[nflug] Desktop Linux suggestion?

[John G. Boice]

Hi Sam.

I have been using MEPIS 6.0  and it meets most of your criteria [that I
understand.]

6.5 version is due to go Final Release within a week.  It has better HW
recognition, integrated Beryl [or not -choose at boot: 3D session or
regular KDE] and  Mepis was designed to be a KDE distro, unlike Kubuntu,
which is Gnome-centric Ubuntu with Gnome amputated and  KDE attached.

You are under a mistaken impression about needing to pay $$ to stay
current.  Paid subscribers get new releases of Beta and Final versions
about a day before they hit the public mirrors at about 10 different
Universities.  The same may be true of the Mepis repo for subscribers. 
I've never paid anything, and never felt the lack, since 2004.

Linspire has a new version "Freespire" but I haven't tried it out, and
don't know how it stacks up to Linspire in the updates/upgrades/repos
area.  I know they use "CNR" which is still partly free and some cost
for certain things.

Mepis uses Synaptic and apt-get. It connects to Mepis-specific repos, it
can use Ubuntu repos [by default], and the multimedia codec & players
that are proprietary are available through the "debian-multumedia" repo
[you need to add the repo to your apt sources.list].  The repo situation
for Mepis is IMHO the best, because of having  Ubuntu repos and the
better-than-Ubuntu Mepis repo for the few things it needs that Ubuntu
doesn't cover.  You can also install the latest nVidia or ATI graphics
drivers from a GUI in the Settings panel.  Together with the stability
factor and the ease of getting my hardware to work, the ease of
installing software is probably the primary thing that makes it my main
workhorse distro.

"Current" is a matter of opinion. Isn't Slackware still using a default
2.4 kernel ?[yes, 2.6 is available as an optional extra offering]   Some
distros are using 2.6.20!  Mepis is using 2.6.15.  It's what the dev
thinks is the most stable for what he/she/they are doing with the
distro.  And certain app features are dependent on certain kernel
features.  Not always, but often you get a trade-off between stability
and bleeding edge. They don't call it "bleeding" for no reason!     ;)

Mepis dev Warren Woodford usually opts for stability of the whole over
bleeding edge.  Except in the case of integrating Beryl, where for the
most part, he seems to be doing both. There is still a problem: even the
latest nVidia drivers for Linux/Unix have a memory-leak bug --nothing a
distro dev can do anything about. I haven't hit a problem in my
beta-tests, but some people report temporary black windows if their VRAM
gets used up.

Ubuntu has chosen to not integrate Beryl [for now], I believe, even
though a lot of Ubuntu users have gotten it to work fine. Other distros
decided to "go for it."  Mepis has the option of Beryl or KDE-regular 
and a mixed mode Beryl/KDE that has become available in RC3 over last
weekend.  I haven't played with that feature, so I can't claim to
understand it.  But as a Mod on the MepisLovers.org forum site, I hear
some people like it.

For more info:
http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/MEPIS_Community

*MEPIS founder clarifies MEPIS/Ubuntu relationship:*
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7900729752.html

For your VM questions, at MepisLovers we are planning on a separate
forum section for "all things Virtualization related," but for now, the
discussions are spread out. A search would work.  There is a separate
Gamers Forum section which will give you more info than I could:
http://www.mepislovers.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=24

A lot of the virtualization stuff  is probably in there, too, I'm
guessing. Not my area of expertise, though.

My advice would be wait a week until Mepis 6.5 goes Final, and check out
the packages listing at http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mepis

------------------------------------------------------------

RE: Kubuntu:  they have been using Synaptic and still will, I believe,
but CNR is also going to be available for Ubuntu, so I assume that
includes Kubuntu.  I'd wait until Feisty goes final to judge.  So far
Feisty is getting some good word,  for still being beta.  

Ubuntu/Kubuntu 6.06 [Dapper] has promised security updates for 5 years.
Feisty Fawn [7.04] will be supported for 18 months:
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/Ubuntu704Beta

Unless they changed in the last year or so, you have to compile
_everything_ in Gentoo.  I stand ready to be corrected on this one, as I
haven't played with it in a while.
-------------------------------------------------------------

I'm asking here, now, because I don't understand what you're saying as
part of your "must haves:"

Since you want "bleeding edge" apps, why the aversion to upgrading the
OS when a new version comes out?

It's not like it costs anything.  If you stick with a version of any
distro that is more than a year old, I doubt you'll have unqualified
success running bleeding edge apps. 

As per your request, I won't ask about the All-in-Wonder card. But I
will point out that nearly everyone admits nVidia graphics are more
Linux-friendly than ATI.

Well, that's about all I have for you for now. Good luck in your search!

--John




Sam Stern wrote:
> All,
>
> Every year or so I give a go to trying to see if desktop Linux has what it
> takes to meet my needs. With the recent maturation of Kexi (MS Access
> replacement) I would like to try again. Here is my list of "must haves" when
> I select an OS:
>
> 1) Easy access to proprietary tools like media codecs, Adobe Acrobat, Real
> Player binary, ATI binary driver. Hint: My last attempt with debian failed
> quickly when I found that their user supported apt reposities had
> exceptionally poor QA and did not interoperate well. Both Suse and Redhat
> simply need to point to a community repository.
> 2) Well maintained user repositories that are current (in userland, system
> and kernel security patches) for at least one year after the version of the
> installed os has been superseded. Example: Fedora core fails here Fedora
> core 4 and lower are essentially abandoned. Suse succeeds here, the Suse 9.3
> repositories via apt and smart are current (you can even get current
> kernels!) and still updated with new user land tools.
> 3) Easy access to bleeding edge office productivity, java runtime and other
> end user tools without compiling. Again Suse excels here, gentoo pretty much
> requires way to much compilation for my tastes. If I cannot apt-get update;
> apt-get upgrade (or the equivalent) without compiling it's not easy access.
> 4) KDE based window manager out of the box.
> 5) Uses or can be convinced to use latest ntfs3g ntfs tool set (to read and
> write the data transfer drive)
>
> Third party binary tools I intend to use:
>
> 1) Transgamining's cedega
> 2) Vmware workstation (not server)
> 3) Win4Lin 5.0
> 4) Oblivioun via cedega
> 5) EVE via cedega
> 6) Real arcade via Vmware Workstation
>
> Native Linux tools I intend to use:
>
> 1) Openoffice
> 2) Kexi
> 3) Firefox
> 4) Thunderbird
> 5) NVU
> 6) k3b
> 7) mplayer
> 8) mdb tools
>
> System that will be used:
>
> Asus a7m266d smp motherboard
> Dual AMD 2.8mp processors
> 2.5 GB of ram
> Drive channel 1: 111GB UDMA-100 drive (70GB free for linux partitions)
> Drive Channel 2: 111GB UDMA-100 drive (20GB free, data drive), 4x DVD
> everything LG drive
> AGP 4x card: ATI 9800 128mb all-in-wonder pro. NB: hardware limitations make
> this the fastest available card. Nothing more powerful than this or a NVIDIA
> 4200ti will work due to hardware limitations. Just do not ask.
> 32/33 pci cards:
> Creative Audigy 2
> TI based usb2 / firewire 400 card
> 64/66 pci cards:
> Adaptec 62044 4 port NIC
>
>
> Current short list of OS's I'm looking at:
>
> 1) Suse 10.2
>
> NB: I've left of Linspire and SimplyMephis as these seem to require payment
> to stay current or some degree of jumping through hoops to use user sites to
> stay current.
>
> So based upon my needs can you recommend any other Linux distros to try out
> rather than go with Suse? 
>
> Concerns about specific distros:
>
> 1) How does kbuntu fare in terms of community support? Can I get the latest
> versions of Open office, Kexi etc via a simple apt/smart/yum whatever
> command for say 6.06 when 7.05 comes out? Will the current version (7.05)
> die out when the next two versions come out leaving old version sans new
> tools essentially forcing a once a 6 six month or once a year update? 
> 2) With gentoo, can you update it's binary packages for kde etc so I do not
> have to recompile firefox, java, kde, etc to stay current?
>
>
>
> Thanks for any insight you might have!
>
> Sam S.
>
>
>
>
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> nflug at nflug.org
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>
>
>   

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