It's about time for my quarter-annual desktop switch... that is to say, I've been using the same distribution on my "main" Linux desktop for about three months now, and I'm feeling that it's time to switch. Since I write about Linux for a living, I like to use different distributions from time to time to get a feel for all of them. I've used Slackware, SuSE, Mandrake, Stormix (remember that one?), Debian, Xandros, Fedora... I have Gentoo on my laptop right now, but I'm not sure which distro I want to put on my "main" desktop.
Thought I'd take a quick (and totally unscientific) poll to see what distro(s) people are using, and why. If your desktop machine runs a Linux distro, let me know which one, and what you like about it. I'd also be curious to know which desktop environment/window manager you use, and why.
3 Comments
Have run gentoo for a little over a year. Now running it on my desktop & notebook at work, mail/webserver, firewall, desktop and pvr boxes at home. I like that you can see exactly what your binaries are made up from - where the source comes from, what patches are applied and where each file goes. It's easy to create new "packages" or tweak existing ebuilds to add in new patches as required.
Two downsides in my mind:
1) Portage is SLOW - rsync doesn't scale - let alone security issues.
2) Too many updates. It's a full time job to stay on top of gentoo updates. I tend to do a big update every few months and hope nothing breaks.
That said, I've meddled with Redhat, Debian and Mandrake over the years and I don't see anything more appealing than gentoo, yet.
I use KRUD here... basically Fedora core 2 + updates and extra packages. It works great for me, but then I know the distro quite well.
I have been toying with debian some, and have been considering installing it on a test box to play with more.
Hey Kevin,
Yeah, that's a thought. Will Tummy be producing a 64-bit version? I finally broke down and bought a Athlon64, and I've been considering FC2 for it...