you like without spending anything, and you cna customize whatever it is on which you decide to your heart's content.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
I suggest you try Mint, OpenSuSE, and Kubuntu. The beauty of Linux is twofold in this instance; you can try as many as you like without spending anything, and you cna customize whatever it is on which you decide to your heart's content.
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What's your view on Arch Billy? Never noticed you mention it.
 
Arch is quite exciting really, not for beginners at all but stable and very quick is what I hear. I'm tempted to replace fedora on my dev workstation in the office...
 
Thanks for your suggestions everybody. I've been playing around with various installs over the last day or two, and had quite a few problems caused by Ark Linux. I don't know how it did it, but somehow it asserted itself into the computer, such that it came up with its copyright message whenever I was booting from a CD. This seemed to cause problems with the Fedora and SuSe discs I had also made before wiping Windows. It wasn't the MBR, because I tried different HDDs on their own, and a CMOS reset didn't kill it either.

In the end, I put Windows back on and get hold of Debian. That has installed successfully and that's what I'm on now. Got some teething problems of course, but I'll start a seperate thread for those.

I'll see how I go with this, and might try Mint and/or Arch soon when I've regained a bit of familiarity with Linux.

Thanks again. :)
 
Be prepared to get your fingers dirty with debian.

Much more satisfying when you suss it though... debatable If you have any hair left by then though !!
 
Outcast said:
Be prepared to get your fingers dirty with debian.

Much more satisfying when you suss it though... debatable If you have any hair left by then though !!
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Yes - but once you have it up and running, you can't knock it over with an atomic bomb, because everything is so heavily tested (and thus far from bleeding edge)
 
indeed. but what i dont get is, debian is 4 dvd's in size? well, from what i could see anywat :/ or am i seeing things? :p


i am pleassantly suprised at opensuse 10.3 though, its rather good :p
 
those debian dvd's are all the packages. If you have an internet connection don't bother. Get get the net install iso file and use that. Then you pull down only the packages you need/use.
 
whitecrook said:
those debian dvd's are all the packages. If you have an internet connection don't bother. Get get the net install iso file and use that. Then you pull down only the packages you need/use.
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ah i see...:o i was going to download the four dvd's. on a 2 meg line it takes a while hehe
 
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