[CalicoDreams]

Hi everybody,

I am going to be installing linux fulltime on my desktop and was wondering what the thoughts of the community were on what distro to go with. First off, I think its important that i list what i was looking at having on my system program wise.

xfce, fluxbox, mplayer or vlc, firefox and thunderbird, openoffice, gimp, azereus, iptables, clamav and a cd/dvd burning program. i know that this info isnt that helpful when choosing the distro but i thought there might be some clashes (if possible) between the distros. As well as some programming stuff for java and c++ (not that important is on my laptop).

Secondly it doesn't matter to me how complex it is but it is important to me how much i need to download as i dont have to large of a download allowance at the moment.

Moreover can anyone suggest what other programs i might need on a linux system.

Thanks in advance.

[jcw122]

I know with Gentoo, DLs can be anywhere from ~200MB to ~700MB, the ~200MB would be for a base install, where you would NEED to have an internet connection to DL the rest of the programs/resources/stuff you'd need. ~700MB would be for a Full Install (most packages included), or for a LiveCD, I myself would recommend a LiveCD because they have a new GUI Installer, and also you can work with Gentoo, without having to install it...or work on it while installing (and get help if you need it)

[Richard]

Frankly, if you want to just use GNU/Linux, and those are the only choices; Slackware, is a much better choice. Gentoo, is nice as a enthusiast/hobby distro, but for a pragmatic user, Slackware is going to give you a working environment right away.

It's not that I'm against, Gentoo. I just find that for someone that depends on a working environment, Gentoo is the last distribution I'd choose.

[Gnufsh]

I disagree, gentoo can be very stable, and it has a very good package management system.

[Richard]

It's a mistake to do any development work on a gentoo box. Unless you're a gentoo developer. Disagree all you want. Gentoo, isn't the best distribution for everyone.

[Gnufsh]

Originally Posted by Richard

Gentoo, isn't the best distribution for everyone.

Did I say that? It is certainly not the best distribution for everyone (actually, not for most people).

It's just not as bad as you say.

[Richard]

I never said it was bad. It's just not something that I would recommend as a stable platform. TNT is stable, but it's not something I would recommend kids to play around with either.

[Soichiro]

Originally Posted by Richard

It's just not something that I would recommend as a stable platform.

I've had my old laptop run Gentoo with no crashes for as long as a month. Then I only restarted it because I updated and recompiled the kernel. I don't see why you think it's not stable, the install is just a bit of a PITA, but now there's a graphical installer so that problem is solved as well.

[rogerdugans]

Ok, in an attempt to try and head off this friendly disagreement a bit, hopefully....

I am a Gentoo user. Most of my machines run Gentoo and it is very stable and has THE best package management system I have seen in linux.

As a development system, or for serious server use it is NOT what is considered "stable."

Gentoo includes many config options that make it possible to have it be the FASTEST overall linux distro around- these features come out of the UNSTABLE linux tool set and packages: they are works in progress and NOT considered completely stable.
And once you start messing about with compile options it becomes less so.
The package management system IS great for getting the latest, greatest versions of software- it becomes more difficult when your needs require specific, older versions of certain software. By default, the latest is always installed on your machine and while these things do get tested pretty thoroughly within the Gentoo community it is simply NOT as complete and thorough as the software needed for a dev or server pc should have.

Not saying anything against Gentoo here: the benefits it has are simply FROM features that are counter to what is needed for servers and software development machines on the whole.

That said, for a desktop computer or non-critical server use, Gentoo is great.

I like a lot of things about Slackware, but I don't normally run Slack because Gentoo fits most of my needs better.

As for the software mentioned- I have used most of that (not azureous) in Gentoo, though I don't usually use XFCE or clamav.
Installation of the above software is as simple as "emerge k3b xfce openoffice" and wait for it to finish compiling.
(Note that I am not 100% of the package names....)

Either can be a good choice, but personally I do prefer Gentoo as a rule.
Note that I am running a webserver in my and it is fairly critical- and not running Gentoo.