Printable View
Im finaly switching to linux for the summer and i was just wondering whcih distribution is:
- Easy To Operate
- Fast
- Comes with a C++ compiler and IDE
- Instant Messangers
- FREE
It also should be able to handle fast internet speeds.
It Doesn't have to be good for Gaming, bcause i am not much of a gammer.
I've been thinking about Red Hat, but maybe you guys have better suggestions
I've Tried Mandriva (AKA Mandrake), and SuSe in the past, and i would like to try something different.
Thanks
your criteria are pretty much taken care of by all popular linux distros. The only question would be "easy". Fedora's not a bad bet for that purpose (fedora is the free redhat offshoot)
I would start with Ubuntu or Debian, and then move on to Gentoo if you feel you need more flexibility with your package management.
Fedora may be easy to install, but it's a pita to upgrade. :D
Ubuntu is pretty easy.
Slackware, though, is my personal favorite. Had a few problems with it, but once you know where to find the answers it is pretty easy to get fixed :D
>>Fedora may be easy to install, but it's a pita to upgrade.
not if you use yum.
Anyone willing to show me how to install software on a Linux?
which distro are you using?
If you use fedora I'll show you how to set up some good yum repos. Then installing software is a matter of typing yum install <package-name> and updating is just as easy, yum update <package-name>Quote:
Originally Posted by mrafcho001
in general:
download the source for the program, usually in a tar.gz
untar it
in console->
./configure-> if error(missing dependancy) use a package manager of your choice to get dependancy (ubuntu has a great one for this)
make
make install
and youre all set
Hmmm. Looks like you already get your Linux distro.!
I wanna say CentOS distro.! It like RedHat and without testing like Fedora.!
CentOS works much better that Fedora. That was in my case. Dont know for oethers.!
> not if you use yum.
Show me an easy way to upgrade from Fedora Core 3 to Core 4 using yum.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/YumUpgradeFaq
Compare this to emerge -uDav world in Gentoo.
Ah, a fellow Gentoo-er. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by ^xor
Sometimes -uDav cause the odd problem, but yeah, you have to like the portage system.
Ok,
I got Linux installed!
Can anyone IM me at:
StupidTerorrists
i need some help, like changing the resolution and how to get around linux looks a lot different than Windows.
Thanks
>>Show me an easy way to upgrade from Fedora Core 3 to Core 4 using yum.
install the distro rpm then type yum update, done. :) That wiki is for problems people may encounter, are you trying to tell me no one ever encounters problems upgrading Gentoo?
>>Compare this to emerge -uDav world in Gentoo.
emerge -uDav.... what the hell is that cryptic paramater supposed to mean. I find yum update to be much more intuitive :p
get a book called The Linux Bible.... it has two disks that have a few distros on there.... try em out... I haven't tried mine yet... I made the mistake of mailing it back when I should have packed it in my bag..... thought I was ganna be on my vacation longer.... turns out I got here before it did... :( I heard Knoppix is a great choice if you want to try it out first... since it can boot from a disk.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perspective
kermit@minty ~ $ man yum
No manual entry for yum
.....
kermit@minty ~ $ man emerge
EMERGE(1) Portage EMERGE(1)
NAME
emerge - Command-line interface to the Portage system
SYNOPSIS
emerge [options] [action] [ebuild | tbz2file | class | dependency] ...
emerge --sync | --info | --search
.....
;)
>>kermit@minty ~ $ man yum
>>No manual entry for yum
that would be because you don't have yum installed.
Quote:
$man yum
NAME
yum - Yellowdog Updater Modified
SYNOPSIS
yum [options] [command] [package ...]
DESCRIPTION
yum is an interactive, automated update program which can be used for maintaining systems
using rpm
command is one of:
* install package1 [package2] [...]
* update [package1] [package2] [...]
* check-update
* upgrade [package1] [package2] [...]
* remove | erase package1 [package2] [...]
* list [...]
* info [...]
* provides | whatprovides feature1 [feature2] [...]
* clean [ packages | headers | metadata | cache | dbcache | all ]
* makecache
* groupinstall group1 [group2] [...]
* groupupdate group1 [group2] [...]
* grouplist
* groupremove group1 [group2] [...]
* groupinfo group1 [...]
* search string1 [string2] [...]
* generate-rss [updates]
Unless the --help or -h option is given, one of the above commands must be present.
<snip>
emerge has an update as well... but it's for all the software you've installed through portage.
emerge --update world
and/or
emerge --update system
and don't forget
emerge --sync
once a day so you have the latest packages :P
man emerge
and wtf is --uDav?portage look a little way down and you'll find this:Quote:
MCP jshao # emerge --uDav
!!! Error: --uDav is an invalid option.
if you read the setion it's in (updating your system) you'll find out what each one does....Code:emerge --update --deep --newuse world
emerge --depclean
revdep-rebuild
I'd also suggest gentoo, but not as a first OS... even though I got into it pretty easily after just playing around with knoppix for a while... but then again I had to recompile the kernel 3 times because of unclear directions/bad choices on my part...
Not to jump in a religious distro war but debian's updater is the best imho. Simple to use and very reliable. Now and then you have to add a 3rd party source for somthing like LAME but most of the time it just works. It also has the advantage of not needing to compile every last program. (You might consider compiling every program an advantage but trust me if you need to upgrade your whole system it meens recompiling everything and takes blody ages!)
I do not have a concept of "upgrading the whole system". I'm a Gentoo user. :)
gentoo is fun, but annoying for some after the novelty wears off. Neither me or my cpu has time to build everything from source. I realize that there are was around this, but it's more work for me.. That's never a good thing.
debian is nice, but too large and release cycles suck.
ubuntu (based on debian) is a perfect balance between easy upgrades and package management, and regular stable release cycles.
Anything rpm based shouldn't be considered inmho...yum is slower, less powerful, and awkward compared to apt
>>yum is slower, less powerful
you havn't tried yum 2.3 yet. The first versions of yum were slow and sucked. yum 2.3 is rumored to be faster than apt and is just plain awsome IMNSHO.
It also has a cool new shell mode where multiple commands can be executed with only one analysis of repo data.
what else do the both of you have to do while you sleep?Quote:
Originally Posted by mix0matt
a server never sleeps, right? Cpu cycles should be used for serving client requests not rebuilding 16 large packages after a library updates.
actually building from source is the double edged gentoo sword. USE flags and emerge provide a tremendous amount of flexibility, which is exciting at first. BS like etc-update and broken ebuilds that cripple a system kill the excitement pretty quickly.
After a while you long for simplicity, software the updates only in critical cases, and stability. Gentoo lacks all of these things. Ubuntu is close enough to what i want without having to pay for it.
Gentoo most definitely does not lack in simplicity when it comes to updates. And when you update software is still up to you - if you want to update only criticals, you're welcome.
that's true... I mean why take the time to backup and update and do general maintenance on your server, right? :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by mix0matt
I totally disagree. Don't update your gentoo system for a week. Then tell me you don't mind filtering through the 50 or so updates and determining which packages need to be updated due to critical bugs and security holes. Right now there is no easy way to determine what are the critical updates. glsa-check and the "emerge security" idea are steps in the right direction, but they're not mature yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by CornedBee
Right now it's just easier to update everything, and waste those CPU cycles.
Compare that to debian stable or ubuntu....with these distros you now an update only happens if the maintainers or security team think is critical.
I'm not bashing gentoo, i still run it on my workstation though I'll never run it on a server again.
I don't think I said I was opposed to "backup and update and general maintence". That regular maintenance should not take a large chunk of my day to complete. There are other things, real problems that need to be addressed (sometimes those problems can be caused by a gentoo update), and when you primary job responsibility is programming, you want to spend as little time as possible "updating" servers.Quote:
Originally Posted by major_small
When you grow up and get a job, you'll understand, right? :rolleyes:
I filter and I don't mind at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by mix0matt
Besides, that's what the GLSA newsfeed is for. I see exactly what packages need updating, and they're really not many.
How do you come up with 50 packages anyway? How much stuff do you have installed? Usually, that's how much I need to update on my workstation (where there's far more installed packages) after a month or so.
erm, I program and run a server (not public) as well, but I expect a good amount of downtime every month (because I only have one box). I spend a good amount of time updating everything I need, then several hours checking for spyware/adware, then run a virus check, then spend several more hours (>6) defragging, then bring the system down for under an hour to clone the disk and restart.Quote:
Originally Posted by mix0matt
all once a month, except for the updates, which I do nightly if possible. and that's on my windows box, where I actually have to go out and look for updates to most of the programs.
all it takes is a few minutes every night, and about a day a month. and my server's not even public. not does it really fit the definition of a server.
like I said, if you can't take the time to administer a server, don't make it public. I would be ........ed as hell if my host lost all my stuff because they would rather be programming (even though it's all mirrored on my box anyway).
basically, my point is that if you're running a public server, you shouldn't have too many packages to update anyway. you should really only have the packages you need, which you should be updating either way, which would lead to a lot less than 50/month... that's what I get on my desktop, and I have all kinds of stuff installed...
even with all those packages, if you do it once a week, it comes down to about 15, and once a day like you should, it comes down even further...
On the other hand, with big companies, every software update often requires a lot of paperwork, so this little incremental updating may not be ideal.
that's true, but my case was based on a sole server administrator with free reign over the server.
I'm just saying that in that case, a Gentoo server might not be advisable.
But the great thing about Linux is, after all, choice, and that you can always use what's most appropriate for your situation.