1 (edited by infocastme 2013-06-14 10:25:48)

Topic: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

I have used multiple forms of Linux throughout the years.

DSL - Damn Small Linux - This had been dormant for awhile but had been showing signs of life again. Great to play with but you need to understand Linux to use the more powerful features. Used it on a USB key while in college to get around some of their IT restrictions.

Puppy Linux -  Great small distro - used on an older laptop. X86 800mhz Celeron. Did the job.

Ubuntu Linux - Had some success and failures with different distros and hardware. More like windows and easy to learn.
It comes and goes as I build computers out of friends and families donations.

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

I've been using linux all-but-exclusively for the last decade and am considered an expert in most circles.

I started with Gentoo in college, using stage-1 installs.  This meant you built everything from source.  You would boot a small "image" that got you started and you would bootstrap your cross compiler, kernel and base system.  Then you'd reboot, and start building the rest of the system.  I do not recommend this for beginners, or even experts if you want to use your machine for anything other than learning they very nitty-gritty details of linux, filesystems, compilation, etc.

Once done with college I moved on to using Ubuntu.  I think I went with it originally because of it's popularity and it was the "buzzword" type distro at the time I was looking to move to a binary distro.  I was tired of the little idiosyncrasies that came with Gentoo based on everything being compiled from source.  Sometimes when I wanted to add support for something, I'd have to re-configure/re-build 6 or 7 components to enable support for something whereas in most binary distros, it's as easy as "install new library X".  I dabbled with red hat (before it was FC) and hated RPM's and their dependency checking.  I had multiple installs break due to it.  This was another factor in me choosing Ubuntu.

Fast forward a couple years, I have been working as an linux device driver writer for embedded systems (set top boxes) and we use buildroot/gcc/glibc/uclibc/etc. for our builds and Ubuntu kept finding it necessary to move include paths, libraries, etc. and maintaining support for build infrastructure became too much work, I switched to Debian.

It's been a few years now that I've been using Debian 6.0 (squeeze) exclusively on my desktops/laptops.  It works great and I'm likely to update to Wheezy soon.

The only other distro I've played with a little bit is arch linux.  I use that on a couple smaller devices like the pogoplug, dockstar, tonidoplug, and sheevaplug.  I use all of these devices and am relatively happy with that distro in a limited environment.

Since I'm not a "gamer", I have found alternatives for pretty much everything I need in the open source world.  That's photo editing/organization (basic use), video editing (although I have basic needs), word processing, programming utilities, etc.  The only thing I've used windows for in the last few years were updating a GoPro (God help me w/ their windows only crap), a fancy-pants universal remote I sold because the software was windows only), and sequencing software for my Christmas Light display.  My plan this year is to "drive" the show with a raspberry pi to keep more things linux-friendly.

Linux Guy - Occasional Chumby Hacker

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

I'm a distro-hopper, but by far, my favorite has to be Arch Linux. It's like Gentoo, but with much better documentation and no compilation.

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

For servers and long-term stable machines, I use CentOS.  But then i've been a RedHat guy since the mid 90s (from InfoMagic CDs, originally), so when CentOS repackaged "RedHat Enterprise Linux" it was obvious for me.  For my desktop where I might want newer A/V software than a stable distro gives, I use Ubuntu.... but I'm not overly happy with it.

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

Materdaddy wrote:

It's been a few years now that I've been using Debian 6.0 (squeeze) exclusively on my desktops/laptops.  It works great and I'm likely to update to Wheezy soon.

I've dabbled all around too. 'buntu's du jour, really liked Fuduntu very much, but they're out of business. Lately I've been Minting. Like the Cinnamon desktop. Seems lightweight and a good gnome replacement. Just can't stomach that Ubuntu Unity and the various ways to get gnome classic on Ubuntu are clunky. I think you'll like Wheezy it seems super stable like most Debian releases, but I agree with infocastme "1/2 normal saline", Gnome3 gives me nightmares, horrible visions of "activities" chasing me round! I have OpenELEC on a HTPC, but with that distro you hardly need a PC. An RPi or Beaglebone with NAS would be fine.

Brian

Brian, #1 Joan Jett Fan

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

I started with Corel Linux, moved to Red Hat, then PClinuxOS, tried Ubuntu but felt it needed too much tweaking so I landed on Linux Mint. I used to love to get into the OS and learn how to make everything work just right. Many of the distros mentioned above are great for that. These days I just want my OS to work, to work they way I want it to work, and otherwise be invisible. Linux Mint fits the bill for me. Over the last 4 or so versions of Linux Mint I haven't had to tweak anything. Install and use. Your milage may vary of course. The great thing about linux is there are so many versions you are bound to find one you like. Most are no cost so the only thing you will have to invest is time. I found distros like DSL and Puppy a bit too limiting. I suspect you are familiar with Distrowatch.com. Great place to start learning about some of the distros out there. I would strongly suggest you work with distros that have active communities. If you run into problems the members of most communities are more than willing to give you a hand. Just make sure you use the search function before you post a question. ;-)

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

7 (edited by infocastme 2013-06-17 08:55:10)

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

BoloMKXXVIII wrote:

I suspect you are familiar with Distrowatch.com. Great place to start learning about some of the distros out there.

Installing various disto's in a VM is a great way to get some idea on how they work and feel. It also beats booting from a live CD/DVD. It also protects your system from any disk/file problems that can arise.

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

Most distros can boot from flash drive or be made to boot from a flash drive. VMs are great but don't give you the most accurate indication of how the distro will run on the hardware "natively".

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

The VM is handy though because in a situation like mine where you need to have the "host" OS available for your work, you can just task-switch out of the VM and do your work then pop back in, no reboots required smile

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

True. But if you are testing out a distro to see if it can become your daily driver, running it in a VM is probably not the best way of testing it. If you want to switch back and forth, that is a different situation.

Which VM are you using? The only one I have ever used is VirtualBox (both Windows and Linux versions).

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: Which Linux have you used, liked and why?

Yeah, I use VirtualBox on both of my PCs at home as well as my Mac at work.