do you test other distros?

[ChrisM]

Well its not even been 6 months since I completely ditched winblows, but now that I have, I see absolutely no reason why I should ever go back. If anything, there is more reason to stay with Linux.

 

My first venture in Linuxland was with Mandrake 9.2 and I've since briefly tasted mdk 10 and now I'm at 10.1

 

Using Mandrake at first was difficult, but only because of hardware issues - the first box wouldn't install at all until it had a bios flash upgrade. Then I had ever continuing issues with my speedtouch330 usb modem. I now use ethernet.

 

Mandrake has in a way forced me to think about my 'puta in a zillion ways that M$ didn't. I can leave my box as it is now and not worry - it will do the essentials - and it does it better and more efficiently than M$ did.

 

Or, I can now take the time and effort and get to know how it all works - which is my favoured option. I'll stick with Mandrake for at least the forseeable future, and get to know more about the powers of linux, but at the moment see no reason to leave it. I like Mandrake Linux and it has everything I need and more too. I've a nice little collection of distros from computer ags which haven't even had the boxes opened - learning 1 flavour at the moment is enough work, though I occasionaly look at a live distro if its come with a computa mag (slax, damn small linux, knoppix - which i like - and will look at suse9.2 which I just got today) but this is really just for fun. Did I say fun, I mean interest.

 

I'm looking at getting a nice new box maybe sometime next year. Might use my old stuff to look at other linux distros then. Whatever, the biggest thing for me right now is that I've made the switch to Linux.

Edited November 22, 2004 by ChrisM

[Darkelve]

Ah... M$ Windoze... the distro that couldn't :P

[arthur]

stayed with mandrake for a few months, just to learn the ropes, then switched to gentoo. i was planning on distro-hopping, but i stopped after one hop - gentoo grew too much on me. I got the ubuntu cds in the mail, but I'm not planning to switch at all, I'll just try out other distros if i get another PC. so the ubuntu cds will stay unused for a while...

[iphitus]

Until now, the only distro/version I have tried other than Mandrake, was SuSE 9.0 Pro. This month, I looked on eBay and got SuSE 9.2 Pro and Debian 3.0 R3 CD sets. The SuSE is for evaluating. Given my fixed - low - disability income, I can't afford to plunk down nearly $100 just to see if it works and suits my needs. If I like SuSE 9.2 Pro, and it suits my needs, I will buy the boxed set.

 

Currently I am in SuSE 9.2 Pro. If I had enough disk space, I would attempt Debian install from the CDs (9 of them - 7 + 2 updates).

 

I don't check out different distros that often, since Mandrake Powerpack has been a rock solid mainstay for me (even 10.0 CE Powerpack). Once I get a box built just for testing different distros, then I will do so more often.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ergh, Don't complain if you find debian o l d. As far as I know, Debian release, woody or Stable, is still using GNOME 2.2. Debian have three versions, Debian stable which is generally old, but rock hard stable, secure and doesnt have many bugs. Then at the other end of the scale is debian unstable, latest stuff, reasonably cutting edge. In the middle is Sarge, Testing which will soon become debian stable, it's a bit in between unstable and stable. I used unstable for a few months and it was great. You will also find the debian stable installer horrendous :)

 

If you have cable or fast internet you'd be best installing debian with this:

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

 

 

iphitus

[SoulSe]

I try new distros out quite often, but only if they offer something new or exciting. Thing is, I haven't found one that I would replace Gentoo with in the last... almost two years now.

 

Arch lived on my spare box for a while and Ubuntu lives on it now (very nice) but Gentoo still rocks the casbah.

[Sarissi]

Iphitus, I am a KDE guy. Did you mean Gnome 2.2 or kernel 2.2?

[Gowator]

Iphitus, I am a KDE guy. Did you mean Gnome 2.2 or kernel 2.2?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm nopt sure its important, his point is there is loads of newer stuff, just not in stable. :D

 

I have to admit after converting to debian I l love it.

It works on MY hardware ..

 

I'm aware as aRTee points out that this is really just kernel support but my biggest problem with Mandrake is the lack of description of their kernels.

I never have less than 1GB RAM so I alsways ended up on enterprise and I never knew quite what it did nor what patches/optimisations were made.

What I did discover was the .config was just a fake (compiling with it does not make the same kernel) so this is when I stopped using Mandrake for anything critical ... In effect they are no longer GPL or marginally so... the source code is there but if you compile it it is no longer the same kernel they made ... this gave me endless problems at one point.

 

Debian Kernels on the other hand are exactly what they say.... the source compiles into an identical kernel to the one they pre-compile.

Gentoo rocks too..... I gotta play more...

 

Ubuntu... Im wondering WHY ... it is obviously rockin cos so many people I respect say so..but its just another Debian? Like Xandos/Linspire et al?

 

Over the weekend I tried the latest kanotix live CD (another Debian)... and it rocks.. A single CD which I gave to the poor winblows sufferer... used the captive NTFS and cleaned the virus off his disk.... :D

 

I made a copy for myself so I guess Ill have to try it too....

 

I love the diversity of Linux....

Its the difference of living in say a great multicultural city or a sucessful monoculture... somehow there is always a different takeaway in linux... whereas WinLand is some boring franchise????

 

I just got MDK 10.1 CE so I think Ill install it tonoght on a test machine...it looks awesome... if it supports my memory and nforce2 without quirks it can stay....

[Sarissi]

Gowater, surprisingly SuSE 9.2 Pro handles my nForce2 mobo just fine. It even turns the computer off when I log off and tell it to shut down (unlike mandrake 10.0 CE powerpack). Other than the shutdown and don't use the auto login cause the logout don't work right, 10.0 CE powerpack works fine.

[aRTee]

Gowator, you have to use the .srpm to get to the same kernel as Mandrake does.

 

Do me a favour, stop complaining about Mandrake not being GPL.

It's not true, and borders on FUD.

 

Mdk 10.1 (ce and oe) supports up to 1GB with the standard kernel.

[Gowator]

Gowator, you have to use the .srpm to get to the same kernel as Mandrake does.

 

Do me a favour, stop complaining about Mandrake not being GPL.

It's not true, and borders on FUD.

 

Mdk 10.1 (ce and oe) supports up to 1GB with the standard kernel.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Except it isn't the same.

uprmi <somekernel>.srpm should give the same config file as Mandrake used... however first point they have added an extraversion tag as _custom.

 

So I edit this back, recompile and somehow my kernel is a different size to the one Mandrake compiled.

Since I have asked about 20x what patches are appllied to x,y,z kernel and noone is ever able to tell me I don't think its just me that can't find the documentation for this.

 

It is a debateable matter if the patches and .config are considered the sourcecode but unless i can make an IDENTICAL kernel with make and make_modules then this is not truly the source....

 

this works for me with debian kernels but not the Mandrake ones...

 

If it worries Mandrake they should DOCUMENT the kernels....

 

so unless i know which patches are applied I can't use the kernel... I mightest well use WinBlows as a kernel I don't know. (almost)

 

if this is B.S. then just post me a link to the kernel docs for the mandrake kernels ... because I can't find a proper list of patches....

 

The reason this is important is illustrated above:

Gowater, surprisingly SuSE 9.2 Pro handles my nForce2 mobo just fine. It even turns the computer off when I log off and tell it to shut down (unlike mandrake 10.0 CE powerpack).

Yep so if I know what patches and stuff Suse uses I should be able to copy their kernel... or diff their .config next to the Mandrake one.... except the mandrake one doesn't contain all the info....

 

This is why I stopped using MDK for real work because I could never tell what had been done to the 'enterprise' kernel. I wasted a long time doing this and at one point neither had sound or 1GB of RAM but never both....

 

I suggest trying the compilation on a few of the mandrake kernels ... then just see the size of the file. If it is 1 byte different then the .config is BS...

There is NO EXCUSE for this... really they must deliberately replace the .config or something but I don't see how this is accidental. But please aRTee do this and satisfy yourself... It took me a long time to accept this ....

 

What I found was always compiling your own kernel is a pain because you have to keep doing it.... when you 'upgrade' you find things don't work until you add back stuff. I can do this in Debian with a single script that gets everything from kernel.org and applies the patches ... thus things like SD support etc. I know the status of. I can never tell with Mandrake and the non-default kernels always seem to have other weirdness ....

[arctic]

Ubuntu... Im wondering WHY ... it is obviously rockin cos so many people I respect say so..but its just another Debian? Like Xandos/Linspire et al?

well, you could say it is just another debian. but the fact is that you get a newer debian that has put great effort into a nice looking and working gnome-desktop. the only advantage of ubuntu over debian is that you get a "relatively new debian-package" that works out of the box (with very good usb-support due to 2.6.8 kernel). no big tweaking needed, no dependency problems. also: ubuntu needs only one cd and you can get that one for free, shipped to your house for no cost.

i also used kanotix (and still use it for certain tasks) and yes, you get debian in a hurry. same with ubuntu.

[Michel]

Well,

 

I don't switch much. I have been using Mandrake for 2-2.5 years or so. You can learn gradually abotu linux this way according to my opinion. For a moment I tested arklinux, but I went back to Mandrake.

 

Since 3-4 months I'm using archlinux now and am really pleased with it. It's fast as far as I know, it's stable for me. The package-manager is simple and nice and is getting better. If you compile a package, you download the source from the web, ... Ofcourse there is room for improvement (security to my opinion) ... It's a community-effort.

 

Michel

Edited November 28, 2004 by Michel

[bvc]

I said "never (why should I)" :P but that's because I already have. I think if you have the time and want to learn you should try other distros. LFS was my first after 1 year of mandrake and taught me the most. I don't like getting just my toes wet, just throw me in and leave me for dead ...then I'll learn my way out. Slackware would be the next best learner, IMO.

 

Currently, I have ML-10.2-cooker (installed since ML-9.2...it's getting kinda wacky) and Ubuntu-Hoary Devel-Branch. I've almost removed mandrake a few times, but since it's been my main for 2.5 of 3.5 years and always been installed except for 2 weeks, I leave it. Debian was my main for a year.

 

Ubuntu? What arctic said. Except, eventually you will start seeing other distros using what they do to the sourcecode, so then ubuntu won't see as unique. My then, it'll have its community to keep them on top of those that use their sourcecode.

 

Kernel? run mandrakes and get the /proc/config.gz and diff it to the kernel-source defconfig. Should be the same. If it's not, you'll quickly know what's diff so you can get the patches to make it the same. I realize patching an mdk kernel is tough, but I highly doubt whatever is missing is something 99% need :P

[Padma]

Just a little. A couple years ago I dabbled with RedHat & Suse, just to experience a little more of what was available. I also keep a Knoppix CD handy for emergencies. ;) And I am currenlty playing a bit with Gentoo.

 

But mostly, I stick with Mandrake. Ever since 10.0 CE came out, and I made "the switch". Heck, last month I had to reformat my HD (Windows had screwed the partition table, and I couldn't access over 30Gig of wasted space in the Windows partition), and I couldn't even get Windows to install properly. So rather than waste time trying to solve the problem, I just did a clean install of MDK 10.1. Happy, happy, joy, joy. (Of course, now I have a 10Gig NTFS partition sitting empty, but I'll take care of that someday....)

[axel_2078]

I just received a copy of Mepis and I'm going to try that out for a while, if I can figure out how to get the wireless part set up. Wireless is such a pain in Linux. That's what kept me from using Mandrake after I moved. Mepis has a wireless configuration tool, which I like, but I still can't figure out how to get it to work. I wish I could go back to wired ethernet.