Discussion:
Search for a different distribution...
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Trevor Hemsley
2006-09-28 21:13:47 UTC
Permalink
Hi guys

I'm looking for a new distribution to install on a machine. I'm currently
running SuSE 9.1 Pro on one of my machines and as that's come to the end of its
lifetime (no more patches), I'm about to re-install on a different machine then
migrate all my data over to the new machine. Picking the distribution to use on
the new machine is the question.

Background: I've used Linux since Redhat 4.0, gave up on Redhat when 5.0 came
out and was a complete turkey, switched to SuSE at the time and stayed with them
pretty much since then. The last SuSE I've used in anger is 9.1 but I have 9.2,
9.3 and am not keen on some of the direction it's taken since the Novell buyout.
I also have the 10 and 10.1 DVDs and would use 10.1 if I can't find anything
else better.

I'm the sysadmin for one SLES9 64 bit and 9 RHEL3 machines at work, have Fedora
Core 4 installed on my work laptop. I've also got Gentoo 2006 installed on a
machine here at home and initially I liked that - I still think the idea is good
but since I've been running it, it's nuked itself at least twice during an
'emerge --sync/--update world' run and I'm looking for something easier to
maintain than this (I spend 8 hours a day coercing machines to do what they're
supposed to do at work so want something a little easier at home!).

So... I want something rpm based, that gets automatic and timely security
patches and is low maintenance. A good set of admin tools would be useful. I
really want something that just works (tm). The target machine is a Shuttle
SB51G, socket 478 P4 3GHz with 1GB RAM and a 160GB IDE drive, DVD+-RW, ATI
Radeon 9200, Terratec Aureon (CMedia 8738) soundcard. For most of what I do, I
use the command line only but this machine is likely to see more use of X than
before - running Azureus, Seamonkey, Audacity, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, postfix
and Samba (as both client and server) - that lot accounts for about 90+% of what
I'll be using it for. No games so 3D graphics etc is not required (or wanted!).
It does need to interoperate with my other machines - 1 Windoze, 2 OS/2, 1
Gentoo hence the Samba requirement.

Distributions so far on my radar screen: SuSE 10.1, FC5, er, that's it. More
choices required - hence this post. Suggestions please?
--
Trevor Hemsley, Brighton, UK.
Trevor-Hemsley at dsl dot pipex dot com
bobmct
2006-09-29 01:14:22 UTC
Permalink
Post by Trevor Hemsley
Hi guys
I'm looking for a new distribution to install on a machine. I'm currently
running SuSE 9.1 Pro on one of my machines and as that's come to the end
of its lifetime (no more patches), I'm about to re-install on a different
machine then migrate all my data over to the new machine. Picking the
distribution to use on the new machine is the question.
Background: I've used Linux since Redhat 4.0, gave up on Redhat when 5.0
came out and was a complete turkey, switched to SuSE at the time and
stayed with them pretty much since then. The last SuSE I've used in anger
is 9.1 but I have 9.2, 9.3 and am not keen on some of the direction it's
taken since the Novell buyout. I also have the 10 and 10.1 DVDs and would
use 10.1 if I can't find anything else better.
I'm the sysadmin for one SLES9 64 bit and 9 RHEL3 machines at work, have
Fedora Core 4 installed on my work laptop. I've also got Gentoo 2006
installed on a machine here at home and initially I liked that - I still
think the idea is good but since I've been running it, it's nuked itself
at least twice during an 'emerge --sync/--update world' run and I'm
looking for something easier to maintain than this (I spend 8 hours a day
coercing machines to do what they're supposed to do at work so want
something a little easier at home!).
So... I want something rpm based, that gets automatic and timely security
patches and is low maintenance. A good set of admin tools would be useful.
I really want something that just works (tm). The target machine is a
Shuttle SB51G, socket 478 P4 3GHz with 1GB RAM and a 160GB IDE drive,
DVD+-RW, ATI Radeon 9200, Terratec Aureon (CMedia 8738) soundcard. For
most of what I do, I use the command line only but this machine is likely
to see more use of X than before - running Azureus, Seamonkey, Audacity,
Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, postfix and Samba (as both client and server) -
that lot accounts for about 90+% of what I'll be using it for. No games so
3D graphics etc is not required (or wanted!). It does need to interoperate
with my other machines - 1 Windoze, 2 OS/2, 1 Gentoo hence the Samba
requirement.
Distributions so far on my radar screen: SuSE 10.1, FC5, er, that's it.
More choices required - hence this post. Suggestions please?
My $.02 worth:

I run an XPC ST20G5 on my desktop with SUSE 10.1 (the OPEN version) and I
have a small server farm running most of what you stated which consist of
four (4) SK41G's and SK43G's all running SUSE 10.0.

I have absolutely NO PROBLEMS with the servers in stability, performance and
available updates (notification and application). I would HIGHLY recommend
either the 10.0 or 10.1. The issues I have with my desktop is that the
components are just plain too new to be perfectly supported by any linux.
As far as performance.... WHEW! is all I can say.

Hope this helps!

Bob

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