What Linux Distros are you using?

What Linux Distros are you using?

Discuss everything related to running Spring on your chosen distribution of Linux.

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Prominence
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What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by Prominence »

List of distros your using, and why?
What desktop environment are you using (such as gnome, KDE, xfce, etc.)?
State your favorite distro, etc.

Post them here.
gajop
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by gajop »

I'd say it's offtopic, since it's not really related to spring.
I assume this subforum is mostly about linux with spring, bugs, ups and downs, that sort of thing.

Anyhow, I'm using arch linux and openbox, and have been doing that for years (actually haven't used any distro other than arch for a longer period of time). The reasons are mostly similar to those that are stated as PROs on the arch linux wiki, don't really want to write it all here. Same goes for openbox although I'm using that mostly because it nearly never gets in my way.
luckywaldo7
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by luckywaldo7 »

I started with Ubuntu 7.04 because I was very new to Linux, and it was mostly pitched by users as a "Debian for newbies", being easy to install nonfree stuff like flash and video drivers and large helpful forums. Eventually I got fed up with broken upgrades, forcing stuff like Pulseaudio long before it was usable and it's Unity thing.

So about 8 months ago I switched to Arch and I've never been happier. Very minimal install, rolling releases, and it doesn't mess with upstream packages. And the AUR is a good match for all the ubuntu repositories.

My prefered DE is currently KDE. It's solid as hell right now, very stable and functional, and a lot of the configurability is exposed so its easy to play around and get the desktop you want.

Also a lot of KDE applications are really badass: Kate for text-editing, Clementine for music-playing, and KTorrent are probably my favorites. Very notably lacking though is a good web browser. Rekonq is ok, I use Firefox but it needed a lot of tweaking, so I could use kde dialogues and otherwise make it look and active more native.

Also office software is lacking. There is libreoffice but it really feels ugly and clunky to me, and Calligra doesn't seem quite ready yet. Perhaps I am just otherwise spoiled that kde applications provide such a nice uniform look-and-feel across other applications.
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Petah
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by Petah »

Mostly Debian, sometimes Ubuntu.
dansan
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by dansan »

Started with SuSE 6.3, tryed out Debian, Kanotix, Ubuntu and landed some years ago at Gentoo. Have stayed with it happily ever since.

Seems a lot of work compared to bin-distros, but it really is _other_ work: it is about getting (sometimes basic) things to work (and thus understanding them), but it is not the time lost on working-against-what-distro-believes-is-good-for-you(TM). Rolling release makes this point even stronger.

Also it stays near to upstream and "installs all dev-*-pkg", so it is good for coding and trying things out, for which there is no pgk available.

FVWM2 in the beginning, then KDEv1 (really loved it), didn't like KDEv2+, changed to GNOME and stayed with it to today. XFCE for a month or two, each time GNOME changes major versions :D
gajop
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by gajop »

i've used gentoo, and in comparison to arch, i'd say the only benefit you'd have is that you'd feel you could better optimize it for your PC
in reality however you'd often just forget to put some flags and stuff wouldn't work; compilation also takes quite a lot longer

it's still pretty good though, if arch would to somehow die that's where i'd land at
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jamerlan
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by jamerlan »

I use Fedora 17 at work and at home.

I started with Mandrake, then Fedora, SuSe, Ubuntu and I completely returned on fedora from fedora 14.

Currently I use Gnome 3 and I am happy :-)
cleanrock
Former Engine Dev
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by cleanrock »

I have tried a few distros before but i have been very happy with archlinux/XFCE for ~2 years now.
Only go with arch if you are ready/want to learn a bit of whats under the hood a bit and edit/merge config files your self.
varikonniemi
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by varikonniemi »

I am running Ubuntu because it has the biggest user base. I really like what unity has become as of 12.04 LTS.

A rock-solid release that just works (tm).
Last edited by varikonniemi on 12 Jul 2012, 18:58, edited 1 time in total.
gajop
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by gajop »

varikonniemi wrote:I really like what unity has become as of 12.04.
I can't tell if sarcasm. :roll:
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jK
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by jK »

I tried many distros when I was young: Suse, Mandrake, RedHat, Debian clones, ...
All started with a sexy install GUI, but all ended with huge list of packages you could select from. Each time I spend ~1h on that screen w/o knowing what I am doing (how can you select packages when you have zero knowledge of them?). Sure with increased HDD space this has changed, distros just install everything and eat >10-15GB.
Still such GUIs are a very bad introduction to Linux for me, I spend days with just clicking through GUIs to get familiar with my new Linux installs, after some days I just continued using Windows, where I know how to do stuff.
Meanwhile I started to build a small home server, first I wanted to use a self-made Linux there, but then I heard of a new distro named Gentoo and gave it a try, I installed it via ssh and already the install process taught me more than all the days I experimented with the other distros. And I started to learn more and more tools everyday esp. cause I had to install and configure them myself.
So I continued using w2k on my desktop and learned basic Linux knowledge with my homeserver.
But then more and more stuff was dropping support for w2k and going to winxp/vista was a no-go for me, if I must to learn a new GUI then I preferred going the hard way to install Linux on my desktop, too.
For a very short time I fancied with Debian/Ubuntu, but I hated the idea to reinstall my system once a year, I already learned to love the progressive update system in Gentoo. So I made a 2day session to install it on my desktop too (PC was weak, compiling xorg took >4h and kde >10h).
And that's where I am now, I really love _my_ Gentoo :)

By the way, performance was never a topic for me, I just prefer the flexibility and openness.

Esp. those daily moments I had when I wanted to patch tools, build experiment builds, wanted to inspect the source code, make me not to miss my Gentoo cause I can just modify the existing ebuild and so achieve such goals with minimal effort.
Not to forget the community, imo it feels the most productive Linux community out there.

PS: When I would have to setup a netbook today, I would likely use Ubuntu cause today I feel experienced enough to handle it ;)
(still Gentoo is the only solution for my desktop)
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PicassoCT
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by PicassoCT »

Have ubuntu on the notebook, rarely use it, has no unique features for me- so why change? found winxp quite nice, if you strip it of all the fancy prancy graphix candy and stab it repeatetly into the registry
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Peet
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by Peet »

Arch, because it is the best distro.

KDE, because I am lazy and a masochist.
gajop
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by gajop »

PicassoCT wrote:Have ubuntu on the notebook, rarely use it, has no unique features for me- so why change? found winxp quite nice, if you strip it of all the fancy prancy graphix candy and stab it repeatetly into the registry
well, the main linux features you may be interested in would be found in other distros, such as (imo) arch and gentoo

they are made for tech-savvy users, but they also give you a high range of customization you would never have in windows - i sometimes even take it for granted, and get annoyed when i use something else and i feel i'm no longer in the full control of the computer

it's probably analogous to what a spring game (with the whole environment, comprised of server, lobby, engine, map & what not) is to proprietary ones; it doesn't always "just work", but it can be customized by the user (a tech savvy one) to great lengths
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PicassoCT
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by PicassoCT »

is there a lua mindstorm idiotbrix equivalent to the full customizable OS, including a trading place for that puzzled widgets? Or does mean tech savey, only the big boys are allowed to play, because you need to set all the bitmasks for the kernelstateconfiguration by hand.
gajop
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by gajop »

Great, so you are a lua fanboy!
Arch would suit you perfectly, seeing as 'awesome' (a lua based WM) is pretty popular there.
Couple of screens that just show the wide range of customization (and that's just the interface):
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=142510

(For those of us who prefer the good ol' static compiled languages, dwm, xmonad and other WMs are also popular)

The hard thing with using arch and gentoo is setting it up (gentoo is a bit harder seeing as you have to set up compiling as well). If you are persistent, all you have to do is follow the instructions (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide), as well as any other instructions for some programs that need configuring. Those two distros probably have the best wikis there are, and there's always freenode #archlinux and #gentoo if something really goes bad.

The fun thing about arch is that it has a nice community, you will use programs that you probably wouldn't usually if you were on ubuntu. You will also later wish you had mpd/mplayer/rtorrent/weechat/CLI & coreutils/vim/tmux on windows (yes it all exists there, but tends to suck, just like it sucks on ubuntu - iirc ubuntu computers on my uni didn't even have syntax highlight f.e).
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PicassoCT
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by PicassoCT »

gajop wrote:Great, so you are a lua fanboy!
Arch would suit you perfectly, seeing as 'awesome' (a lua based WM) is pretty popular there.
Couple of screens that just show the wide range of customization (and that's just the interface):
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=142510

(For those of us who prefer the good ol' static compiled languages, dwm, xmonad and other WMs are also popular)

The hard thing with using arch and gentoo is setting it up (gentoo is a bit harder seeing as you have to set up compiling as well). If you are persistent, all you have to do is follow the instructions (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_Guide), as well as any other instructions for some programs that need configuring. Those two distros probably have the best wikis there are, and there's always freenode #archlinux and #gentoo if something really goes bad.

The fun thing about arch is that it has a nice community, you will use programs that you probably wouldn't usually if you were on ubuntu. You will also later wish you had mpd/mplayer/rtorrent/weechat/CLI & coreutils/vim/tmux on windows (yes it all exists there, but tends to suck, just like it sucks on ubuntu - iirc ubuntu computers on my uni didn't even have syntax highlight f.e).
Thats one of the things i never understood about linux. It has one of the most dedicated devscene around the world. And just by that, i imagine it covers a great many hardware combinations. So the setting up, should basically for a noob should be nothing more then a - find a similar comp, and clone his config. And then allow me to build on top, with widget building lego. But instead.. everyone has to become tech expert, and because not everyone is like us, or wants even to become like us (the heresy, burn them), we leave those who dont follow the call of freedom to the moloch.

If one, for a moment could accept the truth, that people might not want the work that comes with freedom. You could still give them the freedom, while sparing them some of the work, by sharing your work.

Oh, two cents, somebody dropped them? If nobody replys within 1 minute and 1 second, they must be mine. ;)
malric
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by malric »

I use Gentoo for more than 5 years because it creates problem which force me to learn about how to fix things.

Currently using XFCE and used to use Gnome 2 (and I am trying to make 3 working :-) ).
PicassoCT wrote: But instead.. everyone has to become tech expert
There are quite many distributions out there which are specifically for non tech people (Ubuntu comes to mind and OpenSuse is friendly also), so I really do not understand what you complain about.
gajop
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by gajop »

If you want to custom rig your car, you have to become an expert, or pay someone to do it for you. Why would you expect differently from software?

One of the benefits of such distros is that you can become a general linux expert just by using it, unlike GUI-based distros which teach you nothing.
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hoijui
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Re: What Linux Distros are you using?

Post by hoijui »

i agree that gentoo teaches you a lot of universally usefull stuff already when installing it, like for example, the kernel:
as a windows user, if you are a "powersuser", you may have heard that it also has a kernel, but.. nobody ever saw it, and you only may get in contact wit it through software of MS itsself, through a chain of 3 libraries, and even then you are not sure when and if you had contact with it.
in linux, it is just a file, which you can generate yourself with a single command, after editing a simple text file (most likely with the help of a GUI).
then again, there is other stuff, like networking...
i feel like ever distro has their own set of meta and high level config system for networking, and they change it every 2 or 3 years compleetly. so when you go from gentoo to any other distro, you have to learn networkign again, cause different config files are used. different file-names and dirs, more or less files, different syntax.
so linux is nice, cause you can edit everyting through config files, but they change all the time and from distro to distro.. which ... sucks!
i could imagine that some unixes (Solaris?) and BSDs might be more conservative there, and your acquired knowledge may actually stay usefull.
one result of this behaviour btw, is that i do not even try anymore to touch linux networking through config files or shell commands, but only through the GUI, as there you can be sure at least, that the right files are beeing changed, not some low level ones that get auto-replaced at startup or whatever.
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