Re: Debian vs. MEPIS/Knoppix/Ubuntu/other DEB distros
On Friday 08 April 2005 11:27 am, Tom Coffin wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 08, 2005 at 10:21:30AM -0400, Odyssey wrote:
> > Hey everyone -
> >
> > Just recently, I've made the switch from the RPM distros to the
> > DEB world. I really like the premise of apt-get and Synaptic.
> > Installing programs has never been easier.
> >
> > When I made that jump, I ended up landing in Simply MEPIS 3.3.
> > I was blown away by the first impression. Networking to other
> > Windows computers, my Epson PSC, and all the Firefox plug-ins
> > were already to go. The OS has been great, except for the
> > frequent breaking of the NVidia kernels. I have 3d for one week,
> > and then I don't for another two.
> >
> > I've been looking at the other Debian distros. Is there more
> > advantage of going with the pure Debian, or is it better to go
> > with the tweaked distros, like Knoppix or Ubuntu?
> >
> > I want the same advantages of MEPIS but less breaking of
> > NVidia, and a couple other things that I had go wrong. I think
> > it happens because I went outside the MEPIS repository. And
> > trying to get an answer on the MEPIS forum is a bad experience
> > (unfinished threads, etc).
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > -- Ed
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
> > Soon we'll stage an attack on technology worthy of being
> > chronicled in an anthem by Rush.
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Give the debian based distro Libranet a look.
>
> WWW.libranet.com
>
> --
> tom
Libranet is rather old -- The current distro version is almost as old as
Woody. While it is solid, the people behind it are more concerned that their
tech support list is a warm and fuzzy place to be than with making sure there
are people on it that provide good tech support. A few months ago they
ticked off the last of those on that list who were helping almost everyone
else. That person left the list, and suddenly there was hardly anyone on
there answering people's questions. Since then their tech support list
traffic has almost vanished. I figured if a distro was charging people, and
depending on volunteer "gurus" for tech support, but was willing to alienate
the gurus because of one whining user who never helped anyone, and was more
of a pain on the list than ever bothering to help, then they don't care if
people who pay them get tech support.
I'm not about to give someone my money if they tick off the volunteers
providing their tech support for free -- that tells me their priorities are
not with making sure their customers get the help they need.
When that happened, I switched to Mepis. Now almost all my boxen are
transferred over to Mepis. It's easier to install. I had the same problem
with nVidia that you did. Part of it, for me, was that I was using a card
that was 4-5 years old. I replaced it with a new low end nVidia card and
switched from Mepis 2004-6 to Simply Mepis 3.3. I forgot the exact steps,
but I think I just apt-got the nVidia files (like nvidia-gfx,
nvidia-kernel-2.6.10 -- you'll see msot of what you need with apt-cache
search nvidia), and changed the driver selection in /etc/X11/XFree86 and
haven't had a problem since then.
Ubuntu is a good Debian based distro. A good part of the install is the same
as the new Sarge installer. I hear the next version of Ubuntu is about to be
released, too. Knoppix and Kanotix are LIve CDs that are able to be
installed on a hard disk.
You'll want to pick a distro carefully. Mepis and Ubuntu are based on testing
(I think they use some packages from unstable), and Kanotix is based on
unstable. I've only been using it for a month or two, but the packages I've
had to use on Mepis have proven stable for me -- even stable enough that I'm
considering them for my production box (and before anyone screams about that,
my production box doesn't use any exotic packages -- mainly MySQL and Perl).
Just my 2 cents.
Hal
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