Suggestions for a new distro (Not a first timer question!!!)

[apoorv_khurasia]

Hi

Brief Background: I have been using Linux for over two years now and I have tried out Fedora Core 2,3,4,5. SuSE 9.1, 9.3, 10.0, Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy Badger, Mandrake (10.1, 2005) and the best of all gentoo. I am still keeping gentoo, but am also thinking of putting something else also --getting bored, nothing better to do. I thought of these:

1. FreeBSD
2. Open Solaris
3. Slackware

But as it goes I have to choose one. Help me out here and suggest me things out of this list also. Thanks in advance.

[DThor]

All you're doing is soliciting users that say "BSD is awesome!" or "Solaris is the best!". You've given no criteria for what you're looking for in a distro, except you're bored. If you're bored, then pick one off the list and try it!

DT

[carlosponti]

try them all in this order

slackware
freeBSD
OpenSolaris

the reason is that slackware is more like what your used to but the init scripts are like that of BSD. and solaris is just last because i figured a BSD would be a good intermediary step. Do it for the love of *nix

[apoorv_khurasia]

All you're doing is soliciting users that say "BSD is awesome!" or "Solaris is the best!". You've given no criteria for what you're looking for in a distro, except you're bored. If you're bored, then pick one off the list and try it!

DT

I had no such intentions but anyways it seems that I should give some criteria which is very simple if you know guys like me --no criteria at all.

It seems that I have just run out of trying standard* distros and TechieMoe's rants have scared the big Jesus of of me (pun intended) so I am a little unwilling to try out FreeBSD and OpenSolaris. Therefore I am back to square one --any suggestion (except "pick randomly and try it", that will be my last resort) will work.

[carlosponti]

Linux from Scratch

[DThor]

Then try carlosponti's suggestion, I would tend to agree with that assuming your purpose isn't to try something completely different. I can't even grasp the idea of the statement "I've run out of standard distros" unless you've got some essential purpose, no matter how trivial.

TM's posts shouldn't be scaring you if you don't have any point to trying it - it can't hurt. I know plenty of people that live by Solaris - it's a powerful and flexible OS that's been around for years. However, it tends to be for professionals that have a history with it. BSD tends to be less ambitious with regards to new packages in return for good old fashioned predictability, which is useful again for a lot of professionals in the field that are used to that. Don't expect either of those to make you fall on your ass with excitment.

DT

[carlosponti]

i wouldnt let Moe discourage you either because i use slackware right now for everything which Moe hasnt had luck with. plus he looks for different criteria than me as well. which might be the same exact case as you.

[techieMoe]

i wouldnt let Moe discourage you either because i use slackware right now for everything which Moe hasnt had luck with. plus he looks for different criteria than me as well. which might be the same exact case as you.

Agreed. Unless you're looking for the exact same things in a distro as me (outlined here) there's no reason to not try out a distro or alternative OS that I didn't like. Some people swear by Ubuntu, for instance.

[Cabhan]

Well, I can only speak for FreeBSD: I tried installing it once, and while I succeeded, I got completely lost afterwards, and so have since removed it. But it was an interesting learning experience on different ways of looking at kernel configuration and even partitioning.

Give 'em all a shot! Maybe you'll have fun, maybe you won't, but you'll learn something either way.

[bidi]

I'd have to agree with whoever it was that said Linux From Scratch! If you really are bored that's the best choice, in my opinion, obviously. It take a good day or so to just build it, but you might feel a little at home since you use Gentoo.

I also use Slackware and like it, but it gets boring really fast since it has no bells and whistles.