Need help choosing a Linux distro

[ResE4]

Hi Linux Forums, I've ended up here many times, but this is my first time posting.

I'd like some assistance choosing a Linux distribution, to get the full picture on what I'm looking for, I'll give a short description of my distro history.

Slax LiveCD, Ubuntu LiveCD, Knoppix LiveCD (2004-2008):
These were my first experiences with Linux on my own machine. I booted the live CDs, and marveled at the ease of use of a libre OS. I played around with graphical applications for a few days at a time, and used GParted for partitioning my drives.

Ubuntu 8.04 (2008-2010):
After a summer program on administering a Linux network, I installed Heron on a 30GB partition on my machine. I had more experience with the terminal, but I didn't use Linux very often.

Ubuntu 10.04 (Summer 2010):
Tasked with research in computer networking, I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on a very powerful machine (12GB of RAM etc.), and learned Python to complete the research tasks.

Linux Mint LiveCD (Fall 2010):
After a complete hard drive failure on my laptop, I installed the full version of Linux Mint on a flash drive, and used it as my primary OS for a few days. I was amazed at how Mint was able to play any of my media right after the install. This is when I decided that it was fine for a distribution to use proprietary software if it meant a wonderful user experience.

Arch Linux (2010 - 2011):
When I bought a new hard drive, I decided that I would run Linux as my primary home OS. I chose Arch Linux because it was in line with my philosophy of building a system from the ground up, with no software other than the OS. I am also obsessed with RAM usage. I would love to use an OS that has less than 100MB RAM use on boot. I learned a lot from using Arch. I never installed a desktop environment. Instead I compiled my own version of dwm, with an init script that created a status bar in the root title and everything. I was loving Arch, except for some major problems.

1. One problem was that I could never get my printer to work. I spent over 10 hours fiddling with CUPS and driver systems and I could never get something to print.
2. My wireless card took a long time to connect to my school's network. It would take about 40-60 seconds for my wireless card to connect to my school's network. This had something to do with the wpa-supplicant timeout on Arch. I spent about 20+ hours attempting to fix the problem, but I ended up living with it. This wasted about 5 minutes of my day every day.
3. I could not get a certain robotics simulation package to work on Arch. My friend was able to get up and running with the software almost instantly on Ubuntu, but I had problem after problem getting the software to build on Arch.
4. My speakers and headphones would play audio at the same time. To fix this, I had to get help from a Gentoo user to compile the 2.6.38 kernel. This was odd as I didn't have this problem with other distros.
5. Arch does not have signed packages. As a security conscious user who signs email and keeps up with security news, I was shocked to find out about this. This was my tipping point to give up Arch.

Fedora 14 (past few days):
I just started using Fedora KDE, but I'm having a bunch of problems ranging from drivers to brightness control. This is also my first time using KDE for an extended period of time, and the presentation of dialogs seems unorganized to me.

Now I am looking for a new distro.
Things that I am looking for:
1. Low RAM usage
2. Binary packages (not interested in compiling every package)
3. Relatively easy proprietary software installation (I have a lot of media encoded in various formats, and I use Flash on the web)
4. x86_64 support. I have 6GB of RAM, and I fill it up with simulations

When it comes down to it, Linux Mint seems like the right OS for me.

However, I don't really like the GNOME philosophy of assuming that the user is an idiot. I like configuring my system, as evidenced by my joy of using only a custom-compiled window manager for a few months.

Also, I would like to earn Linux certifications at some point, and I feel that Linux Mint wouldn't be the best choice for studying.

TL;DR: My idea of an ideal OS would be an LXDE x86_64 CentOS with bleeding edge proprietary software packages and support for the robotics simulation software that I use. It seems like an oxy-moron, but this is exactly what I need.

[jayd512]

Hi there!

Just a thought here. If you like Mint, and it works for you, why not stick with it?
If you don't like the Gnome part of it, just install another DE/WM.

You could install IceWM and have a nice clean desktop. It really speeds up a system, too!

Check out a few options here: Window Managers for X

[ResE4]

Just a thought here. If you like Mint, and it works for you, why not stick with it?
If you don't like the Gnome part of it, just install another DE/WM.

Yes, that's the direction I'm leaning, but I have some hesitation.

1. How can I make sure that I got rid of all the GNOME related packages and files? I like the idea of knowing the purpose of every file in my file-system and everything that gets loaded into RAM.

2. How can I earn respect in the enterprise Linux world, running Mint? One of my goals is to help companies completely switch to free (gratis) software.

[jayd512]

Answer #1 - Install a distro that has no gtk dependencies. That's really the only sure-fire way of being Gnome free.

That leads to Answer #2 - Ubuntu Server Edition. Or Debian. Either one.


Really though, it doesn't matter what distro you happen to use. You can use the CLI just as well in Slack or Gentoo, just as you can in Mint or Puppy.

[ResE4]

Ubuntu Server sounds about right.

My ideal system will have these features:
1. Minimal software installed. I want to understand the purpose for every file on my disk.
2. Minimal memory usage. My goal is less than 100 MB on boot. I like having 5.9 GB of RAM for my own uses.
3. Light WM. OpenBox, IceWM, AwesomeWM, dwm. Something that can look good but will be extremely reponsive.
4. Nvidia 3D drivers installed. I use heavy OpenGL applications, so this is a must.
5. Proprietary media formats installed for media playback.
6. Flash, Firefox, Chrome/ium installed for latest web experience.

[jayd512]

1. Minimal software installed. I want to understand the purpose for every file on my disk.
2. Minimal memory usage. My goal is less than 100 MB on boot. I like having 5.9 GB of RAM for my own uses.
3. Light WM. OpenBox, IceWM, AwesomeWM, dwm. Something that can look good but will be extremely reponsive.
4. Nvidia 3D drivers installed. I use heavy OpenGL applications, so this is a must.
5. Proprietary media formats installed for media playback.
6. Flash, Firefox, Chrome/ium installed for latest web experience.

Call me crazy... but when you add all that up, it seems contradictory.
Minimal SW, minimal RAM usage.
Proprietary drivers and codecs, multiple browsers.

A happy medium is gonna be hard to find.

[ResE4]

I see how some people might think that this kind of system is contradictory. It seems as though one needs a desktop environment with tons of menus, widgets, icons, applications, status programs, dialogs, and settings managers to support the modern feel of an operating system. I think this is not the way an operating system should behave.

When I was running Arch, I started up my computer in about 40 seconds, and I was presented with dwm, a blank canvas on which to complete my computing for the day. Using dmenu, I launched the application that I wished to use. This was often a terminal for editing, a file manager for moving files, a media player to watch a video, or the robotics simulation application that makes heavy use of OpenGL.

On boot my memory usage was 141 MB, and I thought this was too high.
What I liked about this system was that I had a pretty good idea of everything that was using CPU cycles and RAM at any given time.

If I wanted to press the power button on my computer and in 40 seconds watch a movie contained in an MKV file and encoded in MPEG4 video and AAC audio, I could do it. All on the beautifully blank dwm desktop with no widgets or dialogs getting in my way.

If I wanted to boot my computer, and in 40 seconds run an OpenGL physics simulation that quickly filled up to 5.5 GB of RAM with heavy 3D usage, I could do that, knowing that my window manager and kernel related programs were only using ~150MB underneath.

I really, really, like the idea of an operating system that does nothing but allow you to run the latest software and nothing else. It completely gets out of the way, allowing the software to eat up as much RAM and CPU as it needs.

However, with Arch my packages weren't signed, and I can't be bothered reading through millions of lines of source code.

[jayd512]

However, with Arch my packages weren't signed, and I can't be bothered reading through millions of lines of source code.

Yeah... the whole Arch package thing seemed like an issue, but they are still very well maintained, very secure packages.

It seems as though one needs a desktop environment with tons of menus, widgets, icons, applications, status programs, dialogs, and settings managers to support the modern feel of an operating system.

Utter nonsense.

I had a CRUX / Slackware dual-boot system. Both of them had a minimal WM. Boot time was less than 25 seconds on a machine that had 386 RAM with a P3 CPU.
I never hit SWAP space unless I had multiple instances of an application running.

[ResE4]

Utter nonsense.

I had a CRUX / Slackware dual-boot system. Both of them had a minimal WM. Boot time was less than 25 seconds on a machine that had 386 RAM with a P3 CPU.
I never hit SWAP space unless I had multiple instances of an application running

It's quite obvious that you only read the first paragraph that I wrote and the last paragraph that I wrote....

I ran dwm for many months and it was the best computing experience I've had. dwm is about as minimal as you can get. It's 2000 lines of C, with no configuration files.

Anyway, I think I've decided on Gentoo. I'm going to build the system that I need, until I find that compilation time is getting out of hand.

Edit: Actually, I don't think I want to spend half my uptime compiling software. I'll try Ubuntu Server.

[electroman6913]

Mint has many versions if you don't like gnome you can try the the other variants. lxde kde. if you like Mint keep using it just change your desktop environment.