Claudio Santambrogio

turn

Sunday, February 11, 2007 10:52:24 PM

My current Linux system is something I'd call "based on SUSE 9.3": once upon a time this was SUSE, but has since grown into something very different, where I have manually updated most applications. It has reached a stage where it gets more and more tricky to maintain - the YaST package manager had its final fit today, upgrading a package - that I could not start anymore afterwards because of package dependencies. So I am looking for something else - and before you suggest some other OS: I am interested in Linux.

Requirements:

Binary and source packages should be available;
they should be as unpatched as possible (I don't like distros applying their own patches);
it should have a bleeding edge branch with most-up-to-date packages;
the package manager of the distro should be flexible enough to ideally be able to handle manual upgrades of the packages - but at least to allow the installed base to be expanded;

The installed system should offer

a fast boot;
lightweight system;
good hardware support;
good support from the community

I do have some distros in mind, but first, I'd like unbiassed input: I am open for suggestions

cascatadell is listening

Comments

MyOpera team, please fix this!fearphage # Monday, February 12, 2007 4:37:28 AM

I would suggest Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Ubuntu comes with Gnome while Kubuntu is ubuntu with KDE instead. It is based on Debian and is bleeding edge. I haven't had any hardware support issues and have used it for about a year and a half. The community is great and I get most of my support through irc. It uses apt-get for package management. Apt-get is the most intuitive, simple manager I've ever used. It has a small footprint and a quick install and boot. Its worth a try.

RamūnasRamunas # Monday, February 12, 2007 8:36:25 AM

I'd suggest Debian too.

Aux # Monday, February 12, 2007 12:56:48 PM

1. Fast Boot - BeOS (:
2. Lightweight system - BeOS (:
3. Good hardware support - MacOS X (:
4. Good support from the community - Ubuntu and Gentoo.

I would like to say, that Ubuntu is quite lame system. Just like newest SUSE - You should use it only the way developers think You should. Gentoo is good if You have all the time in the world. So I suggest... Slackware! Actually I would like to recommend FreeBSD, but You ask for Linux. I don't like Linux and Linux does not like me, but I like FreeBSD. After FreeBSD Slackware feels like almost at home.