DHAA (Distro Hopping Addicts Anonymous)

I just had a few questions for my fellow linux users:

1) How many of you reading this are/were distro hoppers?

2) What distro are you currently running?


3) What is the best distro in your opinion so far?

4) If you have found a distro you have/will stick too for a while what is it?

5) Any distros you absolutely don't like?


I ask because I find myself constantly reinstalling distros because I can't decide what I like. I like Ubuntu for it's simplicity, Fedora for it's politics and security, Linux Mint for it's out-of-the-box support, and so on. I can never stick to one distro before missing an earlier one I tried.

My answers would be:

1) YES! Sadly

2) Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Beta

3) Right now Linux Mint 12 w/Cinnamon

4) N/A for me. Still looking.

5) CentOS/Scientific linux annoyed me the most :/



I love linux, don't get me wrong, but I just can't find a "perfect" distro for me.

 

1) Not really.
2,3,4) Slackware Linux
6) The new Ubuntu with Unity is horrible.

From my experience with Linux I learned something. It is very hard to find a ditro that fits you perfectly. You will always find likes and dislikes for any given distro, but the idea is to find a distro that you can tweak enough to be to your liking. For instance, Slackware is very configurable but it takes a big amount of time and effort to to that, and even then it's almost impossible to resolve all quirks. The problem with an easy to use distribution like Ubuntu is that in order to achieve that "easy to use" status, it will restrict your options in configuring it; and if you have a configurable one, it will almost never be easy to use.
Now, as a final advice, in order to find a distro that you like and want to use for a long time, you should first try to figure out exactly what you want from such a distro and to pick one that will allow you to do just that.

 

yes agree i do also have some bad experiance with SL in past but thats due to my mistake and mixing of repostries but now its ok running as default

linux mint 10 as second os :

as far best is xubuntu on stability so far external disk

4th i am using mint 12 with cinnamon on external disk

also open suse 11.4 on vmware working good so far......


also like to add dont forget that ubuntu LTS has still year left supported till 2013
worth shot if you want a stable without change for year atleast

as far ubuntu/kubuntu 12.04 not very stable still feel buggy and agree with mrk

right now my options are xubuntu, scientific linux, linux mint 12

 

1) I was for a while, but only in the beggining.

2) Debian.

3) Debian. For some time now, i settled on testing, now Wheezy. Even testing, with all it's occasional problems, is overall a stable choice for me. If it weren't, i would use stable. It would be even better imo if everyone saw it for what it is, the better platform, and support it better.
I mean, developers could/ should test their programs in Debian, troubleshoot it there, and if they package it, they need to make sure they make a deb specifically for Debian. My impression is that Debian developers do a terrific job, but some bugs creep in that don't look like it's their 'fault', not directly anyway.
And they could always use more developers instead of forks.
Most of the problems people raise in other distros, like stability, interface changes, and so on, either don't exist or only to a less extent in Debian.

4) .. Debian. One installed, it isn't reinstalled, only upgraded.

5) I don't have dislikes. They all have their pros and cons, and since i don't really distro hop, it would be impossible for me to hate any. I do run a few in VMs, but that's it. Since i don't use them everyday, i don't have the same experience one has when running '24/7'.

 

I try out new distros once in a while but on bread and butter machines, its mostly LTS with one machine on latest Ubuntu.

 

Tried debian but it doesn't like my monitor on this laptop so it never displays video. (VESA and nomodeset don't help any). I have now swapped to XUbuntu 11.10 and it seems way more stable than Unity did.

 

Unity is quite stable here even on my netbook which has dreaded AMD hybrid, using latest Catalyst 12.1

 

Interesting every time I've ran unity (11.10 and 12.04) on my HP Pavalion G6 I get random crashes from X.

Sometimes it's an hour after using it, other times it goes days without happening. Last night it crashed the whole thing, X died and the kernel gave some fault. I've given up on it for now.

Most distros don't like this laptop unless nomodeset is used or ACPI is turned off. I can't go with out know battery life so I go with nomodeset normally. Ubuntu seemed like the one distro that worked out of the box (Linux mint even didn't work), but after a few weeks it's back to XUbuntu

 

Just curious, have you tried updating the BIOS, in my netbook, the early BIOS would make Unity crawl, only the newer ones have made it smoother.

 

thanks for the tip! Just checked and no updates sadly

 

1) I like to try new distros out in virtual machines, but I've stuck with the same distro for a long time.

2) Ubuntu.

3) Depends what criteria for best you define, but its most likely a Debian based distro.

4) Been using Ubuntu since 2010 as my main OS and dont plan on changing.

5) A lot of distros I do not use, not specifically because I dislike them, but because they dont fit in with my needs. There are only a few distros that are on my shortlist of distros to try.

Cheers, Nick

 

I don't distro hop. Maybe it's because I have "the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference."

Just kidding. But what I use (Ubuntu 11.10) is adequate for my limited needs. I just accept all updates and will move to 12.04 when it's soup.

 

Confess, like me you are a PPA addict even if you use LTS

 

I am like you except I am weak willed toward KDE and Chakra is my latest seduction on test machines.

 

I have just three PPAs: the chrome browser, System Load Indicator, and Hardware Sensors Indicator.

BTW, how can I choose not to stay on the LTS but to move to 12.10, 13.04, etc? Is that to be done at the time of upgrading to 12.04?

 

Thats one of the problem I had with the distros,that I couldn't decide which I liked best,So I put the ones I like on CDS to run them as I liked.Since then I gave up with linux to much tweaking and fixing IMO,but wish ya all the luck in the linux camp.

 

I have them plus Libreoffice, VLC, Transmission, Shotwell, MOTU, SMPLAYER, Chromium and Opera.


For normal updates instead of LTS, select it in repositories>update>release update.

 

I install LTS and ppa and never ever tweak or have to do anything except use it for years.

 

Aren't Shotwell and Transmission included by default? And, at least for my needs, I'm okay with updating LibreOffice whenever Ubuntu pushes it out.

I forgot I have the Firefox beta ppa as well!

 

1) How many of you reading this are/were distro hoppers?
Not me.

2) What distro are you currently running?
Slackware

3) What is the best distro in your opinion so far?
Slackware

4) If you have found a distro you have/will stick too for a while what is it?
Slackware

5) Any distros you absolutely don't like?
Nope.

 

Good for you,Actually Ubuntu was pretty good,but KDE was a pita.

 

1) Not really, i've tried (K)(X)(L)Ubuntu, Mint, PClinuxOS, and Puppy (that i still use), until i settled with Bodhi.

2) Bodhi Linux. That's where i do my work and all the rest. Is fast, beautiful, and simply works. I've read somewhere that if you notice a lot that you have an OS, that's because it sucks. A OS should be as "invisible" as possible, and simple be the platform you use to launch the programs you need. That's what i found in Bodhi: it has a fast startup/shutdown, its easy to install new apps and keep them (and the OS) updated, and they simply work. All this with very low system requirements and a very nice desktop. I don't need to care about security apps, disk fragmentation, system optimization, performance lost, rogue software, etc., but only about my work.

3) Bodhi Linux and Puppy Linux (Puppy is running in my notebook from a 8GB SD card, since the disk got broken, and also from a pendrive)

5) So far i liked them all, but i especially enjoyed the "minimal" approach of Bodhi: only a browser and leafpad primarily installed, simplicity, and very low system requirements (http://www.bodhilinux.com/system.php)

 

gotta vote for Bodhi Linux as well.

i am not using it at the moment but i have used it a full 3 months.
i will certainly give it another look/try in a few months .

 

I am currently using Mint 12. I used to run ubuntu though have not been too impressed with their updates. That being said I do have a few terminal only nodes set up on my LAN still with ubuntu.

For VMs I use Red Hat and backtrack for my project needs.

I think those who truly know how to use linux will always distro hop as others get more support and features, or a competitor blows the rest out of the water with some new adaptation.

 

MINT is Ubuntu in different garb unless you are using the Debian MINT edition, so all the Ubuntu updates are pushed into MINT.