Ubuntu vs. SUSE
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thecoroner
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Ubuntu vs. SUSE
Is Ubuntu or SUSE better for a home desktop Linux machine?
- RobertGonzalez
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- Chris Corbyn
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SuSE's Yast2 package manager got all screwed up for me and it seemed nothing I tried would fix it. I was a bit less experienced then though. I use Ubuntu and can highly recommend it. I've never had one single conflict with apps, no crashes and keeping up-to-date with the latest version is as easy as changing a list of URLs in a file and then running a one-line command 
Gentoo wins that league, as everything is compiled at install - everything!nickvd wrote:Gentoo?! how about slackwareJenk wrote:You could always install a real man's distro, like Gentoo
There's nothing quite like feeling the rush of having to compile virtually everything yourself
Slackware is close, though
- Chris Corbyn
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*yawn*Jenk wrote:Gentoo wins that league, as everything is compiled at install - everything!
Any downsides to that then?
I'd like my new install of OpenOffice.org some time in the next 3 days please
I'm curious what other distros you've used? You're clearly a strong advocate for gentoo, I'm just curious why?
One good thing is the USE flags which give you a huge amount of customization options as opposed to a standard binary with whatever options the maintainer has chosen.
Pro's:
I'm a control freak, and Gentoo is easier than the other distro's to control (in context of I am allowed the control, not that it is actually 'easier' to control.) It doesn't come pre-packaged with a DE or anything else, not even portage (equiv. of Yum/Yast/apt-get/etc.) so even USE flags etc. are not essential. This is a winner for me. My machine, my choices. On the note of USE flags, they were recently changed. No longer do you set global/local USE flags in /etc/make.conf or at run time, you can now also use individual package names in /etc/portage/package.keywords, along with mask handling in similarly named files, on a package level instead of world.
Everything is compiled to the specifications of MY machine and MY settings. Not someone's dedicated binary maker. If I don't like something about a particular eBuild (source package) that's no problem, I can download it, change it, rebuild it then install.
Gentoo is 'old' as far as distro's go, so it has massive support/user base.
Con's:
Installing can take a while.. after my initial setup I started off compiling KDE. Went to bed, woke up 10hours later and it was still going... I estimated 17hours total compile time for KDE monolithic install. However when I swapped to module install it was significantly less time, but still of epidemic proportions - about 10hours. However normall applications take not much longer than installing via a wizard does.. Eclipse, for example, was downloaded, compiled, installed and running within 5 minutes.
That's about it.. the only other con's I can think of are attributed to the Windows vs. Linux debate. (Lack of support from vendors etc.) and not Gentoo.
I've experienced:
Slackware
SuSE (this didn't last long, admittedly)
Ubuntu
Red Hat (v6, 7 and
Fedora FC1, 2 4 and 5. (skipped 3)
Debian (this is nice, but didn't give me quite enough control)
Mandrake (Mandriva before it turned commercial)
and possibly some others. I've also extensively supported Solaris on both x86 and Sun boxes (Sparc5's, 10's and 20's,) versions 5 and 9. Absolute PITA to install - probably why/because Sun offer engineers to come and install for a fee.
I've got my eye on Archlinux but the support/userbase is still a bit small for my liking, and I'm not quite yet done with compiles instead of binaries.
I never emerge -auD world, there's no point. If it's working, and I'm happy with it, it stays put. If a new feature is added to a particular piece of software that I want, I'll update that on it's own. Other than that, minimal installs are done. I spend maybe 10mins a week compiling stuff, and that's usually primarily nvidia-drivers as they have finally realised it might be a good idea to support linux users, thus they are releasing drivers almost weekly.
I'm a control freak, and Gentoo is easier than the other distro's to control (in context of I am allowed the control, not that it is actually 'easier' to control.) It doesn't come pre-packaged with a DE or anything else, not even portage (equiv. of Yum/Yast/apt-get/etc.) so even USE flags etc. are not essential. This is a winner for me. My machine, my choices. On the note of USE flags, they were recently changed. No longer do you set global/local USE flags in /etc/make.conf or at run time, you can now also use individual package names in /etc/portage/package.keywords, along with mask handling in similarly named files, on a package level instead of world.
Everything is compiled to the specifications of MY machine and MY settings. Not someone's dedicated binary maker. If I don't like something about a particular eBuild (source package) that's no problem, I can download it, change it, rebuild it then install.
Gentoo is 'old' as far as distro's go, so it has massive support/user base.
Con's:
Installing can take a while.. after my initial setup I started off compiling KDE. Went to bed, woke up 10hours later and it was still going... I estimated 17hours total compile time for KDE monolithic install. However when I swapped to module install it was significantly less time, but still of epidemic proportions - about 10hours. However normall applications take not much longer than installing via a wizard does.. Eclipse, for example, was downloaded, compiled, installed and running within 5 minutes.
That's about it.. the only other con's I can think of are attributed to the Windows vs. Linux debate. (Lack of support from vendors etc.) and not Gentoo.
I've experienced:
Slackware
SuSE (this didn't last long, admittedly)
Ubuntu
Red Hat (v6, 7 and
Fedora FC1, 2 4 and 5. (skipped 3)
Debian (this is nice, but didn't give me quite enough control)
Mandrake (Mandriva before it turned commercial)
and possibly some others. I've also extensively supported Solaris on both x86 and Sun boxes (Sparc5's, 10's and 20's,) versions 5 and 9. Absolute PITA to install - probably why/because Sun offer engineers to come and install for a fee.
I've got my eye on Archlinux but the support/userbase is still a bit small for my liking, and I'm not quite yet done with compiles instead of binaries.
I never emerge -auD world, there's no point. If it's working, and I'm happy with it, it stays put. If a new feature is added to a particular piece of software that I want, I'll update that on it's own. Other than that, minimal installs are done. I spend maybe 10mins a week compiling stuff, and that's usually primarily nvidia-drivers as they have finally realised it might be a good idea to support linux users, thus they are releasing drivers almost weekly.
Gentoo is also my personal preference for the same reasons listed above.
As a side note, if you know someone running Gentoo and want a quick install,
read the man pages for quickpkg and rsync. It makes installing KDE take about
oh 1 minute. But it won't be built using your flags, so you'll eventually want to recompile,
but if you need something up and running quick it's a good option. Quickpkgs can have messed
up dependencies though if the machien that made them isn't configured atleast close to
the other machine. Usually they'll still work and a simple 'revdep-rebuild' will fix it (iwth a recompile),
but it's worth the risk!
Some of the larger applications (liek openoffice) are also now offering Binary installs aswell so it's not
nearly as bad as it used to be (No more 39 hours of compiling!).
As a side note, if you know someone running Gentoo and want a quick install,
read the man pages for quickpkg and rsync. It makes installing KDE take about
oh 1 minute. But it won't be built using your flags, so you'll eventually want to recompile,
but if you need something up and running quick it's a good option. Quickpkgs can have messed
up dependencies though if the machien that made them isn't configured atleast close to
the other machine. Usually they'll still work and a simple 'revdep-rebuild' will fix it (iwth a recompile),
but it's worth the risk!
Some of the larger applications (liek openoffice) are also now offering Binary installs aswell so it's not
nearly as bad as it used to be (No more 39 hours of compiling!).
- Chris Corbyn
- Breakbeat Nuttzer
- Posts: 13098
- Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
~Jenk... don't go near AL. I use it at work and it's on a rapid downhill slope. The package maintainers are just creating conflicts everywhere.... some of which would actually cause a kernel panic at boot-up. Pacman (it's packager manager) is poor for finding things too... you finish up having to use the website to find the package name you're looking for.