Linux - what distro?

[Dan B]

No... no it isn't. It's a Mach kernel with a BSD userland on top. Yes, Darwin is also a UNIX-like OS, in the same way that BSD or Solaris are – but they're not Linux either. Hell, Windows NT was POSIX-compliant – does that make it 'kinda Linux' too?

Ah, a history lesson

"You people just don't get it, do you? All Linux applications run on Solaris, which is our implementation of Linux. Now ask the question again,"

http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-12-14-020-04-NW-CY

He was, of course, wrong - and Carwash is correct. But as Sun Microsystems CEO you'd have expected him to know the difference

 

[Coco]

No... no it isn't. It's a Mach kernel with a BSD userland on top. Yes, Darwin is also a UNIX-like OS, in the same way that BSD or Solaris are – but they're not Linux either. Hell, Windows NT was POSIX-compliant – does that make it 'kinda Linux' too?

I presume people quite often tell you to 'get a life'?

 

[yello]

I presume people quite often tell you to 'get a life'?

You're out of order Coco. Imho of course. Or did you mean to put a smiley there too?

Carwash's post is completely relevant given the topic. Whether it's true or not, I have no idea BUT I'd never go abusing someone for offering an opinion based on a level of knowledge that I don't have. There are specialists in all subjects, be it computers or cycling. Personally, I'm thankful for that.

Of course, if you were just having a playful leg-pull then I apologise for reading you wrongly.

 

[XmisterIS]

Debian Etch. Easy to install, easy to keep patched, lots of up-to-date packages available via apt-get.

 

[2Loose]

I bow to your superior knowledge Carwash. I should have really used 'Unix-like' rather than Linux...hope that isn't too far off either.

 

[Carwash]

I bow to your superior knowledge Carwash. I should have really used 'Unix-like' rather than Linux...hope that isn't too far off either.

No worries, 2Loose! Just correcting/clarifying - didn't meant to ruffle any feathers!

(Although I seem to have hit a nerve with poor Coco there!)

Back on topic: any others out there using difference Linux distros they'd like to recommend to the OP?

 

[Dan B]

Another vote for Debian, but from the perspective of someone who runs Linux because it's Unix-like, not someone who wants to dress it up to look like ersatz Windows. Ubuntu's probably your better bet for eye candy

 

[Watt-O]

Ubuntu 9.04 is great!

 

[2Loose]

No worries, 2Loose! Just correcting/clarifying - didn't meant to ruffle any feathers!

(Although I seem to have hit a nerve with poor Coco there!)

Back on topic: any others out there using difference Linux distros they'd like to recommend to the OP?

I am the OP, and have played with Puppy, Fedora, Slackware, Suse and Ubuntu - soon I may be up to trying Gentoo or even Debian! LoL. I was just wondering how many other CC'ers have gotten away from the 'dark side'

My haven't things changed in the last 15 years! My first foray was via Slackware on 8 3.5 inch disks, not a GUI in sight and the most painful install I had ever seen at the time.

Nowadays, installing Ubuntu takes less clicks and is far quicker and easier than Windows itself. Easier to use, faster to start and also far more secure - for free!

 

[Yellow Fang]

To me it's amazing Linux is free. I assume the developers make some dosh some how, as it must take so much time. Unless they're all university students.

 

[Dan B]

A lot of them are employed by Red Hat, Sun, Oracle, Ubuntu, people like that.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Yes, but Red Hat and Oracle systems you have to pay for, don't you. Ubuntu's free, so how can they afford to employ people?

 

[HJ]

To me it's amazing Linux is free. I assume the developers make some dosh some how, as it must take so much time. Unless they're all university students.

You don't pay a licence fee, but if you want support then you pay. So if you are a home user and something goes wrong, you generally find your self hunting around the forums for a solution, which can take some time. If you are running Linux on a server in the commercial environment then you are more likely to want to get support as time is money and paying for support is probably cheaper in the long run. It is this paid for support that covers the wages of many of the developers, also trailering the software for specific needs of large corporate bodies.

Theoretically if you buy licensed software from the likes of Microsoft or Apple you get support for free, but in reality as a home user it is often very limited to the point of non-existence...

 

[Yellow Fang]

I know Linux is popular for servers in the business world, but I still rather surprised you can get distros for home use for nowt. You can get distros for reviving old PCs with low memory and slow processors. You can even get distros aimed for Macs, though why I'm not sure. Thanks very much is all I can say.