Almost 9 Distros in Almost 6 Minutes
Ubuntu has gotten the spotlight recently here at Linux Journal, but this week Shawn shows us a handful of other Linux distributions.
__________________________
Shawn Powers is the Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel.
Special Magazine Offer -- 2 Free Trial Issues!
Receive 2 free trial issues of Linux Journal as well as instant online access to current and past issues. There's NO RISK and NO OBLIGATION to buy. CLICK HERE for offer
Linux Journal: delivering readers the advice and inspiration they need to get the most out of their Linux systems since 1994.
Sorry, offer available in the US only. International orders, click here.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Newsvine
TechnoratiSubscribe now!
The Latest
Featured Videos
Email is one of the least private and least secure forms of communication, although few people realize this. MixMaster is one way to allow secure, anonymous communication even over the very public medium of email. This tutorial will get you started with MixMaster quickly and easily.
In case you were wondering about the fun side of Linux World Expo, we thought we'd give you a peek at our shenanigans. We at Linux Journal love what we do so much, that we can't help but have a ball wherever we go.
Recently Popular
From the Magazine
September 2008, #173
Feeling a bit like a Thermian? Never give up, never surrender! Someday, you could go from underdog to top dog. Just take a look at a few of the underdogs we highlight in this issue: Mutt, djbdns, Nginix, Gentoo, Xara and the program voted mostly likely to fail just a few years back—Firefox. If Firefox not radical enough for you, check out Chef Marcel's column for some more alternatives. Having trouble mapping your program data to your relational database? If so, Rueven Lerner shows you some tricks in his At The Forge column.
Need to run GUI applications on your server in the next state? In his Paranoid Penguin column, Mick Bauer shows you how to do it securely. Kyle Rankin keeps hacking and slashing and shows you a few split screen secrets you may not be familiar with. Finally, we all know what happens next February, but only Doc knows what happens afterward.
Puppy Linux
On July 1st, 2008 xaer0knight (not verified) says:
it such a fast OS but lacks the robustness of packages ... i uses Puppy Linux as my backup/restore Distro :L)
Gentoo...
On June 27th, 2008 James Ausmus (not verified) says:
Hahaha - you've nailed Gentoo on the head. ;)
I'm a die-hard Gentoo fan, but it's certainly not for the weak-hearted (or for those who don't find watching endless compilations scrolling by entertaining), but it's a great choice out there for those who want to *have* to know a lot about Linux and their system. :)
Thanks for the reviews!
-James
Wow you guys need to give
On June 23rd, 2008 Diego (not verified) says:
Wow you guys need to give Shawn a break. So he didn't try Fedora, so what. He didn't say he would try to top 9 distros by popularity or anything. So he doesn't know that a year ago Fedora came out with Live CDs, well it's not exactly the end of the world now, is it? The Linux world offers up TOO MANY distros to keep track with them all.
Many choices for Linux
On June 22nd, 2008 QuickFox (not verified) says:
It's cool that there's many choices for Linux. :) I use Ubuntu via Wubi, before that I used Knoppix, the Live CD distribution. I actually had lots of fun exploring and using that Linux distribution. Who knew so much software and an operating system can be squeezed into a 700 MB CD.
Love the humor at the end and that BSOD joke. I agree it never gets old. :D
Gentoo does take forever
On June 20th, 2008 Gentoo User (not verified) says:
Its a lot of fun to setup, and you learn a ton about Linux, but I agree it takes forever, but its worth it. It makes me a bit more careful about messing with things, because I don't really want to do it all over.
Sabayon Linux
On June 21st, 2008 C. (not verified) says:
Based on Gentoo, Sabayon Linux it's a great distribution...
See, I *knew*
On June 20th, 2008 Shawn Powers says:
I knew Gentoo people would take the harassing well. :)
My first Gentoo experience was actually on a really old iMac. For the record, X11 compiling on a 233mhz PPC processor is a bit masochistic!
And I kid you not, we had a power outage on the 4th day of compiling. It was so horrible I couldn't do anything but laugh. ;)
__________________________Shawn Powers is the Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel.
FRICKIN CAPTCHAS SUCK
On June 23rd, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
Back in the day it took one full week to compile the base system for my router/server on an old *486* toshiba satellite laptop running at a whopping *75* MHz. I think it took about 3-4 days just to compile gcc. :-) But even though it took forever to build, that thing hummed along quite nicely for about five years until a power outage and subsequent power spike when they turned the power back on killed it for good. R.I.P., crow. :-(
Of course nowadays we have stage3 liveCDs to obviate such needless pain and suffering. :-) Still, it isn't for everyone and that's OK too. ;-)
Boy, oh boy
On June 23rd, 2008 Another Gentooer (not verified) says:
Back in the day it took one full week to compile the base system for my router/server on an old *486* toshiba satellite laptop running at a whopping *75* MHz. I think it took about 3-4 days just to compile gcc. :-) But even though it took forever to build, that thing hummed along quite nicely for about five years until a power outage and subsequent power spike when they turned the power back on killed it for good. R.I.P., crow. :-(
Of course nowadays we have stage3 liveCDs to obviate such needless pain and suffering. :-) Still, it isn't for everyone and that's OK too. ;-)
weenie :)
On June 23rd, 2008 element-o.p. (not verified) says:
You are griping about compiling X on a 233 MHz PPC? Weenie :)
While working at an ISP several years ago, I was given a Whistle Interjet that was going to be scrapped. I built FreeBSD on it (couldn't get Linux to boot for some reason), and compiled X from source tarballs. The Whistle Interjets use *486DX* processors, but I can't remember if they are 33MHz or 66MHz. Talk about painful...
PCLinuxOS and Mint
On June 20th, 2008 lapubell (not verified) says:
a cool note that I didn't hear you mention about PCLinuxOS is that it uses apt for package management. Makes an RPM based distro feel much more comfortable for users of debian based systems like me.
Another side note, Linux Mint is great for non techie types. My girlfirend is a great example of a happy Linux user because of her Minty computer.
What happened to Fedora?
On June 20th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
What happened to Fedora?
Honestly
On June 20th, 2008 Shawn Powers says:
Honestly, it was only a matter of download size. I opted to pick distros that fit on a single CD.
I'd love to do them all, but there are lots of distros out there!
__________________________Shawn Powers is the Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel.
You should be fired for that
On June 20th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
You should be fired for that response. Have you ever heard of Fedora Live CDs that can be installed to the hard drive?
Nope
On June 20th, 2008 Shawn Powers says:
Never heard of a wonder broom either. There goes my custodial job...
I'm actually glad to know Fedora has a live CD now. They didn't for a very long time. Thanks for the tip wrapped in what I can only hope was sarcasm.
__________________________Shawn Powers is the Associate Editor for Linux Journal. You might find him chatting on the IRC channel.
Fedora live cds have been
On June 20th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
Fedora live cds have been installable since Fedora 7. It wasn't sarcasm, you're the "associate editor" of a Linux site and you didn't even know that one of the most popular distros has a live cd that is installable.
Maybe if you didn't focus so much on ubuntu, you would know this. (That's not sarcasm either).
This comment indicates one
On June 23rd, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
This comment indicates one thing only: you really dont know anything about the whole software area, where everyday all around the world lots of people are producing new stuff. I for one never ever thouched 'your' fedora dist since i saw Linus posting in comp.sources - not enough time to see them all.
The funny side -and reason why i'm wasting time for this answer- is: why is it, that those who barely know nothing are so often offensive and and unfriendly? Maybe out-of-bounds error in package limited_view?
RE: Fedora
On June 21st, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
I'm glad you didn't show Fedora. I've heard that it sucks ass, and that everyone who likes it is a little cry-baby-bunting with no sense of humour. Well, that's what I heard anyway.
My experiences with its
On June 23rd, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
My experiences with its early releases made me give up on Fedora--it just seemed to never work right.
Then, when Fedora 8 came out, someone told me that he was happily using it, and that Fedora had improved dramatically over the years. That's why I decided to give Fedora another try, and I must say that Fedora really does work a whole lot better than it used to do. I can certainly understand that people like it enough to make it their preferred distro!
Well, following your
On June 22nd, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
Well, following your thinking i can say the same thing of others distros. Do not talk about you don't know.
Hehehe nice video. I like it
On June 28th, 2008 Torres says:
Hehehe nice video. I like it :)
__________________________Film izle Sohbet
Fedora
On July 1st, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:
Just about every intro to Linux I have ever seen shows Fedora. Who cares if Shawn decided to skip it. Regardless of what distro you like the most you have to admit that Fedora gets tons of attention.
Hey Linux Journal CAPTCHA SUCKS