which lunix distro?

I've used Slackware since 1994 but I'm looking for something that isn't such a pain in the ass.  I've learned everything I need to learn from Slackware's pain-in-the-assness, so I want to take it easy and use a more user-friendly distribution.

Is Ubuntu any good?  Fedora?  What about Mandrake?  Gentoo?

What's the difference between all the distros? Someone help out a Lunix noob.

Programs for one distro doesn't work on other distros unless you compile.  That's the power of Linux: To compile.

fedora core 6 is good for what >>1 is looking for

ubuntu is good for n00bians but i know some vets that run it on their laptops since all the hardware works under ubuntu

i too started out with slack for a long time and redhat 7.2 as well but fc6 is good for a desktop setup for my sysadmins laptop

>>2 thats too long a discussion for this forum, lol google it urself

lunix is only available for the commodore 64

>>1
Debian Etch
http://www.us.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

Great like Slack, easy as spamming DESU, and still 1337

>>3 is a fag

>>2
distrowatch.org
click distro from list on the right and check package versioning.

VectorLinux is a rather painless Slackware derivative.

It needs a better default desktop though.

>>3
Truth

Too much compile-obsessed faggots with too much time to waste compiling shit. Compiling IS shit. One of the reasons why I like interpreted languages is you don't need to compile shit. Yet Unixfags manage to still difference between source code and bin- sou- whatever, and still toss their makefiles, configure and other GNU shit in there as in they wanted you to have to deal with that bullshit.

>>8
This man speaks the truth

rpm-based distros are shitty. I've tested Arch recently, this is more a joke than a real os (bloated as death). Debian and derivated are fine.

Gnome + KDE

>>8
ever tried azureus? people complain that it's too slow, yet it uses a jit compiled language. how much more for an interpreted app?

ArchLinux

>>9
this man lies.

>>10
wtf? arch, bloated? YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG. gb2 windows faggot.

>>10
RPMs suck majorly.

>>12
Applications where performance is important, like Azureus, need to be written in C. Not C++, C. As in, "for men". And distributed in binary form (besides the source repository), GNU source fags need to GTFO. Applications where performance is not important, like an email client, should be written in a higher level language for your own sake.

"c++ is slow" is a myth. gb2 1990's

I used Gentoo for a while, but the hardware support for my laptop was horrible and I eventually just gave up and switched to Ubuntu. As >>4 said, it has better hardware support.

>>15
nice troll. now gtfo.

Kubuntu.  KDE has better programs than Gnome anyways.

>>15

Troll, troll, troll, I will feed you troll pellets.

No, they don't "have" to be written in C.  And if you're going to be anal about raw uber-performance, Fortran is the way to go, whether you like it or not.  But, no, it's not so much as "write it in C/Fortran" as much as it is "don't write it in a shitty language."  This means you could write a BitTorrent client that's fast in C just as much as you can write a fast BT client in Common LISP, Python, or even Perl and you can sleep at night.  But you are a faggot if you choose Java for anything, because it's a shitty language and you shouldn't write anything at all in it.

>>20
You can write programs in Java when they
a) don't have to be time-critical
b) don't have to be (GUI-)responsive
c) and must run under different operating systems without much work

ubuntu command line install, add your favorite programs from there

Tell anonymous about zenwalk.

You can disregard pretty much anything that has been said yet, except the Kubuntu part. Kubuntu is for 2 sorts of people, people who don't know shit about linux (yet), or people of any skill/knowledge who like it simple and don't want to waste much time maintaining their system.

If you do not mind wasting hours and hours every month with your system, and you don't mind compiling for hours, gentoo is the way. Gentoo may be the best home-use linux system there is, but it's a piece of work. If you don't like the work, kubuntu will do, since its simple to use & maintain, but also extendable enough for a professional to use.


Or, what just comes to my mind, are you talking about a dedicated machine and not your home bitch? :p
If so, there are pretty much 3 smart choices, debian, redhat and fbsd.

>>16
I didn't say C++ is slow, that's not why I don't recommend it. All I said is C++ sucks majorly. Refer to the corresponding thread in /prog. Besides, it's not like C++ is so much higher-level than C, easier or reasonably more productive for what it costs, so C is all you need if you want fast applications; in other words, C is for men. Of course, when you don't need CFLAGS JUST KICKED IN, you should use a high-level language like Ruby, Python, Lua, or whatever floats your boat.

>>19
KDE has better applications, common dialogs, themes and conventions than Gnome.

>>20
Lol, I didn't intend to troll, but I'm glad I did. I wasn't being the C fag, I just pointed out that you should use C for performance-critical applications, and I consider a BT client one since you want to leave it running in the background taking no significative CPU time as you do other stuff. Then I went and said you could do an email client in Python, or something like that.

>>21
You can write programs in Java when they:
a) need to be professional web 2.0 enterprise scalable AJAX business solutions
b) force you to work with Java and you can't get another job
c) need to be hell to develop, hell to maintain, hell to use, and hell to get working
d) need to use a completely obnoxious, useless, overengineered piece of shit of an API
e) need to claim to be portable, even though they aren't as much
f) are for faggots

>>24
Agreed. I use Kubuntu because I don't like to waste my time compiling shit from GNU hippies who want to make you compile shit. I do take care and change stuff I need in the system, but I haven't found Kubuntu to be a PITA against it save for the root account and spash screen insanity, which I get rid of. Of course, I'm talking about my home and work computers.

>>25 thinks that OOP is for pussies... wait, why is he using Java then?!

>>26
Uh... >>25 recommends having your vision checked. I bashed Java right in that post. As for OOP, it's fine in good OOP languages, and it's bad in bad OOP languages (more like "OOP".backwards()), same as imperative programming.