Opinions on Linux Distros i've tested.

[BG405]

How does pacman compare to apt?

Pacman is a great utility but I'm afraid I still don't know the true meanings of all the options .. e.g. ""Syyu" .. what does the second "y" accomplish? ...I'm still trying to research the full descriptions of the options.

[TL: DR] There is a handy comparison chart somewhere on my system; my eyes are too bad tonight to find it but will post this once I do, or a link to the resource. It'll be in my history.

I do use Yaourt for AUR stuff but apparently that's not recommended these days & "pamac" is the preferred option for this. Looking into potential issues with a switch-over for me. I have a few applications installed via Yaourt so am a bit unsure as to whether Pamac will pick them up properly.

[ajgreeny]

How does pacman compare to apt?

Pacman is a great utility but I'm afraid I still don't know the true meanings of all the options .. e.g. ""Syyu" .. what does the second "y" accomplish? ...I'm still trying to research the full descriptions of the options.

[TL: DR] There is a handy comparison chart somewhere on my system; my eyes are too bad tonight to find it but will post this once I do, or a link to the resource. It'll be in my history.

I do use Yaourt for AUR stuff but apparently that's not recommended these days & "pamac" is the preferred option for this. Looking into potential issues with a switch-over for me. I have a few applications installed via Yaourt so am a bit unsure as to whether Pamac will pick them up properly.

I use arcolinux, an Arch based distros, and always use pamac which does deal with the AUR packages very well.
However my first command in arcolinux is always "upall" which is an alias to upgrade everything including the AUR packages. If I do not want AUR packages upgraded another alias, upgrade, works well.

I'm not sure if those aliases are set by default in Arch itself as I've never used it.

[MurphCID]

Anyone try or use Slackware?

Yes, I tried it and also one derivative, Salix.
Slackware is great and stable like Debian but the installation process..., even Arch is easier to install. The package manager does not resolve dependencies either. But as I said, once configured it is just like any other distro.
For my personal taste it is just too old regarding the packages and software in general. Debian has newer stuff. But I like the Slackbuilds and you can compile every package known to mankind on Slackware because it comes with everything included.

Salix comes with a nice installer and slapt-get, that says everything and is minimal and not like Slackware where you would end up with KDE and Xfce at the same time if you take the default.

Can Slackware be updated to modern (i.e. latest) kernels, and software? I know that dependency hell is a nightmare having experienced it in the early days.

[BG405]

I'm not sure if those aliases are set by default in Arch itself as I've never used it.

I've certainly never encountered them. Maybe they are present in pure Arch by default? .. I'll have a look next time I start one of the VMs.. Might be useful to add them to this once I've installed & configured Pamac.

[MurphCID]

Rather than start a new thread, I think this applies here. He has some really valid points that Linux in general need to address: https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/lin ... ction.html

And then, there's me ...
Ignoring reviews for the moment, all of the above makes it very hard for me to adopt Linux in my production setup. I want to. Linux was my dearest hobby for a long time. I changed my career - going from working as a physicist in the medical industry to doing high-performance computing and such - because Linux. I had such high hopes, such high expectations for the Linux desktop, and they never realized.

Would I like to be able to use Linux 100% 24/7? Yes. Alas, I cannot *.

I need Windows for gaming. Linux gaming is still a fraction of what you get for Windows, the compatibility layers are just a bittersweet dream, the performance is not as good, even on the same hardware, plus you have all the other issues I outlined earlier.

I need Windows for office suite work. I need to send my books to publishers. None of them care about ODT. Whatever software rocks your boat, there's no native Microsoft Office support for Linux at the moment. It might change one day, but that day is not this day.

I need consistency and super-long support - I cannot allow things to randomly break. While Microsoft, with its Windows 10 rings euphoria and fast-fast-fast gimmicks, is persistently chipping away at the once legendary reputation of robustness and stability its updates used to be, Windows is still far more predictable than Linux in the home environment.

* Just before you move on, here's my current **, up-to-date serious Linux usage breakdown:

Slimbook Pro2 & Kubuntu - my most ambitious and thorough attempt yet. Thirteen reports so far. Pretty good, but some rather big issues remain, as we shall elaborate below.
Asus Vivobook - dual-booting Kubuntu (previously Ubuntu Trusty) and Windows 8.1. Used as a travel machine, with some reasonable results, but the scope of usage is less than the Slimbook machine, and does not replace the Windows boxen in my arsenal.
Asus eeePC - used to be a rugged travel machine, and delivered beautifully on all fronts. Of course, it had limited scope to begin with, but it did remarkably well, and it still works fine, running MX Linux 18, which happens to be a superb distro release.

[Dot_mdb]

I have a lot of computers. Many of them run Windows but I rarely use them except to update once a month. Yesterday I went to do an update on one of the machines and the update failed. I decided to restore to restore point, that is a built in Windows program. The machine struggled for 3 hours and then rebooted and it couldn't get into the desktop. Fortunately I had a 9 month old image. I restored the image but then I had to update to the previous level. That took about 3 hours. This machine is running Windows home edition. There is no way to keep it from updating, only delay for 7 days. If I let it try to update it will fail again and the cycle will start all over again. It sits with the network cable pulled. Maybe in a month or two Microsoft will fix the update. Windows is successful because it is a monopoly and not because it is a good operating system. Oh, this is the third time something like this has happened on this machine in about 4 - 5 years.

Bill

[MurphCID]

I have a lot of computers. Many of them run Windows but I rarely use them except to update once a month. Yesterday I went to do an update on one of the machines and the update failed. I decided to restore to restore point, that is a built in Windows program. The machine struggled for 3 hours and then rebooted and it couldn't get into the desktop. Fortunately I had a 9 month old image. I restored the image but then I had to update to the previous level. That took about 3 hours. This machine is running Windows home edition. There is no way to keep it from updating, only delay for 7 days. If I let it try to update it will fail again and the cycle will start all over again. It sits with the network cable pulled. Maybe in a month or two Microsoft will fix the update. Windows is successful because it is a monopoly and not because it is a good operating system. Oh, this is the third time something like this has happened on this machine in about 4 - 5 years.

Bill

I have had similar but not the same in that it takes HOURS to update on their feature updates. But MS has vendor lock in for now.