Favorite Linux distro?

Favorite Linux distro?

  • Ubuntu

    Votes: 31 25.6%

  • Fedora

    Votes: 10 8.3%

  • CentOS/RHEL (Server Usage)

    Votes: 10 8.3%

  • CentOS/RHEL (Desktop Usage)

    Votes: 1 0.8%

  • openSUSE

    Votes: 5 4.1%

  • Debian

    Votes: 17 14.0%

  • ArchLinux

    Votes: 15 12.4%

  • Slackware

    Votes: 2 1.7%

  • FreeBSD or other BSD Varant (I don't use Linux)

    Votes: 5 4.1%

  • Other

    Votes: 25 20.7%
  • Total voters
    121
Vermillion said:
I've recently ditched anything Ubuntu based for Arch. Ubuntu builds had a weird issue with the wireless card in my laptop. It would work at home no issue, but I couldn't route out on the guest network at work. Both wireless connections are standard WPA2-Personal. Installed Arch and all works great. So either the ath9k drivers in Ubuntu derivatives are crappy, the kernel in Ubuntu (3.0.x) has an issue with the driver, or perhaps even both.

Arch works like a champ though with kernel 3.2.8-1 and the ath9k driver. Arch overall is faster too due to the lack of bloat. If Arch ever gives me an issue I think I'm going Gentoo after this. I've always been a Windows guy and then I found Android which led me to dive into Linux more then I ever did in the past and I'm sad to say I should have jumped ship many years ago because this is just too damn fun!
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I too have just moved completely to Arch Linux on my laptop to simply be on the bleading edge of linux and it's supporting programs. I also didn't like unity and the way ubuntu was going. Jumping the ubuntu bandwagon was the best thing I ever did for my laptop, which now is also my main rig. You have a good point with gentoo as well, that distro is one that will truly teach you how linux works. Arch has been a fantastic stepping stone for me. Gentoo is the next step :cool:


lilfiend said:
xubuntu, that or lubuntu, but xubuntu is better imo
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Between the two you're right. I like xubuntu as well. I almost went with just that distro over archlinux. However, I'm very glad I went with arch. I learned alot more and am still learning how things work. Gentoo may be my next project :cool:
 
Canadian in Berlin said:
What advantages would Arch offer to a fairly-new Linux user wanting to run it in a dual-boot setup (I'm also a gamer, wanting to boot to Linux to boost my productivity, less distractions).
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That depends entirely on how good you are with Linux and it's command line. Though the wiki at archlinux,org makes things much easier to a newbie I would recommend something like Linux Mint or xubuntu for a distro that just works out of the box.
 
pwrusr said:
I too have just moved completely to Arch Linux on my laptop to simply be on the bleading edge of linux and it's supporting programs. I also didn't like unity and the way ubuntu was going. Jumping the ubuntu bandwagon was the best thing I ever did for my laptop, which now is also my main rig. You have a good point with gentoo as well, that distro is one that will truly teach you how linux works. Arch has been a fantastic stepping stone for me. Gentoo is the next step :cool:



Between the two you're right. I like xubuntu as well. I almost went with just that distro over archlinux. However, I'm very glad I went with arch. I learned alot more and am still learning how things work. Gentoo may be my next project :cool:
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Totally agree on all points. I've played with Gentoo in the past, but it was honestly too advanced for me with my limited Linux knowledge. Arch has already increased my Linux knowledge ten fold and I'm loving every minute of it. Honestly, I wish I had made the switch years ago. Windows is nice, but Linux is flat out amazing once you understand it.

This weekend I ditched Gnome3 almost entirely. I got fed up with the interface which was neat, but I found it clunky for my overall usage. It's also not exactly lightweight either. I considered going back to Xfce or using LXDE, but instead I went in a totally different direction. I'm now on Openbox, tint2, and xcompmgr. LXDE would have worked for what I've done since it uses Openbox, but for the sake of learning even more about Linux I went the harder route and I don't regret it one bit. Still plenty more configuration to do in order to put my desktop exactly how I like it, but it's getting there.
 
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Vermillion said:
Totally agree on all points. I've played with Gentoo in the past, but it was honestly too advanced for me with my limited Linux knowledge. Arch has already increased my Linux knowledge ten fold and I'm loving every minute of it. Honestly, I wish I had made the switch years ago. Windows is nice, but Linux is flat out amazing once you understand it.

This weekend I ditched Gnome3 almost entirely. I got fed up with the interface which was neat, but I found it clunky for my overall usage. It's also not exactly lightweight either. I considered going back to Xfce or using LXDE, but instead I went in a totally different direction. I'm now on Openbox, tint2, and xcompmgr. LXDE would have worked for what I've done since it uses Openbox, but for the sake of learning even more about Linux I went the harder route and I don't regret it one bit. Still plenty more configuration to do in order to put my desktop exactly how I like it, but it's getting there.
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I'm currently using KDE under arch. It's been working very well so far. I started with XFCE, but it was simply too limited and I had small issues getting the GUI to "just work". Things like USB drives needed to be manually mounted. No big deal, but sometimes I'm lazy and don't want to open a termanl and login as root just to "# mount /dev/sdf /home/user/mount". KDE made it EASY and it's not as clunky as I thought it would be, :cool:
 
pwrusr said:
I'm currently using KDE under arch. It's been working very well so far. I started with XFCE, but it was simply too limited and I had small issues getting the GUI to "just work". Things like USB drives needed to be manually mounted. No big deal, but sometimes I'm lazy and don't want to open a termanl and login as root just to "# mount /dev/sdf /home/user/mount". KDE made it EASY and it's not as clunky as I thought it would be, :cool:
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I'm not a fan of KDE at all. I recently gave it a shot with Kubuntu and Linux Mint KDE and both made me cringe. Kubuntu just flat out kept failing during upgrades after the initial install and Linux Mint felt clunky and had that issue with my WiFi at work. Plus, I guess I'm just really starting to enjoy a minimalistic interface without all the flashy transitions and pretty icons and stuff.

I'm slowly adding in the other pieces of my cobbled together DE. For auto-mounting and other things I'm still using the underlying gnome pieces. Even though gnome-shell isn't running I can still use pieces of Gnome, like Gnome Terminal which is nicer then Xterm. Nautilus sorta works, but I prefer Thunar so I'm probably going to install that and probably grab the xfce terminal as well. Then I'll remove Gnome3 completely from my system.

I need to learn to either configure Tint2 to allow me to launch apps (if that's even possible) or I have to find a dock of some sort. I considered Cairo-Dock, but I dislike the Fisher Price OS X like interface. I really just want something simple and light. Think maybe I'll go check out docker actually. ;)

I gotta admit, even though I don't worry about RAM usage because my laptop has 8GB's, it's neat to boot up and only be using 242MB in a fully hardware accelerated environment. Could run this build on a netbook and it would honestly be lighting fast and fully functional.
 
got a bunch of spare computers to install&play *nix in. which distro should i install if i want to learn *nix network administrator in general? hopefully smb, mac os x file sharing/printer sharing, etc. also LAMP obviously. AD? etc.etc.etc. all the goodies.
 
JediFonger said:
got a bunch of spare computers to install&play *nix in. which distro should i install if i want to learn *nix network administrator in general? hopefully smb, mac os x file sharing/printer sharing, etc. also LAMP obviously. AD? etc.etc.etc. all the goodies.
Click to expand...

Unless you get free electricity or have obscure hardware, don't bother. You can learn just about everything there is to know about Linux simply by using virtual machines. Networking is also much easier to learn in a virtual environment because you can rapidly reconfigure the hardware without having to go out and buy anything new. Get VirtualBox and go to town.

As far as distro, it makes little difference; fundamentals like networking and basic server stacks are virtually identical across distros. However, it's tough to go wrong with a RedHat-derived distro since they are so widely used in business environments. CentOS, Fedora and Scientific are all solid choices. Other good choices are Debian or a specialized distro like Untangle that's designed for ease-of-use and rapid deployment.
 
CentOS 6+ for servers (once you learn how to troubleshoot SELinux it's not a big deal)

I run Backtrack 5 on my netbook
 
Unfortunatly I had to ditch arch linux. It's a little too bleeding edge for my tastes. I'm currently running kubuntu, but I'll likely also try out fadorda in the very near future. There's a few more I'd like to try out as well, big one being slackware... If all else fails I'll move to Debian stable.
 
pwrusr said:
Unfortunatly I had to ditch arch linux. It's a little too bleeding edge for my tastes. I'm currently running kubuntu, but I'll likely also try out fadorda in the very near future. There's a few more I'd like to try out as well, big one being slackware... If all else fails I'll move to Debian stable.
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Debian x64 is my fav.

I used to run RedHat 7.2 and Mandrake 8.0 LONG LONG LONG TIME AGO!!
 
Openbox
tint2
Volume Icon
wicd
xfce4-settings-manager
Thunar
Terminal - from XFCE4 since Xterm is ugly ;)
nitrogen
conky

Lean, mean Arch Linux machine right there!
 
dashpuppy said:
worst os they made...
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This :p

I'm personally not likeing the direction ubuntu has been going. Yes it was the distro that really helped me dig my hands into linux, but it seems that they have lost their way a bit. Unity while a good desktop for some applications (netbooks mainly) I'd ratheir use kubuntu or xubuntu IF I stick with the ubuntu oses. I've tried archlinux, just didn't seem all that well put together to me (needed more time that I didn't have). Currently running Kubuntu, but it seems like it was just thrown together. maybe the LTS will be better. For now though I'm going to try out Fadora.

I'll post back in a week or so my findings.
 
pwrusr said:
This :p

I'm personally not likeing the direction ubuntu has been going. Yes it was the distro that really helped me dig my hands into linux, but it seems that they have lost their way a bit. Unity while a good desktop for some applications (netbooks mainly) I'd ratheir use kubuntu or xubuntu IF I stick with the ubuntu oses. I've tried archlinux, just didn't seem all that well put together to me (needed more time that I didn't have). Currently running Kubuntu, but it seems like it was just thrown together. maybe the LTS will be better. For now though I'm going to try out Fadora.

I'll post back in a week or so my findings.
Click to expand...
Kubuntu really does feel quite neglected by Ubuntu. After running Kubuntu for over three years, I switched over to Fedora about a year ago. IMO, it does seem to be an under-appreciated distro.
 
After a miserable attempt to use xubuntu (grrrr configuring Broadcom WiFi offline), I installed Linux Mint 12 instead and it seems to work fine on my HP Tablet PC. Even the Wacom tablet in the screen is properly recognized. :D I'm using it right now and I'll probably dump opensuse (again).

Now if Clear would just release Linux software for the older USB dongle model. I don't want to buy the Atlas model.
 
siliconnerd said:
Kubuntu really does feel quite neglected by Ubuntu. After running Kubuntu for over three years, I switched over to Fedora about a year ago. IMO, it does seem to be an under-appreciated distro.
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Now on Fedora gnome. Been using this for a couple days. So far so good... Just getting used to how Fedora works now.

I also recently got to goto a meeting where the former project lead for fedora was giving a talk at the local L.U.G. picked his brain a bit on different distros and found that for my needs and wants fedora would likely be the best fit. So far he's been right :D
 
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Used to be Ubuntu all the way. That is, until they went all Unity on us.

Haven't really found a new home since. I went back to Gentoo for a while (used it from 2002 to 2005). Turns out it's still pretty high maintenace (the reason I switched to Ubuntu in 2005) so I didn't care for it.

Then I tried Linux Mint. I didn't like it. It felt somehow unfinished.

Then I gave FreeBSD a try, but it was such a backwards PITA to use that I have no desire to continue using it...

So since ditching Ubuntu over Unity I guess I'm sortof *nix homeless...

I just haven't found anything with the maturity and stability of pre-Unity Ubuntu yet.

I still run Ubuntu server edition on my headless server (no Unity to worry about there).

I have considered giving Fedora a try, but then I remembered all the agony of using RedHat in the late 90s and how much I hated the RPM package manager...

Maybe I'll try Debian next?
 
Zarathustra[H];1038521352 said:
Used to be Ubuntu all the way. That is, until they went all Unity on us.

Haven't really found a new home since. I went back to Gentoo for a while (used it from 2002 to 2005). Turns out it's still pretty high maintenace (the reason I switched to Ubuntu in 2005) so I didn't care for it.

Then I tried Linux Mint. I didn't like it. It felt somehow unfinished.

Then I gave FreeBSD a try, but it was such a backwards PITA to use that I have no desire to continue using it...

So since ditching Ubuntu over Unity I guess I'm sortof *nix homeless...

I just haven't found anything with the maturity and stability of pre-Unity Ubuntu yet.

I still run Ubuntu server edition on my headless server (no Unity to worry about there).

I have considered giving Fedora a try, but then I remembered all the agony of using RedHat in the late 90s and how much I hated the RPM package manager...

Maybe I'll try Debian next?
Click to expand...

Me thinks your going to love Debian :)
 
Zarathustra[H];1038521352 said:
Used to be Ubuntu all the way. That is, until they went all Unity on us.

Haven't really found a new home since. I went back to Gentoo for a while (used it from 2002 to 2005). Turns out it's still pretty high maintenace (the reason I switched to Ubuntu in 2005) so I didn't care for it.

Then I tried Linux Mint. I didn't like it. It felt somehow unfinished.

Then I gave FreeBSD a try, but it was such a backwards PITA to use that I have no desire to continue using it...

So since ditching Ubuntu over Unity I guess I'm sortof *nix homeless...

I just haven't found anything with the maturity and stability of pre-Unity Ubuntu yet.

I still run Ubuntu server edition on my headless server (no Unity to worry about there).

I have considered giving Fedora a try, but then I remembered all the agony of using RedHat in the late 90s and how much I hated the RPM package manager...

Maybe I'll try Debian next?
Click to expand...

Debian stable sort of sucks on the desktop. You end so many versions behind on things that it's hard to use new hardware or software. Debian Testing is OK, but it's still sort of rolling.

I like Xubuntu. The packages are up to date, it's like ubuntu but with a UI that works.

Arch seems cool, but rolling releases cause problems for me with some of my dev work. I don't really like that model.
 
InternationalHat said:
Debian stable sort of sucks on the desktop. You end so many versions behind on things that it's hard to use new hardware or software. Debian Testing is OK, but it's still sort of rolling.

I like Xubuntu. The packages are up to date, it's like ubuntu but with a UI that works.

Arch seems cool, but rolling releases cause problems for me with some of my dev work. I don't really like that model.
Click to expand...

That's why you use backports for any recent applications you want/need while keeping everything else rock solid stable. :)
 
Zarathustra[H];1038521352 said:
Used to be Ubuntu all the way. That is, until they went all Unity on us.

Haven't really found a new home since. I went back to Gentoo for a while (used it from 2002 to 2005). Turns out it's still pretty high maintenace (the reason I switched to Ubuntu in 2005) so I didn't care for it.

Then I tried Linux Mint. I didn't like it. It felt somehow unfinished.

Then I gave FreeBSD a try, but it was such a backwards PITA to use that I have no desire to continue using it...

So since ditching Ubuntu over Unity I guess I'm sortof *nix homeless...

I just haven't found anything with the maturity and stability of pre-Unity Ubuntu yet.

I still run Ubuntu server edition on my headless server (no Unity to worry about there).

I have considered giving Fedora a try, but then I remembered all the agony of using RedHat in the late 90s and how much I hated the RPM package manager...

Maybe I'll try Debian next?
Click to expand...
Honestly check out xubuntu as said above. they have a good point with debian being a bit behind on software updates. but they do make a nice stable system for the most part.

I personally got off the ubuntu bandwagon entirely. First I tried Arch Linux, but it just seemed to be a little thrown together so to speak. I'm currently using Fedora, and honestly it's not as bad as I remember redhat being in the late 90's to early 00's. In some ways Fedora is similar to ubuntu from the command line using the package manager "yum". I'm personally coming from using ubuntu after almost 7 years pretty exclusively. so there's a bit to get used to but again it's no where near as bad as I thought it would be :cool:
 
pwrusr said:
Honestly check out xubuntu as said above. they have a good point with debian being a bit behind on software updates. but they do make a nice stable system for the most part.

I personally got off the ubuntu bandwagon entirely. First I tried Arch Linux, but it just seemed to be a little thrown together so to speak. I'm currently using Fedora, and honestly it's not as bad as I remember redhat being in the late 90's to early 00's. In some ways Fedora is similar to ubuntu from the command line using the package manager "yum". I'm personally coming from using ubuntu after almost 7 years pretty exclusively. so there's a bit to get used to but again it's no where near as bad as I thought it would be :cool:
Click to expand...
I will say, of all the distros I've used, I like RH ( centos myself ) the best.

But again; no gui, server only.
 
Distro hopper here. I love each one of them. lol. I don't mind any DE/shell - comfortable with every.

But Arch Linux is my favourite.
 
jonathonball said:
do it, or Arch if you prefer to be closer to the bleeding edge
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Just tried kubuntu lastnight on a spare hp laptop, id have to say its annoying os to use for sure, gnome for the best...

Back to Debian for me, or I'll try arch..
 
dashpuppy said:
Just tried kubuntu lastnight on a spare hp laptop, id have to say its annoying os to use for sure, gnome for the best...

Back to Debian for me, or I'll try arch..
Click to expand...
I wasn't impressed with kubuntu either. It just seemed like there were too many loose ends. About a week into messing with fedora and I'm quite happy with it so far. a little bit of a learning curve, but not as bad as I thought.

ThreeDee said:
linux nub here .. what's "#!"?
Click to expand...
http://crunchbanglinux.org/

# = Crunch
! = Bang
 
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