Linux Users

[Josh66]

All the recent OS talk made me wonder how many people here run Linux. More than I thought, it would seem...

Which distro does everybody use?
(I would make a poll, but there are just too many choices, lol.)

I'm using Mint 11 now. Didn't really like Mint 12, so I'm waiting for 13 next month. From what I've read it should be pretty good.

 

[DorkSterr]

Not really Linux but I dual boot with Ubuntu 12.04.

 

[Josh66]

What do you mean not really Linux?

Ubuntu uses the Linux Kernel, so I would definitely call it 'Linux'. Or do you just mean that it isn't your primary OS?


edit
I somehow missed the dual boot part.

 

[analog.universe]

I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 now, because I didn't like 11. I didn't realize 12.04 was out already, going to have to give it a whirl....

 

[mjhoward]

I've noticed the more recent iterations of linux front end has become very bloated and slow (at least by default and with Suse). Suse 9 was ok, then by the time they got to Suse 11, they had dashboard and all this other crap running.

 

[DorkSterr]

Sorry, yes not primary. I only use it 20-25% of the time I'm on. I find Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't recognize all my drivers and causes crashes very frequently. Is it your primary OS? If so do you have driver error problems?

Must add that Ubuntu 12.04 IS beta version and hopefully the RC version doesn't have this problem because I can really see it as my primary OS.

 

[Josh66]

I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 now, because I didn't like 11. I didn't realize 12.04 was out already, going to have to give it a whirl....

Ubuntu 11.04 is the reason I switched to Mint. Mint is based on Ubuntu (which is based on Debian), but the thought process behind it makes more sense to me. Ubuntu 12.04 will be coming out next month (as well as Mint 13 - which will be based on Ubuntu 12.04).

[edit - 12.04 can't be out yet ... it isn't April (the .04)... I think it's slated to come out at the end of April. The developer versions are out, of course - but those are always too 'bleeding-edge' for my taste.]

Sorry, yes not primary. I only use it 20-25% of the time I'm on. I find Ubuntu 12.04 doesn't recognize all my drivers and causes crashes very frequently. Is it your primary OS? If so do you have driver error problems?

Drivers for which devices?

Yes, Mint 11 is my primary OS. The only issue I've had (and it was an issue on every distro I tried) is that my sound card (HDA Intel ALC887) isn't supported yet. Still too new, I guess...

So, for now, I have no audio. Not that big a deal to me, but it can be mildly annoying...

 

[dxqcanada2]

Gentoo with XFCE4 desktop

I've tried most distro's ... and I keep coming back to this one.

I will have to add that I use Windows, Mac OS-X, and Linux on my various laptops/desktops.

 

[Josh66]

Gentoo was tempting, but I stick with the more mainstream distros for the scanner drivers (avasys epson drivers) - and also printer drivers, TurboPrint - the only non-free software I have.

The drivers that shipped with Ubuntu & Mint didn't seem to work as well as TurboPrint.

ZEDOnet | TurboPrint Linux | Printer driver for Linux

 

[The_Traveler]

I use Joli OS on my netbook and it runs incredibly well, altho I need constant web access.
I have a Win partition for storage and iamge retrieval

 

[Josh66]

I have a netbook that I rarely use anymore... I might try putting Gentoo on it. (It has Mint 12 on it now, which I didn't like very much...)

From what I have read, Gentoo needs to be manually configured for the specific computer it's running on for the best results.
1) Is that true?
2) If yes, how hard is that? What will I need to know and have in front of me before I reboot with the installation disk in the drive?

 

[Josh66]

I have a Win partition for storage and image retrieval

If that's all you use that partition for, I have to wonder why bother having it at all?

The ext4 filesystem that most Linux distros are using now (if not ext4, they're probably using ext3) seems superior in every way to the NTFS filesystems that Windows uses...


Unless you're using the netbook as a sort of external HDD for another computer and need a Windows compatible partition on it for that (ext is not Windows compatible)...

 

[dxqcanada2]

You setup up the compile options so that all the binaries that are built are tuned for the processor in your specific PC.
So find out what processor it has.

It is not that difficult to install/build a Gentoo system.
The people that run into problems are the ones that do NOT follow the installation guide closely.

I will warn you ... Gentoo is for patient people, as all apps are build from source ... so something like KDE would take some time to build.

If you are not too keen on source based distro's ... take a look at Sabayon | Home... the binary version of Gentoo.

 

[Josh66]

HA - I actually have an ISO of Sabayon sitting on my desk right now. Someone at work gave it to me.

LOL, he keeps bugging me about it - 'hey, have you tried that distro yet?'. I'll have to download it again (not sure how old it is, or if it's 32bit or 64bit...), but maybe I'll try it.

 

[Ysarex86 80]

Running LINUX Ubuntu distribution.

I also carry a fully bootable version on a flash drive so when I'm at one of the colleges were I work I can boot up a useable computer.

My son is running Debian, but my wife likes Ubuntu (totally non-tech and Ubuntu's interface is the easiest. Interesting note here: Given the choice of Win7, the MAC OS and Ubuntu, my non-tech wife picks Ubuntu on her own as the most usable. Which makes me and my son very happy as that option means we have the least amount of support work to do!)

I'd be happy to dump both the Win and MAC OSs as bloated boat anchors except for the software problem. WINE isn't the answer at this point. I have to run software for work that forces me to use both Windows and the MAC OS -- no getting around it right now.

Joe