Which OS to try?

[pitupepito2000]

Hi,

I am thinking about trying a new operating system during the spring break. Which one should I install? I am thinking about an open source one. I have tried Red Hat and I am currently running Debian. Should I try another Linux operating system? if yes which one? or should I try a BSD operating system?

thanks for the input,
pitupepito

 

[drag]

well, it all depends. What do you like about debian? What did you like about Redhat? If you want something a bit more "primitive" or maliable I'd go for slackware. If you want something a bit more well structured and "standardized", I'd go with FreeBSD.... All the different flavors or Unix are actually realy close, you just would have to learn slighty different syntaxes and how the base stuff works like the kernel and drivers and stuff like that are different.... i think everyone should try OpenBSD at least once, It's probably the most security-oriented OS in existance. And is better at stopping crackers then any other DEFUALT installed Unix in existance. (at least ones that cost less then 3-4 thousand dollars!)...

As far as linux goes there are close to 300 different distros that are actively being maintained, some are very purpose-oriented, like there are a couple "learning" ones developed for specific university enviroments, some are language specific, some are country or region specific., some are server centric, others are for workstations, Some are designed to be ran off of a single diskette. A lot are simply modified versions of larger distros, modified to suit the authors. Mandrake linux started off like that from RedHat.. Gentoo is one that is very performance oriented, everything you install is compiled from code to specificly suit your computer, plus the portage system is DA_BOMB. But it'll take about a day to installed using a 1 ghz proccessor, hell I tried it on a 200mmx and it took 4 days for it to compile the entire OS not including X windows. Hell, NASA even has there own Linux vesion developed for use in space. (I can't get to their website though )

distrowatch
list of 321 linux distros including descriptions and links

 

[HarryAngel]

Windows XP

j/k

BSD's are nice i like freebsd (only bsd i have installed). If you haven't then try solaris

 

[ProviaFan]

I prefer Linux, though I did try NetBSD for a bit, and liked it. Beware, however, that there are many subtle differences between Linux and the BSDs, so you'll want to read the fine manual(s) even though you think you know everything, because you'll probably get stuck when going from one to the other if you're not careful.

 

[Superwormy]

FreeBSD RULES!

 

[pitupepito2000]

well, it all depends. What do you like about debian? What did you like about Redhat? If you want something a bit

What I liked about Debian was that it is a very robust operating system and I really like the apt-get system. I like the fact that I learned more about computers by using Debian than by using Red Hat. What I liked about Red Hat was the easy support for hardware out of the box.

I don't know if I should try Slackaware or if I should try FreeBSD or NetBSD. What is the difference between the two BSDs?

Windows XP

I have tried Windows XP and I don't think it is necessary to say why I didn't install it on my rig.

Thanks for all the input, and keep it coming,
pitupepito

 

[Booter]

debian

 

[HarryAngel]

I have tried Windows XP and I don't think it is necessary to say why I didn't install it on my rig.

HAHAH...read the entire post i made, you missed the j/k and the rest of my post

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: pitupepito2000
I don't know if I should try Slackaware or if I should try FreeBSD or NetBSD. What is the difference between the two BSDs?

FreeBSD is much more "full featured" (some would say bloated), but NetBSD places more emphasis on clean coding (doing it "right" even if it means sacrificing a bit of speed, so the system will be more stable in the end), and the base install by default is smaller (AFAIK). I'm not saying FreeBSD isn't stable (on the other hand, it must be, or why would it be powering all of these big commercial servers - notably yahoo, iirc). It does have somewhat limited SMP support going for it - something that NetBSD has in whatever they call their "testing" branch, and from what I've heard one other NetBSD user say, it's not entirely stable yet.

In the end, the two are very similar, and it's probably mostly a personal preference. I chose NetBSD because it's a smaller download (which matters on dialup), and because it is just very "clean" overall. Many people here would prefer FreeBSD for some other reason(s), and I'd like to hear those reasons if they feel like stating them (instead of just shouting "freebsd rules" - and implying that everything else sucks).

 

[civad]

Debian. Stick with it..

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: civad
Debian. Stick with it..

That's horrible advice. Try new things!

 

[robisc]

BeOS, and Yellowtab is on the way!!

 

[lowtech1]

Linux from scratch or Slack.

 

[pitupepito2000]

Debian. Stick with it..

I have to agree with BingBongWongFooey. I think that its always best to try new things. I am going to keep debian, but I am going to put a new partition in my hdd to install a new operating system. What I would like to hear is the pros and cos of the different OSs that you guys are suggesting. I have heard good things about all of them, but the question is which one to try?

Thanks for the input and keep it coming,
pitupepito

 

[everman]

Maybe Gentoo? I haven't tried it myself as I have read that you need to compile a "lot" of it yourself and I just don't want to take the time to do that.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: everman
Maybe Gentoo? I haven't tried it myself as I have read that you need to compile a "lot" of it yourself and I just don't want to take the time to do that.

Hey yeh, I was going to suggest gentoo myself. I've never used it (mostly because of lack of time), but if you want to try something new......

 

[drag]

I'd suggest a freebsd or slack, I can't say enough good things about slack. It's about as close to a Unix as you can get, but still be wholeheartedly linux. (If that ment a whole lot). IMO, If you set up linux from scratch right and the way you want it, it's basicly what Slack was the whole time. (although I wouldn't play down to knowledge you gain from doing that! I tried out Core linux (linux from scratch derivative) and I learned ALOT. Very usefull almost a must.

The one dangerous thing about Slackware is if you get in the habit of installing to many applications from source code in order to get this feature or that feature. You end up chasing down dependances and upgrading for hours.. much more work than it is worth, You learn alot about what prog, or what Library does what, but It gets silly after a while. That's why a whole bunch of Gentoo users came from Slackware. It's along the same lines of OS, but the promise of high performance and cutting edge apps is hard to resist! But then again you end up with a Linux that is fairly better performer then it's i386-binaries based brethren, but reliability drops down to only slightly above that of a newly installed XP. And there is nothing Linux users hate more than having to be forced to reboot as much 2-3 times in a month! GRRR...

I tend to look at slackware as the sort of good backwoods country folk of linux. Everybodies racin' around you trying to be flashy and talkin about how big they going to be trying to be smart and dress in sharp clothes and cars. While you just mosey along, and fish all day long, enjoying the sunlight and good wine. Then when they go to fast and slide their sports car into a ditch, they know you'll always be there to pull them out with your big ol' 4x4. Witness the power of SLack.

Theres a definately good reasoon that SLackware is the oldest distro out there and it is worth a try. hehe.

 

[robisc]

I said BeOs but if we are talking Linux distros then my favorite would have to be Lycoris, try it and you will like it.

 

[civad]

Originally posted by:
BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: civad
Debian. Stick with it..

That's horrible advice. Try new things!

Well: I am telling that from personal experience: after trying about two dozen GNU/Linux or Linux distros (as the case may be), Solaris, BEOS, Win (95-XP), Free and Net BSDs; I finally decided that Debian is *The OS* for me.

As far as horrible advice is concerned: I wouldnt callmy advice as 'horrible' esp. after having killed two 30-gig 7200 RPMS; spending 2 years into 'market survey' and not to mention hours spent doing the same things over and over again..e.g configuring pppoe

Edit: Forgot to mention that I tried MenuetOS Sky OS, QNX, GNU/Darwin and also DOS...hehe

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: civad

Originally posted by:
BingBongWongFooey

Originally posted by: civad
Debian. Stick with it..

That's horrible advice. Try new things!

Well: I am telling that from personal experience: after trying about two dozen GNU/Linux or Linux distros (as the case may be), Solaris, BEOS, Win (95-XP), Free and Net BSDs; I finally decided that Debian is *The OS* for me.

As far as horrible advice is concerned: I wouldnt callmy advice as 'horrible' esp. after having killed two 30-gig 7200 RPMS; spending 2 years into 'market survey' and not to mention hours spent doing the same things over and over again..e.g configuring pppoe

Edit: Forgot to mention that I tried MenuetOS Sky OS, QNX, GNU/Darwin and also DOS...hehe

I've tried QNX a bit and found it interesting, but the newness soon wore off once I found that I couldn't do much with it. I've never heard of MenuetOS and SkyOS before, do you care to give a brief description? The BSDs are great, and I wish I had an extra computer or two so I could play with them as well. Debian, IMHO, makes a great low-maintenance OS (just run apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade daily to keep up to date on the security patches), but things can get screwed up if you want to compile your own stuff frequently (like I do). I would consider Gentoo, if only I had broadband and a computer fast enough to make compiling everything less painful.

 

[Flatline]

You might want to give Vector Linux a try; it's a Slackware-based distro with all the eye candy you could want.

It also has the autopkg tool, which works a lot like Debian's apt-get

KDE3.1 is the default desktop

 

[civad]

MenuetOS is a GPL(GNU Public Licence)-based OS. You can find more info at:
MenuetOS

It is a floppy-based OS and is pretty good for ..whatever your objective of using this OS may be I used it to test whether my assembled PC was working ok or not b4 installing the OS (This was in days before Knoppix...)

SkyOS is another interesting little system:

SkyOS is an operating system for x86 PC?s. As required for a modern operating system it supports features like multiprocessor support (SMP), virtual memory, memory protection, multitasking and threading etc. Additionally SkyOS has a built-in GUI system named SkyGI. All features of the OS will be explained later in detail.

Its a small download, I think abt 20 MB or so... more info at: SKyOS

 

[pitupepito2000]

Hi,

Thanks for all the post. After reading all what you guys had to say, I decided to install FreeBSD. I decided to go for something a little more different than Linux, but I am still going to keep Debian as my main operating system.

Do you guys have any suggestion for things to read about FreeBSD?

thanks for the info,
pitupepito