Re: [LINUX_Newbies] What distro's to try.

Trying other distributions is the most computing fun that you can have for
free. I have close to twenty partitions spread across three drives and have
only Kubuntu representing Canonical at present. I also have Sabayon
(Gentoo-based), PCLinuxOS 2010 (Mandriva-based), SimplyMEPIS 8.5
(Debian-based), Sidux (Debian-based), openSuSE 11.2 and Fedora 12. I had
Mandriva 2010 until I replaced it with PCLOS and Debian 5, but replaced it
with Sidux. All distributions are different and have something going for
them. It is a question of trying them and matching them with your personal
preference and needs.

Distributions that I really like are Fedora 12 (it is for intermediate
users), PCLinuxOS (only comes in 32-bit, unfortunately) and SimplyMEPIS 8.5.
Fedora is the most fiddly because you need to tweak it manually. PCLinuxOS
works great out the box. It is an RPM based distribution that uses Synaptic.
So if you want to try something really different and don't mind 32-bit then
this distro might be for you. SimplyMEPIS is a KDE distribution that is
closest to Debian stable.

I like Sidux, but it is based on Sid (Debian unstable) and many people may
find it not stable enough (I don't mind the bleeding edge for some reason).
Also Debian's community is not known for its friendliness to new users (or
old for that matter). You really need to mind your Ps and Qs around them.
They don't mind excoriating or humiliating you over using the wrong term,
like Linux, Firefox or Thunderbird. It is GNU/Linux, Iceweasel and Icedove,
idiot!

Speaking of communities, I really like Fedora's. The only problem for new
users is that they usually speak way over your head and everything they
suggest is commandline. Next to Ubuntu, Fedora has the best users.

Arch is a great distro to try if you want to get back to basics. Sabayon is
good if you want to give Gentoo a try without building from scratch. If you
don't want to deviate far from the tree much then you could try Xubuntu,
Lubuntu and Kubuntu.

Check out Distrowatch.com for their top 100 list. So many distributions and
so little time!

Roy

On 7 May 2010 06:19, Scott <scottro@nyc.rr.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, May 07, 2010 at 01:28:23AM -0400, J wrote:
>
> >
> > You can try CentOS to get a feel for what Red Hat Enterprise Linux is
> > like (which is rather similar to Fedora with fewer boneheaded
> > "features" (right Scott?).
>
> RH6 is going to be similar to F12-13 or so, with, as you say, a few of
> the stupidities left out. The currently available RH/CentOS 5.x ,
> however is running a kernel that's a few years old, 2.6.18, and the
> versions of packages are far older. That being said, several
> "improvements" aren't in 5.x, which is a good thing, but conversely,
> many programs, e.g. the chromium browser, won't build easily because of
> older versions of kernel and various libs.
>
> --
> Scott Robbins
> PGP keyID EB3467D6
> ( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 )
> gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6
>
> Xander: You were looking at my neck.
> Angel: What?
> Xander: You were checking out my neck, I saw that.
> Angel: No, I wasn't.
> Xander: Just keep your distance, pal.
> Angel: I wasn't looking at your neck.
> Xander: I told you to eat before we left.
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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