The official Linux thread

[thearkitekt]

wtf, maybe i should try Ubuntu... ive tried Debian5, Suse11, MandrivaOne, Slackware, and ... cant think of the other three I attempted to install and gave up with because they were too difficult or unstable. (Fedora being one of them.... Knoppix being another)
My favorite thus far, based on looks and feel was Debian, second runner up was Suse.

My ineretest in dabbling in linux is that I need a solid and secure server OS.
I want Turbolinux's Server edition but apparently you now have to pay for free shit.

Anyone with some suggestions?

give Ubuntu server a shot. its pretty easy to set up and make secure. I've never really tried a "hardened" setup before but there are lots of documentation so its easy to find help. If you want to be hardcore bootstrap gentoo, just plan a day for it lol.

[EricT]

I started with Slackware...moved on to redhat....ran suse for a spell and currently run mandriva(mandrake) ........

[xLibelle]

In years past I've run mandrake, which looked promising, but Mandriva showed no signs of progress and doesnt quite compare to the other two i mentioned. But this is coming from a surface scan with limited use.

I end up installing on one of a dozen computers sitting around my office, got bored/no time and forget the password and dont care to revisit. lol

I would just be happy to set up a secure apache server, hook it to the network and forget about it. Man that would be great.... oh yeah, i can have that by paying for a remote service. well thats no fun.



Are there other free server os's like Ubuntu's? I like testing out a couple at a time.

[JPE30]

For someone not familiar with Linux I recommend Linux Mint which is basically just a derivation of Ubuntu, only with better default programs and what not.

If you like Gentoo, try Arch Linux. Arch is a rolling release model, so no waiting 6 months to get the most updated kernel and GUI's. It has a simple, usable package manager, and also a user repository for user submitted packages. I've been using Arch for about 6 months now, and I am completely content with everything it has to offer. I'm running KDE 4.2 w/ kernel 2.6.29.1 and it is solid as a rock. The install is a bit more time consuming and in-depth than Ubuntu, and you have to download applications yourself as there really aren't any defaults other than common dependencies, but it is awesome. I recommend Arch to anyone who enjoys Linux.

http://www.archlinux.org/

[devonjordan]

Just for the noobs like me, I found this today. Easy reading, and it looks like it will explain just about all you need to know to start using ubuntu.

http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/

[accident]

If you want to be hardcore bootstrap gentoo, just plan a day for it lol.

More like 3 days ;)

That day is spent just doing bootstrapping and setting up the userspace.

It took me about 3 days start to finish to get gentoo working, however there was sleeping and socializing inbetween, and I'm also using it as my laptop OS so X11 and KDE had to be built. At this point I've got a stable OS and have all of my major use programs build.

[devonjordan]

Just got ubuntu working on my laptop. The gui is really intuitive, so I can see why it is widely used.
'
Time to start learning how the command line works... and what the fuck is going on with my text...

[JPE30]

More like 3 days ;)

That day is spent just doing bootstrapping and setting up the userspace.

It took me about 3 days start to finish to get gentoo working, however there was sleeping and socializing inbetween, and I'm also using it as my laptop OS so X11 and KDE had to be built. At this point I've got a stable OS and have all of my major use programs build.

The whole building every program you want to use is the one thing that kept me away from Gentoo. Which is why I use Arch, its a minimal install and I just download the packages I want. Plus Arch has KDEmod... :)

[accident]

The whole building every program you want to use is the one thing that kept me away from Gentoo. Which is why I use Arch, its a minimal install and I just download the packages I want. Plus Arch has KDEmod... :)

gentoo is as minimal as you want it to be ;)

[retardotyler]

User Name

I put ubuntu on my ps3 solely because ps3 browser seriously blows.

[JPE30]

gentoo is as minimal as you want it to be ;)

haha, which is kinda why I avoid it.

[EricT]

Upgraded to Mandriva 2009.1........booted up to a blank screen with a cursor. Tried some things....gave up...apparently its got issues with nvidia and I didn't feel like fucking with it anymore..reloaded 2008 and it worked again.....cept then it wouldn't update at all. After reading this a few days ago and talking to some people....decided to give Linux Mint 7 a try. I must say so far its amazing. Booted up....loaded great. At first I could only get 800x600 resolution on my monitor. So I went into a terminal and edited xorg.conf. In the monitor section I punched in HorizSync 28-60. Gave me a ton of resolution options after saving and rebooting so I could use 1024x768 again as well as others. Now I am happy. Another thing I noticed is it doesn't nearly take up the space on my hard drive as the other distros I have tried running. It seems to have installed a minimum set of programs/tools, but anything else I could possibly want is just a click away and installs so easy. My computer seems at least 50% faster than it was running mandrake or suse.......I would plug this distro to anyone wanting something simple that just works.

[Gooch]

I recently set up a dual boot of Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 but I can't get my Linksys wireless card working on Ubuntu. Damn.

[SaskE30]

Im running a dual boot of Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04 on my netbook and so far everything has been working perfectly.