Which Flavour

catch22 · 22 May 2007 at 15:04

I have been using ubuntu for a while now, but want to change to a different distro due to a few issues that i have been having.
I have tried suse in the past but find it to bulky and slow to startup.

So the question is which distro would be the best for me to move onto to move my linux knowledge onto the next step.

I have been looking at pclinux, fedora or mandriva.

gumbald · 22 May 2007 at 18:17

catch22 said:
I have been looking at pclinux, fedora or mandriva.

Your first and last options there won't take you onto the next step...

Fedora is good, like Ubuntu you can make it as advanced as you want. If you want something more "hardcore", Gentoo or Debian

Or Arch.

I'm going to try Arch myself properly once I've got this assignment out the way.

cb_linus · 22 May 2007 at 18:29

As above - Arch or Gentoo for the next steps on the learning curve, haven't tried Debian so can't recommend

Probably Arch first.

whitecrook · 22 May 2007 at 19:47

cb_linus said:
As above - Arch or Gentoo for the next steps on the learning curve, haven't tried Debian so can't recommend Probably Arch first.

Arch is supposed to be a more hardcore Ubuntu.

As for Debian, Ubuntu is what you would get after you spend ages learning and tweaking the hell of out Debian to get it like that - I know I have spent many years with Debian trying to achieve what Ubuntu manages in a 15 minute install

Although Debian just released V4 and that's running on my server quite happily.

cb_linus · 22 May 2007 at 20:09

I think Arch is pretty cool because it lets you get to grips with configuring stuff - a default install (from what I remember - 2 or so years ago) didn't include a Window Manager or Desktop Environment and gave the user more to do (and learn) with some of it's config files. It's kind've a good step if you want to learn to use any distribution that relies on the command line interface (most distros in my experience - though I'm using OpenSuse at the moment and have only once resorted to the CLI, so far

).

I wouldn't mind trying Debian sometime soon (once I finish my current project on me desktop), as I think I could learn quite a bit from it, this is probably true of quite a few different distributions though

Vai · 22 May 2007 at 20:21

Gentoo is very good and teaches you Linux in a "throw you in at the deep end" way but at the same time is very easy to set things up because of portage. It is how I learned Linux and I highly recommend it.

I think it comes with a GUI installer now. Don't use it. Install it the old DIY command line way

chriscpritchard · 22 May 2007 at 21:18

I would reccomend gentoo, as long as you follow the handbook (don't use the installer) you should be fine, you can also install it using the ubuntu livecd (which I am doing now because the default livecd doesn't support madwifi), so you can browse the web etc

Freakish_05 · 22 May 2007 at 21:34

Vai said:
Gentoo is very good and teaches you Linux in a "throw you in at the deep end" way but at the same time is very easy to set things up because of portage. It is how I learned Linux and I highly recommend it.

I think it comes with a GUI installer now. Don't use it. Install it the old DIY command line way

Ditto the above.
Gentoo = Win

cb_linus · 22 May 2007 at 21:45

Gentoo's a very good choice. Main reason for trying something like Arch is it's a relatively quick install and will help ease you into something like Gentoo, introducing you to some of the harder elements of Linux while still being fairly rewarding for less of a time investment than Gentoo. Gentoo is more fun though (my own opinion

), and has a very decent package management system - keeping your system up-to-date is very easy. The Gentoo installer probably needs some work, unless it's got more reliable now

saffyre · 23 May 2007 at 08:13

Vai said:
Gentoo is very good and teaches you Linux in a "throw you in at the deep end" way but at the same time is very easy to set things up because of portage. It is how I learned Linux and I highly recommend it.

I think it comes with a GUI installer now. Don't use it. Install it the old DIY command line way

Same here, great way to learn Linux.

catch22 · 27 May 2007 at 10:44

thanks for that, i have printed off the handbook (looks like a headache) and will try to install gentoo when i get home

cb_linus · 27 May 2007 at 10:50

You should be able to do an install from the live cd and have a desktop environment, with internet connection if you need to refer to the manual online. just open up a terminal and do it from there (don't confuse this with the automated installer, which, in my experience, doesn't work). You'll need root (admin) access but by default the password is scrambled - I *think* you can do:

Code:

sudo passwd

to change it (it's in the faq somewhere), then just 'su' (switch user) to root when you need to

saffyre · 27 May 2007 at 13:32

Hey ive been using gentoo for a while now and can recommend it, however i have also just installed arch linux on a spare pc and its very good. Its very similar to gentoo except it uses a binary package system similar to ubuntu. Saves a lot on compile time. I would definately give it a try before gentoo as its much quicker to setup.