May move from Mandrake

[ions]

Since I've found the majority of my Linux experience to be a big buggy mess I'm considering switching to a different distro. I understand that Mandrake is bloated because it's so newb friendly and I really can't lose too much newb usability because I'm a supreme twit but I'm willing to take a chance on another distro.

Any thoughts? I'm currently reading up on Gentoo and Debian.

[FlipinMonkeyPie]

slackware is awesome. I recommend you try it.

[posw2ksocks]

try freebsd 4.8! i was leary of cli until i loaded my server with freebsd and i haven't looked back since! i use freebsd on my server and mdk 9.1 on this laptop. i read the absolute bsd handbook every day and i even learned how to recompile my OS. it used to take me close to an hour to reimage a computer and recompile it with a custom OS but now it only takes about 20 mins from start to finish. it's a great book for newbies, concise, plenty of examples, and in plain english!

[pilotgi]

SuSE 8.2. I've used Mandrake and SuSE and I think SuSE is superior.

FreeBSD 4.8 is on the way and I'm excited.

[plattypus1]

If you're up for the challenge, try Gentoo. It's a hassle at first, but the speed and emerge are worth it.

However, if you don't have a high-speed connection, just go slack.

[ions]

Currently downloading Gentoo at 300+ Kb/s from here: ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo/releases/1.4_rc4/x86/x86/livecd/

Do I download all 4 files that are there or just the large iso?

[serz]

Originally posted by ions
Do I download all 4 files that are there or just the large iso?

No, you only need one of those. Get the one that it's like 200mb, gentoo 1.4 rc4 3stages.

Have fun with Gentoo :)

[ions]

Well the disk is burned. If you don't see me here whining about something now working it's because I couldn't get this to work at all. :D

[ions]

Well that was fast. Boot to CD failed.

[Chadduss]

you did remember to print all of the guides mentioned by hayl in THIS (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104475&highlight=gentoo+hayl) thread. If I hadn't I dont know what I'd have done.

[volumefiend]

slackware. my main machine is running mandrake 9.1...its awesome. its as good for pros as it is for newbies.

slackware is on my laptop, and its dope.

the top choices are slackware, debain, and gentoo.

[ions]

Originally posted by Chadduss
you did remember to print all of the guides mentioned by hayl in THIS (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104475&highlight=gentoo+hayl) thread. If I hadn't I dont know what I'd have done.

Ummm here's the thing. I'm out of toner. A new cartridge is about $130CDN I don't have at the moment. :(

I can hook up my XP machine to the cable modem and get directions if I need to though. It's a pain but it works.

[ions]

Originally posted by volumefiend
slackware. my main machine is running mandrake 9.1...its awesome. its as good for pros as it is for newbies.

slackware is on my laptop, and its dope.

the top choices are slackware, debain, and gentoo.

Is there a Slackware iso file I can burn?

[Chadduss]

Originally posted by ions
Ummm here's the thing. I'm out of toner. A new cartridge is about $130CDN I don't have at the moment. :(

I can hook up my XP machine to the cable modem and get directions if I need to though. It's a pain but it works.

You should keep the installation guide always open on that computer. It will make life so much easier. Oh and HERE'S (http://slackware.com/getslack/) some slackware mirrors

[Saptech]

Slackware.com (http://www.slackware.com/getslack/)

You may also wanna check out JAMD (http://www.jamd-linux.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1)
Linux, it's like RH 9 but without the bloat.

[nextbillgates]

If you think Mandrake is a buggy, bloated mess, you're going to be hating life with Slackware.

Go with Gentoo ;)

[Saptech]

Originally posted by nextbillgates
If you think Mandrake is a buggy, bloated mess, you're going to be hating life with Slackware.

Go with Gentoo ;)
I bet he'll have more problems with Gentoo then with Slackware 9.0!

[nextbillgates]

Originally posted by Saptech
I bet he'll have more problems with Gentoo then with Slackware 9.0!

At least until he attempts to install software, which is a given considering Slackware's meager selection.

[isamoor]

What the heck? Since when is Slackware bloated? It's been my experience that it's just the opposite. It has some legacy apps on the install disk, but you can just not select them. Slackware is by far the quickest Linux distro I've ever used.

Now I'm not saying it's perfect. It is not a newbie distro. It's best for people that are moving away from other distros like Mandrake that would prefer the simplicity of Slack. I hope the thread starter gave Slackware a shot. I hope he was ready for a lot of config file editing too of course. :)

The package management isn't perfect. I can, however, compile just about anything I want since Slack is so standardized. Mandrake, Suse and RedHat are a gamble half the time when you try and compile from source.

Gentoo might be nice, and maybe I should give it a try..., but I don't have that much time. Beyond Slack, I don't think I need that much extra speed. And I like controlling what apps I run the bleeding edge version of, instead of just trusting to the portage guys.

Mainly, I just wanted to defend that Slackware is not bloated. It runs smooth and clean from the get-go in my experience.

Later,

Isamoor

[nextbillgates]

I should clarify: I wasn't suggesting that Slackware is bloated, but due to the lack of dependancy checking, installing extra software can leave one banging their head against the wall, whereas dependancies in Gentoo are already met. And you can choose what bleeding edge software you want in Gentoo. You're not just tied down to what the Portage maintainers consider stable.

[Saptech]

Even though Slackware is the oldest distro still around, i'm sure people must get over it's meager software installation routine also.

Just do it the old fashion way! :D

[nextbillgates]

Originally posted by Saptech
Even though Slackware is the oldest distro still around, i'm sure people must get over it's meager software installation routine also.

Just do it the old fashion way! :D

Try installing Chromium from a base Slackware install. Happy hunting :D

[isamoor]

Here's the directions I found for Chromium, directly from the creators site:

http://www.reptilelabour.com/software/chromium/download.htm

I'll admit I didn't try compiling it, but I sure didn't have to look very far.

This does go to show where emerge would be one whole heck of a lot easier.

I think I'm gonna bypass Gentoo and go try out FreeBSD instead. I like the idea of a combination of Gentoo/Debian package management.

I also kinda gotta admit I like the consistency with FreeBSD where it's just 1 distro for 1 kernel, so they can host all great documentation right at their site.


Slackware/Vector isn't leaving my computer any time soon though.

Later,

Isamoor

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

I don't use a distro.

I just boot the kernel directly, and enter all of my commands in hex. Right now, I'm composing this post through a hack in the vfs filesystem layer that I've worked through the SCSI driver.

Yeah, that's gibberish, but so is every suggestion anyone can make to you about choosing a distro. Sure, the distro may work for that person, but the only way to know whether it'll work for you is to use the distro.

Nobody's mentioned it yet, so I will:

www.distrowatch.com

It has TONS of distros, and they even provide links for you to download.

[dlausevic]

Why don't you try Redhat? It couldn't hurt. Besides, it's newbie-ized as well. Just my $.02