Really, I'd like to know why many of you hate Ubuntu so much. I've been using it for a long time now and it does everything I need, giving me an easy-to-use secure Linux distribution that ``just works". What exactly do you believe I'm missing out on? Is the much-heralded "Gentoo" really worth compiling everything from source for?
I've been reading and trying to go through Linux From Scratch (LFS) to learn more about linux, but after I learn about all of that, does it really matter if I use Ubuntu or not? How fast do you really need an average computer these days to go, and is the little bit of extra speed really worth it?
tl;dr
Best Linux Distro, and why. Is the Optimization really that important?
Also, as a sidenote: any advice on customizing Linux with certain additions and tweaks (like RatPoison as I've heard mentioned before) would be great. What are some really useful tools that aren't already given?
easy to use yes.
secure hell no.
What you are missing is unix knowledge (which you won't get from gentoo anyway)
You don't have control with ubuntu, that's the main problem.
It also encourages people to avoid reading manuals and references (which is a bad thing for IRC faggots)
(like RatPoison as I've heard mentioned before) would be great. What are some really useful tools that aren't already given?
Customizing with ratpoison? What kind of faggot are you?
ratpoison is a window manager, like your gnome.
try xmonad, it rocks. or that common lisp WM.
How is it not secure? Also, where can i go and how can i get the UNIX knowledge that i'm missing? Learn how to control things and such. What do I really need to learn anyways?
Also, I don't use RatPoison, it's just something I thought of off the top of my head as an example. Pidgin, Firefox, Thunderbird... all of those things are easy to know about. I'm asking about what's good out there that isn't readily known about?
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Anonymous2008-01-21 14:19
First of all, wrong board.
Really, I'd like to know why many of you hate Ubuntu so much. I've been using it for a long time now and it does everything I need, giving me an easy-to-use secure Linux distribution that ``just works".
Ubuntu is just perfectly fine. People hate it because it's easy and popular, and therefore isn't good for their painstakingly nurtured e-penis.
Is the Optimization really that important?
CFLAGS just kicked in, yo!
You don't get anything out of OMG OPTIMIZING your distro. Most of your programs are just waiting for your slow ass to give them something to play with, most of the time.
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Anonymous2008-01-21 14:29
>>5
And don't bother buying a CPU. It'll just sit idle sometimes anyway.
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Anonymous2008-01-21 14:53
Ubuntu is an ancient african word, meaning "I can't configure Debian".
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Anonymous2008-01-21 15:05
>>2
>ratpoison is a window manager, like your gnome.
Gnome is a Desktop Environment. Metacity is the gnome window manager. Get it right, faggot.
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Anonymous2008-01-21 15:07
>>8
I knew that gnome is an environment and probably what it uses for a WM has a diff name but i dont give a shit because both metacity and gnome suck shit
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Anonymous2008-01-21 15:16
>>6
It does make sense to optimize computationally intensive programs (heavy number crunching, simulations…) but it doesn't make any real difference for typical desktop applications.
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Anonymous2008-01-21 16:10
>>10
Intuitively yes, but having seen the typical desktop applications of today...
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Anonymous2008-01-21 16:25
>>11
For desktop applications, you really should be optimizing the memory footprint, not the processing time.
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Anonymous2008-01-21 16:28
>>12
Because another gig of memory is way more expensive than a much faster CPU... oh, wait.
>>13
It's not the financial expense, it's the time expense. Main memory access is the primary bottleneck on modern computers. Small apps whose working set fit into cache will run much faster, even if you're a generation or two behind on the CPU front.
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Anonymous2008-01-21 16:56
LFS is not so you can build an OMG OPTIMIZED distro, but so you can learn about how the various parts of the Linux system fit together, something that you'll never be able to just from clicking around in Ubuntu and typing in commands that the Ubuntu forum faggots feed you.
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Anonymous2008-01-21 18:17
ubuntu doesn't work. doesn't even boot on my machine.
There is no "BEST DISTRO OMG". People, when you ask them what Linux to use, they will advocate what they know and what they are used to.
For example, I'm going to say Debian. But I [b]enjoy[/b] spending 6 hours fucking with a computer to get it working.
Distro's are shaped to certain needs, or around certain components. One of the major aspects of Debian is it's package management system (what installs and keeps track of applications).
On your sidenote: If you get a hold of install DVD's for ANY distro, you will probably have more shit than you will ever use. As for FUCKING UBER LEET E X P E R T H A C K E R desktop environments or optimizations, you probably do not need it if you are asking.
I run Ubuntu on laptops and machines that I'll need a tainted kernel for, Gentoo (or OpenBSD) on servers, and various things on everything else. Desktops usually have Debian or maybe an LFS if I'm bored.
Having used Debian and Gentoo for servers, I can say that the optimizations make a very big difference. I've also felt performance boosts on machines that have continuously high load after moving to Gentoo.
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Anonymous2008-01-22 0:39
>>24
``felt'' is a world of difference from benchmarking setups.
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Anonymous2008-01-22 1:59
>>18
There's a big difference between "wouldn't boot for me" and "confused and angered me." You seem to have confused the former with the latter.
As an aside, Ubuntu's hardware support is good, but far from perfect. I recently had to disable a (generally flaky) DVD drive in the BIOS to get Ubuntu to install (the partitioner was trying to read it and hanging).
I tried XMonad recently. Thought it was pretty cool. I'm trying Ratpoison at the moment and I think I like it more. It reminds me of Emacs. Each window is like a buffer in Emacs, and each frame is like an Emacs window, and switching between them is just as easy. Instead of C-x b, you have C-t ' and you enter the title of the window, with tab completion, of course. I fucking love C-x b in Emacs, it's so much faster than any other way of working I've used. I think it's great that my window manager can support the same setup.