A little advice please.
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alterecco
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Personally i can recommend ArchLinux. It's more down to the core than Ubuntu, but it's an absolutely fabulous poweruser distro. The community is excellent. In many cases i have gone to Arch forums for solutions to other distro's problems (as with ubuntu/gentoo forums some years ago).
But as always it's a matter of personal taste. You will have some console work to do in Arch, but the payoff is complete control and configurability. Plus the benefit of learning about the base elements of your system.
Other than Gentoo/Ubuntu/Arch i have no preferences. There's a host of good ones out there though, i'm sure.
But as always it's a matter of personal taste. You will have some console work to do in Arch, but the payoff is complete control and configurability. Plus the benefit of learning about the base elements of your system.
Other than Gentoo/Ubuntu/Arch i have no preferences. There's a host of good ones out there though, i'm sure.
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Stormhawk
- Closed Account
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All I really use my computer for is web design and playing Transcendence/Freeciv. Also, I don't have internet hooked up to my computer, so something that installs packages rather easily would be nice.
This is our game. And George is our hero.
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alterecco
- Fleet Officer
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- Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:08 am
- Location: Previously enslaved by the Iocrym
The strength of ArchLinux IMHO is it's package system.
It uses precompiled packages for just about everything, but makes it very easy to compile when necessary. It has a huge community providing custom build packages and bleeding edge versions. It has support for building direct from svn/git/cvs, which is real handy. Also, it's build files are written as pure shell scripts, so its real easy to tweak and build your own.
It uses precompiled packages for just about everything, but makes it very easy to compile when necessary. It has a huge community providing custom build packages and bleeding edge versions. It has support for building direct from svn/git/cvs, which is real handy. Also, it's build files are written as pure shell scripts, so its real easy to tweak and build your own.
All the distros have one of two package systems. They're about the same. Some default to Gnome. Some default to KDE. Some let you choose at installation. They're about the same. Gnome reminds me of classic Macintosh. KDE reminds me more of Windows. It's mostly just the location and layout of the menus. Some stuff is written for one or the other, but most stuff doesn't care. If your desktop came with one distro and you want the other you can get it and switch. It's not completely painless, but it's not too bad.
The differences are things like Ubuntu doesn't let you log into root. Fedora doesn't have sudo configured by default. Some have slightly different directory structures. Stuff like that. The GUI configuration applets are different, but you can't rely on any of those anyhow. google, man, and find are your friends.
Choose whatever geek you're going to go to for help if you need help and use whatever he or she uses. If you plan to ask questions here go with Arch. I use Fedora and I think Gambit- uses Ubuntu, but alterecco answered first which is probably an indication of who would be the first to answer if you get yourself into trouble. If you have someone in the real world you can ask for help go with whatever he or she uses. There are enough annoying differences that it's easiest to help someone with the same distro as you, but it's not as bad as the gap between windows versions.
The differences are things like Ubuntu doesn't let you log into root. Fedora doesn't have sudo configured by default. Some have slightly different directory structures. Stuff like that. The GUI configuration applets are different, but you can't rely on any of those anyhow. google, man, and find are your friends.
Choose whatever geek you're going to go to for help if you need help and use whatever he or she uses. If you plan to ask questions here go with Arch. I use Fedora and I think Gambit- uses Ubuntu, but alterecco answered first which is probably an indication of who would be the first to answer if you get yourself into trouble. If you have someone in the real world you can ask for help go with whatever he or she uses. There are enough annoying differences that it's easiest to help someone with the same distro as you, but it's not as bad as the gap between windows versions.