[TriLUG] What's the Fairest Distro of All?

Randy Barlow rpbarlow at eos.ncsu.edu
Thu Mar 24 15:02:02 EST 2005


Although one of the lesser "user friendly" types of distributions, Gentoo
has a really nice package management system that gives you a really wide
variety of software to choose from.  Gentoo can be pretty difficult to
install since it doesn't have a traditional installer, so it may not be what
you are looking for in terms of a "Win XP replacement" (you can always
install KDE or Gnome on just about any distribution if a good desktop
program is what you are looking for), but I really like it for how much you
learn about Linux from the process.  I personally haven't seen any
distribution with a package manager that gives you such a wide variety of
software to choose from either.  But if you go Gentoo, be prepared to spend
~3 days to install it!

Randy

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org]On Behalf
Of James Brigman
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 2:55 PM
To: trilug at trilug.org
Subject: [TriLUG] What's the Fairest Distro of All?

Just when I thought I had a handle on the world of Linux distros, things
change out from under me.

I'm running CentOS 4. I like it OK, but I've been looking for ready-to-
go RPM packages and am surprised to find that there are few, if any, on
the major websites for CentOS 4. For example, I tried to install a DVD
reader app, and came up short on the libraries required for the app to
run under CentOS/RHEL 4.

I've started looking for other packages for CentOS, and am finding that
the other distros have pulled out ahead of CentOS/RHEL 4 for RPM or YUM
package popularity: Mandrake 10 seems to have a lot going on, along with
Debian, SuSE 9, and even Fedora Core 1, 2 and 3.

The questions I've got are:
1) Can I just use any Fedora Core 3 packages I find for RHEL/CentOS 4?
2) What's the distro seeing the most activity for add-on software these
days?
3) Is there a website anywhere with a grid that tallies such
information? I thought Distrowatch would be the thing, but turned up
null there.
4) Without trying to start any flamewars here - what's everyone's
favorite distros to use for a WinXP replacement (everyday desktop "heavy
lifting") and why?
5) Should I just shut up and subscribe to Linux Journal or Linux
World? :-)

JKB

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