[GRLUG] The battle of the distros

[Greg Folkert]

On Mon, 2008-11-10 at 12:37 -0500, Collin Kidder wrote:
> So... I had been using x86_64 Arch Linux on my laptop for quite some 
> time. I decided I'd like a change so I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 
> 8.10, Debian 4.0r5, and Fedora 10 beta. I tried the 64 bit version of each.

Good selection to test... well barring one.

> I'm somewhat shocked but of all four distros I found only Ubuntu to 
> really be to my liking.
> 
> Arch was great for tweaking and is always on the bleeding edge but has a 
> fairly small community and seems better for people who really want to 
> tweak linux a lot. I'm over that, I just want to develop apps in linux 
> and use it for my desktop.

Reasonable, I like things like this, but see the next comment.

> Debian was total garbage. Absolutely nothing worked right at all. The nv 
> and nvidia drivers were totally borked in Debian and could not find the 
> LCD on my laptop at all. The other three distros had no such trouble. 
> Debian also did not like my 3945 wireless card. Maybe Debian is a great 
> distro if it works on your hardware but they screwed the pooch bad for 
> my hardware.

Right there... Debian 4.0r5. 1.5+ years old. Lenny please. (yes its
testing) but I have to tell you that I use Debian Sid daily and have for
many years. I haven't had any issues. Of course I specifically bought my
Laptop with "Open Source Drivers" in mind. I bought a StinkPad T61.

From DMIDECODE (edited don't ya know, to protect my warranty and junk):

System Information
        Manufacturer: LENOVO
        Product Name: 6465CTO
        Version: ThinkPad T61
        Serial Number: XXXXXXX
        UUID: XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
        Wake-up Type: Power Switch
        SKU Number: Not Specified
        Family: ThinkPad T61

Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller
Intel 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection
Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
Intel PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection

And other pieces. I only ever had a problem with the audio device.

I am able to have my video output do these properly:

	--auto
	--reflect normal,x,y,xy
	--rotate normal,inverted,left,right
	--left-of <output>
	--right-of <output>
	--above <output>
	--below <output>
	--same-as <output>
	--off

Its very nice and agile video control, very nice and clear 1680x1050.

The wireless worked with an out of tree compile on the first kernel I
had (2.6.18) installed with. After 2.4.21 and since its been there and
worked flawlessly since.

The Bluetooth, works very well. Have paired many devices at different
times, My Treo 700p, my 5 or so headsets, a mouse I lost to my iMac (and
wife and daughter), my iMac (sort of) , my Samsung phone (sort of)...
among other things.

The Audio problem was fixed by a newer version of ALSA. About two months
after I got my Laptop. Been fine since then.

> Fedora was actually pretty good and I liked that SELinux was actually 
> all setup and enabled. I would have probably stuck with it had I not 
> been an idiot and downloaded the prerelease version 10. That caused 
> problems. But, I didn't see an appreciable difference between Ubuntu and 
> Fedora except that Ubuntu has a lot more packages available.

Nice. There are certain Distros you need to use the pre-release ones.
Fedora isn't one you want to try to be productive with, at least in my
experience.

> So, in the end I just could find no really good reason NOT to use Ubuntu 
> and it works just fine. Seems to me that maybe the arguments against it 
> are either old and expired or just based on Elitism. Correct me if I'm 
> wrong.

Ubuntu works for you... use it.
-- 
greg at gregfolkert.net
PGP key 1024D/B524687C 2003-08-05
Fingerprint: E1D3 E3D7 5850 957E FED0  2B3A ED66 6971 B524 687C
Alternate Fingerprint: 09F9 1102 9D74  E35B D841 56C5 6356 88C0
Alternate Fingerprint: 455F E104 22CA  29C4 933F 9505 2B79 2AB2
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 197 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://shinobu.grlug.org/pipermail/grlug/attachments/20081111/b45f7965/attachment.pgp