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The "Not Quite Amiga but still computer related category" => Alternative Operating Systems => Topic started by: Linchpin on January 05, 2007, 09:45:24 AM

Title: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: Linchpin on January 05, 2007, 09:45:24 AM
Ok.. so i powered it up the other day... 1st time in over 3 years i think!

Was running Fedora Core 3... now upgraded to release 5.

Not sure if i like the way fedora has gone.. any suggestions?

I know some bits about Linux systems.... not all that knowlegable though.

Any suggestions welcome :)

Kev
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: Debaser on January 05, 2007, 11:10:23 AM
Kubuntu,SimplyMepis, and then my personal fav. wee little Damn Small Linux.

Those are my reccomendations. There is so much out there. If you want more insight go to www.distrowatch.com.

If you want to play around with a non-linux but free os. Aside from Aros.. check out SyllableOS. Its a fork of the non-defunct Atheos. Even comes equiped with an Amiga skin/theme for your desktop. www.syllable.org

Have fun!

Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: skurk on January 05, 2007, 11:42:45 AM
Personally I prefer Ubuntu.  Very user-friendly, "apt" like Debian, pretty colours. :)

I've used RH and Fedora too, never setting my foot in RPM hell again.
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: Linchpin on January 05, 2007, 11:58:08 AM
No more RPM Hell... hahaha!

Oddly... the package management was one of the things i thought better about the older Fedora distro's ...
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: coldfish on January 05, 2007, 12:20:05 PM
Quote

Debaser wrote:
Kubuntu,SimplyMepis, and then my personal fav. wee little Damn Small Linux.



Have fun!



Wot he said +1.

I'm running Kubuntu and DSL, the latter is great for getting old machines back into useful service, and its quick on its feet.  

DSL would be my fav' too, no clutter and it just works.
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: odin on January 05, 2007, 02:07:33 PM
Hmmm...that Syllable thing looks interesting, downloading it right now.
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: Debaser on January 05, 2007, 06:08:08 PM
Quote

odin wrote:
Hmmm...that Syllable thing looks interesting, downloading it right now.


Yeah.. I just installed it a few days ago. Its pretty cool. Very fast. and Ha! get this - they REALLY need developers! (sound familiar) Let me know what you think odin. I really liking it!
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: persia on January 05, 2007, 06:17:45 PM
Take a look at Sabayon Linux (sabayonlinus.org), pretty, fast, cutting edge.  It's got it all.  And I haven't found a (modern) computer that it won't install on.  It just works.
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: Linchpin on January 05, 2007, 06:31:16 PM
Excellent :)

Thanks for the suggestions guys, Ill keep them in mind when selecting a new distro.

Any more suggestions... keep em coming :)
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: Linchpin on January 07, 2007, 11:59:29 PM
Yay!

This is my 1st posting from my new Ubuntu box ;)

Wow... what a difference compared to the old fedora days!

all working really well, through a KVM switch so i have the winXP box and the Ubuntu box both online and on together.

Now to install software... !

Cheers again

Kev
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: trekiej on January 08, 2007, 12:48:58 AM
Is there anything specific about fedora?  I installed it on my 64 bit machine.  It found everything.  What do people not like about RPM?
Thanks.
Rick :-?
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: Piru on January 08, 2007, 12:58:36 AM
@trekiej

RPM Hell (http://www.germane-software.com/~ser/Files/Essays/RPM_Hell.html)

It's a bit technical, but I am sure there are bits there even end user can recognize (the dependecy mess).
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: LoadWB on January 08, 2007, 02:35:16 AM
@Piru

I find most of my users are co-dependent ;-)
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: InTheSand on January 08, 2007, 02:59:11 AM
Heh! Nice "RPM Hell" essay!!!

At least that sort of junk doesn't happen with Ubuntu... The package manager "just works" and resolves its own dependencies...

... though of course it does mean that Ubuntu-specific repositories containing what you're after have to exist in the first place!

 - Ali
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: motorollin on January 08, 2007, 08:26:23 AM
Yes I remember RPM hell from my Slackware/SuSE days. "Package A needs packages B and C". Ok, go and get packages B and C. "Package B needs packages D and E. Package C needs packages F and G". It's bad enough having o hunt around for the correct versions, but when some of them are only available as source, I give up. I don't expect to have to install a development environment and compile software just so I can install a new mail client.

I think a lot of these problems have been resolved with distros which have a dedicated package database. I'm talking about distros like Fedora, Ubuntu, and even Debian. Their packages are tailored to the distro, they're all pre-compiled, and the package managers recorsively resolve the dependencies.

--
moto
Title: Re: Getting back on the Linux box....
Post by: Waccoon on January 08, 2007, 09:00:44 AM
Is RPM Hell on Fedora anything like on Mandrake?

I tried installing a bunch of stuff as a batch on Mandrake, once, and after spending about 20 minutes thinking, it barfed, telling me that there was a dependency problem.  Of course, it didn't tell me WHAT the dependency was, what it was installing, and it outright quit the entire batch install without letting me skip the package that was causing the problem.

I think that was my 12th Linux distro install, and also my last.
Title: Re: RPM Hell
Post by: benJamin on January 08, 2007, 12:25:14 PM
RPMs never really gave me trouble.  Now-days the errors are generally caused at the packaging end and the dependancies are automatically installed.

It sucks, however, when you install the new kernel and Nvidia drivers but, because you're booting from another drive with a different Grub, the graphics driver fails and X crashes.  I know better now, but non-standard set-ups can cause issues.

Damn Small Linux was good for the ten minutes I played with it.  But I've never looked at it since.

If I can just get Beryl working on my new dual-head setup, I'll be happier, as I've seen a number of Ubuntu desktops doing it no trouble.

After downloading 8GBs over the course of two months, I can afford to persevere for a while yet.

But, yeah, I can see how people would like to avoid Fedora...


benJamin
"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!"
Title: Re: RPM Hell
Post by: trekiej on January 08, 2007, 06:57:10 PM
Dependencies are terrible aren't they.
 :-D
Title: Re: RPM Hell
Post by: Linchpin on January 09, 2007, 11:08:40 AM
Ubuntu's package manager seems to deal with them ok :)
Title: Re: RPM Hell
Post by: Piru on January 09, 2007, 11:15:40 AM
Ubuntu is debian based and uses debian package management system, or dpkg. dpkg with apt is rather nice. So yes, Ubuntu doesn't have any problems with this.
Code: [Select]
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

...beats any silly "windows update" nonsense. ;-)