Re: distribution choice

[Brian Jackson <brian@mdrx.com>]

You are going to get as many different answers to this question as you would 
what's you favorite $something. Only bad part about that is that most people 
who answer these questions have never really used more than 1 or 2 
distributions.(usually the first one they try doesn't work so they blame it 
on the dist and try something else) I have used quite a few different 
distributions before, and am mostly drawn to the ones that are the least user 
friendly because they usually provide better control. So for the longest time 
I was a Slack junkie, until sometime last year when I heard about this "new" 
dist called Gentoo(Oh, you've heard of it.... excellent) It is everything 
that I have ever wanted in a dist. Since I started using it, I have been on a 
rampage upgrading all the servers at work and all boxes at home to Gentoo. It 
doesn't have any harder of a learning curve than any other dists I've ever 
used, but for some people it just isn't what they are after. All that being 
said I don't think I would suggest it for people that don't have that need 
for total control. It all comes down to what you are after. Of all the 
prettyboy dists (the ones where you are actually working against yourself if 
you try to edit config files) I like SuSE the best. I've heard great things 
about the new RH 8.1 beta from friends. You unfortunately may be jaded after 
trying 8.0(note to all those who haven't figured out the cardinal rule about 
RH: Never use a redhat .0 release!!!!) I hope this helped in the least bit. 
Good luck in your search.

--Brian Jackson

On Thursday 27 February 2003 12:59 pm, Haines Brown wrote:
> I've always used Red Hat. My installation of 7.3 began to go sour last
> fall after a clumbsy video driver installation. Things got more
> and more complicated, and I ended up having to do a fresh install of
> Red Hats 8.0. Since then, things just have not worked right and I'm
> spending all to much of my valuable time doing repairs, often
> unsuccessfully.
>
> I'm considering a retreat to 7.3, but must also consider changing
> distributions. Here are my criteria:
>
> 1. I like to rely as much as possible on keyboard input rather than
>    the mouse. Red Hat seems to be moving in the opposite direction,
>    and more and more I'm being forced to use the mouse.
>
> 2. I must have multiple desktops and window stacking. I don't know
>    that any window manager supports stacking order except
>    enlightenment. Yet I like Gnome's panel and applets. These two
>    applications don't get along well in RedHat 8.0, but do in gentoo;
>    I don't know about other distributions. I've never used Windows,
>    and so don't find anything appealing in a Windows-like interface.
>
> 3. I've got plenty of hardware muscle, so don't worry much about
>    speed. It is fairly standard SCSI and USB stuff, hardware
>    compatibility is probably not a big issue.
>
> 4. I don't need to be at the bleeding edge in terms of kernel and
>    applications, but I need my stand-alone workstation with DSL
>    connection to be secure and reliable. I've an interest in ham radio,
>    which used to favor one distribution, but I assume there's no
>    significant difference today.
>
> 5. I don't find ease of installation to be an issue, and am quite
>    willing to put up with gentoo's notoriously slow compile.
>
> 6. I'm quite willing to edit configuration files by hand, but will
>    occasionally need spiritual advice, and so would prefer a
>    distribution that's not too exotic. I find configuration files that
>    are on the move to be a pain.
>
> 7. I mostly use a few standard applications, especially emacs.
>
> In light of this, which distributions should I be considering? Does
> one of them stand out in your opinion as an obvious choice in light of
> my criteria?
>
> Haines
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