Which is your Favourite Linux?

SR_Ind said:
Talking of Linux...today I tried to remove postfix from a RHEL server and the package manager was kind enough to advise me that such a move requires removal of cron.

Or if I remove ATI driver then the entire xorg video driver meta package needs a removal.

How do people work with this sorry excuse of an OS called Linux?
Click to expand...

Read this interesting article:

"RPM hell: A Perfect Example of Good Software Crippled by Bad Design"
 
SR_Ind said:
Talking of Linux...today I tried to remove postfix from a RHEL server and the package manager was kind enough to advise me that such a move requires removal of cron.

Or if I remove ATI driver then the entire xorg video driver meta package needs a removal.

How do people work with this sorry excuse of an OS called Linux?
Click to expand...
I'd say it's the continuing symptom at being at the mercy of binary package management. When you use meta-packages, you're stuck with what the package maintainer felt should be included. Interestingly, the cron dependency seems to have been removed as of Fedora 13, so that won't come to RHEL until version 7.

http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=5491

That said, I do like Scientific Linux. I don't have much fondness for Debian ever since that ssl "bug" that the packager introduced.
 
I started as Slackware, they are one of the leaner, but still more full featured ones that don't come with many services enabled to hog system resources on older hardware. I also enjoyed using things like ZipSlack back when it was still sort of unique to have it, when livecds were hard to come by.

Nowadays I'm mostly a Fedora guy when I have to use linux, but that is usually when I want a virtualbox guest of it.

Still think BSD is cooler though :D
 
Ive heard that Fedora, Gentoo, Debian, and Arch are also pretty good to come by. To me it seems like the syntax sort of strays further away from Unix, which would be overwhelming for me because Im trying to learn Free and OpenBSD. In terms of system resource, xfce and flux are good regardless of what OS is being used lol.
 
Why do you hate them? I think they've done open source a world of good. Just because you like FreeBSD doesn't mean you have to put down Linux.
 
I tried Slackware first, sticking with it for a couple of years, then Debian (favorite for general purpose use), have found RHEL to be very well-supported at work (Fortune 100 companies don't usually approve running Oracle clusters on FreeBSD for production machines, for example), but the one I like the most and am most likely to use is probably back|track. the live cd boots well on a great many machines and it has a wonderful set of tools for security audits and the like. I could (and to some degree do) load most of the same packages up in FreeBSD, but many of these packages are not known for working out of the box, and a quick boot off the disk gives me access to all of them in generally working order. Still prefer FreeBSD when possible, at least on PC type hardware.

For timeframes, I fist used both Solaris (back when it was still BSD-based) and Slackware in 1995, Debian in about 97 and FreeBSD in probably 1998. Have tried many different distributions and OSes since but above is still basically what I prefer.
 
Grell said:
Why do you hate them? I think they've done open source a world of good. Just because you like FreeBSD doesn't mean you have to put down Linux.
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Because I'm tired of coming to the FreeBSD forum and having to read about Linux.
 
Grell said:
Why do you hate them? I think they've done open source a world of good. Just because you like FreeBSD doesn't mean you have to put down Linux.
Click to expand...

Because they've re-invented a whole heap of stuff that was not originally a GPL project "just because" and done a pretty crappy job of much of it.
 
throAU said:
Because they've re-invented a whole heap of stuff that was not originally a GPL project "just because" and done a pretty crappy job of much of it.
Click to expand...

Though I'm a little more Biased towards the BSD License; I don't know I'd go as far as saying everything they did was bad or even not OK. I came from Windows 98 on my first ever PC, so just about anything I tossed on that box was an improvement in terms of Stability.... Windows 9X had Memory Leaks so bad you'd think the people who made the movie "Deep Blue Sea" would have been working ON it.
 
gore said:
Windows 9X had Memory Leaks so bad you'd think the people who made the movie "Deep Blue Sea" would have been working ON it.
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Wouldn't then "Memento" be a better analogy?

And as for hating Linux - if there was no Linux, one had to write one. And if there was no Vista, one had to write one. Simply because each scale of measurement needs a lowest end.
 
I enjoyed using Debian for some time. Slackware was pretty cool. Gentoo was quite interesting, but I loved FreeBSD the most!
 
Crivens said:
Wouldn't then "Memento" be a better analogy?

And as for hating Linux - if there was no Linux, one had to write one. And if there was no Vista, one had to write one. Simply because each scale of measurement needs a lowest end.
Click to expand...

Maybe; I've slept about 12 hours in the last 8 Days.
 
GuillotinePartition said:
Ive heard that Fedora, Gentoo, Debian, and Arch are also pretty good to come by. To me it seems like the syntax sort of strays further away from Unix, which would be overwhelming for me because Im trying to learn Free and OpenBSD. In terms of system resource, xfce and flux are good regardless of what OS is being used lol.
Click to expand...

POSIX is portable knowledge. If you ever need to write a portable script you have two options:

1. Pick a language which you plan to be installed on every system (i.e. perl, python or ruby)

2. Use sh(1) and double check against the POSIX standard: http://rubyprogrammer.net/~stu/posix/
 
UNIXgod said:
1. Pick a language which you plan to force every possible user to have it be installed on every system (i.e. perl, python or ruby)
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Or how it may be percived by others.
 
Used RedHat on main desktop 10 years ago, then switched to FreeBSD for a while before staying with Windows for better hardware support.
Tried Debian on a Thinkpad X32 two years ago, but hated ugly binary packages dependencies and eventually installed Windows 7 as a revenge. When upgrading main desktop system from 2ghz pentium M to a less outdated amd64 thing, will probably install Slackware for better multimedia and sensor hardware support, but keep most non-deskstop stuff running on a FreeBSD VM.
 
For Desktop use, I've used a lot of different OSs, and I still have most of them, but I've had pretty good results with PC-BSD. It's basically FreeBSD with a face lift, some paint and polish, and some custom apps to make use of it as a Desktop a LOT easier.

Out of the box, with a normal installation, you have Ports, you have Sound, and if you have a supported Video Card, 3D.
 
I cut my Linux teeth on RedHat. I moved to Slackware. Favorite is Slackware, but CentOS comes in a close 2nd. I was an admin for a SCO server and I've work with Solaris.

-JJ
 
After deciding to migrate from M$ products, I tried a great bunch of linux distros - first was Ubuntu, then they shipped free livecds, and I ordered one for myself. After digging into it a bit, I read about Debian and installed it - that improved the stability of my desktop. Later I tried Fedora, but at that time it was somewhat broken (the release was just out and it was not stable and missed something, though I can't remember now what exactly). After Fedora came OpenSuse, Mandriva, and then Slackware. First time I was compiling software. After Slackware I moved to Gentoo and compiled my first kernel and system successfully. Then I was advised to try Archlinux and I liked it very much. I stayed with it until moving to FreeBSD recently. The main reason to do this was that I like to learn everything new.

So, to sum everything up, I'd like to point out several things, couple of words on each distro I used:
1. Ubuntu - too simple, a lot of not needed stuff
2. Debian - great distro, if not freebsd, maybe I could have it installed, secure and reliable
3. Fedora - didn't like rpm and yum, constant breakage of everything (at the time I used it, maybe it changed now)
4. OpenSuse - can't say everything real bad, moved from it because didn't want to do everything from GUI, and in OpenSUSE it is the most obvious way.
5. Mandriva - not bad distro, but again, too concentrated on GUI
6. Slackware - great one, stable and easy to configure once you begin to understand it
7. CentOS -good, though uses rpm and yum
8. Gentoo - best for learning
9. Archlinux - best for anything.

So, my three favorites are Archlinux, Debian, Slackware.
 
I personally LOVE SUSE Linux; I've met most of the people who work on it, and they were really cool guys, and even did favors for me, who is, at the time, a total no one, like me saying to Marcus Meissner "Hey man, that Kernel update, I know I need to reinstall my Nvidia Driver, but it literally isn't working, and blah blah blah here is what I did, here was what happened, here is my hardware, any ideas?" And he actually went into work early to fix the Kernel update, and re-released it, and sent it to me and announced it a little afterwards and it worked.

I was pretty amazed to say the least; Marcus Meissner is the head of SUSE security, or at least at the time, I haven't kept up to date on everything since I've been reading MAD Magazine, and BSD Magazine lately instead of web sites right now) But yea it was pretty nice to say the least.

I've also gotten Patrick Volkerding of Slackware to do a small favor for me because I'm lazy sometimes; I didn't want to have to actually compile Irssi for IRC, and it's my favorite IRC client, like ever. So I sent him an Email, or called his Cell, I don't remember all the details, but I basically told him "Hey man, I really love Irssi, and I don't want to have to compile it all the time, can you add it to Slackware? Come on man, you have *beep**beep**beep**beep**beep*X can you add it plleeeeeeease? :) ) And what was in the Release notes for the very next release of Slackware? "Irssi IRC client added to Slackware".... SWEET!

I like how he and the SUSE guys were totally cool, and actually went out of their ways for me, who did not ever work for these people. I can also say the exact same thing about Marshal Kirk McKusick, who is totally amazingly funny, and REALLY nice.

I got to talk to him a few times, and I was worried about annoying him thinking "God how many people have Emailed this guy and bugged him with being a fan boi?? How many Emails must he get from nerds like me saying they think he's Brilliant and they LOVE the DVD?" And instead of being annoyed, he was Happy to talk to me, and thanked me a lot for the compliments, and it was great.
 
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