Stephonovich
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2003
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- 11
Some of us have discussed various Linux Distros on and off in various topics, so I felt a dedicated topic would be interesting. I've listed all the distros I've used, with a brief opinion and rating.
wallijonn, I apologize in advance for the Ubuntu bashing
Figured the forum needed another splash of, er, sticky. Thread. Moving on...
[size=medium] Arch[/size]
Ah, Arch. Such a shame. A brilliant idea in theory, but ultimately, a large hassle. Basically, they have the customization of Gentoo, in that you have to build your system from the ground up, except they use pre-compiled (yet still performanced-geared) packages rather than compiling everything by hand. Like Gentoo, although in reverse, there is an option to get source and compile yourself if you wish.
However, I ran into entirely too many bugs with Arch. If it wasn't X refusing to launch for no apparent reason, dependency issues would crop up even though they were taken care of, or programs would refuse to launch seemingly at random. I will give it one thing, it re-installs extremely fast. If you know what you're doing, you can have a desktop in 15 minutes. May not be able to do much with it, but hey, you'll have it...
1/5
[size=medium]Debian[/size]
I love Debian. Simple as that. I have never felt this connected with a distro. No problems with anything so far. Even managed to put a new kernel in. apt-get is just brilliant, too. I can see now why Mike (of UF) insisted on it. It's just that good.
5/5
[size=medium]Fedora Core 3[/size]
Meh. It's based on Red Hat. What more needs to be said? It takes the insanely boring core of Red Hat, adds some useless packages they think home users need, and makes it act more like Windows than Linux. Enough said.
2/5
[size=medium]Gentoo[/size]
Gentoo is actually very good. It's extremely fast, installs only what you want, and you get that glowing "I'm such a nerd" feeling (whether or not that's a good thing is up to you) after doing a successful install. However, having to compile packages, and the easier-yet-nearily identical Debian convinced me there was no need for this. It's great; don't get me wrong, but I don't feel like spending all that time. The one thing Gentoo does have that it can (and should) proudly parade among all the others is it's forums. It's like on-call 24/7 tech support. If you post a question (it'll already be answered in a previous thread, for one, but that's not the point), you'll have multiple answers within the hour, if not sooner. The Gentoo forums are wonderful.
4/5
[size=medium]Gnoppix[/size]
Gnoppix is a derivative of Knoppix, differing mainly in that it uses Gnome as it's default DE as opposed to Knoppix's KDE. (G, K... clever, no? No) It, like Knoppix, is based on Debian, and is a highly stable, feature-packed Live CD (with the option to install to HD/flash drive)
However, I've never really found myself using more than a few packages in either one. If I boot a Live CD, I either want standard stuff (browser, media player, image/text editor, compiler), or recovery tools. I suppose they'd be good for showing someone new to Linux the available packages, but for me, it's too much.
3/5
[size=medium]Helix[/size]
Helix is another Live CD based on Knoppix. Helix, however, is security-minded. Network mapping, forensics, password retrieval - you name it, it's got it. It comes from some sort of professional security group, actually, and is put out for free.
It uses Fluxbox, and only Fluxbox. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - it has so many tools, they wanted to save space. Helix is also unique in that it can be run while in Windows, and do things like a bit-for-bit dump of the RAM, hard drive, capture network traffic, and the like. Good for law enforcement, I suppose, to prove the Evil Cracker [TM] was, um, cracking. Or something. Anyway, highly recommended.
5/5
[size=medium]Knoppix[/size]
Knoppix was the original Live CD. Or at least the first to make it big. It's held it's status as number one, as well. Works like a charm on any system, old or new. It offers KDE as it's main DE, with Fluxbox and a few others (XFCE and IceWM if my memory serves me) as options. Has a standard loadout of applications; basically, anything a casual user would need. Only real difference between this and Gnoppix is Gnome/KDE, so if you prefer one of those, choose accordingly.
3/5
[size=medium]Knoppix-STD[/size]
Another offshoot of Knoppix; this is another security tools distro. STD, in fact, stands for Security Tools Distribution. Like Helix, STD gives you Fluxbox for a WM, choosing instead to pack it full of tools. STD probably has more tools than any other security Live CD I've tried. It's a bit ugly, and rough around the edges, but then, it's also only a v. 0.1. It's a great distro, though, and you can do pretty much anything with it. Also featured in The Broken, if you care.
4/5
[size=medium]Mandrake[/size]
I suppose it's not really fair to judge Mandrake along with the others, as the only version I ever used was 6.5. My first distro. I remember it well. Sucked majorly. It installed fine, and ran, but that was about it. Updating or installing new packages was a chore. From what I've heard from Mandrake fans, it got much better around version 8. I haven't really looked into it, but I know several people who swear by it. Has become the de facto SOHO distro due to it's ease of use.
2/5
[size=medium]PHLAK[/size]
A relative newcomer to the security Live CD set (about as old as Helix), PHLAK (Professional Hackers Linux Assault Kit) claims to be everything Knoppix-STD is, and more. I'm a believer, anyway. Rather than be based on Knoppix, they chose Morphix as their base, which... OK, it's another bloody rip of Knoppix. Except modular. But I digress.
PHLAK seems to have met the general and security style distros in the middle, having a decent number of both security and general purpose programs. This is not really an issue, however. While STD and Helix pack a ton of programs in, most people might use 25% of them at the most. The PHLAK developers realized this and only put in what they themselves used on a regular basis, and deemed worthy. For WM, it has XFCE or Fluxbox. (and, of course, Sneaky...) This is my personal favorite security distro. It has what I need, and no more. Plus, Tux with a Nuke is just bitchin' cool...
5/5
[size=medium]Redhat[/size]
It is worth noting that Red Hat is now the Enterprise Edition, and the Home Edition has become Fedora Core. That being said, on with the show. I've used Red Hat 9 (right before it split into Fedora), and I'm currently using Enterprise 3 (which, yes, is the latest version, despite the odd numbering system) for a Linux class.
I can't really say anything bad about it, but it's just boring. Yeargh. There's absolutely nothing to set it apart from the others. It's rock stable, has a pretty good package system (not RPM... that sucks. Synaptic Package Manger isn't bad, though), a decent amount of default packages, and installs fairly quickly. But for home use, I'd look elsewhere.
3/5
[size=medium]SLAX[/size]
SLAX is another Live CD, except unique among the usual offerings in that it fits on a mini-CD (8cm, 185MB). While this may seem like it'd severely restrict it's usefulness, the exact opposite is true. With such a small space restraint, the author was forced to examine exactly what was needed, and what was not. Suprisingly, KDE is present. How he fit it and still put as many packages as he did is beyond me, but it's there, with Fluxbox as an option. Also of interest, it's based on Slackware (current) rather than Yet Another Knoppix Rip. Finally, it's modular, which means if you don't like something included, or think it needs something else (for instance, want to replace Konqueror with Firefox), you can do so, and then burn it - Custom SLAX!
SLAX has a fairly standard loadout; word processing (KOffice), media (MPLayer), CD burning (K3B), IM (Kopete), and internet (Konqueror). It's small size also means you can have it dumped entirely into RAM on boot, which makes it lightning quick. You need at least 256MB of RAM, of course, and preferably more. If you've never experienced this joy, you owe it to yourself. Seeing KDE come up by the time you've moved the mouse away is enough to bring tears.
The only bad thing about Slax is that it's still 2.4 based, due to a conflict with a package it uses. The author is working on an alternative method, and claims to have a beta using 2.6. Still, whenever I want a Live CD just to goof around with, I alawys find myself reaching for SLAX. There's just something about it that's catchy.
5/5
[size=medium]SUSE[/size]
So, Novell bought 'em out. From what I can tell, the only thing they've done (and 'tis a bad thing, IMO) is to change the name from 'SuSE' to 'SUSE'. Other than that, they're kind of staying silent, just continuing what was already being done, and that is to create the most full-featured and package-stuffed distro of them all. With most distros, if you want some obscure library to compile a program, you'll most likely end up Googling. Not so with SUSE. They have everything, and I mean everything, on CD. 5 of 'em, or 1 DVD. For those of you doing the math, that's almost 4GB of data, and that's compressed!
SUSE also boasts an extremely attractive GUI, with any of it's available DE/WM. It also has one of the few graphical package managers I actually like and prefer to a command line one - YAST2. The only piece of propietary code in the distro, and for good reason. It blows everything else out of the water. Still, overall, it usually ends up being too much bloat I don't need. A great, solid distro, however, and one particularly suited to gamers and the like.
4/5
[size=medium]Ubuntu[/size]
OK, I have to admit, I think the name sounds gay. 'Ubuntu'? 'I am what I am because of who we all are.'? This is an operating system, volks, not a trippy feel-good. Past that, it's a decent distro. One of the better SOHO ones out there, actually. Fits on one CD, and has all the packages the average user needs, and no more. If you want to add them, it uses apt-get, as it's based on Debian. However, it fails (IMO) in quite a few places, among them, the fact that it has no root acccount by default. Instead, you use sudo, and your own user password to gain super user. The point of having a root account is that even if your own account is hacked, root, with it's (in theory) stronger password, will remain safe.
On a positive note, it does have a decent user community, and also, uniqe among the distros, will send you out a pressed (non-burned) CD with Ubuntu on it, completely free - even shipping. Quite something for a free product.
3/5
[size=medium]VectorLinux[/size]
I didn't use Vector, excuse me, VectorLinux, all that much; maybe a couple weeks or so. It's a decent SOHO distro; actually quite a bit like Mandrake, except shrunk, and more options. Think a Debian/Mandrake cross, and you've got it. The power to customize, or you can just leave it be, and it'll run fine. Nice selection of default apps, with pretty much everything you need to do basic daily tasks. Still, Debian is superior for my purposes.
3/5
wallijonn, I apologize in advance for the Ubuntu bashing
Figured the forum needed another splash of, er, sticky. Thread. Moving on...
[size=medium] Arch[/size]
Ah, Arch. Such a shame. A brilliant idea in theory, but ultimately, a large hassle. Basically, they have the customization of Gentoo, in that you have to build your system from the ground up, except they use pre-compiled (yet still performanced-geared) packages rather than compiling everything by hand. Like Gentoo, although in reverse, there is an option to get source and compile yourself if you wish.
However, I ran into entirely too many bugs with Arch. If it wasn't X refusing to launch for no apparent reason, dependency issues would crop up even though they were taken care of, or programs would refuse to launch seemingly at random. I will give it one thing, it re-installs extremely fast. If you know what you're doing, you can have a desktop in 15 minutes. May not be able to do much with it, but hey, you'll have it...
1/5
[size=medium]Debian[/size]
I love Debian. Simple as that. I have never felt this connected with a distro. No problems with anything so far. Even managed to put a new kernel in. apt-get is just brilliant, too. I can see now why Mike (of UF) insisted on it. It's just that good.
5/5
[size=medium]Fedora Core 3[/size]
Meh. It's based on Red Hat. What more needs to be said? It takes the insanely boring core of Red Hat, adds some useless packages they think home users need, and makes it act more like Windows than Linux. Enough said.
2/5
[size=medium]Gentoo[/size]
Gentoo is actually very good. It's extremely fast, installs only what you want, and you get that glowing "I'm such a nerd" feeling (whether or not that's a good thing is up to you) after doing a successful install. However, having to compile packages, and the easier-yet-nearily identical Debian convinced me there was no need for this. It's great; don't get me wrong, but I don't feel like spending all that time. The one thing Gentoo does have that it can (and should) proudly parade among all the others is it's forums. It's like on-call 24/7 tech support. If you post a question (it'll already be answered in a previous thread, for one, but that's not the point), you'll have multiple answers within the hour, if not sooner. The Gentoo forums are wonderful.
4/5
[size=medium]Gnoppix[/size]
Gnoppix is a derivative of Knoppix, differing mainly in that it uses Gnome as it's default DE as opposed to Knoppix's KDE. (G, K... clever, no? No) It, like Knoppix, is based on Debian, and is a highly stable, feature-packed Live CD (with the option to install to HD/flash drive)
However, I've never really found myself using more than a few packages in either one. If I boot a Live CD, I either want standard stuff (browser, media player, image/text editor
3/5
[size=medium]Helix[/size]
Helix is another Live CD based on Knoppix. Helix, however, is security-minded. Network mapping, forensics, password retrieval - you name it, it's got it. It comes from some sort of professional security group, actually, and is put out for free.
It uses Fluxbox, and only Fluxbox. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - it has so many tools, they wanted to save space. Helix is also unique in that it can be run while in Windows, and do things like a bit-for-bit dump of the RAM, hard drive, capture network traffic, and the like. Good for law enforcement, I suppose, to prove the Evil Cracker [TM] was, um, cracking. Or something. Anyway, highly recommended.
5/5
[size=medium]Knoppix[/size]
Knoppix was the original Live CD. Or at least the first to make it big. It's held it's status as number one, as well. Works like a charm on any system, old or new. It offers KDE as it's main DE, with Fluxbox and a few others (XFCE and IceWM if my memory serves me) as options. Has a standard loadout of applications; basically, anything a casual user would need. Only real difference between this and Gnoppix is Gnome/KDE, so if you prefer one of those, choose accordingly.
3/5
[size=medium]Knoppix-STD[/size]
Another offshoot of Knoppix; this is another security tools distro. STD, in fact, stands for Security Tools Distribution. Like Helix, STD gives you Fluxbox for a WM, choosing instead to pack it full of tools. STD probably has more tools than any other security Live CD I've tried. It's a bit ugly, and rough around the edges, but then, it's also only a v. 0.1. It's a great distro, though, and you can do pretty much anything with it. Also featured in The Broken, if you care.
4/5
[size=medium]Mandrake[/size]
I suppose it's not really fair to judge Mandrake along with the others, as the only version I ever used was 6.5. My first distro. I remember it well. Sucked majorly. It installed fine, and ran, but that was about it. Updating or installing new packages was a chore. From what I've heard from Mandrake fans, it got much better around version 8. I haven't really looked into it, but I know several people who swear by it. Has become the de facto SOHO distro due to it's ease of use.
2/5
[size=medium]PHLAK[/size]
A relative newcomer to the security Live CD set (about as old as Helix), PHLAK (Professional Hackers Linux Assault Kit) claims to be everything Knoppix-STD is, and more. I'm a believer, anyway. Rather than be based on Knoppix, they chose Morphix as their base, which... OK, it's another bloody rip of Knoppix. Except modular. But I digress.
PHLAK seems to have met the general and security style distros in the middle, having a decent number of both security and general purpose programs. This is not really an issue, however. While STD and Helix pack a ton of programs in, most people might use 25% of them at the most. The PHLAK developers realized this and only put in what they themselves used on a regular basis, and deemed worthy. For WM, it has XFCE or Fluxbox. (and, of course, Sneaky...) This is my personal favorite security distro. It has what I need, and no more. Plus, Tux with a Nuke is just bitchin' cool...
5/5
[size=medium]Redhat[/size]
It is worth noting that Red Hat is now the Enterprise Edition, and the Home Edition has become Fedora Core. That being said, on with the show. I've used Red Hat 9 (right before it split into Fedora), and I'm currently using Enterprise 3 (which, yes, is the latest version, despite the odd numbering system) for a Linux class.
I can't really say anything bad about it, but it's just boring. Yeargh. There's absolutely nothing to set it apart from the others. It's rock stable, has a pretty good package system (not RPM... that sucks. Synaptic Package Manger isn't bad, though), a decent amount of default packages, and installs fairly quickly. But for home use, I'd look elsewhere.
3/5
[size=medium]SLAX[/size]
SLAX is another Live CD, except unique among the usual offerings in that it fits on a mini-CD (8cm, 185MB). While this may seem like it'd severely restrict it's usefulness, the exact opposite is true. With such a small space restraint, the author was forced to examine exactly what was needed, and what was not. Suprisingly, KDE is present. How he fit it and still put as many packages as he did is beyond me, but it's there, with Fluxbox as an option. Also of interest, it's based on Slackware (current) rather than Yet Another Knoppix Rip. Finally, it's modular, which means if you don't like something included, or think it needs something else (for instance, want to replace Konqueror with Firefox), you can do so, and then burn it - Custom SLAX!
SLAX has a fairly standard loadout; word processing (KOffice), media (MPLayer), CD burning (K3B), IM (Kopete), and internet (Konqueror). It's small size also means you can have it dumped entirely into RAM on boot, which makes it lightning quick. You need at least 256MB of RAM, of course, and preferably more. If you've never experienced this joy, you owe it to yourself. Seeing KDE come up by the time you've moved the mouse away is enough to bring tears.
The only bad thing about Slax is that it's still 2.4 based, due to a conflict with a package it uses. The author is working on an alternative method, and claims to have a beta using 2.6. Still, whenever I want a Live CD just to goof around with, I alawys find myself reaching for SLAX. There's just something about it that's catchy.
5/5
[size=medium]SUSE[/size]
So, Novell bought 'em out. From what I can tell, the only thing they've done (and 'tis a bad thing, IMO) is to change the name from 'SuSE' to 'SUSE'. Other than that, they're kind of staying silent, just continuing what was already being done, and that is to create the most full-featured and package-stuffed distro of them all. With most distros, if you want some obscure library to compile a program, you'll most likely end up Googling. Not so with SUSE. They have everything, and I mean everything, on CD
SUSE also boasts an extremely attractive GUI, with any of it's available DE/WM. It also has one of the few graphical package managers I actually like and prefer to a command line one - YAST2. The only piece of propietary code in the distro, and for good reason. It blows everything else out of the water. Still, overall, it usually ends up being too much bloat I don't need. A great, solid distro, however, and one particularly suited to gamers and the like.
4/5
[size=medium]Ubuntu[/size]
OK, I have to admit, I think the name sounds gay. 'Ubuntu'? 'I am what I am because of who we all are.'? This is an operating system, volks, not a trippy feel-good. Past that, it's a decent distro. One of the better SOHO ones out there, actually. Fits on one CD, and has all the packages the average user needs, and no more. If you want to add them, it uses apt-get, as it's based on Debian. However, it fails (IMO) in quite a few places, among them, the fact that it has no root acccount by default. Instead, you use sudo, and your own user password to gain super user. The point of having a root account is that even if your own account is hacked, root, with it's (in theory) stronger password, will remain safe.
On a positive note, it does have a decent user community, and also, uniqe among the distros, will send you out a pressed (non-burned) CD with Ubuntu on it, completely free - even shipping. Quite something for a free product.
3/5
[size=medium]VectorLinux[/size]
I didn't use Vector, excuse me, VectorLinux, all that much; maybe a couple weeks or so. It's a decent SOHO distro; actually quite a bit like Mandrake, except shrunk, and more options. Think a Debian/Mandrake cross, and you've got it. The power to customize, or you can just leave it be, and it'll run fine. Nice selection of default apps, with pretty much everything you need to do basic daily tasks. Still, Debian is superior for my purposes.
3/5
