• Linux Distro Shopping

    From Black Panther@77:1/102 to All on Fri Jul 5 14:06:42 2019

    Linux Distros

    Recently, I had decided that I wanted to move away from running Ubuntu as my main OS for production systems, which I have been running for about two years now. There were a few reasons why, which I won't get into in this writing.

    I thought I would just get on the internet, and do a search for best distro
    in 2019. If you have never done this, try it. You'll be amazed at the number
    of websites that will come up in the results. If you look at a few of them,
    the results are never the same. One will recommend Slackware. The next will
    say you should run Ubuntu. The following will say Linux Mint. Overall, not very helpful.

    After some more searching, I found a website called DistroWatch. This is a fantastic website with tons of information. There is even a popularity contest, I mean a page hit rating for every distro in their database. Well, with all
    of the information they have on just about any/every distro you can imagine, they still couldn't help me with my decision as to what distro I should run.

    A while back, I had posted a question in a couple of echomail message echos, asking which distro they used, and why. Well, if there is a dead echo somewhere that you want to liven up, ask that question. :) I think every Linux user in the network responded with their opinions. Every one of them had excellent reasons for running what they did, and nobody was bashing anyone else for
    what they were running. This is a perfect thing. However, it did not help
    me with my decision either.

    I found one of my flash drives and decided that I would start downloading
    the live disks and try them out on my laptop. If I liked what I saw, and
    how it ran with the limited resources, I would have my decision, right?

    Well, I've been trying different ISOs for weeks now, and I'm not sure I'm
    any closer now than I was when this all started. I have found some distros
    that I know I won't even attempt to install until I know more about Linux
    in general. These would include distros such as Arch, Slackware, and Gentoo. From what I've seen of these distros, they are substantial and reliable, but they do require the user to have more knowledge. I'm not quite to that level yet, but I hope to be soon.

    Some of the distros that I really would like to try, for whatever
    reason was unable to run the live disk on my laptop. This list includes
    distros such as MX Linux, CentOS, and openSUSE. I'm not sure if their system requirements are too much for this older laptop, or what the problem was.

    So, after weeks of researching, downloading, installing, and more researching, I'm not 100% sure of which way I'm going yet. I can say that I have learned
    a lot during this time. Now, I know what systemd is and why so many people
    are against it. I have learned about different package management. I'm now slightly familiar with yum, zypper, pacman and emerge, for what that's worth.

    As I am looking for something reliable and stable to run the BBS system, I will probably look at installing Debian. I'm still not sure what I will use
    on my personal system though. I could always look at using Debian SID and
    feel adventurous. Otherwise, I might get daring and try something different.
    I liked the way Manjaro looked and felt while on the laptop. Otherwise, there are distros like Mint, which is tried and true. It is based on Ubuntu, so I'm not sure about it. Maybe I'll go to distrowatch.com, and just hit the "Random Distro" button, and see what comes up... Ok, I may want to pass on Cucumber Linux... Or, I could give Blackpanther OS another try... I'd have to learn Hungarian to be able to read the popup messages though...

    This is the wonderful thing about Linux. There are so many options out there. Each of them, very good systems in the own right, but each of them very different from the rest. I even found some distros that are based on their opinions as to the best parts from different major distros.

    Once a user is able to find a distro they like, then they can start
    customizing it to their liking. They can install a desktop environment, such
    as GNome or KDE, or they might decide an just using a window manager such
    as Fluxbox or JWM. They might even get real daring and decide to run with
    just a CLI. :)


    ---

    |03B|09lack |03P|09anther|03(|09RCS|03)|07

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Castle Rock BBS - bbs.castlerockbbs.com - (77:1/102)
  • From Netsurge@77:1/100 to Black Panther on Fri Jul 5 19:32:34 2019
    Linux Distros

    I think if you ask 1000 people the question "What is the best linux distro"
    you will get 995 different answers.

    Personally I have used Debain since release 3 both personally and professionally and it has always worked for me and worked well.

    Recently I have been using LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) which uses the Debain base, which I am very familiar with.

    Essentially, under the hood you won't see much difference between distros, I would suggest find something you like and go with it.

    I know that there has been a massive uproar over Ubuntu's decision to move
    over to SNAP and the drop 32bit support and then flop back is only going to dampen their userbase. At the end of the day it will forge ahead and do what
    it does, just like every other distro.

    |15frank |08// |15netsurge
    |07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://diskshop.ca/scinet

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (77:1/100)
  • From Black Panther@77:1/102 to Netsurge on Fri Jul 5 17:48:40 2019
    On 05 Jul 2019, Netsurge said the following...

    I think if you ask 1000 people the question "What is the best linux distro" you will get 995 different answers.

    That's true. Then ask those 1000 people which desktop environment they use. :)

    Personally I have used Debain since release 3 both personally and professionally and it has always worked for me and worked well.

    I haven't used Debian until recently on my laptop. I love how light on resources it is, compared to Ubuntu.

    Recently I have been using LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) which uses
    the Debain base, which I am very familiar with.

    I still have to try that one. I've looked at Mint, and it seemed pretty good.

    Essentially, under the hood you won't see much difference between
    distros, I would suggest find something you like and go with it.

    That's true. Visually, everything can be changed to what I want. I was just thinking I might want to try something other than Debian-based, just for the experience. I could always run one in a VM though... Hmmmm

    I know that there has been a massive uproar over Ubuntu's decision to
    move over to SNAP and the drop 32bit support and then flop back is only going to dampen their userbase. At the end of the day it will forge
    ahead and do what it does, just like every other distro.

    Oh, yes. I and still believe that Ubuntu is a great disto for people to learn Linux. It comes with everything a growing boy needs... ;) I've just gotten to the point where I don't need, or want, a lot of the 'clutter' they put into
    the distro. I know I can remove a lot of it, but I just think it's time to
    move on to something else...


    ---

    |03B|09lack |03P|09anther|03(|09RCS|03)|07

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Castle Rock BBS - bbs.castlerockbbs.com - (77:1/102)
  • From Netsurge@77:1/100 to Black Panther on Fri Jul 5 19:56:48 2019
    I haven't used Debian until recently on my laptop. I love how light on resources it is, compared to Ubuntu.

    That is one of the main reasons I love it, start off with the Kernel and the system essentials (logging, iptables, open-ssh, etc..) and build from there. You end up with a server that is tailored for what you need.

    I still have to try that one. I've looked at Mint, and it seemed pretty good.

    It's just like the regular Mint but built on the Debian branch of packages.
    You don't end up with bleeding edge stuff from the Ubuntu branch, but you get stability.

    That's true. Visually, everything can be changed to what I want. I was just thinking I might want to try something other than Debian-based,
    just for the experience. I could always run one in a VM though... Hmmmm

    The only other one I have used with some for of regularity is ArchLinux. It
    is built on the same concept of giving you a base and allowing you to build from there.

    |15frank |08// |15netsurge
    |07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness |11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://diskshop.ca/scinet

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (77:1/100)