Author Topic: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?  (Read 606630 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Altis

  • Posts: 974
  • Location: Canada
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #400 on: Sat, 28 March 2015, 12:21:33 »
I might try ChaletOS as it looks very well done and is highly spoken of.

If it doesn't work out, maybe I'll give Elementary OS another try since I last used the previous release "Luna". "Freya" looks like an improvement.
WhiteFox (Gateron Brown) -- Realforce 87U 45g -- Realforce 104UG (Hi Pro 45g) -- Realforce 108US 30g JIS -- HHKB Pro 2 -- IBM Model M ('90) -- IBM Model M SSK ('87) -- NMB RT-101 & RT-8255C+ (Hi-Tek Space Invaders) -- Chicony KB-5181 (Monterey Blue Alps) -- KPT-102 (KPT Alps) -- KUL ES-87 (62/65g Purple Zealios) -- CM QFR (MX Red) -- Apple Aluminum BT -- Realforce 23u Numpad -- Logitech K740 -- QSENN DT-35 -- Zenith Z-150 (Green Alps)

Offline Dihedral

  • Posts: 827
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Mostly Harmless
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #401 on: Sat, 28 March 2015, 12:27:19 »
I might try ChaletOS as it looks very well done and is highly spoken of.

If it doesn't work out, maybe I'll give Elementary OS another try since I last used the previous release "Luna". "Freya" looks like an improvement.

They both look like nice OSes, but I'd be worried about the actual support and raw power. Would be interested to hear your opinions on them however.

Offline Altis

  • Posts: 974
  • Location: Canada
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #402 on: Sat, 28 March 2015, 12:31:12 »
I might try ChaletOS as it looks very well done and is highly spoken of.

If it doesn't work out, maybe I'll give Elementary OS another try since I last used the previous release "Luna". "Freya" looks like an improvement.

They both look like nice OSes, but I'd be worried about the actual support and raw power. Would be interested to hear your opinions on them however.

I'll report back after some use of each. Elementary Luna was quite nice and worked well, though I mostly used it for pretty basic stuff. Pretty easy to use and lots available for it as it has the Ubuntu software manager.
WhiteFox (Gateron Brown) -- Realforce 87U 45g -- Realforce 104UG (Hi Pro 45g) -- Realforce 108US 30g JIS -- HHKB Pro 2 -- IBM Model M ('90) -- IBM Model M SSK ('87) -- NMB RT-101 & RT-8255C+ (Hi-Tek Space Invaders) -- Chicony KB-5181 (Monterey Blue Alps) -- KPT-102 (KPT Alps) -- KUL ES-87 (62/65g Purple Zealios) -- CM QFR (MX Red) -- Apple Aluminum BT -- Realforce 23u Numpad -- Logitech K740 -- QSENN DT-35 -- Zenith Z-150 (Green Alps)

Offline Air tree

  • Better late than never ^-^
  • * Destiny Supporter
  • Posts: 2206
  • Location: Satellite Beach, FL
  • Formerly not demik
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #403 on: Sat, 28 March 2015, 14:41:22 »
Yay, finally got my sound working on arch. I have no idea what I did, but it works now. Everything is working smoothly for now.  ^-^

Offline Dihedral

  • Posts: 827
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Mostly Harmless
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #404 on: Sun, 29 March 2015, 01:19:49 »
Yay, finally got my sound working on arch. I have no idea what I did, but it works now. Everything is working smoothly for now.  ^-^

That pretty much sums up linux :)

Offline rowdy

  • HHKB Hapster
  • * Erudite Elder
  • Posts: 21175
  • Location: melbourne.vic.au
  • Missed another sale.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #405 on: Sun, 29 March 2015, 01:22:23 »
Yay, finally got my sound working on arch. I have no idea what I did, but it works now. Everything is working smoothly for now.  ^-^

That pretty much sums up linux :)

It's come a long way since the days of having to create your x86 configuration file by hand, cross-referencing the monitor specifications to ensure you had the right refresh rate and stuff.
"Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that’s incorrect. It’s in HHKB’s slogan, but when America’s cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods, while keyboards are important interfaces." - Eiiti Wada

NEC APC-H4100E | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED red | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED green | Link 900243-08 | CM QFR MX black | KeyCool 87 white MX reds | HHKB 2 Pro | Model M 02-Mar-1993 | Model M 29-Nov-1995 | CM Trigger (broken) | CM QFS MX green | Ducky DK9087 Shine 3 TKL Yellow Edition MX black | Lexmark SSK 21-Apr-1994 | IBM SSK 13-Oct-1987 | CODE TKL MX clear | Model M 122 01-Jun-1988

Ị̸͚̯̲́ͤ̃͑̇̑ͯ̊̂͟ͅs̞͚̩͉̝̪̲͗͊ͪ̽̚̚ ̭̦͖͕̑́͌ͬͩ͟t̷̻͔̙̑͟h̹̠̼͋ͤ͋i̤̜̣̦̱̫͈͔̞ͭ͑ͥ̌̔s̬͔͎̍̈ͥͫ̐̾ͣ̔̇͘ͅ ̩̘̼͆̐̕e̞̰͓̲̺̎͐̏ͬ̓̅̾͠͝ͅv̶̰͕̱̞̥̍ͣ̄̕e͕͙͖̬̜͓͎̤̊ͭ͐͝ṇ̰͎̱̤̟̭ͫ͌̌͢͠ͅ ̳̥̦ͮ̐ͤ̎̊ͣ͡͡n̤̜̙̺̪̒͜e̶̻̦̿ͮ̂̀c̝̘̝͖̠̖͐ͨͪ̈̐͌ͩ̀e̷̥͇̋ͦs̢̡̤ͤͤͯ͜s͈̠̉̑͘a̱͕̗͖̳̥̺ͬͦͧ͆̌̑͡r̶̟̖̈͘ỷ̮̦̩͙͔ͫ̾ͬ̔ͬͮ̌?̵̘͇͔͙ͥͪ͞ͅ

Offline dimamantra

  • Posts: 137
  • | (• ◡•)| (❍ᴥ❍ʋ)
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #406 on: Sun, 29 March 2015, 13:18:27 »
14.04 server!
 :p

Anyone play with elementaryOS on desktop? Seem pretty nice.
« Last Edit: Sun, 29 March 2015, 13:21:15 by dimamantra »

Offline Altis

  • Posts: 974
  • Location: Canada
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #407 on: Sun, 29 March 2015, 13:53:40 »
14.04 server!
 :p

Anyone play with elementaryOS on desktop? Seem pretty nice.

Yes, it's very nice indeed. I think I'm partial to ChaletOS right now as it's even nicer yet... extremely well done.
« Last Edit: Sun, 29 March 2015, 14:34:13 by Altis »
WhiteFox (Gateron Brown) -- Realforce 87U 45g -- Realforce 104UG (Hi Pro 45g) -- Realforce 108US 30g JIS -- HHKB Pro 2 -- IBM Model M ('90) -- IBM Model M SSK ('87) -- NMB RT-101 & RT-8255C+ (Hi-Tek Space Invaders) -- Chicony KB-5181 (Monterey Blue Alps) -- KPT-102 (KPT Alps) -- KUL ES-87 (62/65g Purple Zealios) -- CM QFR (MX Red) -- Apple Aluminum BT -- Realforce 23u Numpad -- Logitech K740 -- QSENN DT-35 -- Zenith Z-150 (Green Alps)

Offline dimamantra

  • Posts: 137
  • | (• ◡•)| (❍ᴥ❍ʋ)
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #408 on: Sun, 29 March 2015, 15:37:44 »
14.04 server!
 :p

Anyone play with elementaryOS on desktop? Seem pretty nice.

Yes, it's very nice indeed. I think I'm partial to ChaletOS right now as it's even nicer yet... extremely well done.

I'll have to check that one out. Never heard of it.

Thanks friend!

Offline Bromono

  • Wanabe Cicerone
  • * Destiny Supporter
  • Posts: 1115
  • Location: The Alamo's Basement
  • HHKB > Your Opinion
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #409 on: Sun, 29 March 2015, 16:11:50 »
I work so many flavors of Unix and Linux... On a daily basis I will touch Solaris 9 & 10, true 64 unix, open VMS, Redhat,... List goes on..

Offline tbc

  • Posts: 2365
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #410 on: Sun, 29 March 2015, 18:14:04 »
My first distro was Mandrake. I switched full time around the very first Ubuntu LTS release (because damn winmodems).

Nowadays I use Kubuntu / Linux Mint KDE, mostly because I like KDE and I've been stuck with Ubuntu derivatives for ages, hence I'm quite familiar with it. However, I strongly disagree with Canonical's direction and recent (i.e. last few years) actions and the core system is horribly rotten; I experience trouble with hardware support, that don't exist elsewhere, packages in official repos are broken out of the box, etc.

I'd be already running Fedora, if Anaconda wasn't so horrible and the fedora.next software management (plus SAT solver for yum) was in place.
A year later and I've completely abandoned Fedora, because the project apparently puts more focus into politically correct rubbish than solving actual technical issues. I prefer a working system to a system developed with contributions from elderly African American transgender lesbians—at the risk of being eaten alive by certain redhatters. For example, my webcam has gone from partially usable to unusable in three releases; surprisingly, that's one of the things that currently actually work perfectly in Ubuntu derivatives.

I'm only a bit worried about the development cycle of Kubuntu. Sitting on LTS means I'm sometimes stuck with outdated software, while the upstream actually solves issues (the case of my webcam). OTOH, latest and greatest releases bring other kinds of issues (such as broken default configuration for serial Wacom digitizers, that prohibits them from being detected correctly, or rather at all). Unfortunately, Debian (a) doesn't even have PPAs with the latest upstream software, and (b) downstream isn't any better.

In particular, I'm on the fence about 15.04. I wouldn't have to compile Emacs 24.4 by myself (yay), but I'm still wary of the "KDE 5". Not because I expect a KDE4-like "disaster", but I have a very specific workflow that makes use of some of the weirdest settings in KWin, and some of them may not be implemented… yet?

There's still Gentoo/Funtoo/whatever in the air, but I talked to some power users in autumn, and they hated on software written Haskell, because it's supposedly a PITA to compile and/or manage. That might be a deal breaker for me, because I tend to use quite a lot of data-processing tools in all sorts of very high-level languages.

/rant

sorry for spam.

testing quoting bug report
ALL zombros wanted:  dead or undead or dead-dead.

Offline Altis

  • Posts: 974
  • Location: Canada
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #411 on: Sun, 29 March 2015, 19:04:41 »
14.04 server!
 :p

Anyone play with elementaryOS on desktop? Seem pretty nice.

Yes, it's very nice indeed. I think I'm partial to ChaletOS right now as it's even nicer yet... extremely well done.

Just a quick update after spending some time with both Elementary Freya and ChaletOS:

They are both top-notch distros and some of the best looking I've ever seen. They are both based on Ubuntu, so they have that in common and have lots of software available through their software managers. They both install in similar fashions and ran without a hitch.

The only issue I had was with both of them (and any Ubuntu-based Linux, including Mint) was getting them to display native resolutions 1080p and 1440p. It required a few extra commands as it wouldn't do it on its own (I used 'xrandr' commands). I think it's to do with my video card.

ElementaryOS is strikingly similar to OS X, while ChaletOS is extremely similar to Windows 8/10. You can actually customize Chalet to use the same icons and such.

I have no idea how I'll pick just one or the other yet as they both are just that pleasant to use.
WhiteFox (Gateron Brown) -- Realforce 87U 45g -- Realforce 104UG (Hi Pro 45g) -- Realforce 108US 30g JIS -- HHKB Pro 2 -- IBM Model M ('90) -- IBM Model M SSK ('87) -- NMB RT-101 & RT-8255C+ (Hi-Tek Space Invaders) -- Chicony KB-5181 (Monterey Blue Alps) -- KPT-102 (KPT Alps) -- KUL ES-87 (62/65g Purple Zealios) -- CM QFR (MX Red) -- Apple Aluminum BT -- Realforce 23u Numpad -- Logitech K740 -- QSENN DT-35 -- Zenith Z-150 (Green Alps)

Offline ttzhou

  • Posts: 259
  • Location: canadaland
  • in your base, belonging
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #412 on: Tue, 31 March 2015, 10:46:36 »
arch linux on my non-gaming rig. it is just aesthetically and functionally perfect for me. amazing community as well, many of the applications I use were developed by fellow/former archers (bspwm, sxiv, setroot, etc.)

Offline swill

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 3365
  • Location: Canada eh
  • builder & enabler
    • swillkb.com
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #413 on: Mon, 06 April 2015, 23:12:05 »
Yay, finally got my sound working on arch. I have no idea what I did, but it works now. Everything is working smoothly for now.  ^-^

That pretty much sums up linux :)

It's come a long way since the days of having to create your x86 configuration file by hand, cross-referencing the monitor specifications to ensure you had the right refresh rate and stuff.
Haha. Ya, the good old days. I was pretty comfortable with those configure and reboot with fingers crossed scenarios. :)

Offline lulu

  • Posts: 3
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #414 on: Thu, 09 April 2015, 04:26:12 »
I'm using Lubuntu and i'm loving it.  :)

KBC POKER II - MX BLACK - CUSTOM PINK LED - MIXED ABS AND DUCKY BLANK PBT CAPS
KBC POKER II - MX BLUE - PBT CAPS
KBC POKER II - MX RED - BLUE LED - RED DUCKY ABS CAPS


Offline ttzhou

  • Posts: 259
  • Location: canadaland
  • in your base, belonging
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #416 on: Fri, 10 April 2015, 15:24:09 »
Archer here!

awwww yeeeaaahhhh  ;D

Offline nuclearsandwich

  • Posts: 752
  • Location: Santa Clara Valley, CA
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #417 on: Sat, 18 April 2015, 00:55:16 »
I've been using Archlinux for a dang long time, but spent an extended time never upgrading during which the entire distro moved to systemd. While I can pretty much ignore arch-installed services. The stuff I do has me writing init scripts and three years on. Unit files are still a massive struggle to write.

I've been contemplating the move to voidlinux but have had trouble with dracut, the initrd creator for void that is preventing me from getting a reliable system.

Offline wlhlm

  • Posts: 700
  • Location: Germany
  • ~
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #418 on: Sat, 18 April 2015, 01:37:06 »


I've been using Archlinux for a dang long time, but spent an extended time never upgrading during which the entire distro moved to systemd. While I can pretty much ignore arch-installed services. The stuff I do has me writing init scripts and three years on. Unit files are still a massive struggle to write.

Hmm, what types of services are you running? For all the custom unit files I had to write it was fairly easy to do. The options are well documented in the man pages.

It feels better to me than writing shell scripts.

What makes you hesitant?

Offline rowdy

  • HHKB Hapster
  • * Erudite Elder
  • Posts: 21175
  • Location: melbourne.vic.au
  • Missed another sale.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #419 on: Sat, 18 April 2015, 22:42:42 »
I've been needing something with more up to date software available in its standard package manager than CentOS (which is based on Red Hat - good for longevity, but at the price of very old packages).

I tried Arch again (this is all in VMs btw), but systemd got in the way of configuring it too much, and it just felt fragile.  Although it did have all the new packages that I needed.

So I switched to openSUSE Tumbleweed.  So far so good - I used SuSE back in the day, and it hasn't changed that much.  KDE has gone really weird though, ot maybe I've been using GNOME for too long.  So I reinstalled with GNOME instead of KDE as the window manager, and that stupid thing wouldn't start the GUI.  I fiddled around with that for a couple of hours to no avail.  Then I reinstalled again with XFCE.  So far so good ...
"Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that’s incorrect. It’s in HHKB’s slogan, but when America’s cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods, while keyboards are important interfaces." - Eiiti Wada

NEC APC-H4100E | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED red | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED green | Link 900243-08 | CM QFR MX black | KeyCool 87 white MX reds | HHKB 2 Pro | Model M 02-Mar-1993 | Model M 29-Nov-1995 | CM Trigger (broken) | CM QFS MX green | Ducky DK9087 Shine 3 TKL Yellow Edition MX black | Lexmark SSK 21-Apr-1994 | IBM SSK 13-Oct-1987 | CODE TKL MX clear | Model M 122 01-Jun-1988

Ị̸͚̯̲́ͤ̃͑̇̑ͯ̊̂͟ͅs̞͚̩͉̝̪̲͗͊ͪ̽̚̚ ̭̦͖͕̑́͌ͬͩ͟t̷̻͔̙̑͟h̹̠̼͋ͤ͋i̤̜̣̦̱̫͈͔̞ͭ͑ͥ̌̔s̬͔͎̍̈ͥͫ̐̾ͣ̔̇͘ͅ ̩̘̼͆̐̕e̞̰͓̲̺̎͐̏ͬ̓̅̾͠͝ͅv̶̰͕̱̞̥̍ͣ̄̕e͕͙͖̬̜͓͎̤̊ͭ͐͝ṇ̰͎̱̤̟̭ͫ͌̌͢͠ͅ ̳̥̦ͮ̐ͤ̎̊ͣ͡͡n̤̜̙̺̪̒͜e̶̻̦̿ͮ̂̀c̝̘̝͖̠̖͐ͨͪ̈̐͌ͩ̀e̷̥͇̋ͦs̢̡̤ͤͤͯ͜s͈̠̉̑͘a̱͕̗͖̳̥̺ͬͦͧ͆̌̑͡r̶̟̖̈͘ỷ̮̦̩͙͔ͫ̾ͬ̔ͬͮ̌?̵̘͇͔͙ͥͪ͞ͅ


Offline iri

  • Posts: 997
  • Location: England
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #421 on: Sun, 19 April 2015, 16:55:32 »
considering gentoo vs funtoo for my work macbook.
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

Online fohat.digs

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 6462
  • Location: 35°55'N, 83°53'W
  • weird funny old guy
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #422 on: Wed, 22 April 2015, 19:25:54 »

So I switched to openSUSE Tumbleweed. 
So far so good - I used SuSE back in the day, and it hasn't changed that much.
KDE has gone really weird though, ot maybe I've been using GNOME for too long.


I am just really burned out on the Micro$oft/Adobe/etc ecosystem and want to phase myself into an alternate FOSS universe.

That will take a while and/or until I retire because the business world is so locked in.

I dabbled with Ubuntu/Gnome for about 5 years but got pretty well alienated by Canonical as well.

Recently, I rebuilt my computer in a dual-boot Windows 7 /openSUSE 13.2/KDE configuration and it has not been an easy learning curve for an old man.

The openSUSE forum is far from "welcoming" but since that seems to be the predominant choice for the server universe, I feel that it may be safe and secure for the foreseeable future. So I decided to bite the bullet and try to learn something new.

State Freedom Caucus News 2024
Missouri state Senator Nick Schroer sponsors a bill that would allow senators to duel one another — in the Senate chambers! – legally.

Offline alexofthewest

  • Posts: 59
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #423 on: Wed, 22 April 2015, 21:11:29 »
From a long time windows user that is curious about linux i wonder, what are the benefits of using linux for someone that knows zero programming (if any)?

Offline ttzhou

  • Posts: 259
  • Location: canadaland
  • in your base, belonging
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #424 on: Wed, 22 April 2015, 21:25:08 »
From a long time windows user that is curious about linux i wonder, what are the benefits of using linux for someone that knows zero programming (if any)?

self-improvement.

more serious answer: it's kind of like buying keyboards vs. building and modding your own (i'm a bit of hypocrite here, i haven't really started modding much, but i will be!). with (certain distributions of) linux you have more control of your system and you understand what is going on with it. windows (and mac even worse) is like a black box, and to really dig deep into it you gotta go through this mess of crap (think: editing the registry). i can go on and on with analogies, but at the end of the day, for me, the benefits of learning linux entails gaining a deeper understanding of how your operating system really works.

Offline user 18

  • * Senior Moderator
  • Posts: 2231
  • Location: Deutschland
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #425 on: Wed, 22 April 2015, 21:44:15 »
For me, all of that is secondary. Understanding how things work is nice and all, but I really just wanted something that wasn't being pushed by a corporation. This rules out windows, mac and Ubuntu.
Please PM me if you are waiting on classifieds approval or have a question about the classifieds rules. | geekhack Terms of Service

Max Nighthawk x8 (MX Brown) | CM QFR (MX Blue) | CM QFR (MX Clear) | RK-9000 (MX Red) | Model M 1391401 | Model M SSK 1370475 | CM Novatouch | G80-8113 (MX Clear) | 60% (85g MX Blue) | Whitefox Aria (MX Clear) | CL-LX (MX Clear) | Mira SE (MX Clear)
Avatar by ashdenej

Offline alexofthewest

  • Posts: 59
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #426 on: Wed, 22 April 2015, 23:40:15 »
hmmm. i was hoping there would be more of an incentive from switching from windows. perhapse a speed boost or a massive customizability to balance out the massive incompatibilities of various programs that are designed for windows.  I suppose I can understand the want to get away from microsoft, bill gates is pretty evil (especialy common core he pioneered...) but ideology isnt a reason for me to change from one program to another, I want to switch, but I need a concrete benefit to do so.

Offline henz

  • * Exquisite Elder
  • Posts: 1284
  • What?
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #427 on: Thu, 23 April 2015, 01:11:06 »
massive customizability

You can change whatever you want, i would call that massive customizability :)

Offline ttzhou

  • Posts: 259
  • Location: canadaland
  • in your base, belonging
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #428 on: Thu, 23 April 2015, 03:06:26 »
hmmm. i was hoping there would be more of an incentive from switching from windows. perhapse a speed boost or a massive customizability to balance out the massive incompatibilities of various programs that are designed for windows.  I suppose I can understand the want to get away from microsoft, bill gates is pretty evil (especialy common core he pioneered...) but ideology isnt a reason for me to change from one program to another, I want to switch, but I need a concrete benefit to do so.
Check out nixers.net and its Unix screenshots thread. It's what got me into Linux.

Offline iri

  • Posts: 997
  • Location: England
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #429 on: Thu, 23 April 2015, 07:48:22 »

So I switched to openSUSE Tumbleweed. 
So far so good - I used SuSE back in the day, and it hasn't changed that much.
KDE has gone really weird though, ot maybe I've been using GNOME for too long.


I am just really burned out on the Micro$oft/Adobe/etc ecosystem and want to phase myself into an alternate FOSS universe.

That will take a while and/or until I retire because the business world is so locked in.

I dabbled with Ubuntu/Gnome for about 5 years but got pretty well alienated by Canonical as well.

Recently, I rebuilt my computer in a dual-boot Windows 7 /openSUSE 13.2/KDE configuration and it has not been an easy learning curve for an old man.

The openSUSE forum is far from "welcoming" but since that seems to be the predominant choice for the server universe, I feel that it may be safe and secure for the foreseeable future. So I decided to bite the bullet and try to learn something new.
I find Linux Mint Cinnamon very user friendly.
(...)Whereas back then I wrote about the tyranny of the majority, today I'd combine that with the tyranny of the minorities. These days, you have to be careful of both. They both want to control you. The first group, by making you do the same thing over and over again. The second group is indicated by the letters I get from the Vassar girls who want me to put more women's lib in The Martian Chronicles, or from blacks who want more black people in Dandelion Wine.
I say to both bunches, Whether you're a majority or minority, bug off! To hell with anybody who wants to tell me what to write. Their society breaks down into subsections of minorities who then, in effect, burn books by banning them. All this political correctness that's rampant on campuses is b.s.

-Ray Bradbury

Offline swill

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 3365
  • Location: Canada eh
  • builder & enabler
    • swillkb.com
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #430 on: Wed, 29 April 2015, 20:51:28 »
From a long time windows user that is curious about linux i wonder, what are the benefits of using linux for someone that knows zero programming (if any)?
No programming needed. Batteries are included now days.

The benefit is that you no longer have to use winblows. :)

Personally, I never felt comfortable in windows, Linux seemed more sane to me.  I like being in control of stuff if it is bothering me. I can basically make Linux do whatever I want it to. Windows just feels slow and unwelcoming to me.

Offline user 18

  • * Senior Moderator
  • Posts: 2231
  • Location: Deutschland
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #431 on: Wed, 29 April 2015, 21:41:03 »
Windows feels more bloated to me than anything. I have a (mostly) functional Debian Jessie build running openbox, with a web browser, mail client, full office suite, a bunch of assorted tools, and I'm at less than 8GB disk space used total (almost half of which is used by dropbox for sync). A 64-bit windows install is easily six or more times that.

Another nice thing about linux is pretty much everything is available as text if you know where to look and how to interpret it. I was playing with my audio stack trying to get smooth switching between my speakers and USB headset and I was able to dump a listing of all my audio devices and channels into a text document. Makes figuring out what's going on and modifying as necessary much easier.
Please PM me if you are waiting on classifieds approval or have a question about the classifieds rules. | geekhack Terms of Service

Max Nighthawk x8 (MX Brown) | CM QFR (MX Blue) | CM QFR (MX Clear) | RK-9000 (MX Red) | Model M 1391401 | Model M SSK 1370475 | CM Novatouch | G80-8113 (MX Clear) | 60% (85g MX Blue) | Whitefox Aria (MX Clear) | CL-LX (MX Clear) | Mira SE (MX Clear)
Avatar by ashdenej

Offline steve.v

  • Posts: 171
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #432 on: Wed, 29 April 2015, 21:45:59 »
Elementary OS

Offline rowdy

  • HHKB Hapster
  • * Erudite Elder
  • Posts: 21175
  • Location: melbourne.vic.au
  • Missed another sale.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #433 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 05:52:14 »
I have become disillusioned with openSUSE, and switches to Debian 8 (Jessie).  So far so good, in fact I have been able to migrate everything from my CentOS development VM to Debian.
"Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that’s incorrect. It’s in HHKB’s slogan, but when America’s cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods, while keyboards are important interfaces." - Eiiti Wada

NEC APC-H4100E | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED red | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED green | Link 900243-08 | CM QFR MX black | KeyCool 87 white MX reds | HHKB 2 Pro | Model M 02-Mar-1993 | Model M 29-Nov-1995 | CM Trigger (broken) | CM QFS MX green | Ducky DK9087 Shine 3 TKL Yellow Edition MX black | Lexmark SSK 21-Apr-1994 | IBM SSK 13-Oct-1987 | CODE TKL MX clear | Model M 122 01-Jun-1988

Ị̸͚̯̲́ͤ̃͑̇̑ͯ̊̂͟ͅs̞͚̩͉̝̪̲͗͊ͪ̽̚̚ ̭̦͖͕̑́͌ͬͩ͟t̷̻͔̙̑͟h̹̠̼͋ͤ͋i̤̜̣̦̱̫͈͔̞ͭ͑ͥ̌̔s̬͔͎̍̈ͥͫ̐̾ͣ̔̇͘ͅ ̩̘̼͆̐̕e̞̰͓̲̺̎͐̏ͬ̓̅̾͠͝ͅv̶̰͕̱̞̥̍ͣ̄̕e͕͙͖̬̜͓͎̤̊ͭ͐͝ṇ̰͎̱̤̟̭ͫ͌̌͢͠ͅ ̳̥̦ͮ̐ͤ̎̊ͣ͡͡n̤̜̙̺̪̒͜e̶̻̦̿ͮ̂̀c̝̘̝͖̠̖͐ͨͪ̈̐͌ͩ̀e̷̥͇̋ͦs̢̡̤ͤͤͯ͜s͈̠̉̑͘a̱͕̗͖̳̥̺ͬͦͧ͆̌̑͡r̶̟̖̈͘ỷ̮̦̩͙͔ͫ̾ͬ̔ͬͮ̌?̵̘͇͔͙ͥͪ͞ͅ

Online fohat.digs

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 6462
  • Location: 35°55'N, 83°53'W
  • weird funny old guy
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #434 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 06:15:46 »
I have become disillusioned with openSUSE, and switches to Debian 8 (Jessie).  So far so good,

Why are you disillusioned with openSUSE?

I have been slowly working my way into it, since deciding that the preferred server platform OS was most likely to stay alive and up-to-date.

True, the forum is pretty arrogant and hostile, by and large, but that is almost to be expected. There were a handful of people there who were kind and generous in getting me started.

And I am pleased with KDE overall, in preference to Gnome, although YaST is still somewhat inscrutable.
State Freedom Caucus News 2024
Missouri state Senator Nick Schroer sponsors a bill that would allow senators to duel one another — in the Senate chambers! – legally.

Offline rowdy

  • HHKB Hapster
  • * Erudite Elder
  • Posts: 21175
  • Location: melbourne.vic.au
  • Missed another sale.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #435 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 06:19:49 »
I have become disillusioned with openSUSE, and switches to Debian 8 (Jessie).  So far so good,

Why are you disillusioned with openSUSE?

I have been slowly working my way into it, since deciding that the preferred server platform OS was most likely to stay alive and up-to-date.

True, the forum is pretty arrogant and hostile, by and large, but that is almost to be expected. There were a handful of people there who were kind and generous in getting me started.

And I am pleased with KDE overall, in preference to Gnome, although YaST is still somewhat inscrutable.

1555 updates (> 800MB) a day kinda put me off.  Yes Tumbleweed or whatever it is called is supposed to be a rolling release, but that's ludicrous!  I acn't spend half the day installing updates.

Plus the default KDE is weird.  I've been away from KDE for too long and I could not become accustomed to the layout and functionality now in a short period of time.

Gnome version did not work (wouldn't boot properly after two fresh installs), so I went with XFCE.

Oh, and YaST is as bad as it always was.
"Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that’s incorrect. It’s in HHKB’s slogan, but when America’s cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods, while keyboards are important interfaces." - Eiiti Wada

NEC APC-H4100E | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED red | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED green | Link 900243-08 | CM QFR MX black | KeyCool 87 white MX reds | HHKB 2 Pro | Model M 02-Mar-1993 | Model M 29-Nov-1995 | CM Trigger (broken) | CM QFS MX green | Ducky DK9087 Shine 3 TKL Yellow Edition MX black | Lexmark SSK 21-Apr-1994 | IBM SSK 13-Oct-1987 | CODE TKL MX clear | Model M 122 01-Jun-1988

Ị̸͚̯̲́ͤ̃͑̇̑ͯ̊̂͟ͅs̞͚̩͉̝̪̲͗͊ͪ̽̚̚ ̭̦͖͕̑́͌ͬͩ͟t̷̻͔̙̑͟h̹̠̼͋ͤ͋i̤̜̣̦̱̫͈͔̞ͭ͑ͥ̌̔s̬͔͎̍̈ͥͫ̐̾ͣ̔̇͘ͅ ̩̘̼͆̐̕e̞̰͓̲̺̎͐̏ͬ̓̅̾͠͝ͅv̶̰͕̱̞̥̍ͣ̄̕e͕͙͖̬̜͓͎̤̊ͭ͐͝ṇ̰͎̱̤̟̭ͫ͌̌͢͠ͅ ̳̥̦ͮ̐ͤ̎̊ͣ͡͡n̤̜̙̺̪̒͜e̶̻̦̿ͮ̂̀c̝̘̝͖̠̖͐ͨͪ̈̐͌ͩ̀e̷̥͇̋ͦs̢̡̤ͤͤͯ͜s͈̠̉̑͘a̱͕̗͖̳̥̺ͬͦͧ͆̌̑͡r̶̟̖̈͘ỷ̮̦̩͙͔ͫ̾ͬ̔ͬͮ̌?̵̘͇͔͙ͥͪ͞ͅ

Offline wlhlm

  • Posts: 700
  • Location: Germany
  • ~
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #436 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 06:37:26 »
1555 updates (> 800MB) a day kinda put me off.  Yes Tumbleweed or whatever it is called is supposed to be a rolling release, but that's ludicrous!  I acn't spend half the day installing updates.
It isn't as bad in my experience. I run updates every sunday and never had a problem with it on Arch. I would do a weekly update with any distro actually. Unless you have to conserve bandwidth, because it's usually like 300-700MB with 900 installed packages.

Offline jdcarpe

  • * Curator
  • Posts: 8852
  • Location: Odessa, TX
  • Live long, and prosper.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #437 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 06:47:51 »
Is OpenSUSE the preferred server platform of the Internet nowadays? I thought it was still split evenly between Microsoft and BSD?

Most virtual server offerings I find offer either CentOS or Ubuntu now. I've always used Ubuntu, so I'm more familiar with the command line of that system, using Apt for package management, sudo for root tasks, etc.
KMAC :: LZ-GH :: WASD CODE :: WASD v2 :: GH60 :: Alps64 :: JD45 :: IBM Model M :: IBM 4704 "Pingmaster"

http://jd40.info :: http://jd45.info


in memoriam

"When I was a kid, I used to take things apart and never put them back together."

Online fohat.digs

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 6462
  • Location: 35°55'N, 83°53'W
  • weird funny old guy
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #438 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 08:39:15 »
Maybe I should re-think my decision.

What I want most is long-term stability, trying to guess which platform will be most stable and well-developed a decade from now.

Canonical looked like it was spiraling down a consumer-oriented rabbit hole, chasing phones and such.

I could live with Unity, I was getting used to it after a rocky start.

People really seem to like Mint.
State Freedom Caucus News 2024
Missouri state Senator Nick Schroer sponsors a bill that would allow senators to duel one another — in the Senate chambers! – legally.

Offline jdcarpe

  • * Curator
  • Posts: 8852
  • Location: Odessa, TX
  • Live long, and prosper.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #439 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 09:04:54 »
Maybe I should re-think my decision.

What I want most is long-term stability, trying to guess which platform will be most stable and well-developed a decade from now.

Canonical looked like it was spiraling down a consumer-oriented rabbit hole, chasing phones and such.

I could live with Unity, I was getting used to it after a rocky start.

People really seem to like Mint.


I've used Ubuntu since 5.04, and I love it. I don't mind Unity, but I prefer classic GNOME or XFCE as my desktop. I don't have a problem with a corporate-driven distro, philosophically. And some of Canonical's innovations are being included in the latest Debian releases (see: LightDM).

I recently purchased a refurbished PC without an OS, and attempted to install Debian. The default installation didn't pick up the correct resolution of my monitors. :(   So I wiped it and installed Ubuntu. Everything is happy. I added the GNOME Flashback desktop, and everything I need is running along smoothly. Sometimes I install Xubuntu, just because I like the XFCE desktop, but either one is great.
KMAC :: LZ-GH :: WASD CODE :: WASD v2 :: GH60 :: Alps64 :: JD45 :: IBM Model M :: IBM 4704 "Pingmaster"

http://jd40.info :: http://jd45.info


in memoriam

"When I was a kid, I used to take things apart and never put them back together."

Offline ttzhou

  • Posts: 259
  • Location: canadaland
  • in your base, belonging
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #440 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 10:32:46 »


Maybe I should re-think my decision.

What I want most is long-term stability, trying to guess which platform will be most stable and well-developed a decade from now.

Canonical looked like it was spiraling down a consumer-oriented rabbit hole, chasing phones and such.

I could live with Unity, I was getting used to it after a rocky start.

People really seem to like Mint.

Debian is built for stability. Haven't used it personally but that is what it is known for. I'd stay away from Arch if you want things to not break, unless you like fixing things and losing hair like I do.

Offline henz

  • * Exquisite Elder
  • Posts: 1284
  • What?
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #441 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 13:11:46 »
ive been changing alot thorugh the years but i i think this is how it goes:

Debian -> Ubuntu -> Slackware -> Ubuntu -> Debian -> Gentoo -> Arch

Gentoo takes to much effort to keep as desktop and too many circular dependencies. Thats why i went to try Arch, that and the awesome wiki. Cant compare it to any other distro.
Mint is for lazy ppl, they just make a fresh install and say oooh its looks nice. Then be happy with it.
Cant complain on debian, but i never got "stuck".
And ubuntu.... The upgrades going from one version to another, drove me nuts! Dont know if they have changed it now, have not used it since around 4 i guess.

Have always stuck to the same window manager though OpenBox with XFACE(xfce) or Gnome.

Offline rowdy

  • HHKB Hapster
  • * Erudite Elder
  • Posts: 21175
  • Location: melbourne.vic.au
  • Missed another sale.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #442 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 17:44:06 »
Maybe I should re-think my decision.

What I want most is long-term stability, trying to guess which platform will be most stable and well-developed a decade from now.

Canonical looked like it was spiraling down a consumer-oriented rabbit hole, chasing phones and such.

I could live with Unity, I was getting used to it after a rocky start.

People really seem to like Mint.

I also lost faith with Ubuntu - silly arguments over window control positions, proprietary utilities, very short support time, an apparent growing lack of community support.

I was using CentOS as my development OS in a virtual machine, nothing wrong with it at all.  Well supported, long support (much longer than Ubuntu).  The only downside is that packages are necessarily old and not updated frequently, which is fine if you just want a stable well-supported system, but unfortunately I had an increasing need to install more and more newer packages that just weren't supported without installing an increasing number of newer libraries.

I tried Arch - far too much reading, I needed this VM up and running fairly quickly.  Also you shouldn't just update Arch willy-nilly without reading all their latest updates and warnings.  Again, too much reading.

openSUSE - as described above.  I used SuSE back in the day, and work even bought a box set with thick paper manuals included (can you believe that!).

So I tried the newly release Debian which, apart from the kerfuffle around systemd, seems to be doing the job.  It is not supported for as long as I might like (not as long as CentOS), but so far so good.
"Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that’s incorrect. It’s in HHKB’s slogan, but when America’s cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods, while keyboards are important interfaces." - Eiiti Wada

NEC APC-H4100E | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED red | Ducky DK9008 Shine MX blue LED green | Link 900243-08 | CM QFR MX black | KeyCool 87 white MX reds | HHKB 2 Pro | Model M 02-Mar-1993 | Model M 29-Nov-1995 | CM Trigger (broken) | CM QFS MX green | Ducky DK9087 Shine 3 TKL Yellow Edition MX black | Lexmark SSK 21-Apr-1994 | IBM SSK 13-Oct-1987 | CODE TKL MX clear | Model M 122 01-Jun-1988

Ị̸͚̯̲́ͤ̃͑̇̑ͯ̊̂͟ͅs̞͚̩͉̝̪̲͗͊ͪ̽̚̚ ̭̦͖͕̑́͌ͬͩ͟t̷̻͔̙̑͟h̹̠̼͋ͤ͋i̤̜̣̦̱̫͈͔̞ͭ͑ͥ̌̔s̬͔͎̍̈ͥͫ̐̾ͣ̔̇͘ͅ ̩̘̼͆̐̕e̞̰͓̲̺̎͐̏ͬ̓̅̾͠͝ͅv̶̰͕̱̞̥̍ͣ̄̕e͕͙͖̬̜͓͎̤̊ͭ͐͝ṇ̰͎̱̤̟̭ͫ͌̌͢͠ͅ ̳̥̦ͮ̐ͤ̎̊ͣ͡͡n̤̜̙̺̪̒͜e̶̻̦̿ͮ̂̀c̝̘̝͖̠̖͐ͨͪ̈̐͌ͩ̀e̷̥͇̋ͦs̢̡̤ͤͤͯ͜s͈̠̉̑͘a̱͕̗͖̳̥̺ͬͦͧ͆̌̑͡r̶̟̖̈͘ỷ̮̦̩͙͔ͫ̾ͬ̔ͬͮ̌?̵̘͇͔͙ͥͪ͞ͅ

Online fohat.digs

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 6462
  • Location: 35°55'N, 83°53'W
  • weird funny old guy
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #443 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 18:58:23 »

I also lost faith with Ubuntu - silly arguments over window control positions, proprietary utilities, very short support time, an apparent growing lack of community support.


In spite of your comments above, having re-skimmed this entire thread, I think that I may move back to Ubuntu.

Although I have a deep and abiding fear and distrust of the "corporate/Big Brother" mentality in general, I am too old and tired to fight every windmill. I am not a programmer and I do not operate a server, I am simply a "user" and nothing more.

People use Windows because the majority of the time, it "just works" - but this is an attribute that costs money and allegiance.

If most of the same "just working" part is true of Ubuntu, then I will make my selection based on minimizing my own headaches and expenses.

Out-of-the-box support for aging hardware and the ability to run on both hot new and old slow boxes is of supreme importance to me.


State Freedom Caucus News 2024
Missouri state Senator Nick Schroer sponsors a bill that would allow senators to duel one another — in the Senate chambers! – legally.

Offline smknjoe

  • Posts: 862
  • Location: Tejas
  • I like tactile, clicky, switches.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #444 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 19:20:59 »
I've gone through many distros over the last ~15 years and I keep coming back to Debian or Debian variants like Ubuntu.

- If you want something that just works and has great package support Ubuntu is hard to beat. I've recently been using Ubuntu Gnome and I really like it. http://ubuntugnome.org/ It's very minimalistic compared to standard Ubuntu or MInt and yet is still as easy to setup and support.

- If you want something that's almost as good out of the box that requires a little more know-how and is the epitome of FOSS, Debian is the way to go. I've used it for years. It's one of the oldest distributions out there. It can take a lot of time to get some software to run properly on it. So, if you have specific software requirements do your homework.

- If you want something fun as hell and don't mind getting your hands dirty and learning how stuff works...Slackware. Period.

Arch is really trendy with the "young-uns" (I'm not as old as I sound...but get off my lawn!!) lulz ;) but it's pretty boring to me.
SSKs for everyone!

Offline smknjoe

  • Posts: 862
  • Location: Tejas
  • I like tactile, clicky, switches.
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #445 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 19:24:48 »
I added the GNOME Flashback desktop

I used to do that to all of my Ubuntu installations too. You don't need to do it any more and the vanilla Ubuntu Gnome installation is much cleaner. http://ubuntugnome.org/
SSKs for everyone!

Online fohat.digs

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 6462
  • Location: 35°55'N, 83°53'W
  • weird funny old guy
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #446 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 20:28:30 »
I've gone through many distros over the last ~15 years and I keep coming back to Debian or Debian variants like Ubuntu.

- If you want something that's almost as good out of the box that requires a little more know-how and is the epitome of FOSS, Debian is the way to go.


How much steeper would the learning curve be if I chose Debian with KDE?

Somehow, Canonical has become distasteful to me, but I do not want to jump through hoops of aggravation for silly ideology.

*    *    *    *    *

edit - a huge plus is a good user forum.

My experience was that the Ubuntu forum was generally friendly and helpful while the openSUSE forum was mostly snotty and arrogant.
« Last Edit: Thu, 30 April 2015, 20:46:30 by fohat.digs »
State Freedom Caucus News 2024
Missouri state Senator Nick Schroer sponsors a bill that would allow senators to duel one another — in the Senate chambers! – legally.

Offline user 18

  • * Senior Moderator
  • Posts: 2231
  • Location: Deutschland
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #447 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 20:37:02 »
I've gone through many distros over the last ~15 years and I keep coming back to Debian or Debian variants like Ubuntu.

- If you want something that's almost as good out of the box that requires a little more know-how and is the epitome of FOSS, Debian is the way to go.


How much steeper would the learning curve be if I chose Debian with KDE?

Somehow, Canonical has become distasteful to me, but I do not want to jump through hoops of aggravation for silly ideology.

Can't speak from experience, as I've never been a fan of KDE, but it should be pretty similar. I'm guessing there will be fewer options and less flexibility because many more DEs use GTK (of one version or another) than QT, but the underlying system will be the same, and the GUI seems to have a mostly logical layout. If you're already familiar with KDE to an extent, things should be similar.
Please PM me if you are waiting on classifieds approval or have a question about the classifieds rules. | geekhack Terms of Service

Max Nighthawk x8 (MX Brown) | CM QFR (MX Blue) | CM QFR (MX Clear) | RK-9000 (MX Red) | Model M 1391401 | Model M SSK 1370475 | CM Novatouch | G80-8113 (MX Clear) | 60% (85g MX Blue) | Whitefox Aria (MX Clear) | CL-LX (MX Clear) | Mira SE (MX Clear)
Avatar by ashdenej

Offline swill

  • * Elevated Elder
  • Posts: 3365
  • Location: Canada eh
  • builder & enabler
    • swillkb.com
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #448 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 21:10:55 »
Is OpenSUSE the preferred server platform of the Internet nowadays? I thought it was still split evenly between Microsoft and BSD?

Most virtual server offerings I find offer either CentOS or Ubuntu now. I've always used Ubuntu, so I'm more familiar with the command line of that system, using Apt for package management, sudo for root tasks, etc.

In my experience, working at a cloud infrastructure company, CentOS and Ubuntu pretty much own the market for production servers.  CentOS is number one because of its long term support and slow update churn.  People don't want to have to worry about what the production server updates are going to do to their operations.  Update lag can be a benefit in some situations.  When the packages in CentOS are too old, I see people using Ubuntu.  For example, when an application needs a Python version > 2.7, due to yum dependencies.

I use both interchangeably now, but when given the choice, I usually pick Ubuntu.  Keep in mind that I never use a GUI with Linux, so I just care about ease of use and package availability.  When I last used Linux as my desktop, I was using Ubuntu with Gnome.  I hated what was being done to Ubuntu on the desktop side.  I want to spend more time with Arch, but I have not had the time.  Alas...

Offline Air tree

  • Better late than never ^-^
  • * Destiny Supporter
  • Posts: 2206
  • Location: Satellite Beach, FL
  • Formerly not demik
Re: What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?
« Reply #449 on: Thu, 30 April 2015, 21:16:53 »
Maybe I should re-think my decision.

What I want most is long-term stability, trying to guess which platform will be most stable and well-developed a decade from now.

Canonical looked like it was spiraling down a consumer-oriented rabbit hole, chasing phones and such.

I could live with Unity, I was getting used to it after a rocky start.

People really seem to like Mint.

I also lost faith with Ubuntu - silly arguments over window control positions, proprietary utilities, very short support time, an apparent growing lack of community support.

I was using CentOS as my development OS in a virtual machine, nothing wrong with it at all.  Well supported, long support (much longer than Ubuntu).  The only downside is that packages are necessarily old and not updated frequently, which is fine if you just want a stable well-supported system, but unfortunately I had an increasing need to install more and more newer packages that just weren't supported without installing an increasing number of newer libraries.

I tried Arch - far too much reading, I needed this VM up and running fairly quickly.  Also you shouldn't just update Arch willy-nilly without reading all their latest updates and warnings.  Again, too much reading.

openSUSE - as described above.  I used SuSE back in the day, and work even bought a box set with thick paper manuals included (can you believe that!).

So I tried the newly release Debian which, apart from the kerfuffle around systemd, seems to be doing the job.  It is not supported for as long as I might like (not as long as CentOS), but so far so good.
I'm probably the worst Arch user of all time. I rarely actually read before updating. I forget.