The Brand New UltraMegaSuper "Which Distro" Thread

Thanks, I'm going to try xubuntu today. Hopefully it will work and we'll be back online soon from home. The office computer system is kickin' today, 101 KB/Sec! Cool then I can hopefully wrap this up before quitting time.

Thank you so much for your help, and for being polite to a newbie. I run some large online communities myself and I know how hard it is when people ask the same questions over and over, that's why I tried to search first! Ack, lost a planet, ObiWan has. How embarassing, how embarassing...


Thanks again!

Ishkabibble's wife

Originally Posted by pwc101 ... distribution?

Spelling was never my strong subject.

Originally Posted by Ishkabibble Now all I need to know is why the &%*#$&%@# CD is not working.

Did you verify that the image you downloaded wasn't corrupt? I saw another post here earlier today in which the OP had downloaded and burned the Ubuntu iso three times from the same mirror. All three failed the md5sum check, but he was gonna try again.

I have been using Linux for a few years now and I want to try a source based distribution. Problem is, which one?

I read a lot of reviews, but each one just says : " this is the best one "

So, are there any experianced source users out here to share with me their experiances, pros and cons, Why X is preferable over Y in ... situation?

Thanks.
PS: don't start flamewars, will ya :-)

Linux from Scratch (LFS) if you want to know how everything is put together. Gentoo if you want a source based distro that you can tweak for your hardware, but aren't necessarily interested in knowing the inner-workings. There is a SuperMega Which Distro Thread that you should have posted this in.

Originally Posted by Arow Linux from Scratch (LFS) if you want to know how everything is put together. Gentoo if you want a source based distro that you can tweak for your hardware, but aren't necessarily interested in knowing the inner-workings. There is a SuperMega Which Distro Thread that you should have posted this in.

Thanks, as you can see I'm new on this forum. I didn't know about the SuperMega Which Distro Thread.

It's the thread that's stickied at the top of this forum and is always on top.

Originally Posted by linuxbriel Thanks, as you can see I'm new on this forum. I didn't know about the SuperMega Which Distro Thread.

Don't Panic! [/Corporal Jones] I have fixed the problem!

Originally Posted by XavierP Any "Which Distro" question asked outside of this thread from now on will either be closed or merged here.

WOOHOO! ThankYouThankYouThankYou!

XavierP, you are my hero!

Seriously though, thanks! I think this thread will be very well utilised and far more effective to newcomers since it's stickied!

Originally Posted by KimVette WOOHOO! ThankYouThankYouThankYou! XavierP, you are my hero! ;) Seriously though, thanks! I think this thread will be very well utilised and far more effective to newcomers since it's stickied! :)

You mean once their own threads have been merged into it ;}


Cheers,
Tink

Anyway, is there anyone who has had experiances with several source based distro's?

please help us, new source-enthousiasts, to start.

Source based distro's I've used only gentoo and Linux From Scratch. I'm currently building an LFS system after having biult a Gentoo system. LFS is great for learning what why how when and wtf? your computer is doing under the surface. Gentoo is almost as highly configured as LFS and realistically just as quick. If you have the time use LFS. Compiling some programs can take a while. LFS and Gentoo both have Live CD's you can use to install from.

LFS www.linuxfromscratch.org
Gentoo www.gentoo.org

Originally Posted by linuxbriel Anyway, is there anyone who has had experiances with several source based distro's? please help us, new source-enthousiasts, to start.

Bravo zulu, I think you're the first one to not be merged into this thread. Someone who may actually look before they leap. Anyway...

Linux from Scratch (LFS) or Cross Linux From Scratch (CLFS) if you want to get into the weeds. Technically, LFS and CLFS are books, not distros. You have to download all of the source tarballs and compile them into a Linux system. The book walks you though step by step and explains what each step is doing. You'll have a pretty good understanding of how a Linux system is put together. One of the coolest things I found with LFS is you get to create your own package manager, LFS doesn't come with one. I'm still playing around with mine, but I think it's neat.

Gentoo if you're not interested in getting your hands too dirty, but still want to build everything from source and optimize it for your hardware. Gentoo's package manager (Portage) isn't limited to source, it will allow you to use binaries. Portage gives you quite a bit of control over the optimization of the software. Options can be set at the system level, the package group level (e.g., if you don't want games on your system you can mask the games categories), the individual package level, or the package version level.

Both LFS and Gentoo use their own patches for the source code. In either system you could use theirs, use some others in addition to theirs, not use their patches, whatever you choose to do. If you install the default system, the layout and configuration of each isn't significantly different from the non-source distributions. fstab is still fstab, hosts.allow is still hosts.allow, etc.

That's my two cents.

Originally Posted by Arow Bravo zulu, I think you're the first one to not be merged into this thread. Someone who may actually look before they leap. Anyway... Linux from Scratch (LFS) or Cross Linux From Scratch (CLFS) if you want to get into the weeds. Technically, LFS and CLFS are books, not distros. You have to download all of the source tarballs and compile them into a Linux system. The book walks you though step by step and explains what each step is doing. You'll have a pretty good understanding of how a Linux system is put together. One of the coolest things I found with LFS is you get to create your own package manager, LFS doesn't come with one. I'm still playing around with mine, but I think it's neat. Gentoo if you're not interested in getting your hands too dirty, but still want to build everything from source and optimize it for your hardware. Gentoo's package manager (Portage) isn't limited to source, it will allow you to use binaries. Portage gives you quite a bit of control over the optimization of the software. Options can be set at the system level, the package group level (e.g., if you don't want games on your system you can mask the games categories), the individual package level, or the package version level. Both LFS and Gentoo use their own patches for the source code. In either system you could use theirs, use some others in addition to theirs, not use their patches, whatever you choose to do. If you install the default system, the layout and configuration of each isn't significantly different from the non-source distributions. fstab is still fstab, hosts.allow is still hosts.allow, etc. That's my two cents.

Thanks, this is axactly what I was looking for.

I've just started reading up on Linux a little bit and bought a copy of Suse 10.1 off of ebay ($4) on a whim because the download time was more than I wanted. However, I'm not hell-bent on running that particular distribution, it just looked promising after the 2 minutes of researching I had done on the subject . I excite easily, which typically leads to some sort of purchase. My questions are what would be the best distribution to go with as a person BRAND new to Linux, and what would be some good material to read on the subject (Preferrably free and new-comer friendly)? Thanks!