Feeling Lost...

[aluminumspleen]

Hey all.

I've been trying out a bunch of distributions lately (pretty much all major ones and a bunch of "minor" ones) and I've come to the conclusion that I don't really know what I like in a distro. They're all frustrating in some way or another it seems. I keep looking for the "perfect distro" for all my needs, and it doesn't look like I'm going to find it short of rolling it myself. And I don't have enough expertise to do that.

Has anyone else felt this way? I mean, I like Linux, I just get so frustrated with different distros and the goods and bads of each one. I feel like I'm just complaining, but I go to Distrowatch 10+ times a day, hoping the first entry is going to be something like "Aluminux 1.0 now released, featuring every damn thing you ever wanted for your computer!" But it never seems to happen, and until it does, I always feel like I'm "settling" for a distro, instead of embracing mine.

[GNU-Fan]

Hello,

have you ever considered to use a meta distribution like Gentoo?
They are the tailor-made suits of the GNU/Linux world but of course they are somewhat more (time) expensive than the bulk goods.

[jayd512]

Has anyone else felt this way?

Sure have. I ran Fedora for quite a while, and I liked it... but it just wasn't really what I wanted, so I started looking around and found something else...

I keep looking for the "perfect distro" for all my needs, and it doesn't look like I'm going to find it short of rolling it myself. And I don't have enough expertise to do that.

Neither did I! But I wanted something that was mine! And CRUX was what I needed! And I learned more about Linux in the installation of this slick distro than I ever did in my reading/studying. Now, mind you, I ain't knocking Gentoo or Debian or Arch... I've never installed any of them so I really don't have a right to knock 'em!
But really, if you're wanting something custom, then start customizing!

[oz]

Hey all.

I've been trying out a bunch of distributions lately (pretty much all major ones and a bunch of "minor" ones) and I've come to the conclusion that I don't really know what I like in a distro. They're all frustrating in some way or another it seems. I keep looking for the "perfect distro" for all my needs, and it doesn't look like I'm going to find it short of rolling it myself. And I don't have enough expertise to do that.

Has anyone else felt this way? I mean, I like Linux, I just get so frustrated with different distros and the goods and bads of each one. I feel like I'm just complaining, but I go to Distrowatch 10+ times a day, hoping the first entry is going to be something like "Aluminux 1.0 now released, featuring every damn thing you ever wanted for your computer!" But it never seems to happen, and until it does, I always feel like I'm "settling" for a distro, instead of embracing mine.

Yes, absolutely have felt that way and still do. None of them are ever just right for me, either.

I've run countless versions of at least 45 different distros over the last 8 or 9 years and there's always something not quite right about all of them. If only it were easy to pick the things you like from all of them, and leave out all of those things you don't like.

Of course, when I look back at the whole of it, Windows was the least perfect operating system for me, so I'm very glad to have Linux, although I do realize that in the end it will probably never be perfect, either.

I think all you can do is pick the best one for you, and keep with it until something better comes along, or your tastes in a distro change.

Best of luck with your adventure through Linux land.

[L4Linux]

I 've been using Ubuntu since version 6.10 exclusively (de-toxed of windows for 2 years!) and I can say that latest version 8.10 just "felt right". I also tried OpenSuse 11 and Fedora 10 and found them great.
I believe that the final pieces of the Linux puzzle are finally falling into place. It is just a matter of taste now, if you prefer Gnome/KDE, bleeding edge/a bit more matured stuff and other things like that.

[aluminumspleen]

Thank you all for responding. I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in this feeling. I've always wanted to try something like a Gentoo or Debian "personalized" installation, but I've always felt too shadowed by all the nuances and technical stuff. I mean, I'm learning a lot very quickly. I want to know what makes my computer tick, and I'm trying to learn by reading all about the internals of systems and stuff. But from what it sounds like, maybe I should put the articles and books aside, clear up some hard drive space and just go for it.

Of course, until I can really get a system that I like working properly, I'm probably going to install, try to customize, find something I really dislike, try to fix it, break it accidentally, and then start over from scratch. Speaking of "form scratch", I actually tried to install LFS the other day, but I screwed up somewhere, tried to get back on track, and just got frustrated and stopped. Maybe I should start a little less "from scratch" with a custon Debian install. I do like apt-get and .deb packages...

Thanks all!

[Jonathan183]

I think every user of a computer feels that if only this bit worked this way instead of that it would be better for me ... thats one reason there are so many distros.

LFS will take a while ... you will learn a lot but it will take a while - its certainly not something to do over a weekend I've put it on the when I have the time pile ... but something tells me I won't have the time

Also keep in mind the same distro with a different window manager can look and feel quite different. KDE3.5 ... KDE4 .... Gnome ... Fluxbox ... IceWM are quite different.

[oz]

Also keep in mind the same distro with a different window manager can look and feel quite different. KDE3.5 ... KDE4 .... Gnome ... Fluxbox ... IceWM are quite different.

Definitely a good suggestion there, Jonathan. I want to add XFCE4 and LXDE to the two other desktop environments you've mentioned. I like them both pretty well, and they are noticeably faster than KDE, or Gnome, providing yet another overall experience.

[Jonathan183]

Hi ozar ... I did not mean to have given an exhaustive list - a quick look here (for OP benefit) will show there are lots of options . I put LXDE on one of the systems (after seeing it on the forums) but have not really had time to look at it properly yet ... its much higher up the list than a LFS install for me

[aluminumspleen]

thanks Jonathan and ozar for the DE recommendations. I've never really got into DE switching. I started on Gnome, moved to KDE, but after using that for awhile, realized I liked Gnome better. I have Puppy on a flash drives (for saving my friends' windows boxes when they crash ) and it has Openbox, which I kind of like. I just looked at LXDE, and it looks very user friendly. I'm hoping eventually to convince my parents to put Linux on their machine (it's a few years old, still running XP, but getting slower by the minute) and LXDE looks like it will be fast and similar enough to windows not to cause any major panic attacks.

As for my own box, I'll probably lean more towards flux or openbox, just to branch out a bit. I actually just downloaded Lenny RC1 netinstall, and I'll hopefully get to that in the next week or two. Question though: I've done some reading about fluxbox and openbox. Is there a big difference? They look pretty much identical to me.