Distros of interest and why.

[colyn]

I'm with exploder here... I am in love with PCLinuxOS KDE. It's so awesome =D It has to be the best rolling release distro period. =P



Just because he posted his! =P

+1

I have not had a single issue with PCLinuxOS KDE. I can even play certain news videos that I was unable to do with Mint KDE..

Don't have to worry about twice a year wipes and re-install either..

[m.keane]

I would be interested in anything ikey is involved with. ikey is a brilliant individual with real talent and good ideas. Nice to see ikey is doing well and using his talent.

he said thanks, it means a lot coming from you

[lmintnewb]

This thread has partly become my adventures in linux land journal. So update, lol.

Tried absolute ... didn't like it. Was light on resources and quick enough. But heavier and less user friendly than stuff already installed. So cannot see a point to it. Gave up on Vector ... It always seems to find something to gripe about in cfdisk to abort installation. Other stuff is saying there's nothing wrong with the way partitions are set.

Vector looked to be a good one. Just didn't feel like the aggravation ... so moving on. Installed one called archbang ... Heard much good stuff about Arch, also much good stuff about crunchbang and arch+bang sounded like a combo. Thus leading me to believe it must be a good linux distro.

Installed it, figured out how to boot it under antix's grub. Haven't had much time to play with it. But does look like a really smooth distro with what lil I've seen so far. Lil bit heavier RAM usage than other stuff. Well actually a lil lighter w a browser running. Comes with chromium as default. Butcha can change it over to FF or other. Light and very snappy ... now that it's installed, figure may as well keep it onboard too.

Though beginning to wonder about myself. What this compulsion is to keep looking for lighter/faster ... better linux. That's 4 OS's ... on 1 computer. Can someone please explain to me why anyone would need 4/OS's on one computer again ?

Sighs ... archbang is worth checking out though. If you're also infected with the obsessive light-weight distro hopping bug.


lol ...

[nunol]

What this compulsion is to keep looking for lighter/faster ... better linux. That's 4 OS's ... on 1 computer. Can someone please explain to me why anyone would need 4/OS's on one computer again ?

It's called distro hopping. My netbook has more than that: Win XP, Mint 10, MeeGo 1.2, two different (both with Unity) Ubuntu 11.04, Lubuntu 11.04, Debian LXDE/Openbox and Archbang. On the Mint 10 OS I have a VM with several more and I deleted a few recently Puppeee, Ubuntu 10.10, Bodhi 1.0.0, Mint 10 LXDE, Mint XFCE, LMDE, Debian Sid, Debian testing, Debian 6 and Fedora 14 Games to make room for more.

[Habitual]

What this compulsion is to keep looking for lighter/faster ... better linux...

Code: Select all

while (true)
{
    SelectDistro($distro);
    $boredOfDistro = false;

    while (!$boredOfDistro)
    {
        ScrewUp($epicFail);
        SolveProblem($solution);
   
        if (NowBored())
        {
            $boredOfDistro = true;
            $distro = FindAGoodDistro();
        }
    }
}

author: randomizer

Personally, I quit my whoring around finally after OpenSUSE 11.4,
so far, I've only booted LM 10 3 times since I installed it.
One of those was to fix grub so I could boot into OpenSUSE,

Sorry Clem + The Team: LinuxMint: Been there done that.
I'll still give a free LM CD to anyone who's even remotely interested in Linux.

[thouartsimple]

(update) Installed absolute linux 13.37 .. Figured out how to boot it. Tried it out a lil bit and got rid of it. Saw no advantage to keeping it over what I've already got installed. Used more and less user friendly than the others. Still not a bad distro I guess. Just not what I was looking for.

Next up ... vector linux light v 6.0, may as well try it too eh ?

Got the livecd for PCOSlinux. Haven't tried it beyond live session. If exploder ( and others ) are rating it highly must be a great distro. It's partially based on xubuntu and I'm allergic to anything buntu though, shrugs. Again .... cannot see it bringing anything more to the table than distro's already installed. Probably my loss ... oh well.

Love your posts! Just a question, have you given PCLinuxOS a try? It's not really a 'light' distro, unless you download the minime versions of E17 or LXDE.. but it's nothing compared to the other super light ones.

[lmintnewb]

Thanks ... haven't tried it beyond a livecd session.

With an older more resource poor sys. I've been focusing on the lighter weight linux distro's. PCOSlinux looked fine from live session. Even if I stopped being lazy and quadrupled the ram on this comp. Still can't see myself getting into the other end ... What I've come to think of as the bloated end of linux now.

All these small lighter weight one's pack anything someone could need in. They just seem to do it with a lot less sys resources or disk space. All much quicker and responsive on this dinosaur. Wouldn't doubt they'd be even more snappy on a sys with modern specs. For better or worse I have a thing for the light, fast linux distro's.

Not doubting PCOSlinux is really sweet too. A lot of people are speaking highly of it. So not trying to take anything away from what the people behind it have done with that distro. If I remember, was a fast and a nice looking OS itself. Just have a fascination now with all the lighter weight editions and distro's.

[MALsPa]

I have not had a single issue with PCLinuxOS KDE.

I can't say that I haven't had a single issue with PCLOS KDE. However, I'm very impressed with it. I've been running it since August 2010 -- starting with PCLOS KDE 2010.07. It was my first look at KDE4. My plan was to just keep bringing in all the upgrades as they showed up in Synaptic and see how long it took to break the system. I was expecting something to go wrong eventually. But it just keeps working. I'm far from being a PCLOS fanboy, but I have to finally admit, it's been very good and very dependable here -- definitely one of the best experiences I've had with any distro's release.

[lmintnewb]

Missed the replies from nunol and Habitual ... Sheesh, I must've been in a hurry or worn out or summin.

nunol: Wow ... that's a lot of stuff to juggle on 1 comp. But understand where you're coming from. Distro hopping seems like it can be addictive. Always wondering if there's a better, faster just over the next hill or round the bend, lol.

Habitual: If I were going to install a full fledged heavy weight distro. Thinking opensuse 11.etc would be it. Haven't tried it myself. Just heard many good things about it. Started to download it one time. Think the only option the site gives, is like a 4.6gb iso download. So I waited and waited and then waited, lol.

Even on highspeed download manager was saying it would take several hours. From what everyone whose used it has to say. Sounds like it might be worth the wait ...

[exploder]

I can't say that I haven't had a single issue with PCLOS KDE. However, I'm very impressed with it. I've been running it since August 2010 -- starting with PCLOS KDE 2010.07. It was my first look at KDE4. My plan was to just keep bringing in all the upgrades as they showed up in Synaptic and see how long it took to break the system. I was expecting something to go wrong eventually. But it just keeps working. I'm far from being a PCLOS fanboy, but I have to finally admit, it's been very good and very dependable here -- definitely one of the best experiences I've had with any distro's release.

Been about the same experience for me, no major issues or breakage.

[lmintnewb]

Vector revisited ...

Was nagging at me ... Cause it looked good and the homepage said it could run on 65mbs/ram. ... Tried messing with it a few times and abandoned the attempt cause the installer kept giving me grief. Well ... vector has been revisted. Vector lite ... live 6.0 ... and glad I doubled back. Neat distro and lives up to it's claims of low system overhead.

FF 3.6summin running and terminal, it's pulling all of 89mbs !!! Yikes ... good looking distro too. Really snappy and for sure good on old/low resource hardware. Hats off to the folks behind this distro. At least on this comp ... Is actually living up to the hype.

The dreaded distro bug bit me earlier ... Had that ole distro itch going. So replaced archbang ( liked it ) with salix lxde v 13.summin. Didn't like it ... left me wondering what to replace it with and so .... VECTOR light 6.0 REVISITED !!!! D:

Wondering what it could do on higher spec stuff. Rather than an old P4 2.8ghz and 512 ddr2 ... etc. Any of the VM blackbelts here feel like taking it for a virtual test drive ? Would be interesting to hear what they find/think about it. Don't know which kernel version it's using atm. Wouldn't be surprised if it recent enough to do really well on latest hardware too.

Only gripe I have atm ... is it's the biggest install by far ... But at like 3.summin gigs, not the end o the world. Think I'm now done doing the distro hop ( it's a keeper, think my new favorite ). Can settle into trying to learn all this linux thingamajiggy type stuff.

[nunol]

Vector 7.0 should arrive this summer, you can check the RC1 here: http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=13726.0

[lmintnewb]

Thanks for the heads up nunol ...

At long last think the distro hop is done for quite awhile. Like things the way they are ... Comps running smoothly and am very satisfied. Time to actually get some work done now. For a change ... lol. Allowed for 3 installs ... Which still think, do I really need 4 os's on 1 comp ? Oh well ... allowed 3 and really like the one's onboard. So for the time being just going to leave things alone. Vector lite's become the new favorite here ...

[exploder]

PCLinuxOS is rolling out the new artwork for the 2011 KDE release and does it ever look good! Texstar went with a brushed metal look, everything flows together very nice.

http://screenshotsfrlinux.freeforums.or ... -t489.html

There is discussion about a new menu icon and the screenshots of the proposed icons in the forum look great! I am very impressed with the artwork and the way the artists all worked together to make this happen. Archie generously offered to make customized PCLinuxOS Pulse wallpaper until the final release is announced. This has to be the nicest thing I have ever seen on any forum. Here is a screenshot with the wallpaper Archie made for me.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I am really enjoying the new artwork!

[AdamS]

very nice looking for sure.

Also liking the os.

[exploder]

very nice looking for sure.

Also liking the os.

Thanks! Yeah, Texstar and his team do very nice work.

[kvv]

Pardus 2011.1 beta is out: http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06703

I wonder if anyone here has used it, it seems to be a highly regarded KDE distro.

[colyn]

Pardus 2011.1 beta is out: http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06703

I wonder if anyone here has used it, it seems to be a highly regarded KDE distro.

I've been using it for some time now.

I have to say t beats Mint KDE...

[exploder]

I have to say t beats Mint KDE...

Ubuntu's bugs and regressions are what hurts the Mint KDE edition. There is only so much that Boo can do with the base as far as fixing it. I had Kubuntu 11.04 installed for a short time, at first I was real happy with it and really liked it. The new version of Grub 2, the kernel used and the new version of xserver-org, kept breaking the nvidea drivers on my system. Kubuntu would run fine for about a day and then suddenly the drivers would just quit working. All my attempts to resolve the problem just seemed to make things worse and after 3 installs and hours of trouble shooting, I decided it just was not worth the trouble.

Boo usually waits a while until enough bug fixes are released to build a stable system from and that's really all he can do. Ubuntu is all about marketing, geez, they change an icon and it's big news all over the web and it is ridicules. Ubuntu takes away from all of the developers that are doing good work. People get brain washed from all the hype, fanfare and advertizing into thinking that Ubuntu is good for production use. Taking the time to read the known issues makes it clear that Ubuntu is releasing alpha quality software. Ubuntu builds abandon-ware for the most part because they rarely fix the bugs that are reported and just move on to their next release.

I used to test Ubuntu releases and report bugs, it was a complete and total waste of my time. When one of their developers told me that they did not have the time to fix everyone's favorite bug I should have took the hint. The bug reporting system and all their great plans to improve quality are all for show and media attention. Everything about Ubuntu is geared toward gaining the attention of the media. I listened to Shuttleworth's keynote speech when work began on 11.04 about how they needed keep the fly out of the iceream and I was dumb enough to believe they were actually going to fix plymouth and a host of other issues. The speech was just a ploy to grab more media attention.

I finally woke up to the fact that every last thing about Ubuntu was geared toward keeping it in the spotlight.

[AlbertP]

The GLib-Warning of Plymouth is actually fixed, and you claim that they only said this for media attention. But in this case it is the truth. You won't be able to find someone using Mint 11 having a GLib-Warning from Plymouth.