[Tfug] Thinking linux

[christopher floess]

No ports though? Is it either rpm, or completely from scratch, no in
between? Also, how about LFS, when you build it, do you decide whether
you're going to use rpm's or apt's for packages, or is it an all from
scratch type situation? Seems like most of the major distro's are a pretty
safe bet, maybe I just need to choose one. If I find I'm unhappy with my
choice, it's not like I'm dual booting. I can just wipe the drive clean and
start over :)


On 2/4/07, Jim March <1.jim.march at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2/4/07, christopher floess <skeptikos at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Interesting. Yeah, I was thinking LFS too. It could teach me a lot of
> > things. If slackware is "source(ish)", what's with all the discs
> involved
> > w/
> > the distro? FreeBSD only uses one disc for the install, and you only
> need
> > the second if you what to install any binary packages. Sources and stuff
> > are
> > on the install disc. Is gentoo based on an established distro like
> ubuntu
> > is
> > based on debian? Is anyone familiar with LFS?
>
>
>
> We're kind of in a funny state right now.  You may actually be better off
> waiting between one and three months.
>
> Ubuntu "Edgy" is unstable.  Sorry, but it's a mess.  The older Dapper is
> OK
> but...not great.
>
> Debian "Stable" - when Debian calls a particular version "stable", it is.
> Their length of time between versions is quite long, so the last "stable"
> ("Sarge") is getting long in the tooth.  "Etch" (v.4.0) is about to ship
> in,
> near as anybody can tell, anywhere between weeks and months, best guess
> early marchish.
>
> Ubuntu's next cut will probably be in April ("Feisty Fawn").  They realize
> they screwed the pooch with Edgy and are apparantly working on stability
> and
> hardware compatibility issues.  IF they get it right, it could be very,
> very
> good.  They have one of the best installers out there for any OS, Linux or
> not and they're based on Debian so they have Debian's add/remove software
> process ("apt") and available packages.
>
> Meanwhile I'm holding tight with Fedora Core 6.  It's pretty hardcore, not
> for beginners, but it's handling of RPMs is quite good.  I'd rate it's
> package management as 80% of Debian/Ubuntu's but it's also very up-to-date
> while remaining stable.  I've had minor glitches - one update caused USB
> media to stop auto-mounting until a two-line terminal fix was typed
> in.  Not
> a single crash though in a couple months now of hard daily-use
> pounding.  I
> also have all three desktops available on a single box - Gnome, KDE and
> XFCE
> and can switch at will and again, no stability issues plus a lot of the
> KDE
> tools now work in Gnome because they can call any KDE "guts pieces" they
> need.
>
> If you have FreeBSD experience Fedora won't drive you nuts despite being
> "RPM based".  Be sure and get the "newest spin" with updates since the
> initial cut at:
>
>
> http://fedoranews.org/wiki/Fedora_Weekly_News_Issue_74#Fedora_Unity_releases_updated_Fedora_Core_6_Re-Spins
>
> Jim
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