Archive for January, 2008
Linux distributions, episode one
For many years I have tried to avoid the problems created by silly fights between the various Linux distributions as the zealots of any in particular just cause arguments, but I have recently realised that I ought to pick a distribution or two to get to know really well in order that I am more effective than skipping around all over the place. So I have asked my freenode staff friends a little and have done some research, and I have come to an intermediatry conclusion. I have decided to try and get used to Ubuntu, Debian and Gentoo for the following reasons. Since the first two are similar I will be playing with two, really.
Since my family have converted completely to Linux at my father’s house on the main computer, we have been using Ubuntu with great success. The ‘just works’ philosophy is very effective at converting people to using free software. Ubuntu is the distro with the most chance of breaking Microsoft’s hold on the market. On a desktop system I cannot be fiddling around getting things working when I need to get things done, especially with how busy I am these days. Also if I need to demonstrate Linux this is definately the best choice (especially since you can get free CDs that look professional and also work as live CDs). The Ubuntu philosophy is a strong, socialist one (I think so anyway) and thus I am certainly likely to keep it around, even if some of the handholding I disagree with.
Ubuntu is of course based on Debian, the nice rock-solid old distribution with great stability and dependability. Due to problems with Debian not being up-to-date so much of the time, I don’t think I would ever want to run it as a local desktop or workstation, but for servers Debian works and thus it is always a good choice. It is efficient with its installs, generally keeps itself running, and doesn’t require a lot of effort to admin. It is running on my nslu2 and I have been most happy with it. So I think my reasons for not using Debian would be purely the advantages offered by Ubuntu and Gentoo: ‘just works’, and pure leet factor (read: more fun, and teaches more about nix).
This brings me onto Gentoo. Gentoo differs from the above in that it is a source-based distribution, in that it compiles all applications in order to install them, rather than downloading binaries. The idea is that your system runs the more efficiently on your hardware and doesn’t have unnecesary packages installed, slowing things down. Gentoo is designed to be appropriate for pretty much any task by being so highly customisable. My research has told me that in the main for most systems there is not a huge discernable advantage to this approach, and that long compile times can get annoying. But one thing remains about Gentoo for me, and that is its power to teach you about Linux and your computer in general, and how much cooler/leeter it is. This attracts me to it very much.
At this point then I intend to get a great deal more experience with these three and then perhaps make an ‘episode 2′ post, perhaps narrowing things down further. Or I may end up staying with these three. One thing that I am pretty certain about is that I have narrowed all the distributions down to these, and so I can now concentrate my efforts on learning more about them. Gentoo’s temptation of improving my general Linux knowledge, for someone like me who avoids zealousy, is something I must persue further.
Mathemagic
Not bad… source.