[NTLUG:Discuss] What is the Best Linux & Why?

[Dennis Myhand]

Hi Ralph:

Well, first off, the kind of linux I use is best because I say it is!  Okay,
now that the stupid statement is out of the way, the best Linux is the one
which does what you want when you want it to.  I, too, have used Linux for
about the last 5 years.  I started with Red Hat 5.0.  At home and at work I
use almost exclusively Libranet which is a Debian variant.  Why?  I started
using it and fell in love with apt-get.  I say almost exclusively because I
just acquired an old Mac PPC G-3 and I have just installed YellowDog 3.0.
Here I have the choice of RPM, compiling from source, apt-get, or YUM.

I think the main reason you here the kind of statments about which is best
is because of a lack of maturity.  To paraphrase Lenny Bruce, "If Red Hat
cooks for you, solid, man!"  I don't have a need for sticking with one
thing.  I have stuck with Libranet so long because the packages are much
more up to date than Debian and, most of all, I am comfortable with it.  But
I also like Slackware and do have it installed on a machine I rarely use at
the house.  It's 9.1 and it has Gnome 2.4 and it is great for what I want.

Most of what you see in differences is nothing more than visual.  There is
not that much difference in the look of Gnome 1.4 and 2.4.  Most of the same
desktops come with every distro.  If it does what you want, when you want
it, why listen to people boast about their own systems?  The kind of
boasting I listen too are guys who talk about 2 or more years uptime.  That
has value.  HTH, Dennis at Edna High School (Where our servers run Red Hat
or Libranet.  Even the ones which say they are Windows NT).

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ralph Miller" <rmilpe at sbcglobal.net>
To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 11:18 AM
Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] What is the Best Linux & Why?


> For over five years, I have used several versions of Red Hat Linux and now
have 9.0.  I have installed them many times only for myself as a single user
and now feel quite comfortable doing so.  Still I do almost nothing useful
such as compiling C programs I have written, but am getting close.  Do use X
graphics for documents and spreadsheets for routine things.  Never contact
Red Hat for help.  Occasionally update.
>
> At the NTLUG meetings, I hear lots of opinions about which release they
prefer.  There seems to be some (or a lot of) emotion involved - "My way is
best!"  I hear a lot of Red Hat put down, but mine seems to do what I want
it to.  I may be a perpetual Newbie.
>
> Still, with the changes at Red Hat, I wonder what to do next, if anything.
I am not sure how Debian or Suse or others would work and appear on my
screen compared with RH9.  Would I have months of learning another version?
Clearly most in NTLUG are far ahead of me.  I am retired, so being competent
in Linux is not as important as it is to you who make a living with it.  I
would like to do more, though.
>
> It seems I have spent years beginning to use Linux, so go back to Win98,
or now WinXP, to do things that must be done.  Surely I am not the only one
like this.  That beginning hurdle never seems to go away.
>
> Please comment on this if you have an opinion.  Do please keep the
responses to a few short paragraphs.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Ralph M
> _______________________________________________
> https://ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>