Playing with….?
Posted on February 16, 2003
Over the past month and a half, I have been searching for the perfect Linux distribution. I haven’t found it yet, and it may not really exist, but since it doesn’t cost anything except for bandwidth and time, I figure I will keep going until I find a distro that I like. Keep an eye on the Reviews section of this site, as I jot down the knowledge gained from my quest :-)
Late last year, I decided I wanted a change from the SuSE distribution I had been using. SuSE is a good distribution, but SuSE makes money by selling new distrbutions, and the only way to update some of the software was to either buy SuSE 8.1 or do it myself. Since I’m not making that much money, and since most of the software works best if it is SuSE specific (a SuSE RPM), I thought it might be a good time to try out a new distribution. As a general rule of thumb, if you download a Linux distribution, rather than buy a CD set, you are most likely going to get a complete, yet minimal Linux distribution. This means you will get a system that will find most of your hardware, have a graphical desktop (probably KDE), let you connect to the Internet, do some work with an office suite, and play some games, but little else. If you buy a CD-set, chances are you will get some tech-support, maybe an actual manual (yes, paper), and a whole heap of programs that you probably won’t use (does anyone really need seven text editors?). Newbies can certainly benefit from a pre-packaged distro like Red Hat or SuSE, but they aren’t likely to get too far with something downloaded from the web (unless they have someone to pester into helping them) Since I’ve been using Linux for 3+ years, I don’t really consider myself a newbie (not, that I’m 1337 either), so I figured I could forgo shelling out $ for a new Linux distro (or $$$ for Window$), and try something I downloaded. Again, all it costs is bandwidth and time (and CD-R or CD-RW media).
While on my quest, I have learned a few things. First, use a CD-RW. Sure, the media may cost a bit more, but you can reuse them. I recommend having 3 – 5 CD-RW’s, since some of the distros require more than one CD. I also recommend using 80min/700MB media if possible, because some of the distros have ISO’s larger than 650MB (Note: I’m actually using 2 650MB CD-RW’s and supply of 650MB and 700MB CD-R’s). If you find a distro you like, it might be useful to burn it onto a CD-R, so it doesn’t get copied over, and you have something to back to if there are problems.
Good places to check out different distros are Linux.org, DistroWatch, Ibiblio, and LinuxISO.org. DistroWatch seems to have the most comprehensive list, but Linux.org is pretty substantial, too. LinuxISO and Ibiblio seem to be confined to English language distrubutions, even though they both have pretty good lists as well.
It might seem like a small idea, but instead of just grabbing an ISO from an FTP site, you should actually visit the distribution’s website. This is a good check out what the current development status is, and check out a screenshot or two. I downloaded one distro that was using the 2.2.x kernel and KDE 2.1, both of which are very out-of-date. I also don’t recommend using a development version, unless you are very sure of your skills, and can handle a console with no X server (just in case).
As of today (February 16, 2003), I have tried Slackware, ASP Linux, Ark Linux, Lycoris. I’ve started a formal review of Slackware, and I plan on adding the others soon. Also, I am getting ready to try the EvilEntity, Spectra, and Core distributions. I have also pondered a Linux-From-Scratch distribution, but I’m not there yet.
One of the biggest things I’ve found is that I don’t know what I want until I come across a distribution that doesn’t have what I previously took for granted. This also means that it is easy to nitpick about the various distributions and point out their flaws (in my eye anyway).
Again, keep an eye on the Reviews section for more info on the various distros.
