Beginner's Guide to Linux Distros

Martin writes "TipMonkies has a nice overview of various Linux distros for those of you with little time to research each distro yourself. The article also discusses some of the advantages/disadvantages of each distro." From the article: "SUSE- The 'U' is hard and the 'E' is soft. Almost like the word sue with an S on the end. SUSE is the other big commercial distro. It was when it was still it's own company in Germany, and now even bigger since being purchased by Novell."

SuSE Pronunciation

[Anonymous Coward]

I always thought that SuSE was pronunced "zu-zah". This is the way it has always been pronounced by most German-speking SuSE experts I know.

Summary

[823723423]

[1]
Currently, the biggest distros not derived from RedHat or Debian are Slackware and Gentoo which also have their own package management systems with various advantages/disadvantages
[2]
Now with Lycoris (just purchased by Mandriva), Xandros, Linspire, and a number of others, Mandriva no longer is known as the most dumbed down distro, but still is very good for people new to GNU/Linux
[3]
There are plenty of ground up distros, but most are derived either from RedHat using RPMs (RPM stands for RedHat Package Manager) or Debian using dpkg files

SuSE != 'sue with an S on the end'

[Anonymous Coward]

SuSE is phonetically pronounced soo-suh.

Distrowatch

[vasqzr]

For a less biased review site, check out Distrowatch [distrowatch.com]. They also link to independent reviews.

Re:eh...

[Anonymous Coward]

He means that Slack's "culture" (file structure, interface, init script style, etc.) is in the spirit of BSD, not that it's code is BSD based...

my linux experience...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been raised on Windows, but tried distros off-and-on for the past 5 or so years starting in college. I never really got comfortable enough with it to leave it on my system for very long doing anything important, but recently I made an effort to find an easy distro to build a Samba server.

Went through Debian, Mandriva, Suse, but settled when I got to Fedora. Of them all, it was an easy install and surprisingly easy to configure the Samba server. I'm CLI-defficient, so its GUI tools to configure/manage were what I couldn't find in any of those other distros (or if they are there then they're too hard to find!)

I definitely agree that most savvy Windows users will find Fedora's setup more intuitive than the other distros!

Got the debian releases wrong

[mattbadass]

I think he got the order of his debian trees wrong. He had it at stable>>unstable>>testing. It's stable [debian.org]>> testing [debian.org]>> unstable [debian.org]. Testing is to test it before it becomes stable. Unstable is, of course, unstable. Just in case anyone reads this and uses the info. And yes, i'm being pedantic :)

Re:SuSE Pronunciation

[Anonymous Coward]

And how can vowels be "hard" or "soft" anyway? Consonants are hard or soft. Vowels are short or long, or, as what I think they meant incorrectly in the case of SuSE, silent.

Re:Slackware

[JabberWokky]

In Konqueror, you can use man:ls style URLs. Or simply a url of the form '#command'. For KDE commands, you can also open a tutorial by using a URL like help:knotes. Like all KDE extended URLs, they can be used virtually everywhere in KDE - try hitting alt-F2, and then type "man:ls". No need to ever use the mouse.

--
Evan

Re:eh...

[Anonymous Coward]

He is probably talking about the structure of everything, most notably the init scripts. Slackware uses BSD style init scripts, while the others he mentioned use System V style init scripts.

It was poor wording, but what he said makes sense if you think of it that way.

Slack-current

[KillerBob]

The guy's information is a little out of date.... For one, while it isn't a GUI-driven installation, Slack's install *is* menu-driven. If you read what you're presented with when you boot off the install CD, it's pretty obvious, too. It says very clearly, partition the disk, then type "setup". It even suggests using cfdisk to partition the disk if you want a "gui". I'd hardly call it arcane, since the information is given to you without your needing to hunt for it.

There's some assumption that you know what you're doing, and Slack doesn't set X as the default runlevel, but there's also a really helpful book available for free at Slack's website. About the only thing you really need to know is that RL4 is X, not RL5. That, and that it uses BSD init placement (/etc/rc.d/) instead of SysV (/etc/rc.d/rc.X/). Other than that, it's Linux. What works for one distro will work for Slack. Only there's probably already a package so you don't have to compile from source, just check linuxpackages.net first.

Also, Gnome has been moved to /pasture. It's not in -current.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

He got the order wrong

[strikethree]

It should be:
Slackware
Debian
Gentoo
Redhat
Suse
Mand rake
etc.

Slackware is the oldest existing distro. It is also my second favorite. :)

Debian is... Debian is just incredible. It should be covered early on because it defines a linux based distro for anyone who has been around for a while. I do not particularly care for debian though.

Gentoo needs to be covered early because it can give you the most features with the least amount of hassle. Personally, this is my favorite distro.

Redhat, and therefore Fedora, should be covered... if only because they got their act together after 7 years of improper security practices and poorly thought out packaging. I really do not like this distro, but I suppose I should thank them for pushing me to slackware pre 3.2. :)

Suse and Mandrake have enough history to be considered important. I have no personal opinions on either one though.

strike

Re:Slackware

[kbranch]

Because sometimes it's just the best way to do something. I always keep at least one terminal window open, so if I want to find a file I just switch to it and type 'locate file'. In Windows, you'd have to click Start->Find->Files, then beat the clippy equivalent into submission, and then type in your search term.

The same is true of most Start Button based things. If I want to install a new program, I just type 'emerge package'. Want to start an app? Just type the name. Check for wireless? 'iwlist scanning'. Obviously you have to have gotten used to the CLI and memorized the commands, but it's much easier for many things once you do.

There are some things that a GUI is better suited for (browsing, word processing, etc), but the CLI is just the easiest way to do a huge number of things.

Suse Manuals

[miyako]

Although the article mentioned YaST and the overall refinement of Suse, it failed to mention what I think is perhaps the biggest incentive to buying suse for someone new to Linux. The Documentation.
The Manuals that come with Suse are some of the best I've ever seen. Granted by the time I switched to Suse I'd been using Linux for several years and didn't find the user manual all that useful, but the administration manual is still a great reference. In fact I probably refer to it more than my Linux: Complete Reference book.
The author makes quite a point of mentioning that Suse Professional runs about $100, but fails to mention the quality of the manuals you get with it, or that you can buy an "upgrade" version, which is the full version without the printed manuals, for around $40 from Suse's website.

Re:Laptops...

[xsspd2004]

I've had really good luck with PCLinuxOS www.pclinuxonline/pclos on ThinkPads. It's a good system overall and has Thinkpad utilties installed by default. I haven't tried PR9 but 8 and 81a worked well. I wouldn't try KDE of you have less than 256mb though.

YMMV I mostly use Ubuntu now and just keep PCLOS around for a rescue CD.

Re:Hard U? Soft E?

[mattdm]

Hard means you pronounce it, soft means you don't. Sorta. They're trying to convey it's one syllable (suse) and not two (su-se).

Which is interesting, given that the SuSE FAQ [sourceforge.net] says otherwise:

SuSE, pronounced soo'-suh, comes from the German acronym, "Software und Systementwicklung (Software and System Development).

Which makes more sense to me given my (limited) knowledge of how to pronounce German words....

from teh author

[jwhamilton]

So, first wow I'm on slashdot. Second, I'm shocked I'm not getting flamed more. Third, sorry I missed so many distros. MEPIS is super and definatly should have been included. It was late and caffine started wearing off. And I'm wrong about SuSE.

Re:Laptops...

[MsGeek]

I have Debian Sarge running beautifully on my 600e. Sound and everything. http://www.thinkwiki.org/ [thinkwiki.org] is the place to go for Linux on ThinkPad goodness. Also get on the Linux-ThinkPad mailing list. Details also on ThinkWiki.

Re:Slackware

[dtfinch]

My first distro was RedHat 6, which I hardly touched after I installed it. I didn't really start getting into Linux until I tried Slackware, which taught me a lot about how it all works, like how to do stuff from the command line, how to configure everything, how to install software from source, and other important things like that.

Some things are hard to learn unless I force myself, but afterwards I'm usually glad I did. It's not enough that something like a command line is available. It has to be all I have before I'll really learn it. Anything with a steep learning curve can't be learned a bit at a time as you need it.

I use Ubuntu now, but despite its aim for user friendliness I still need to use bash from time to time, or log in as root without starting X. Server administration would also be hard without command line experience.

Re:SuSE Pronunciation

[Arker]

Soft tends to only have meaning within a phonological and orthographical system. For instance, while both English and Swedish have soft 'g's, in English that means the g is realised as a 'zh' sound, while in Swedish it's more like an English 'y.' The only sensible parsing I could make of a 'soft e' in English would be a silent e. BTW, the linked page has already corrected that big of misinformation, although more remains. But back to what you wrote, a soft c in English is obviously an 's' sound, but in, for instance, Italian, it's what we would write as 'ch' (and, to confuse English speakers trying to learn Italian even more, 'ch' is used in Italian to indicate a 'hard c' in a position where it would normally be soft.) In Castillian Spanish, it's a 'th.' So, if I had to guess at what someone might mean by a 'hard' and 'soft' 't' in English, the only thing I can come up with off the top of my head would be to parse 'hard' as 'aspirated' - but most non-linguists don't seem to notice that English actually has both, and a linguist would simply say 'aspirated' instead I would think.

Ubuntu and Slackware

[teslatug]

Funny that the author mentions some Slackers going to Ubuntu, seeing as this slacker just gave it a shot. I haven't installed too many distros after switching to Slackware from Mandrake, but after hearing so much hype I decided to try it. At least for my system, Ubuntu turned out to be too much of a memory hog for my taste. On my laptop I have a gig of memory. With Ubuntu I had close to 600MB free with no apps running (just Gnome), whereas with Slackware I had close to 900MB free (just KDE).

Re:finally...

[smartsaga]

[acronym title="This is a description, get it?"] Hover over this text to see a description [/acronym]

I hope the previous code shows up the right way.

Anyways, the author could have used the acronym tag and showed a little something more informative to avoid going off his structure while still giving enough info to the visitors.

Your stupidity are belong to... mm... you!... get it?

Have a good one.

Re:Laptops...

[grammar fascist]

SuSE puts an awful lot of work into making the OS work well on laptops. Their "powersaved" is one of the best power management tools I've ever seen.

That, and I like the GUI stuff. You can be a power user on SuSE without having to remember arcane CLI commands. Of course, if you want to, you can.

I tried Debian on my laptop and gave up after struggling with the devices for 20 hours or so. With SuSE it was all done for me.

Re:But people don't want to learn.

[CyricZ]

I'd recommend Kubuntu (http://kubuntu.org/ [kubuntu.org]). It offers you the very user friendly power of KDE, combined with the awe inspiring packaging of Debian and the quick release cycles of Ubuntu. The system will be very usable right away, but not as restrictive and Mandrive and Lycoris releases. You'll be able to hit the shell if you choose to do so, but you're not forced into using it by any means.

Re:SuSE Pronunciation

[croddy]

the thing with linguistics jargon, like computer jargon, is that it's consistent, and if someone wants to look it up, the documentation is available.

the problem with describing the "u" and "e" as "hard" and "soft" is that it's not only vernacular, but it's being misused. the words he's looking for, to imprecisely describe vowel pronunciation, are "long" for the u and and "short" for the e -- "hard" and "soft" are used to imprecisely describe consonants.

the four phonetic segments in "SuSE" are:

1. voiceless alveolar fricative ("s")
2. unrounded close back vowel, accented ("u")
3. voiceless alveolar fricative ("s")
4. schwa (a mid-central unrounded vowel) ("e")

Distrowatch

[rolfwind]

If anyone wants to research which flavor of Linux to get, go to Distrowatch.com and read the reviews by online magazines. They also send out CDs for a small price if you can't download/burn your distro of choice.

My personal suggestion for newbies to get a LiveCD like Knoppix or UbuntuLive. Then move on to an friendly system like Mandriva/Fedora/UbuntuInstall/Mepis, etcetera depending on their specific needs and research (distrowatch again).

If they want to get even more into it, try something like Slackware or Gentoo. Maybe as a final stage of total mastery Linux From Scratch:D

OTOH, if they really have spefic needs, there's no end to distros out there addressing a niche market and not just the desktop.

Oh, and avoid those people who make "their" distro a religious choice and all other nonbelievers infidels.

Re:Ubuntu and Slackware

[ptarjan]

Linux likes to eat up the memory and allocate it for itself. You free memory is not an indication of what is actually free. Try opening a program, it will just be given some memory that was previously allocated to the kernel.

The First Live CD?

[torpor]

Sorry, but Knoppix was not the first Live CD.

The first Live CD was Yggdrasil. You young whippresnappers would do well to learn how to say that word, yo!

Re:The First Live CD?

[torpor]

Hey, Yggdrasil was a major distribution too.. or don't you remember that era?

I still rue the day I chucked my small bundle of Plug N' Play Yggdrasil releases in the dustbin.. those were some classic CD's.

Gentoo

[zecg]

Gentoo is extremely low maintenance (which could be said of Debian and Ubuntu), but unlike those allows you to easily set a persistent policies of what elements you allow or do not allow through USE flags. Compiling WOULD be a pain in the ass, but all the truly large ones (OpenOffice, Mozilla et al.) come as binary packages. And with KDE now atomized, compiling is truly no problem any more.

Rehashing tired "ricer" jokes is fine by me, but it would sadden me if prejudice stopped anyone from trying it out. For me, it completely broke the impression that Linux is difficult.

Re:Hardly

[zurab]

And to think that all the author had to do was look up a wikipedia article about SUSE [wikipedia.org] to get his facts. I didn't think it would be that hard to do. Anyway, SUSE hasn't been "based" on any other distro for over 9 years now, so it hardly makes any difference, especially for beginners (which the article claims it is for), to explore any historical links that have not been relevant in about a decade.