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The Linux Distribution Game
Ladislav Bodnar writes: "I have installed and used many Linux distributions. The editorial, entitled The Linux Distribution Game is the result of my personal experiences - it aspires to be a gentle introduction to the many distributions out there. The rest of the DistroWatch site provides pure facts; this is the only exception, although I promise to be as unbiased as possible." This page is nearly worth it for the logos alone; the links to obscure and semi-obscure distributions are a nice resource.
Red Hat, Mandrake and SuSe are RPM based (Red Hat Package Manager) distro's. RPM sucks. There's no other way to put it. Its awkward to have to manually remove or install a piece of software AND all of its dependencies by hand with RPM.
Thus I have moved onto Debian where package management is g00d. Learn about Debian's apt-get. And if you can actually get Debian installed, you'll be happy.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Wow, look at his comparison charts in the package management section and you will find that a huge majority of systems are using rpm. A couple of deb, and a couple of tar.gz systems and all of the rest are rpm based. So why is that the (arguably) worst package management system ever is so predominately used? SuSE is the only company I have seen that can make it work well. Having said that, SuSE would be my main distro if they would switch to the deb format. As it is now, I will take Debian or Slack over any of the others simply for their non-use of rpms. Who knows, maybe I have spent too much time in dependancy hell.
Wanna get high?
With respect to you "3 years debian" time, I'm sure you ran into many problems with debian, unless you just ran the -stable branch which is severly outdated. I'm sorry that your time with FreeBSD was not as easy as apt-get, I'm sorry that you might have to try new things, and _read_ documentaion to make things work. Insted of using some ncurses based app to load the modules for your soundcard.
If DRI and sound are your most important needs and stablility, consistancy, reliabilty, and security are of no value.. then yes go back to debian, please ;)
Also if you were having trouble with the ports.. your zealot friend may not have been all what you thought he was.. or again you didn't want to read about them, and how to keep them up-to-date.
In debian you can't install apps from other branches.. so if you want the latest ( when ever they get around to porting it ) apps. You _need_ to run unstable.. (again stability not being what your looking for in an OS..) this would work fine for your needs.
"I could go on for a while now..." Insted of finding things that aren't the same as what you know.. feel free to read up on these things, and broaden your knowledge. It may be hard to fathom.. but your problems aren't problems at all.. just things you don't understand and didn't bother to look for answers to.
Do you really think your the only one that has ever had a "problem" or "confusion" about what you said? Welcome to the technical age where you are not alone and unique in your problems ;)
And "FreeBSD is soooo much superior to linux.." because it's consistant. It's not dependent on the current flavor of the insecure linux kernel you happen to be running. Don't forget the whole linux thing is just a kernel with apps; and FreeBSD is a complete OS.
"People that hate Windows; run Linux. People that love Unix; run FreeBSD."
The problem is that XP is not really an operating system. It's a vehicle designed to get people signed up with passport. It is also a medium to deliver windows users advertising. It's also a vehicle for media comapnies to erase unlicenced images, sounds and videos from your computer. That winXP also acts as an operating system is entirely coincedental. It's primary mission is to sell other MS products, sell advertsing and make money for partners of MS and of course harm MS competitiors.
It's a tarpit for suckers and fools.
War is necrophilia.