What Distro do you use and why

Mainframeguy

Debiant by way of Ubuntu
Joined
29 Aug 2002
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Did I dream it or was there a stuck thread of this title? Anyway- you can see mine from my signature.... as to the whys and where fores - well I originally put Suse on as a dual boot for my first playing around. I did not like rpms - had always planned to switch distro from there.

ubuntu appealed to me on a number of levels - then when LordofLA was kind enough to burn me the latest Breezy Badger 5.10 I foudn myself so tempted I had to try it. Have not looked back since and was slightly shocked to read Glaanies somewhat biased take on ubuntu.

I think if you want a regular pretty much guaranteed faster than XP install with all the abilities to take things the direction you want afterwards then Ubuntu works for me.

I've gone on enough - let's have some more possts on this thread....
 
I just removed Ubuntu, I got sick of it. I really didn't like it at all. I reinstalled Slackware and couldn't be happier. I like to run binary distros on my older slower PC, and I run Gentoo on my main PC. I don't like hand holding, so Ubuntu was not for me.
 
I've yet to settle on a definitive distro for myself, generally I'll use Ubuntu for ease of use, FreeBSD for ease of use and BSD-ness, Slackware for leetness, and DSL for tinyness.
 
I use FreeBSD as well, it just doesn't support some browser plugins natively, and the linux emulation is clunky IMHO. I also miss the ATi drivers on it. The native Xorg driver does 3D on my 9000 but is noticeably slower than the proprietary drivers I use in linux.
 
As for Ubuntu's ease of use, I don't get that, sure I got it up and running easy enough and the hardware detection was good, but things like xmms, codecs, and browser plugins are so convoluted that I don't see how the "noob" would ever get them to work, I did, but not without trouble.

I also was not able to ever get a custom kernel to boot, and I've been compiling my own kernels for years now without any issues. I had searched through the ubuntu forums for answers, but seemed to keep finding threads by the admins/mods there just saying "you don't need a custom kernel, besides I can never get mine to boot" I personally like to compile my own kernel to get that sugar-pill effect of pseudo-speed.
 
I used to use Ubuntu a lot, but that was just the livecd for a few projects. I'd like to give slackware and FreeBSD a try though, they look interesting :)
 
Mandrake 10.1...only thing I had around when I built my server :D
 
Currently, on the Linux side I'm somewhat split between Slackware 10.2 and Slamd64... The latter is basically a port of Slackware to the AMD-64 platform...

The main issues on my home PC, with pros and cons:

slamd64 seems to work best right off the CD
Installing drivers for my nforce 3 chipset and my ATI gfx card (Radeon 9600) went without a hitch

Major con:

not all programs will compile as 64-bit. The solution is to use a 32-bit chroot (or whatever they're calling it in slamd64, and then force a compile as a 32-bit app. Slamd64 supplies the source for doing this, but...

Actually getting some programs (such as transgaming, aka cadedga) to use it on compiling from source proved problematic at best...to I couldnt' get it to go.

Main problem was it showed up as "CPU architecture unknown" which makes sense as it wasn't setup to make use of x86-64, or attempts to pass instructions to force a 32-bit compile based on some directions I found online were met with dismal failure.

Slackware 10.2:

Pro:

It installed just fine, and was up and running.
Compiling of 32-bit only apps wouldn't be a problem, as the Athlon 64 wouldn't be seen as a 64-bit CPU

Cons:

I could not get the nForce 3 and Radeon drivers to install based on the stock 2.4.x kernel. The installers were't happy, and it was obvious I would have to upgrade the kernel to continue.

The 2.6.x kernel introduces a ton of configuration options that earlier kernels don't have. A lot to mess around with and test. Older steps (which I had taken on both configuring, compiling, then installing the kernel didn't quite seem to work as expected) and Linux won't boot.

Would have to mess with that some more, to figure out what's changed, and what I need to do different with the newer kernel series, vs. the older 2.4.x This would have to be figured out before I coudl successfully get the drivers for my hardware in place.

So, have trouble compiling cadega from the CVS source, or have to work through various steps to get it where I can put in the drivers for my gfx card and mobo... Depending on what I decide on that, depends which distro between these 2 I might settle on.
 
j79zlr said:
I use FreeBSD as well, it just doesn't support some browser plugins natively, and the linux emulation is clunky IMHO. I also miss the ATi drivers on it. The native Xorg driver does 3D on my 9000 but is noticeably slower than the proprietary drivers I use in linux.


What browser plugins? I have FireFox compiled from the ports together with linuxpluginwrapper which allows me to use flash7, realplayer. Then the mplayer plugin can be natively compiled to gain windows media, quicktime and other such plugins that are normally needed. Ive got a full featured browser just like I used to have on Windows. Adobe plugin is also available, but not really suggested, considering it slows the entire system down while it is loading.

Why is the Linux emulation clunky? Agreed it is not yet up to scratch with the Linux kernel 2.6.x, as the API in Linux is changing so rapidly.

As for the ATI drivers, that really is something ATI can fix, but probably won't.
 
I started playing with Mandrake and liked that moved to Ubuntu for a quick look and right now I am playing with Xandros 3.0 buisness desktop
 
X-Istence said:
What browser plugins? I have FireFox compiled from the ports together with linuxpluginwrapper which allows me to use flash7, realplayer. Then the mplayer plugin can be natively compiled to gain windows media, quicktime and other such plugins that are normally needed. Ive got a full featured browser just like I used to have on Windows. Adobe plugin is also available, but not really suggested, considering it slows the entire system down while it is loading.

Why is the Linux emulation clunky? Agreed it is not yet up to scratch with the Linux kernel 2.6.x, as the API in Linux is changing so rapidly.

As for the ATI drivers, that really is something ATI can fix, but probably won't.

Flash7 does not work with Firefox, it causes seg faults, atleast the last time I tried it, you have to use flash 6, and it is dreadfully slow. The last I read is that flash7 does not crash firefox, but also does not work. Mysertiously it works with Mozilla however. The Adobe Reader plugin is also borked, Reader itself works, but the browser plugin does not.
 
j79zlr said:
Flash7 does not work with Firefox, it causes seg faults, atleast the last time I tried it, you have to use flash 6, and it is dreadfully slow. The last I read is that flash7 does not crash firefox, but also does not work. Mysertiously it works with Mozilla however. The Adobe Reader plugin is also borked, Reader itself works, but the browser plugin does not.


Both work on FreeBSD 6.0. I am currently browsing websites using that same FireFox 1.5 (latest from ports) with Flash 7. The Adobe Reader Plugin works, except it is dreadfully slow.
 
OK, I trust you, I am going to try and get flash7 to work, I haven't tried since 1.5 was released, but I guarantee it didn't work with 1.0.7.
 
Nope, flash 7 still crashes firefox:

joe@daemon: /home/joe$ firefox
/libexec/ld-elf.so.1: /usr/local/lib/pluginwrapper/flash7.so: Undefined symbol "_dlsym"
joe@daemon: /home/joe$

I am going to try the patch, but this is still a major pain in the arse, even if it does work.

Acrobat does not work either:
LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/local/lib/acroread/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so [/usr/local/lib/acroread/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so: Undefined symbol "__strtol_internal"]
LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/local/lib/acroread/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so [/usr/local/lib/acroread/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so: Undefined symbol "__strtol_internal"]

I knew these didn't work.

EDIT: Ok, I patched rtld.c and flash works, but very slow. Adobe still does not work.

joe@daemon: /home/joe$ firefox
LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/local/lib/acroread/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so [/usr/local/lib/acroread/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so: Undefined symbol "XtCalloc"]
 
Last edited:
Hrm, what do you mean flash is slow? It works fast here on my machine, and it is at the same time doing folding. The sound is still partially out of sync, but that has been a problem for a while now.

AMD XP 2000+ with 512 MB ram, and a 40 GB HD.

The Acrobat Plugin does not give me an error at all, and works like it should. Shrug.

The patch should make it into the main BSD tree sometime soon. Will have to check up on that sometime.
 
Do you have /etc/libmap.conf entries for Adobe? If so what are they so I can compare.

Flash is just slow, my PC is faster than yours, P4 2.53, 1GB RAM, 2x80GB WD. Flash also locks up on espn.com, this used to be a problem, then it went away, now with flash7 it locks up again. That is the only site I've had that problem with.
 
j79zlr said:
Do you have /etc/libmap.conf entries for Adobe? If so what are they so I can compare.

Flash is just slow, my PC is faster than yours, P4 2.53, 1GB RAM, 2x80GB WD. Flash also locks up on espn.com, this used to be a problem, then it went away, now with flash7 it locks up again. That is the only site I've had that problem with.


My /etc/libmap.conf entries are like the ones in the examples file:

Code:
# Acrobat7 with Mozilla/Firebird/Galeon/Epiphany/Konqueror/Kazehakase
[/usr/compat/linux/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so]
libc.so.6                       pluginwrapper/acrobat.so

And it works perfectly, albeit extremely slow.

Flash 7 does lock up on espn.com. In the gdb debug traces I can't figure out why as the flash plugin is closed, it is hanging in some loop somewhere, which is run infinitly.

As for other sites that use flash, never had a problem with any of them.
 
Interesting, have you updated your ports recently, Acrobat used to work here, then they changed the install path, it is in /usr/local/lib/acroread/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/ now, the libmap instructions haven't been updated. I believe this change came with 7.0.1, which is actually quite old.
 
Hrm, might I be using an older version instead then. That is a good question, will have to play with it when I get back home this afternoon after school.

Flash 7 is up to date, I am sure of that, considering I cvsupped right before I installed it all, but the Adobe plugin might not have uninstalled fully.

Edit:
Yes, ports tree is up to date, ran a cvsup and no changes.
 

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