As someone coming from the Windows/NetWare world, where things usually
Just Work, coming to Linux, I am currently using Gentoo, and liking
it. I started with Mandrake, and switched to Red Hat, mainly because
I knew that Red Hat is what I would be most likely to run into in the
"real world." When Red Hat stopped RHL, I switched to SuSE for three
reasons; it is the second most popular distro, it was purchased by my
beloved Novell and I have a philosophical problem with running code
that isn't what I'd actually be seeing in the wild (Fedora vs RHEL).
However, I have been getting tired of just getting everything setup in
SuSE and then having to install a new version. The thing I found most
attractive about Gentoo is that once you have it installed, there is
no more installing. As packages are updated, so is your system. Of
course, it's not quite that simple. :)
All the distros I have used, prior to Gentoo, have been RPM based.
So, for all I know the Debian distros might be quite different. But,
it's been my experience that, so long as you are using software that
the people producing the distro thought to include, and you use their
tools to install said software, it tends to run quite well. I have
run into issues with software that wasn't included in the distro, or
if I tried to install it without using their tools. I haven't been
using Gentoo long enough to try and stray off the reservation. Of
course, one of the things that got me into trouble with other
distributions was trying to install the latest version of a package
that was included; I haven't found a situation where Gentoo didn't
have the latest and greatest. In fact, I've been noticing that Gentoo
has been keeping up with Firefox quite well. I would imagine it'll
probably be similar, in that if you want software not in the portage
tree you may be in for some fun. However, once you get Gentoo setup
and working (which is much more complicated than on other distros) you
shouldn't ever have to do it, again...
Enough rambling. These have been my experiences... :)
-Erik
On 5/13/05, Jason Spatafore <
jason@spatafore.net> wrote:
> On Friday 13 May 2005 09:22, Victor Odhner wrote:
> > What is the closest thing, in the Linux world, to a
> > distro that just works, where new releases of apps
> > are available promptly and just fall into place?
> > I'm enough of a hacker to get the results I want
> > in specific cases, and to build special tools to
> > do non-standard things; but I don't want every
> > install, and every update, to become that kind of
> > exercise.
> >
> > I'm sure that Linspire would *not* suit me. Maybe
> > Gentoo, which I've been thinking about, is more on
> > target. I'm not in a hurry, I can wait for things
> > to compile while I'm off at work ...
>
> You would probably hate Gentoo. Gentoo requires much more tolerance and
> knowledge to configure, but it gets the 'best' out of every piece as it is
> designed to compile from scratch.
>
> For what you want, Redhat's Fedora 3 w/GNOME is your best bet. If you desire
> to do cdburning, you should install KDE as well and use k3b as it is very
> simple. (Except for mp3 support.) Redhat has the RH Network, which allows for
> update notifications on a daily basis. And, if you have a high speed
> connection, it's quick and easy.
>
> That's what I would recommend to any new user. Fedora would be the way, since
> you appear to want to be productive instead of learn the internals.
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> Jason Spatafore
> http://www.spatafore.net
> A+ Certified Service Professional
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