Recommendation

R

ray4389

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
1,156
What would be the best linux distro for me to use with my system. I'm looking for a good solid distro that would be easy to use. I've pidddles with Mepis, Knoppix, and FC2 and FC3. I have never made long term use out of them though. When I installed FC3 there were liek 99 updates and none of them seemed to update. I couldn't get thme to work. Maybe a newer version is better?

I would like to be able to tyr gaming on this distro hwoever I have no clue how to install anything.

I know you go to the input thing and type in crap. But I have no clue what to type each time and the -t or -rt and random letters are meaningless to me. I am really intrested in Linux and have been but these things hinder me alot.
 
For ease of installing software, I like apt. Unlike RPMs, apt deals with dependencies for you. And, unlike yum, apt's initial configuration is straight forward and its Debian repos are robust. Even better, with apt, you don't have to worry about odd switches and flag when you're installing software. Instead, you simple type "apt-get install <package name>" and everything is done for you.

Apt comes natively with Debian. I know that Debian has a bad reputation for being difficult to install, but the (relatively) new graphical installer is excellent and makes installation virtually as easy as, say, Fedora. You can find it at http://www.nl.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/.

Hope this helps.
 
ray: if you are going to use Linux, whether Fedora, Debian, etc... you are going to have to learn to use the command line, you know that, "go to the input thing and type in crap" thingy. period. Pick a popular distro and buy and book and start reading, that is the only way to do it. Personally I recommend Fedora, it's the least painful distro IMHO and has tons of books out there.

To install programs is pretty easy and usually fall into 2 categories scripted and rpm (we're talking Redhat here)

For rpms: rpm -ivh package.rpm
For scripts: sh ./file.sh

Learn to use the "man" pages to figure out what the command's switches mean, i.e.

man ls <--- tells you how use the ls command
 
Yea I forgot the name of the command thing. I swear fedora has a another name for it. I have FC2 for Dummies. I'm not ocmputer illiterate. Just LInux. I can use linux decently but I don't know anything about installing stuff. It seems like you usually type (for rpms)
install ????.rpm -rt

what does the -rt mean?
 
Hate to do it, but everyone's been there.....

"man install"


look for the -r switch and its description, and the same for the -t description (careful, it may be case sensitive, so description for -T could be different for -t)

Aint linux a blast? :D
 
lunaris: "For ease of installing software, I like apt. Unlike RPMs, apt deals with dependencies for you. And, unlike yum, apt's initial configuration is straight forward and its Debian repos are robust. Even better, with apt, you don't have to worry about odd switches and flag when you're installing software. Instead, you simple type "apt-get install <package name>" and everything is done for you."

Misrepresentations.

"Unlike RPMS, apt..."

doesn't make sense. .rpm is a package format. apt is a package manager. .deb is the analog of .rpm, not apt.

The rpm package manager does not automatically resolve dependencies, this is true. Neither does dpkg, the equivalent simple tool for dealing with .debs. There are several commonly used RPM package managers which _do_ automatically resolve, retrieve and install dependencies in the same way as apt, including urpmi, smart, apt4rpm and yum. The command to install packages with most of these is equally simple to debian's (e.g.: urpmi packagename).

"And, unlike yum, apt's initial configuration is straight forward"

As I understand it, yum comes preconfigured just like apt, and adding new sources is a matter of editing a text configuration file just like apt. The instructions for both package managers are widely available. I personally use urpmi, which uses a command called urpmi.addmedia to add sources; there are several tools that help you do this, including http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ .

Debian stopped being the only distro with a dependency resolving package manager years before most people in this forum started using Linux. Please, it's time to move on.
 
AdamW said:
As I understand it, yum comes preconfigured just like apt, and adding new sources is a matter of editing a text configuration file just like apt...
Click to expand...

Fair enough. However, when I used configured yum with FC3, I found myself having to having to chase down which repo had which piece of software. In my experience, the Debian repos are more robust in that virtually everything you may want is in a single place. However, its very possible that I just failed to identify all the good repos immediately.

Please, it's time to move on.
Click to expand...

That's a bit extreme, isn't it? There are clearly a lot of good package management tools out there. The OP asked for an opinion on which he should use, and I gave him mine. This doesn't mean I'm not open to other options.
 
Do any of you have experience with FC3? I can't seem to get it to update. It shows 99 updates but none will d/l. And I have a very fast connection.
 
lunaris: I meant, it's time to move on from the mindset some Debian users are still stuck in where they have the One True Package Management System and everyone else is typing rpm -Uvh...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top