Linux

[doordand]

Linux users, vote.

 

[Synergy6]

Debian? MEPIS? Mandriva? DSL? PCLOS? Slackware? Does seem like a rather short list.
Synergy6

 

[bholland2]

Not much of a choice... Without Slackware there isn't any point in voteing.

 

[doordand]

My bad, it submitted it before I was done. I will make another one.

 

[croc]

My bad, it submitted it before I was done. I will make another one.

Hmmm... You must be using the Debian release.

 

[HelloWorld82]

<i>Why I use gentoo:</i>

use gentoo for 1 and half year now. It was not so hard to install, and I learnt a lot. But of course, Gentoo is not for newbye, and will neither be. look at Ubuntu, or Mandriva, if you want an easy to use distribution.

I will list now what I really like about gentoo. Btw, I know, gentoo also has drawbacks. But for me, it is exactely what I need.

i) I'm a developer.
Because you _have_ to compile everythink with gentoo - you also got a great developement platform, with all header files you need, documentation, example source code, tools. This can be set with the use flag "doc" and "examples"
I develop with python, C++ and java and I couldn't be happyier with gentoo. It's a dream for a me.

ii) Writing ebuilds is not too difficult.

iii)Gentoo repository has lot of packages, and regular updates :
There is nothing like releases or so.

Suse Release cycle : | | | | |
Ubuntu releases cycle: | | | | |
gento : ||||||||||||||||||||||

I can always got new packages, then either I want them. I don't need to wait 6 months.

iv)flexibiliy :
As said above, I'm a programmer. I need sometime to recompile some applications for a given library. This offers me flexibiliy I could not get from binary distribtions.

v)The community :
look at gentoo-forums :
http://forums.gentoo.org

in irc (#gentoo, at freenode) there are always 800-1000 peoples (!!!). You always got help.

 

[Synergy6]

Just a couple of points to clarify.

"Because you _have_ to compile everythink" Err, no you don't. Some programs can be gotten as binaries, and the install CDs have lots of binaries for a faster install.

"regular updates" If you look at when packages are actually fully unmasked, Gentoo is one of the slowest distributions around for new packages. I.e., 2006.1 will be the first time GCC4 is the default, whereas most distros have been using it for months. Same for most other packages. If you want the latest packages, go with Fedora or something, Gentoo is about stability.

"always 800-1000 peoples" That's not really a good thing, as a question usually gets hidden by the *mass* of other communication. If you get lucky, somebody catches it and answers. Sometimes, you don't get lucky.

I use Gentoo, and like it a lot. But try to be factual about it
Synergy6

 

[ElMoIsEviL]

I use SuSe in my Virtualisation mode using VMware. I would never run Linux as my main O/S as I'm a gamer.. but on my server it's used as a secondary O/S. Which gives me more security for my FTP server.

Reason I use SuSe is that it's the most advanced and powerful of all distro's.. but it's also not one of the easier distro's to use. Unbuntu is good for n00bs as is RedHat.

But if you want something more Suse Pro 10 is quite a good O/S.

As for the specs.. it's an Athlon64 X2 3800+ with 4GB of PC3200 Corsair memory and about 3TB of HD space. It runs Windows 2003 Enterprise Server & Suse 10. I have 1GB of memory dedicated to Suse while the rest is for Windows. Each O/S only has 30GB dedicated to it.. rest of the space is for storage. My FTP is able to access my Windows files on the NTFS partition using networking. Which is why I'm on Gigabit.. if I wasn't the swapping would considerably slow down my network traffic. I have been considering networking the two using the two firewire ports on my server instead of looping through the 24port 10/100/100 switch.

Meh works for now.

 

[gman01]

I am staying loyal to Fedora, until they do something to tick me off.... It is still the most stable, and hardware friendly(for desktops anyway).... They push(default) Gnome over KDE - so one day I will probably be swiching to Kubuntu.... I am loyal to KDE....

No KUBUNTU on list of choices????

 

[ElMoIsEviL]

I am staying loyal to Fedora, until they do something to tick me off.... It is still the most stable, and hardware friendly(for desktops anyway).... They push(default) Gnome over KDE - so one day I will probably be swiching to Kubuntu.... I am loyal to KDE....

No KUBUNTU on list of choices????

I am fairly certain that Suse is the most stable Linux Distro. Seeing as it is the Distro used by IBM systems with AMD Opteron processors for the professional server market.

On a desktop it works wonderfully. My only gripe being it's subpar software suite.. which Fedora is much better at.

 

[MU_Engineer]

Hear, hear. I run Gentoo on both of my computers too and it is excellent. I only do a little fiddling around with programming, but the fact that you can set compile flags to put in certain features and the constantly updated packages is what makes Gentoo great.

 

[JLHedges]

My personal fav is actually VLOS. For those of you who've never used it, it's a stage 3 Gentoo build using the Anaconda installer. While I love the flexibility of Gentoo, I don't want to spend forever to start with a stage 1 install, and this fits wonderfully. You still get the full Portage/emerge tree, but it gives you the option to add packages you want out of the box. Last time I installed, the "emerge world" after I was done took forever, but since then, it's been pretty quick.

 

[lcdguy]

I love to use SUSE. it's an awesome desktop OS and a rock solid server platform.

1. Suse 10.1 is great especially when you load XGL on it
2. Suse 9.0 Enterprise Server is equally awesome (haven't tried the latest yet)

Problems i have had with the other options.

Ubuntu - Installer is buggy in 6.06
Gentoo - failed to compile multiple times
Fedora - Nough Said

The others haven't tried yet.

 

[endorphine44]

I'm using Suse 10 for my wifes computer and Fedora Core 5 for my server. Both are good platforms, I like Suse as a desktop with KDE, but prefer FC5 for my server.
I tried Ubuntu 5, didn't like it much at all.

 

[lcdguy]

5 wasn't a great release 6 is much nicer they went with a gui installer which i don't like that much, i prefered the old installer but it is much more stable.

But suse is rock solid. i think i am going to use it for my server.