The Linux Thread

[Strider]

In recent years linux has made huge gains (relatively speaking) into major markets. While it's still a small player in the personal PC market it's dominating the server market and has become a major player in the smartphone arena (android).

I'm interested, for one, how many fellow linux users we have around here and what distros they use. I'm currently using a openSuse/Ubuntu dual-boot set-up. I dropped windows about a year ago and really haven't missed it.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I'm interested, for one, how many fellow linux users we have around here and what distros they use.

openSUSE 11.4 and 11.3 dual boot. I don't really see the need for any other distros; openSUSE is fine.

 

[dutchfire]

I still mostly use Windows, mostly out of laziness. However, my university has linux servers with ssh-access. I use Cygwin to access these servers and I quite like it. I'm considering installing linux on one of my own (Windows) PC's, when I have the time. What's the easiest way to do that, preferably not needing a CD-burner.

I also work with a web server that uses Debian.

 

[deanej]

You could download an iso and make a bootable USB drive with it (there are some utilities to do this).

I mostly use Windows 7 on my laptop but dual boot with Ubuntu 10.10. My desktop is the inverse: I mostly use Ubuntu 9.10 on it and only boot into Windows XP if I have to (usually to update itself).

 

[Strider]

openSUSE 11.4 and 11.3 dual boot. I don't really see the need for any other distros; openSUSE is fine.

Why both 11.4 and 11.3?

 

[vbraun]

I have Arch Linux installed on my laptop with just the very basic tools I might need to do school work (LaTeX editor, compiler, graphing stuff, internet, etc.) I did this mostly because the vista installed on it became extremely bloated, booting up with 1 GB of RAM already being used. Now it boots up and uses ~50 MB.

Other than that, my desktop is just windows. It's extremely inconvenient to reboot every time I want to play a game.

As for Linux distros, Arch has been my favorite for a long time. Basically I can make it how I want it. Not branded with Ubuntu logos on everything, etc. And I have total control over which applications I use for everything. It's not for everyone though.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Why both 11.4 and 11.3?

That is the way I am. When 11.4 came out, not too long ago, I installed it to a separate partition to see how it would work, keeping the well working 11.3 install intact in case there are any bigger issues with 11.4. So, in short it was/is a fallback.

 

[Zelig]

I'm currently using ubuntu, xubuntu, turnkey and smoothwall, for various purposes.

 

[TC01]

My desktop has a Fedora 14 and Windows 7 dualboot.

My netbook laptop doesn't (yet) have Linux installed, but I have a Knoppix flash drive that I use with it a lot.

 

[taper]

Arch Linux for me too. I've been using various distros since 2004, as of 2008 I don't have Windows installed on any personal PCs.

Linux fact of the day: 459 of the Top 500 Supercomputers run Linux. Another 20 use Unix or BSD. Just 5 have Windows.

 

[Turner]

I've got an ubuntu VM at work I've forgotten about. Had Mint6 and Mint8 at one time.

Don't really consider myself a linux user tho. Unless you count my phone, which I don't.

 

[PeteAtoms]

I used Ubuntu exclusively for almost 8 months not too long ago. I ended up getting into Windows again to use Steam/games and my webcam that simply will not work from Ubuntu. I tried to figure out Wine, but eventually gave up.

Currently downloading 11.04 to give that a go this summer.

 

[innonimatu]

I used OpenSUSE in some desktops and Debian on servers. Tried to migrate everything to Ubuntu, then those fools at Canonical came out with the brilliant idea of trying to shove a user interface change down on their users, in the officially supported version. Getting rid of Ubuntu as fast as I can, back to Debian.

OpenSUSE is possibly still the most user-friendly linux for desktop use, it's amazing that no other major distribution (I haven't been trying CentOS lately) has managed to come out with something resembling yast.

 

[Hakim]

Still have my Gentoo installation, although have I've never really used it much. Today I finally got a new kernel to boot (previous version was 2.6.19).

You, you and you, start a Linux group!

 

[IglooDame]

In my company we're checking out alternative RADIUS services, and FreeRADIUS/mySQL being one of them (either on a hosted box or in an Amazon or Rackspace cloud) which would require a Linux server OS. So, I'm about to spool up Debian and get familiar with it; our network architect still hasn't decided between Debian and FreeBSD though.

 

[innonimatu]

In my company we're checking out alternative RADIUS services, and FreeRADIUS/mySQL being one of them (either on a hosted box or in an Amazon or Rackspace cloud) which would require a Linux server OS. So, I'm about to spool up Debian and get familiar with it; our network architect still hasn't decided between Debian and FreeBSD though.

Either OS is good, with Debian having the advantage of slightly greater availability of packaged software ready for use, and FreeBSD being better documented and possibly more stable (less prone to big changes between versions, longer support times for each release). I actually favor the *BSDs for servers when there is a choice.

 

[IglooDame]

Thanks. Can anyone recommend any books on Debian or FreeBSD, for the new-to-Linux IT person? Seems like everything out there in that vein is centered on RHEL/Fedora/CentOS or Ubuntu. Or is Ubuntu close enough to Debian to be adequate?

 

[innonimatu]

Thanks. Can anyone recommend any books on Debian or FreeBSD, for the new-to-Linux IT person? Seems like everything out there in that vein is centered on RHEL/Fedora/CentOS or Ubuntu. Or is Ubuntu close enough to Debian to be adequate?

The good thing about FreeBSD is that between the handbook and the man pages you can find most of the information you'll ever need about the operating system. For specific issues there's also the mailing lists.

Debian and Ubuntu are, unfortunately, diverging. For example, the favored way to start new services is different, some configuration files are different, and default configuration certainly is different! (I also wouldn't take Ubuntu's server version very seriously, because it looks like Canonical did little testing with it) Debian also has a lot of documentation online (perhaps too much), and any books you find will likely be only a subset of that. Never used any, so I can't make any recommendation.

 

[Padma]

Just remember that FreeBSD (like all other BSDs) is an actual variation of Unix, not Linux. While Linux is designed to be a Unix 'work-alike', there are differences, and commands that work on one might not work on the other. Binaries are mutually incompatible.

 

[IglooDame]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I'm going to focus on Debian for now - trying to do both it and FreeBSD would be like learning French and Spanish at the same time. And yeah, the lack of actual dead-tree books covering Debian is disheartening (the last one devoted to it written in English was published in 2005 near as I can tell). Good info on the Debian-vs-Ubuntu divergences too.