[NTLUG:Discuss] Need Distro Recommendation, Please

[Paul Ingendorf]

Having just been down this road I can tell you the options are limited.
I've seen the recommendations for debian, mandrake, centos, etc... but what
you will find is what I found, newer distros will run slower on older
hardware as they have expectations of certain resources and attempt to use
them.  It may be time to look for a minimalist system to build upon or
simply compile your own from scratch as there are several resources that
will show you how.  I can say from experience you will see a dramatic
increase in your systems performance.

I have 12 total packages installed on my system including the kernel, a
simple script automates most of the upgrade process based off freshmeat
entries for these packages and keeps them up to date.  It took some work to
get setup but overall I am more comfortable that I am getting the most out
of the hardware now than I ever was before.

This option may not be for you but I thought I would put it out there
because I just got through fighting the same fight and it was the only thing
that gave me back the system performance I thought was lost.

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at ntlug.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at ntlug.org]On
Behalf Of Rick Matthews
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 3:09 PM
To: NTLug Discuss
Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] Need Distro Recommendation, Please


I have a couple of older PCs running Linux here at the house that
do a yeoman's job of providing the network with Samba shares,
caching web proxy, access control features, content filtering,
fetchmail retrieval of everybody's email, network caller ID, and
browser access to all stored pictures and mp3 files. Additionally, I
always have a software project or three that I am working on (playing
with).

They are currently running Fedora core 2 and RedHat 8.  I'm not happy
with the performance of FC2 (on old hardware) and I really need to get
the other one off of RH8.

Here's my wish list:
- Free :)
- All I've ever worked with is RedHat or a work-alike.  I like to learn
new things, but I'd rather not start over.
- No need (or desire) to run X.
- I don't mind installing (and compiling) packages from tarballs, but
I like having RPM for the bulk of the applications.
- Update via yum or apt. (Is there anything else in that category?)

What distribution(s) would you recommend?  Thanks in advance for
your help!

Rick Matthews







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