Choosing a distro
I am considering switching (back) to Linux. I was a long time Windows user who switched to Ubuntu when Vista was released. I probably don't need to explain why. One of the things I was hoping to do with Ubuntu is actually learn the OS, but that never happened. I couldn't find any decent books or documentation to guide me through the OS. Everything was either way too basic, or too over my head. As a result, my only resource was the Ubuntu forums. However, by way of my goals, that wasn't much help either. I was expecting to have problems transitioning to Linux, but hoping they would be an opportunity to learn. Instead, I would post questions, and responders would basically just post some code (that I didn't understand) for me to copy and paste into the terminal. There was no explanation, and no learning. After a few years of that (and a desire to try a couple apps that wouldn't run in WINE), I switched to Windows 7.
However, I want to change back yet again (though not to Ubuntu) and the main reasons are:
1) I'm rekindling an old (as in 10 years old) interest in software development with the possibility (i.e. faint glimmer of hope) of designing mobile apps and maybe make a few extra bucks. Otherwise, I just want to tinker with other forms of software development (AI design, productivity apps, maybe some games). I think that developing skills with Linux will help strengthen my foundational knowledge with computers and help with programming.*
2) I like Linux better. I liked my old desktop and being able to have a cube or multiple virtual desktops running. I tinkered with Python when I was using Ubuntu and it made things much easier having a 3x3 desktop workspace. And I liked the terminal. Unlike Windows "Command Prompt", you could actually do things in the terminal.
3) All the usual sociocultural/economic reasons why people dislike Microsoft and Apple products.**
4) My computer is getting a bit older (about 5 years or so), and Linux would just be a lot faster and lighter.
* I do realize that knowing Linux won't necessarily make me a better programmer on MS or MacOS platforms, as I would need to know those systems as well, but I do believe it would strengthen my general computer skills more so than knowing Windows or MacOS. Who knows, maybe it might turn into some kind of tech job down the line.
**The irony of #1 (specifically the bit about mobile apps) and #3 is not lost on me. :P
Anyway, I'm having trouble choosing a distro. I don't like the direction Ubuntu is going (and it wasn't much help the first time around anyway), so that's out. Still, I have concerns about going with a less flashier and less user friendly distro:
1a) Too steep of a learning curve
1b) Not enough support (whether it be community or comprehensible documentation)
2) I won't be able to use it for certain media applications (I have a ton of music and movies)
3) Lack of adequate support for web browsing (especially flash)
Considering all this, can anyone suggest a distro that might work for me (and maybe explain why). I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks.
Comments
-
It is unfortunate that you did not have good experiences with ubuntu because in my opinion it has the best documentation of any distro at https://help.ubuntu.com/ . However most of the instructions from one distro can be used on others, outsides of ubuntu's unity interface everything else they use is common in other distros.
Honestly you can go with mandriva, linux mint, opensuse, fedora and many others to fulfill your needs although their documentation may not be as good as ubuntu's. All of the distros I listed are very user friendly like ubuntu (especially mint which is based off of ubuntu), they can play nearly any video or audio format after the codecs are installed generally through the mplayer-plugins package and all of them support flash in their repos.0 -
Ubuntu did have some good documentation, however (based on what I needed it for), every fix was pretty much just a couple of clicks through a gui. I think the most difficult issue I had was getting NVIDIA and flash to work (at the time, the support was a little sparse), but even then, all I needed to do was a little search in the Synaptic Package Manager to get what I need. So, on that end, the system was a little too user friendly...I didn't really learn how anything worked. I was hoping to learn a little about the shell/command line, but I might as well have been using a Mac.
I was considering Mint and Mandriva, though I was concerned that I might have the same problems I had with Ubuntu (not enough opportunities to learn the nuts and bolts of the system). Also, I read that opensuse was basically just like Mandriva, but clunkier.
Since posting, I've been researching distros, and I've been considering something more along the lines of Debian, Slackware, or Centos. Definitely not very user friendly, but I thought I would back it up by either keeping a Windows 7 partition (so I can still hit the net for documentation of forum/irc help if I get in a tight spot), or just buying a cheap, bare-bones netbook that will let me do the same. This way, I'll have a safety net when it comes to checking email, getting on the net, job hunting, and maintaining my resume. Music and movies would just have to take a back seat if Slackware/Debian/CentOS isn't playing nice. Also, I managed to get my hands on a few linux books (Dummies, O'Reilly, and a couple others), that I hope will be all I need to get a distro up and running.
Additionally, thinking both long term and by way of potential near future opportunities, Debian, Slackware, or CentOS (based on what I've read) are good for people looking to learn server admin. I have a friend who recently started a small non-profit private school and they haven't really established an IT base. I figured that once I experimented and learned a bit, I could approach her and volunteer as a server admin to further develop my skills (and maybe I could get the school to comp a couple certs along the way ).
At this point, this is the impression that I get:
Slackware: Hardest to use, but if you master it, you've got Linux in the bag
Debian: A little more user friendly than the others, more software packages available
CentOS: The best choice if you want to eventually get a job, though has a lot less software available
Are my impressions correct? If so, it's a neck and neck race. Is there anything else that will put one ahead of the others? Thanks.0 -
I like how you think and your impressions of the harder distros are correct, Centos has value for certificaton because it is basically a free clone of Redhat Enterprise Linux.
If you are looking to build a stable "easy" to maintain system I would recommend Slackware, because that is what I use.
Debian is good because of apt, but the difficulty in developing software packages and many assisted technologies make it a bit difficult to find direct answers to your problems.
Centos is good and stable but as a RedHat clone is also has many of the assisted technologies, some missing RHEL components and SeLinux enabled which can make administration difficult.
I will stick to my recommendation of Slackware because the online help is good, http://www.slackbook.org/ is good for documentation, but http://www.slackbook.org/beta/ is shaping up to be a bible for Linux admins, the administration is "simple" and because a few users here including myself can easily help you with nearly any issue. Note that I used simple in quites, because it is not user-friendly/point and click simple, but it is simple because it requires less involved steps to diagnose and setup software.
If you wish to use Slackware we are here to help you learn everything you needs to know, the first thing to know is that it does not have a GUI installer, but the installer itself is simple when you get past partitioning.
As for package availability there are plenty of package mirrors and slackbuildsorg , and if you are really wanting to know how to handle package management I can teach you to make your own slackbuild scripts to generate packages.0 -
First, those slackbook links just redirect me to Wikipedia's page on SOPA (interesting read, though)."If you wish to use Slackware we are here to help you learn everything you needs to know, the first thing to know is that it does not have a GUI installer, but the installer itself is simple when you get past partitioning."
I had to quote this. The one thing I liked most about Ubuntu was the shell. It reminded me of back when DOS was a real OS that worked with Windows and not the children's toy it has become. As much as the GUI makes navigating between multiple tasks/projects faster, if I'm just working on one thing, I'd rather kick it old school with the shell.
I'm glad you had good things to say about Slackware. I was pretty tossed between that and CentOS (the latter for the career potential), but I've since been reading that it's much easier, and works better, to VM CentOS in Slackware rather than the other way around. This way I can have the most "educational" distro while also developing skills with the most job-friendly one. Side note, I'm not sure how much I should care about having a package manager (i.e. Debian's APT). If the point is to learn the OS, am I not better off learning how to download and compile the source and work out dependencies on my own?
Now for the nitty-gritty of conversion. First, I'm not sure if I should go with partitioning or getting a cheap netbook. The main benefit I see for the netbook is that I can have all my Linux pdfs, chms, and other docs running on that while I'm tinkering on my main box. I'm just not sure if that benefit is worth dropping $300. And, if I do partition, my setup and the amount of data I have is a little awkward. My laptop only has a 150GB hard drive, though I have a 1TB external. All together, I probably have 500+GB of music, movies, and other data. Obviously the external plays a huge role in data management. Right now, I keep most of it is archived and only copy it over to my system when I need it. It used to be formatted to ext3 when I was using Ubuntu, but when I switched back, my cousin and I rigged this bizarre setup with another laptop and personal server to copy the data, reformat the external to NTFS, and put it back on the external. It was a bit of an ordeal and took the better part of an afternoon. We don't have access to this personal server anymore, so I'm wondering how to handle this with a Linux conversion. Ultimately, I want to be able to play my movies and music via Linux, but I don't think there's any way it can read an NTFS external (at least it couldn't when I was using Ubuntu).
Any thoughts?0
Categories
- All Categories
- 218 LFX Mentorship
- 218 LFX Mentorship: Linux Kernel
- 791 Linux Foundation IT Professional Programs
- 353 Cloud Engineer IT Professional Program
- 178 Advanced Cloud Engineer IT Professional Program
- 82 DevOps Engineer IT Professional Program
- 147 Cloud Native Developer IT Professional Program
- 137 Express Training Courses
- 137 Express Courses - Discussion Forum
- 6.2K Training Courses
- 47 LFC110 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 71 LFC131 Class Forum
- 42 LFD102 Class Forum
- 226 LFD103 Class Forum
- 18 LFD110 Class Forum
- 38 LFD121 Class Forum
- 18 LFD133 Class Forum
- 7 LFD134 Class Forum
- 18 LFD137 Class Forum
- 71 LFD201 Class Forum
- 4 LFD210 Class Forum
- 5 LFD210-CN Class Forum
- 2 LFD213 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 128 LFD232 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 2 LFD233 Class Forum
- 4 LFD237 Class Forum
- 24 LFD254 Class Forum
- 697 LFD259 Class Forum
- 111 LFD272 Class Forum
- 4 LFD272-JP クラス フォーラム
- 12 LFD273 Class Forum
- 148 LFS101 Class Forum
- 1 LFS111 Class Forum
- 3 LFS112 Class Forum
- 2 LFS116 Class Forum
- 4 LFS118 Class Forum
- LFS120 Class Forum
- 7 LFS142 Class Forum
- 5 LFS144 Class Forum
- 4 LFS145 Class Forum
- 2 LFS146 Class Forum
- 3 LFS147 Class Forum
- 1 LFS148 Class Forum
- 15 LFS151 Class Forum
- 2 LFS157 Class Forum
- 29 LFS158 Class Forum
- 7 LFS162 Class Forum
- 2 LFS166 Class Forum
- 4 LFS167 Class Forum
- 3 LFS170 Class Forum
- 2 LFS171 Class Forum
- 3 LFS178 Class Forum
- 3 LFS180 Class Forum
- 2 LFS182 Class Forum
- 5 LFS183 Class Forum
- 31 LFS200 Class Forum
- 737 LFS201 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 3 LFS201-JP クラス フォーラム
- 18 LFS203 Class Forum
- 134 LFS207 Class Forum
- 2 LFS207-DE-Klassenforum
- 1 LFS207-JP クラス フォーラム
- 302 LFS211 Class Forum
- 56 LFS216 Class Forum
- 52 LFS241 Class Forum
- 48 LFS242 Class Forum
- 38 LFS243 Class Forum
- 15 LFS244 Class Forum
- 2 LFS245 Class Forum
- LFS246 Class Forum
- 49 LFS250 Class Forum
- 2 LFS250-JP クラス フォーラム
- 1 LFS251 Class Forum
- 153 LFS253 Class Forum
- 1 LFS254 Class Forum
- 1 LFS255 Class Forum
- 7 LFS256 Class Forum
- 1 LFS257 Class Forum
- 1.3K LFS258 Class Forum
- 10 LFS258-JP クラス フォーラム
- 118 LFS260 Class Forum
- 159 LFS261 Class Forum
- 42 LFS262 Class Forum
- 82 LFS263 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 15 LFS264 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 11 LFS266 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 24 LFS267 Class Forum
- 22 LFS268 Class Forum
- 30 LFS269 Class Forum
- LFS270 Class Forum
- 202 LFS272 Class Forum
- 2 LFS272-JP クラス フォーラム
- 1 LFS274 Class Forum
- 4 LFS281 Class Forum
- 9 LFW111 Class Forum
- 259 LFW211 Class Forum
- 181 LFW212 Class Forum
- 13 SKF100 Class Forum
- 1 SKF200 Class Forum
- 1 SKF201 Class Forum
- 796 Hardware
- 199 Drivers
- 68 I/O Devices
- 37 Monitors
- 103 Multimedia
- 174 Networking
- 91 Printers & Scanners
- 85 Storage
- 758 Linux Distributions
- 82 Debian
- 67 Fedora
- 17 Linux Mint
- 13 Mageia
- 23 openSUSE
- 148 Red Hat Enterprise
- 31 Slackware
- 13 SUSE Enterprise
- 353 Ubuntu
- 468 Linux System Administration
- 39 Cloud Computing
- 71 Command Line/Scripting
- Github systems admin projects
- 93 Linux Security
- 78 Network Management
- 102 System Management
- 47 Web Management
- 63 Mobile Computing
- 18 Android
- 33 Development
- 1.2K New to Linux
- 1K Getting Started with Linux
- 371 Off Topic
- 114 Introductions
- 174 Small Talk
- 22 Study Material
- 805 Programming and Development
- 303 Kernel Development
- 484 Software Development
- 1.8K Software
- 261 Applications
- 183 Command Line
- 3 Compiling/Installing
- 987 Games
- 317 Installation
- 97 All In Program
- 97 All In Forum
Upcoming Training
-
August 20, 2018
Kubernetes Administration (LFS458)
-
August 20, 2018
Linux System Administration (LFS301)
-
August 27, 2018
Open Source Virtualization (LFS462)
-
August 27, 2018
Linux Kernel Debugging and Security (LFD440)