What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?

[n__dles]

Remember these?



I found them underneath my bed. All the disks are missing, not that it matters. I had a BeOS one that wasn't with them, hopefully it will turn up, old school esoteric.

[sth]

openbsd: what a revelation!

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So you made the switch finally?

yeah and other than javascript in any browser being dog-slow, i love it!

[rowdy]

Remember these?

Show Image

I found them underneath my bed. All the disks are missing, not that it matters. I had a BeOS one that wasn't with them, hopefully it will turn up, old school esoteric.

I have a full box set of SuSE installation, including CDs and manuals.

[vyshane]

Remember these?

Show Image

I found them underneath my bed. All the disks are missing, not that it matters. I had a BeOS one that wasn't with them, hopefully it will turn up, old school esoteric.

Oh man, my first distro was Red Hat Linux 6.1. I wish I'd kept the box and manuals.

This is the only thing that I've kept, circa 2003:

[madhias]

Typing from my Arch installation, which is now the main OS on my battlestation. But I also do have a Windows VM, only for Lightroom. Works good so far, I just need to 'rice' up my desktop. Using i3 WM, again Firefox since years of using Chrome, some tools, but really not that much. I like it! It is like a never ending project, and there is always something to do.

[n__dles]

Oh man, my first distro was Red Hat Linux 6.1. I wish I'd kept the box and manuals.

This is the only thing that I've kept, circa 2003:

(Attachment Link)

At the local Hackerspace there's a bookshelf and I found an original printing of 2nd ed. K&R C! For those that don't know, the 2nd edition of K&R came out 1988 and there's been more than 50 printings.

[OfTheWild]

I just tossed the guts of my old server that was running Mandrake 10. Great distro that lost its way. I now have a SteamOS box that i've bricked a few times with their updates but otherwise keeping it simple.

[KRKS]

I just tossed the guts of my old server that was running Mandrake 10. Great distro that lost its way. I now have a SteamOS box that i've bricked a few times with their updates but otherwise keeping it simple.

Ouch, I heard that SteamOS had some problems, but I didn't think it was that bad...

[OfTheWild]

I just tossed the guts of my old server that was running Mandrake 10. Great distro that lost its way. I now have a SteamOS box that i've bricked a few times with their updates but otherwise keeping it simple.

Ouch, I heard that SteamOS had some problems, but I didn't think it was that bad...

I'm also using old hardware. An HP HPE410F; non-uefi mobo and an old junk AMD/ATI GPU so i cant really complain. Its still a beta anyway so i dont mind.

[sean]

I just tossed the guts of my old server that was running Mandrake 10. Great distro that lost its way. I now have a SteamOS box that i've bricked a few times with their updates but otherwise keeping it simple.

Ouch, I heard that SteamOS had some problems, but I didn't think it was that bad...

I'm also using old hardware. An HP HPE410F; non-uefi mobo and an old junk AMD/ATI GPU so i cant really complain. Its still a beta anyway so i dont mind.

What compelled you to run SteamOS on this kind of hardware?

[OfTheWild]

I just tossed the guts of my old server that was running Mandrake 10. Great distro that lost its way. I now have a SteamOS box that i've bricked a few times with their updates but otherwise keeping it simple.

Ouch, I heard that SteamOS had some problems, but I didn't think it was that bad...

I'm also using old hardware. An HP HPE410F; non-uefi mobo and an old junk AMD/ATI GPU so i cant really complain. Its still a beta anyway so i dont mind.

What compelled you to run SteamOS on this kind of hardware?

It allows me to use my gaming rig upstairs to do all the heavy processing and then just stream the video over the network to my steamOS box connected to the 4K TV downstairs where i can play on the couch. It was a win win situation for me since 1. I wanted to play games with the graphics of my desktop but on the 65" screen and 2. Most importantly my wife can sit on the couch and watch, play 2player, do her own thing... and generally not feel like she's being ignored.

[nephiel]

Giving Devuan a try on an old desktop machine.

I really hope this Debian fork stands the test of time. I don't need no systemd and nearly every other distro is switching to it.

Also removing Pulseaudio while I'm at it.

[daerid]

Giving Devuan a try on an old desktop machine.

I really hope this Debian fork stands the test of time. I don't need no systemd and nearly every other distro is switching to it.

Also removing Pulseaudio while I'm at it.

Would love to hear your experiences. I really don't like systemd, and have yet to find a distro without it that I like

[vivalarevolución]

I'm new to Linux, so i'm not too familiar with this systemd tiff.  Do you all recommend any resources you could point me towards that are a good primer?  So far, I've found this resource somewhat useful:

http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

[KRKS]

Most of them are linked in the wiki you posted. there also was one nice gif with a plush animal(forgot what exactly) of some kind with systemd written on it "eating" other programs/services/daemons/etc. in chronological order, but the link I have 404s.

In other words, I wussed out of Void because it's void(w) of documentation and will probably go with PCLinuxOS.

[gorebrush]

Giving Devuan a try on an old desktop machine.

I really hope this Debian fork stands the test of time. I don't need no systemd and nearly every other distro is switching to it.

Also removing Pulseaudio while I'm at it.

Would love to hear your experiences. I really don't like systemd, and have yet to find a distro without it that I like

Gentoo...?

I'm an Arch/Debian user myself

[TacticalCoder]

Btw anyone here on Linux with a 2560x1440 or 3440x1440 monitor? Just bought a 27" 2560x1440 screen (not there yet) and thinking about selling it to a client and go directly for a 34" 3440x1440 one.  I won't be gaming at all: it's for my workstation (don't even have speakers connected: no game, no sound).

I think I'll have to buy a new GPU with DisplayPort and mess up with my Linux configuration quite a bit (tried a 34" with a thunderbolt adapter on a MacBook Air: worked immediately... I know that sadly it won't be that easy with Linux).

I'm interested if anyone has feedback on such a setup with Linux.

[vivalarevolución]

I test out distros on live USB sticks on my 13.3" Macbook Pro Retina (2560x1600).  While this is smaller than the displays you are describing, it looks sharp but the text is REALLY tiny and the first I do is change the display resolution to 1600x900 or so. 

I've been looking into Linux compatibility with hi-res monitors and laptops, and the general theme seems to be that you can change the desktop theme and browser font to work with hi-res, but there might be inconsistencies across different software applications and desktop environments.

However, on my 21" 1080p monitor, Linux shows up well without having to make any adjustments.

Considering the spotty results, I probably won't go higher than 1080p on my monitors and laptops in the near future for using Linux distros.  Of course, I'm no authority, so others may have different experiences than me.

Just Google "Linux and hidpi" or "Linux and 4k" and I think you will find plenty of helpful info.

[vivalarevolución]

Or you could buy the monitor of choice and simply set a lower display resolution until support is more consistent for higher resolutions. Which is what I might do.

[TacticalCoder]

Or you could buy the monitor of choice and simply set a lower display resolution until support is more consistent for higher resolutions. Which is what I might do.

Ah... Thing is: I always run my monitors at native resolution (and use bigger fonts if the pixels are too tiny). Only on a screen with really tiny pixels (like a Mac retina display) can I withstand the "scaling") and on the 34" I'm thinking of (a Dell U3415W, same panel as the LG 34uc97 I think) the pixels aren't *that* small

Also 3440x1440 is not even 4K if I'm not mistaken: 4K starts at 4000x2160 I think. But I'll double check: I take it that if I can make 4K work, then I can do 3440x1440 too.

It's for a desktop: so my concern is which GPU to buy and which cable (and which cable version etc.) to use... I think I need to go DisplayPort 1.2 at least. And then, on top of it, I'd like a passive GPU for my workstation is close to silent (SSD, passive heatsink, no fans on the GPU, BeQuiet alim, etc.).

Fun evenings ahead I guess :-/

[TacticalCoder]

Remember these?

I raise your bet with this, first distro of Linux I ever used (and dang, I used it a lot: learned Un*x commands, emacs, LaTeX, etc. all from within Slackware), installed Slackware from the CD (it was also possible to download slackware --70 disks IIRC-- with my 33.6 K modem but that would have been too slow):



By the way that's a pic I found on the Internet: I'm pretty sure mine was the first version of the book, not the updated one as in this picture

[vivalarevolución]

Or you could buy the monitor of choice and simply set a lower display resolution until support is more consistent for higher resolutions. Which is what I might do.

Ah... Thing is: I always run my monitors at native resolution (and use bigger fonts if the pixels are too tiny). Only on a screen with really tiny pixels (like a Mac retina display) can I withstand the "scaling") and on the 34" I'm thinking of (a Dell U3415W, same panel as the LG 34uc97 I think) the pixels aren't *that* small

Also 3440x1440 is not even 4K if I'm not mistaken: 4K starts at 4000x2160 I think. But I'll double check: I take it that if I can make 4K work, then I can do 3440x1440 too.

It's for a desktop: so my concern is which GPU to buy and which cable (and which cable version etc.) to use... I think I need to go DisplayPort 1.2 at least. And then, on top of it, I'd like a passive GPU for my workstation is close to silent (SSD, passive heatsink, no fans on the GPU, BeQuiet alim, etc.).

Fun evenings ahead I guess :-/

Whatever works, I suppose.  I found this archwiki article very useful.  Gave me a little more confidence if I wanted to purchase a higher resolution monitor or laptop:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI

[cryptokey]

openbsd: what a revelation!

Show Image

So you made the switch finally?

yeah and other than javascript in any browser being dog-slow, i love it!

Since when? I've never had any problems like this - are you sure it's not just your hardware?  If it's a big issue, try out the advanced mode of ublock origin where you can block scripts.

[sean]

openbsd: what a revelation!

Show Image

So you made the switch finally?

yeah and other than javascript in any browser being dog-slow, i love it!

Since when? I've never had any problems like this - are you sure it's not just your hardware?  If it's a big issue, try out the advanced mode of ublock origin where you can block scripts.

Javascript just doesn't work that well on BSD. Linux suffers from the same too.

[nephiel]

openbsd: what a revelation!

Show Image

So you made the switch finally?

yeah and other than javascript in any browser being dog-slow, i love it!

Since when? I've never had any problems like this - are you sure it's not just your hardware?  If it's a big issue, try out the advanced mode of ublock origin where you can block scripts.

Javascript just doesn't work that well on BSD. Linux suffers from the same too.

s/Javascript/Adobe\ Flash/

[sth]

openbsd: what a revelation!

Show Image

So you made the switch finally?

yeah and other than javascript in any browser being dog-slow, i love it!

Since when? I've never had any problems like this - are you sure it's not just your hardware?  If it's a big issue, try out the advanced mode of ublock origin where you can block scripts.

firefox on openbsd is slow, period. chromium on openbsd is slow, period. every web browser on openbsd is slow, period.

openbsd: what a revelation!

Show Image

So you made the switch finally?

yeah and other than javascript in any browser being dog-slow, i love it!

Since when? I've never had any problems like this - are you sure it's not just your hardware?  If it's a big issue, try out the advanced mode of ublock origin where you can block scripts.

Javascript just doesn't work that well on BSD. Linux suffers from the same too.

it's worse on openbsd. really bad. like, browser is  non-responsive for up to 10 seconds sometimes when using sites like Facebook.
thankfully there's youtube-dl because streaming video in a browser is basically impossible on this machine, where it was completely smooth with linux. youtube's not everything though

openbsd: what a revelation!

Show Image

So you made the switch finally?

yeah and other than javascript in any browser being dog-slow, i love it!

Since when? I've never had any problems like this - are you sure it's not just your hardware?  If it's a big issue, try out the advanced mode of ublock origin where you can block scripts.

Javascript just doesn't work that well on BSD. Linux suffers from the same too.

s/Javascript/Adobe\ Flash/

no... keep javascript in there.
there's no flash on openbsd. maybe pepper flash works. i don't care... can't use a handful of sites here and there but it's a good tradeoff.

[dan002]

Do you mostly use 'lite' distros without the GUI and SSH in or use the GUI?

[JonnyPolygon]

I switched to ubuntu for a while but realised I wanted to game lol

[sean]

I switched to ubuntu for a while but realised I wanted to game lol

I use a virtualized instance of qemu-kvm for stuff like that

[TacticalCoder]

Do you mostly use 'lite' distros without the GUI and SSH in or use the GUI?

I'm using Debian and always booting without a GUI, then I "startx" which launches a pretty basic X: no Gnome, no KDE.  I'm using a tiling window manager (the Awesome WM, but I may switch to XMonad): so I have no icons for example.

[vyshane]

Do you mostly use 'lite' distros without the GUI and SSH in or use the GUI?

I only use Linux on servers, so headless. Last year I started using CoreOS. Going forward this is probably going to be my base distro for servers.

[vyshane]

Anybody using Docker?

[dan002]

Anybody using Docker?

I really like Docker, it was the only menu bar that worked on ARM laptop for me!

[vyshane]

Anybody using Docker?

I really like Docker, it was the only menu bar that worked on ARM laptop for me!

I meant this Docker:

Docker is an open-source project that automates the deployment of applications inside software containers, by providing an additional layer of abstraction and automation of operating-system-level virtualization on Linux.

[vivalarevolución]

Anybody use the Enlightenment desktop?  I've played around with it on a few live USBs, and it seems interesting enough for a beginner like myself.

[n__dles]

Anybody use the Enlightenment desktop?  I've played around with it on a few live USBs, and it seems interesting enough for a beginner like myself.

Enlightenment's zenith was back in the late 90s. Memories of sitting in the dev chat, thinking I was a prodigy for writing some E widget that displayed temp. or load or something...

If you're looking for a clean Win95 style desktop enviroment there's XFCE which is what I was using after Gnome 3. But I switched to i3, a tiling window manager, a couple years ago and haven't looked back. It's like going from rubberdome to mechanical.

[thatllbeme]

I'm a big fan of Fedora nowadays - my Ubuntu LTS install crashed far too regularly to be useful. Fedora's been crashing a bit too lately (I think running a VM on my laptop is too much of a demand, really) - any other distros I should try?

[sth]

Anybody use the Enlightenment desktop?  I've played around with it on a few live USBs, and it seems interesting enough for a beginner like myself.

not since like 2004 heh. doesn't look like their visual paradigm has gone much further than that, either. but i know some people swear by it!

[davkol]

Anybody use the Enlightenment desktop?

Nope, absolutely not. But here's a ridiculous Daily WTF on, well, Enlightenment code base.

[leon]

I use ElementaryOS on my PC since it's the most like OSX which I am using on my macbook air. 
I also have arch installed on this harddrive somewhere but I never use it.

[lishi]

Currently using Antergos because my Windows 10 drive died and I don't wanna go through the hassle of setting up Arch 

[iLLucionist]

For stability purposes I use Ubuntu LTS on my server. Server's running now for 3 years day-in-day-out.. no one single config or update break. Holy miracle..

On desktop, I mainly now use OS X with a terminal with tmux+vim+tools, but I used to use Arch Linux. But now they got rid of the installer in base, I do not like it that much anymore. I can do the manual install, I've done it multiple times, but I simply don't like it. A bit too barebones for me. I also always had update breaks like 1-2 times every 3 months. Became too annoying for me, so I took the plunge, emptied my wallet and bought a mac somehere in 2008.

Started with SuSE 7 somewhere in 2000, proceeded with Mandrake, RHEL, Debian. Tried Gentoo / Penguin Linux on the side. Ultimately sticked with Arch because of i686 and it's speed and xubuntu coz of laziness.

[CSCoder4ever]

Well it's been quite a while since I posted here, so I figure I'll post what I use again.

After around 3 years of distro hopping and using Arch quite a bit of that time, I find that Anything Debian/Ubuntu-based for my desktop/laptops and Debian for my server(s) is good enough for me.
And I am looking at FreeBSD on my secondary desktop just to see what ZFS is all about.

[Leslieann]

For stability purposes I use Ubuntu LTS on my server. Server's running now for 3 years day-in-day-out.. no one single config or update break. Holy miracle..

My android build server has been running LTS as well for a similar time, ridiculously stable. Though my old web server, which ran Cent was similar, I'm just not a fan of it. I liked Red Hat and Cent until I had that server for a while. When it fell a bit too far behind, all advice I found flat out said do NOT update it as it would probably break. That ended that.

Well it's been quite a while since I posted here, so I figure I'll post what I use again.

After around 3 years of distro hopping and using Arch quite a bit of that time, I find that Anything Debian/Ubuntu-based for my desktop/laptops and Debian for my server(s) is good enough for me.

Kind of an update for me as well, but also follows what you found...
While I love Debian w/Cinnamon, I found Mint Cinnamon to function a bit better (ignoring the installer bug on some systems), it's integrated better. I won't use Ubuntu, but there is a ton of help for it, so using Mint is sort of a best of the bench for me. It's on two of my laptops now, and I'm quite happy with it. I expect it'll be on that on my desktop by the end of the weekend now that I have it sorted.

Like you, I tried Arch and others, and in the end, many are just not maintained well enough or require far more effort than I need to expend on maintaining an os. It's an OS, it may be fine for others, but to me, the OS has become background noise to what I do on the computer and therefor should not require that much focus to keep it running. I just want it to do what I need and disappear into the background.

[iLLucionist]

Remember these?

Show Image

I found them underneath my bed. All the disks are missing, not that it matters. I had a BeOS one that wasn't with them, hopefully it will turn up, old school esoteric.

Right in dem nostalgia.. I had Suse 7.2 Pro boxed. With that paperback manual of 500+ pages. Hmm... the goodness. Shouldn't have discarded it.

[iLLucionist]

Well it's been quite a while since I posted here, so I figure I'll post what I use again.

After around 3 years of distro hopping and using Arch quite a bit of that time, I find that Anything Debian/Ubuntu-based for my desktop/laptops and Debian for my server(s) is good enough for me.
And I am looking at FreeBSD on my secondary desktop just to see what ZFS is all about.

I thought of switching to FreeBSD coz of ZFS as well. But then I found out that ZFS and all its newer goodness is owned by Oracle. And they do not always (or in a timely manner) backport to FreeBSD and the lot. So I decided to stick with EXT4 and wait till BTRFS becomes more stable I guess.

[iri]

Anybody use the Enlightenment desktop?  I've played around with it on a few live USBs, and it seems interesting enough for a beginner like myself.

I used it with a 4K display because it has a global scaling setting.

[iLLucionist]

Btw no to flame, but how is linux on the desktop? I am getting increasingly tired of Apple's practices (glueing everything, making you buy the most expensive configuration to future-proof, etc.) and was thinking of building my own powerhouse rig with linux. But then I noticed that there are still many issues on the desktop. Is this still true?

For instance: http://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html

List is really scaring the crap out of me.. I need stuff to work. I can do sysops and figure the **** out of my installation, but I do not want to break stuff continuously when I'm working on deadlines.

[vyshane]

Btw no to flame, but how is linux on the desktop? I am getting increasingly tired of Apple's practices (glueing everything, making you buy the most expensive configuration to future-proof, etc.) and was thinking of building my own powerhouse rig with linux. But then I noticed that there are still many issues on the desktop. Is this still true?

For instance: http://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html

List is really scaring the crap out of me.. I need stuff to work. I can do sysops and figure the **** out of my installation, but I do not want to break stuff continuously when I'm working on deadlines.

I haven't kept a Linux workstation for several years now, so I'm a bit out of touch. However, Linux was already perfectly fine on the desktop even when I first tried it over 15 years ago. I can't imagine why things should be any different these days.

[fohat.digs]

Almost all of the headaches that I have ever encountered with Linux have revolved around devices not working, and sometimes never working, even after considerable troubleshooting, especially LAN, wireless, and audio cards, etc.