Recommend me a distro?

agent_paul

agent_paul

agent_paul

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Joined
4 Jul 2006
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211
Hi all,

I've been using Ubuntu 8.10 desktop for a while now and im not 100% happy with it. i've tried sticking with it but the problems just annoy me too much. (problems with static ip staying, weird hard drive clicking when its about 90% full, power/sleeping issues)

so i was thinking about a distro change, hoping a different distro will keep me smiling.

Things i currently use on Ubuntu 8.10

Samba
apache2
jboss app server
subversion
virtual box
deluge
webmin
jinzoora

i mainly use my machine as a nas like media sharing box with abit of java application server stuff too.

so can anyone recommend me a distro that is server/media friendly?

i've been thinking about fedora/centos as they are red hat based aint they? but i was also thinking about sabayon as ive only tried it out for a few hours.

what do you guys think?
 
If you don't like weird issues popping out of nowhere I don't think I'd use Fedora.
Try Centos or Debian. They do feel out of date on first inspection though.

(You can resolve connection weirdness in all the desktop distros by just getting rid of network manager.)
 
Debian should be a good choice as its stupidly stable (though as a consiquence is a bit slow to get new packages into it)

Arch could be a good choice if you have some time to set it up just for your specific needs....
 
I'd steer clear of Sabayon... it's not a bad distro but it's very 'amateurish'. It just seems that the development is done by a couple of guys in their spare time. What they have achieved is good, but it doesn't have the resources of some of the bigger players.
 
thanks for the advice guys. i might go with Debian since i use both Redhat el and centos at work all day.

im interested in arch though. why should i choose arch over Debian? what are its perks?

thanks
 
agent_paul said:
im interested in arch though. why should i choose arch over Debian? what are its perks?
Click to expand...

It has more up to date packages, doesn't hold your hand nearly as much and doesn't install bucketloads of packages that you're never going to use and can't remove due to bizarre dependencies.

eXor said:
As it's a rolling distro, you get to watch things break in spectacular fashion. :p
Click to expand...

heh - very true!

It depends on what you want and how comfortable you are being in the driving seat as opposed to the passenger seat. Arch is kind of like a binary Gentoo - lots of control, but makes you work for it. Debian is ridiculously stable (because everything is tested to death before going into stable). If you want to try a little more "unstable", add the squeeze or sid repos and you'll be a bit more up to date, but still lagging behind any "bleeding edge" distro like Arch, Fedora, etc. As a side note, Arch and Debian based distros do have a substantially better package management systems than any RPM based distro.

Personally, I have used Arch on my home desktop, servers (!!) and laptops for years, but have moved most off. I'm currently trying Debian Sid (desktop) and kubuntu (laptop) because I was sick of what eXor mentioned above - however, I'm not really happy with either of them. I still have Arch running happily on one home server and also on a production server in the office (not mission critical!!) and may move my other boxes back to Arch.
 
.walls said:
It has more up to date packages, doesn't hold your hand nearly as much and doesn't install bucketloads of packages that you're never going to use and can't remove due to bizarre dependencies.



heh - very true!

It depends on what you want and how comfortable you are being in the driving seat as opposed to the passenger seat. Arch is kind of like a binary Gentoo - lots of control, but makes you work for it. Debian is ridiculously stable (because everything is tested to death before going into stable). If you want to try a little more "unstable", add the squeeze or sid repos and you'll be a bit more up to date, but still lagging behind any "bleeding edge" distro like Arch, Fedora, etc. As a side note, Arch and Debian based distros do have a substantially better package management systems than any RPM based distro.

Personally, I have used Arch on my home desktop, servers (!!) and laptops for years, but have moved most off. I'm currently trying Debian Sid (desktop) and kubuntu (laptop) because I was sick of what eXor mentioned above - however, I'm not really happy with either of them. I still have Arch running happily on one home server and also on a production server in the office (not mission critical!!) and may move my other boxes back to Arch.
Click to expand...

i'm now setting up ubuntu server edition for a home server, I'may just install arch, only want rtorrent, mediatomb, samba, nfs, print server, oh yeh and sabnzbd.

All of which shouldn't be borked during an update, there somple basic things that could never be destroyed? aren't they :p
 
Hmmm all those comments really put me off Arch now. Ive never really tried Debian so i might just try it out this weekend. buti dont want to be moving from one distro because of problems and then get a whole load of new problems :(
 
I've been playing about with Jaunty (beta) with Gnome and it appears to be quite nice... Fixed a lot of problems I had as well (OK kernel updates, etc. will have helped as well of course). The final release is due out in about 10 days.

I'm intrigued to try out Arch now after all the comments about it!! :D

Bob
 
agent_paul said:
Hmmm all those comments really put me off Arch now. Ive never really tried Debian so i might just try it out this weekend. buti dont want to be moving from one distro because of problems and then get a whole load of new problems :(
Click to expand...

I have used arch for 2 years and never had a problem.
 
i guess ill wait for ubuntu 9.10 and see how it goes before moving off.

.walls, whats wrong with Debian that makes you want to go back to Arch?

i might just go and try centos on my machine. seeing it might look better on my cv then any other distro
 
I'd vote for Debian too. I use CentOS a lot these days and the first thing you'll notice with Debian is that it is a much cleaner and neater file hierarchy. both /etc and /usr and much nicer places to hang out and I don't agree with the comments people have made about slow to add apps. It also doesn't come with SELlinux as standard constantly inhibiting all your programs from running.

I also prefer apt to yum, but that could just be me.
 
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