Recommend a Linux distro for home use?

[brocktice]

I've used most of the major and some of the minor distros out there (everything from Yellow Dog and Mandrake to RHEL Server 5), and these days, unless I want a major project, I just install Ubuntu and I'm more or less done.

I recommend the LTS releases. They're not as cutting-edge, but you don't have to screw with an upgrade for years if you don't want to.

I used to really love Gentoo. One day, maybe again. But Ubuntu has all the glory and power of apt without the imposing technical and philosophical encrustations of Debian.

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[genjix]

ok so I installed arch linux in virtualbox.

first i made 4 partitions then decided i didn't need a /boot one so i went back and deleted it. arch linux didnt recognise i had 3 and kept giving errors so i had to reboot and start over.. everything went fine and effortless.

however come first boot up and i try to install awesome window manager. find out i need to MANUALLY download tarballs, unpack them and run:
makepkg -s --asroot
pacman -U /path/to/package.tar.gz

did that for awesome then it wanted dependency X. downloaded dependency X. it wants dependency Y .etc... I gave up on the 5th dependency... what is the point of a centralised package manager if I'm forced to do this?? why not just have a user repo if you don't want to add some packages to core.

and why is it so hard to provide a package for awesome- there's 10 user contributed packages. pacman is also weird as hell to use. why not have:
pacman -Qi X  =>   pacman showinfo X
pacman -Sy   =>   pacman update
pacman -Ss X  => pacman search X

why these people always have to contrive things?

[JohnDoe]

however come first boot up and i try to install awesome window manager. find out i need to MANUALLY download tarballs, unpack them and run:
makepkg -s --asroot
pacman -U /path/to/package.tar.gz

did that for awesome then it wanted dependency X. downloaded dependency X. it wants dependency Y .etc... I gave up on the 5th dependency... what is the point of a centralised package manager if I'm forced to do this??

Whenever I'm missing dependencies they get installed automatically along with the package so you are probably doing something wrong. You should ask for help in the official forums, you'll probably get a quick answer. The only thing I can think of is that your pacman is outdated, you don't have cairo-xcb installed (which you also have to get from AUR) or maybe you tried installing the tarball instead of the resulting pkg.tar.xz as your post implies.

Or if using makepkg is too much trouble entirely you could download an AUR helper. They are basically like pacman for the AUR. To my knowledge, the most popular one is yaourt.

why not just have a user repo if you don't want to add some packages to core.

and why is it so hard to provide a package for awesome- there's 10 user contributed packages.

Not sure why you can't get binaries from the AUR but my guess is because of security. If all those thousands of packages were readily accessible by pacman it would be a huge mess. There would be lots of bs packages with malicious code like friefox or python3 just waiting to get installed by mistake.

About awesome specifically, it doesn't have a package in the supported repos because, even though it's very popular, one of its dependencies is also in the AUR (cairo-xcb). The cairo package would have to be voted in before awesome can be promoted.

pacman is also weird as hell to use. why not have:
pacman -Qi X  =>   pacman showinfo X
pacman -Sy   =>   pacman update
pacman -Ss X  => pacman search X

why these people always have to contrive things?

Huh? Abbreviating arguments is common practice as far as I know. And as chmod explained, you can easily create aliases for whatever command you don't care to type or remember.

[genjix]

Different lines in the sand. Sure I can alias those commands, but why aren't they default?

It's like installing a program with no default config. Sure I can RTFM then write a config, but I shouldn't have to.

That was the dependency- cairo-xcb, and then it needs oopango-something and oosomething-else iirc, and they both needed additional packages. Too lazy. Ubuntu you just type aptitude install awesome, logout, login and you're done.

Rolling releases would be a nice feature but Arch Linux is too ghetto for my liking.

[FreeMoney]

I'm considering trying to install Linux on my laptop tonight. It's pretty important to me hat I not screw up what I have. I should be able to get to exactly what I have now right, is it likely I can screw that up? I want the choice of which operating system to use on an ongoing basis, this is reasonable right? It sounds like the way to go is a "live CD" will a 4G memory card work since I don't have a blank CD around? Thanks for any help.

[genjix]

When you insert Ubuntu then you get a live cd desktop (linux running off a the CD- it's a little slow but shows you how it looks).

I'd try Kubuntu and Ubuntu livecds and decide which desktop I prefer.

When you're ready you hit install. It should guide you through easily (even giving you the automatic option to resize windows and install alongside if you have a windows install, otherwise you can resize it manually if you know how to partition).

If you'd like to just run through quickly as a test then you can install VirtualBox and install Ubuntu in a safe environment under Windows.

Personally I'd recommend you wipe Windows completely. Install Ubuntu and then install Windows under VirtualBox in Ubuntu for poker or whatever else only. If you're using Windows only for poker then it's going to be very secure. You can even make another windows install under VirtualBox for other apps if you wish to.

Also ubuntuforums.org and #ubuntu IRC are good help places.

[alowm]

Ubuntu is the time-conscious choice. It will even let you easily install the proprietary drivers for your video card so that it a) is actually useful, and b) can be used for GPU mining.

[em3rgentOrdr]

Ubuntu is the time-conscious choice. It will even let you easily install the proprietary drivers for your video card so that it a) is actually useful, and b) can be used for GPU mining.

I second this.  I'm using Ubuntu right now, getting 56,000 khash/sec on my Nvidia GeForce 9800GX2.  Was easy to setup and install, but keep in mind that Ubuntu won't install any proprietary drivers by default.  You have to go directly to the manufacturer's website to install their linux drivers.

Here's the setup code to get the OpenCL miner running: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2636
And here's a little script I wrote to automatically start the GPU miner when screensaver starts: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2636.msg37461#msg37461

[FatherMcGruder]

You have to go directly to the manufacturer's website to install their linux drivers.

I'm pretty sure that Ubuntu askes me if I want to install the proprietary Nvidia driver right after my first boot. I didn't have to download anything manually from Nvidia. Now I'm getting about 50 Ghash/sec from my GeForce GTX460.

[fabianhjr]

In the notification bar the update manager alerts you of propretary drivers and you just have to accept the driver's license to install it. xD

[genjix]

linux mint is ubuntu with all the proprietary stuff already installed.

[em3rgentOrdr]

You have to go directly to the manufacturer's website to install their linux drivers.

I'm pretty sure that Ubuntu askes me if I want to install the proprietary Nvidia driver right after my first boot. I didn't have to download anything manually from Nvidia. Now I'm getting about 50 Ghash/sec from my GeForce GTX460.

My apologies.  I guess I was thinking of the Cuda stuff.

[Mahkul]

You have to go directly to the manufacturer's website to install their linux drivers.

I'm pretty sure that Ubuntu askes me if I want to install the proprietary Nvidia driver right after my first boot. I didn't have to download anything manually from Nvidia. Now I'm getting about 50 Ghash/sec from my GeForce GTX460.

My apologies.  I guess I was thinking of the Cuda stuff.

And probably you also meant 50Mhash/s not Ghash/s.

[FatherMcGruder]

And probably you also meant 50Mhash/s not Ghash/s.

Oops.

[Anonymous]

No doubt that the best distribution is linux ubuntu. Specially for new linux users

agreed. I just partitioned a windows laptop and installed that today. I have had no issues whatsoever. In fact it boots faster than winblows and it hasnt missed a beat.

[em3rgentOrdr]

No doubt that the best distribution is linux ubuntu. Specially for new linux users

agreed. I just partitioned a windows laptop and installed that today. I have had no issues whatsoever. In fact it boots faster than winblows and it hasnt missed a beat.

congratulations!  I switched to Ubuntu from Windows about six months ago and have never gone back.  If you run into any problems, just post to the Ubuntu forums, and someone will help.

[giner]

I can recommend you Ubuntu if you need something that 'just works'.
I can recommend you Arch linux if you love linux and you know what KISS means.