Poll: What's your (other) favorite distro(s)?

[Ahau]

Hello all,

We're curious to know what distributions everyone is using, and what you like about them. What makes a distribution a winner (or a loser), in your opinion?

Sorry if your favorite distro isn't listed, 10 choices is the max for poll creation Feel free to list others in the comments section.

Thanks!

[kaz]

My favourite distros are:

1. FreeBSD: I like its "Power to Serve", and use it to for the Internet connection server, where DNS server, Squid, DHCP server, UUCP and so on run.

2. Arch Linux: I like it that it can be easily kept updated with its pacman. I use it for an application server where various application programs such as Emacs, Firefox, LibreOffice, Gnucash, Wine, VirtualBox, etc. run. I use Porteus as an X terminal of this application server.

3. Vine Linux: I use it only for its Japanese TeX.

4. Slackware: Long Live Slackware.

[Tonio]

Here are my favorite OSes:

As installed to hard drive:
1) FreeBSD(not a distribution actually), but a complete OS
2) Slackware
3) Fedora

As run from LiveCD/LiveDVD/Usb
1) Porteus
2) Slax
3) Clonezilla-live
4) Gparted-live
5) SystemRescueCD

Each one has its special place
@kaz would you mind testing KerTeX module(s) for porteus? Since you use vine linux for Japanese tex. This way we can ask the developer if he can enhance it for more users across the world? I like it that it is small and it may meet your needs, otherwise the big option TeXLive is the one that is needed, but I believe cch has this one covered.

[konaexpress]

Linux Mint LXDE- You can be as stupid as a bowl of soup and still be able to use it. Boot time sucks though.........

[UrUtusUbU]

i like this:

--slackware,
--slax,
--backtrack,
--ubuntu trinity from the creators of trinity,
--fedora trinity from the creators of trinity,
--Suse linux and the Suse studio,
--clonezilla the best backup for me
--parted magic another best in IT,
--AV linux for guitar and music,
--Musix linux, linux for music,
--Ubuntu netbook,
--Macpup, nice Puppy linux with Enlightenment 17, Elive linux too,
--Ubuntu Satanic Edition, linux for the damned like me ,exists yes, http://ubuntusatanic.org
--and Hanna Montana linux this is a joke but the distro exists, http://hannahmontana.sourceforge.net, lol.

and someone more.

if someone like to delete the links no problem, i put for information not for publicity.
sy

[fanthom]

Slackware gives you full freedom - you can do whatever you want, install any app you want, break dependencies and conventions.
Unfortunately maintaining it requires time which i have less and less nowadays (growing family, other projects like Porteus ) that's why few years ago i switched to Gentoo.

Gentoo gives you a bit less of freedom (you can still break package deps but it requires messing with portage configs) but updating is as easy as two commands: "emerge --sync && emerge -vDuN world"
job done.

Gentoo compiles all packages from sources so you can be nearly 100% sure that apps will be working as expected.

My vote goes for Gentoo (not listed so picking "Other" category).

[brokenman]

Many people have slackware as preference ... but nobody voted for it yet! Please cast your votes.

Hannah Montana .... There are teenage girl linux users?
For me it's porteus, slackware, then windows.

I hate waiting for an OS to boot. I only boot win when i need it (mainly for work).

** Now i'm gonna download Hannah Montana and check it out.

[Tonio]

that's why few years ago i switched to Gentoo.

Gentoo gives you a bit less of freedom (you can still break package deps but it requires messing with portage configs) but updating is as easy as two commands: "emerge --sync && emerge -vDuN world"
job done.

Gentoo compiles all packages from sources so you can be nearly 100% sure that apps will be working as expected.

My vote goes for Gentoo (not listed so picking "Other" category).

Do your scripts[customized] work to make a Gentoo LiveCD/LiveDVD like they do for Slackware to make porteus?
I have seen some linux-live script based LiveCDs, but it has been a while I have not seen one built from Gentoo. There is PureOS, debian + linux live scripts, there is Salix, Vector, but none based on Gentoo. For Arch, there was arch-live from Godane, but its development has been stopped as development is now on another distro Slitaz. Some folks want arch based live cd/dvd/usb, but I am happy with the way Porteus is going

@brokenman
went back to cast a vote for Slackware since FreeBSD is BSD and not considered Linux Distribution

[kaz]

@kaz would you mind testing KerTeX module(s) for porteus?

Tonio, thank you for your suggestion. I have installed KerTeX for porteus. It works almost perfectly on my TeX document, but, as I expected, Japanese characters cannot be shown in the output. As far as I know, Japanese TeX documents can be handled only by TeX systems specially localized for Japanese. I look forward KerTex supporting UTF-8.

[Tonio]

@kaz would you mind testing KerTeX module(s) for porteus?

Tonio, thank you for your suggestion. I have installed KerTeX for porteus. It works almost perfectly on my TeX document, but, as I expected, Japanese characters cannot be shown in the output. As far as I know, Japanese TeX documents can be handled only by TeX systems specially localized for Japanese. I look forward KerTex supporting UTF-8.

Thank you kaz for your report. I can forward a request to tlaronde as for supporting UTF-8 on next builds of kerTeX. I had heard of vine linux a few years ago on distrowatch. Now, it seems that Berry Linux based on Fedora is a specialized distro for Japanese users, I don't know of others at this time. UTF-8 support only? will copy this message to kerTeX thread to keep it going.

Glad that Voting here is not the same as the big elections coming in November. If I could vote for one person that can be POTUS, I would vote for Ahau
Since brokenman and fanthom don't qualify as per the US Constitution . Sorry for big Off topic Drift!

[kaz]

I can forward a request to tlaronde as for supporting UTF-8 on next builds of kerTeX. I had heard of vine linux a few years ago on distrowatch. Now, it seems that Berry Linux based on Fedora is a specialized distro for Japanese users, I don't know of others at this time. UTF-8 support only? will copy this message to kerTeX thread to keep it going.

I am not sure whether UTF-8 support solves the prolblem of Japanese TeX, but anyway please forward my message to KerTeX developers.

Berry Linux is a beginner friendly distro. Those who use TeX will not use Berry. Vine Linux comes with Japanese TeX and we do not have to install any additional package. Users of Linux distros other than Vine will have to install Tex Live and do some post-installation work to use Japanese TeX. Or we can get W32TeX (TeX package for Windows) and use it with wine. I hope KerTex will be another choice for Japanese TeX users someday.

[Ahau]

Glad that Voting here is not the same as the big elections coming in November. If I could vote for one person that can be POTUS, I would vote for Ahau
Since brokenman and fanthom don't qualify as per the US Constitution . Sorry for big Off topic Drift!

Tonio -- remember, flattery will get you nowhere. Unless you're flattering me, that is. So, where would you like to go?

btw guys, I didn't mean to exclude BSD, so feel free to chime in if you like BSD. It was tough only having 10 choices -- really I think the core of the matter is why you like the distros you do, so we get a good sense of what people want. Personally, I don't have a ton of experience with other distros. I hopped around a few years ago (libranet, debian, and kubuntu, with a little slax as well), then took a break for several years, and have been almost exclusively using Porteus since. I must say that I like the Slackware way of doing things, but if I had to leave Slackware, I think I'd go either to Arch or Gentoo. I am not a big fan of debian-based distros these days. I want my Linux to be simple (not necessarily easy), clean, and flexible. I don't want a menu that opens up with 500 things I'll never use, and I don't want to wait for five minutes for it to start up.

[Tonio]

Tonio -- remember, flattery will get you nowhere. Unless you're flattering me, that is. So, where would you like to go?

I posted this because we can trust you to do the right thing. I cannot say that for the person that is in Washington DC at this time

btw guys, I didn't mean to exclude BSD, so feel free to chime in if you like BSD. It was tough only having 10 choices -- really I think the core of the matter is why you like the distros you do, so we get a good sense of what people want.

No problem about excluding *BSDs, some folks may feel upset that NetBSD and OpenBSD are not present!

@kaz,
will forward request to kerTeX developer about UTF-8 and see what comes up. Thank you for your report.
EDIT:
UTF-8 support may come later:

Yes, for now TeX is 8bits meaning that one has to convert UTF-8 to the
expected 8bits "codepage".

UTF-8 for kerTeX is planned after 1.0 release.

Cheers,

[fanthom]

Do your scripts[customized] work to make a Gentoo LiveCD/LiveDVD like they do for Slackware to make porteus?

not at the moment but it should be possible with some tweaks.

Please remember that Gentoo requires compilation from sources of every single app - it requires strong CPU so i would never release it as live CD.

[Tonio]

Do your scripts[customized] work to make a Gentoo LiveCD/LiveDVD like they do for Slackware to make porteus?

not at the moment but it should be possible with some tweaks.

Please remember that Gentoo requires compilation from sources of every single app - it requires strong CPU so i would never release it as live CD.

I know that Gentoo is a source based distribution somewhat like FreeBSD but with the linux kernel. But a LiveCD does not need to do any compiling It is just a proof of concept to showcase the power of Gentoo. There exist a few Gentoo based livecds, Sabayon and Calculate come to miind. But none with the the capabilities of a small size, copy2ram, like old Slax and new Porteus but based on Gentoo. There would be no compiling, one would have a system with the power of Gentoo and no installation. A true Gentoo Live CD without installing, without bloat, a lean mean and powerful Gentoo live. It is a thought and I don't know if more people would welcome such a livecd? If more people believe they would like to see a Gentoo livecd with the characteristics of porteus, would you then consider making such a build?

I am very happy with porteus and would not recommend you to switch bases, but if people request it would you do it?
I know some folks want an arch live, but I can restate that Godane had one but then he switched bases to Slitaz, maybe Archlive was not doing so well ? He was using customized linux live scripts to build it. But that was arch live cd by Godane. Whatever happens, I am glad that porteus exists because it helps do many things when things can go wrong!