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Author Topic: Need some views on which distro  (Read 3989 times)

broadstairs

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Need some views on which distro
« on: July 09, 2011, 07:34:45 PM »

Having been a Mandriva aficionado for a while I decided to move to Mageia when it arrived and it does seem quite stable. However at present maybe because it is new and has a smaller group of maintainers or maybe by design ( I dont know yet) I do have a problem in that some products like VirtualBox, kdenlive and digikam and Openshot look like they will not update to the latest level in a timeframe which suits me (ie. Mageia 2).

So what would Linux aficionados here suggest as a good compromise between a stable basic system but still one which provides a way of updating some major products like the ones I have mentioned without having to resort to manual installs or compiling products. I really like KDE in preference to Gnome btw and so far  I have found the flavours of Ubuntu to be unstable on my hardware (which is now a Phenom x4) !

Stuart
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tickmike

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2011, 10:52:40 PM »

PCLinuxOS 2011.6 KDE I'm running it on several machines and no major problems, just some of my old machines have got video cards that are not supported :o  but by choosing another driver they are ok, I don't do video games so it's not a problem.
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roseway

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2011, 10:59:34 PM »

I like PCLinuxOS too, although I don't use it myself. I use Debian Testing, which is certainly the most comprehensive distro, with ~ 30,000 packages, and multiple architecture support. But it does require rather more willingness to get your hands dirty.
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  Eric

geep

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2011, 09:38:11 AM »

I recommend Slackware as a basic stable system. I'm currently on Slackware 13.37 x86_64.
http://slackware.com/ & http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/
But it doesn't meet your requirement to avoid manual installs or compiling.
Yet the packages you want are available - with the recipes to build your own - from http://slackbuilds.org/
It's usually straightforward to adapt the recipes to use later, or beta, releases of software.
These also search for available packages - http://slackfind.net/en/ - and here - http://slacky.eu/

Like Debian, (which I would use if Slackware ever ceased), you do need to get your hands a bit dirty, but it is really worthwhile.
I reckon your time is better spent mastering manual installation and re-using existing build scripts on long-standing stable products like Slackware or Debian, than waiting for Mageia's user base and available packages etc. to expand.

Interesting to hear how you proceed.

Cheers,
Peter
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silversurfer44

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2011, 05:19:36 PM »

I've now got Mageia  as my main OS. I was a Mandriva user prior to the launch of Mageia after using a number of distro's. I think if one wants to be on the bleeding edge of any distro then one must be prepared to roll up the sleeves and get the hands dirty. If the stuff isn't coming out fast enough you could always join the packagers or whatever your talents are.
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tickmike

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2011, 10:47:18 PM »

I forgot to say that PCLinuxOS is on a rolling update system and there's talk that's going to be made automatic soon when you boot up and you are connected to the internet.
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broadstairs

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #6 on: July 11, 2011, 08:02:45 AM »

This is all very interesting. I do feel that I have not made it totally clear about what I want though. I do not want a bleeding edge system I want a stable basic system but I have yet to find a new distro which while acknowledging this still provides for updating some products to their later levels (note stable not testing or beta) because these new version provide functionality or security fixes I want/need. Mandriva has been the closest to what I need when you include the MIB repository, however I'm not happy Mandriva is going in the right direction and maybe wont even survive.

There are people in the new Mageia community who seem to think that I should not need to update at all between releases apart from what they decree as fixes, so I'm unlikely to see any updates to kdenlive, openshot, digikam (when v2 comes out of beta) - they are even tardy about Firefox updates in the release. Mageia is even missing a package for openshot full functionality although it will run.

So far I may try PCLinuxOS again or maybe Debian.

While I am quite happy to get my hands dirty I dont really see why I should have to in order to get what I consider application to update, I really do feel that these application developers should consider more carefully how their packages interact with the main Linux system.

Stuart
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silversurfer44

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #7 on: July 11, 2011, 08:33:37 AM »

All I could say about the folks at Mageia is that they are all volunteers. They probably do have a daytime job as well as now maintaining and producing the distro. In that context I can well understand some packages not being available in the release. So far the are in advance of Mandriva with the up-to-date release of a lot of the packages, however a number of apps are updated more than once between a Stable release.
I can't speak for any other distro now as I have settled on what I prefer.
These are just my views.

I hope you can find what you are looking for Stuart.
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geep

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #8 on: July 11, 2011, 09:09:07 AM »

Quote
I do not want a bleeding edge system I want a stable basic system but I have yet to find a new distro which while acknowledging this still provides for updating some products to their later levels (note stable not testing or beta) because these new version provide functionality or security fixes I want/need.

Slackware + Slackbuilds ticks all the boxes.

Cheers,
Peter
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burakkucat

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #9 on: July 11, 2011, 04:47:45 PM »

For me, RHEL 5 & RHEL 6 (and their clones -- Scientific Linux & CentOS) are in regular use. :)
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tonyappuk

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Re: Need some views on which distro
« Reply #10 on: July 11, 2011, 05:03:40 PM »

I use Mint 10 and occasionally Debian. Standard Mint uses Gnome but there is Mint 10 KDE but I've not tried it . Might be worth a look.
Tony
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