Which Linux dist.?

Hey, I’m going to install Linux on my machine in a few days. I haven’t decided which distribution to go for just yet though. So I’m wondering which distributions you guys like, and what you recommend. I’m not a linux newbie so dists such as Ubuntu or Mandrake isn’t for me. What I want is something light-weight, configurable and fast.

The ones I’m currently thinking of are:

  • Gentoo
  • Arch Linux
  • Debian Sarge Which do you think, or would you recommend something else?

Just go Debian and don’t look back…

…and when you’re fed up with debian, look forward, go slackware and burn your bridges.

hmm - with debian netinstall too you can set a nice lean box (i’ve seen a flying icewm box). a checklist needed, but if you apt-get bild-deps from repos you can then edit (hack) compile flags with your optimizations and apt-get sorcue --b and you have some optimized builds.

I plan to do similar with xubuntu and make a streamlined kernel (when I get to that point that is).

Gentoo is all about being lightweight and configurable. It takes ages to install, but you’re in total control. During the install you will learn a lot about linux, command-line all the way. You’ll know why do you have certain programs installed, why are certain daemons running etc etc. So if you’re looking for something like this, Gentoo is the way :D.

I chose Arch because I’m getting ready to install it on my box. I wanted something optimized for 686, that has current pre-built packages accessible through a good package manager, and something that would force me back “under the hood” so I would stop slowly drifting into Linux idiocy. I started a Gentoo box, but then I remembered how painful it is watching my computer compile things for hours or days at a time.

Hi everybody. I am writing to ask some help with Linux.
I know very little about using linux. I have installed redhat once and ubuntu few times and installed old version of Blender to it with the installation system that is built into the ubuntu.
But now i am trying to figure which linux version to download and install
to a laptop which i will be using for rendering purposes and audio recording. And i have no idea if there is a version of linux that comes with Blender 2.41 , i have not figured a way to install downloaded 2.41 to ubuntu.

So to put it short, laptop pentium 4, linux to it, audacity and Blender 2.41 or a newer test build. That is what i am trying to get done but cannot get it done on my own.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/dapper/graphics/blender

not in breezy-backports afaik
(imo it would be simplest just to get the sources, then build-deps /there are some new dependancies I guess/ and compile your own)

if you’r on breezy, google for how to upgrade to dapper:
ideally, it should be like :
“apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade”

but check forums beforehand.
also check apt manpages

slax is good. Compact, have everything you need, it’s installable as a full working full blown slackware distro. Everything works right from the first time, even connecting to windows machine on LAN. For customizing you can use slackware packages.

@Tedi and everyone reading this.
I installed Ubuntu 6.06 and since then X has not
worked, some kind of problem with the graphics card
and the os. So taking a try at compiling seems useless
for the project i am working on at this point in time.

@Lycanthrope and…
Well slax´s download shows currently 73%, and audacity
and blender modules are allready on harddrive so
soon i will see how that works out.Got to make one modified
iso with audacity and blender modules with software.

There was module for 2.40 but not 2.41 so seems
that i cannot do rendering with slax and blender
either on the second computer.

edit>
Thanks Tedi and Lycanthrope
Slax is working and with blender 2.4 i can put for rendering project files which are made in 2.41 because them don´t have features which do not work in 2.4. Audacity is not working but that´s ok.
Thanks again

you’re welcome. I just want to add a little thing, you need the nvidia drivers module so the hardware acceleration works. I’m not sure wether it’s gonna work with 5.16 version of slax. I use 5.06 and the module works like charm.

You don’t have to use the modules once slax is installed offline, use any packages that built for slackware.

I’ve pretty much only used distro’s based on Debian and have been happy. I’m using Ubuntu Dapper at the moment, but have also used Kanotix, Knoppix and Damn Small Linux. All have been good IMHO. BTW, Ubuntu Dapper fixed a number of problems I had with earlier releases.

Thanks for your replies.

Since there is a version of Ubuntu compiled for 64-bit processors, that raises my hopes for it, but the distro is just too bloated IMO. That’s the only Debian-based distro I’ve used, so I might test Debian Sarge.

I think I’m going to abandon the idea of getting Gentoo, as I just don’t have the time for it. So that leaves me with less options. Arch Linux or Debian to be exact. Need some extra comments to kill one of them. :stuck_out_tongue: By the way, does Debian have a 64-bit release? If not, I’d have to drop it as well.

64 bit would give you problems. Blender files saved from 64 bit version won’t open in 32 bit. Plugins such as flash and java would also go naughty. Untill software developers really seriously developing softwares for the 64 bit platform, IMHO you should keep both 32 bit and 64 bit OSes on your computer. You won’t gain much performance anyway, unless the software really intended specifically for 64 bit

Hmm that sounds hopeless. I think I just might go dual-boot with Arch64 / Windows. How about append? Does it work 64-to-32? If it does, it’s not such a big problem anymore.

what do you mean by append?

64 bit has backward compatibility to 32 bit. But as i said you’ll still run into problems. Such as flash and java were meant for 32 bit only.

This problem isn’t only applied on Linux, but I’ve been toying around win XP x64, alot works but also alot refuses to work on it, or doing something weird.

Installed edubuntu, it fixed ubuntu graphics problem and also came with Blender 2.41. Rendertimes times ten times faster than with Slax because slax was running from cd.

Edubuntu isn’t what I’m going for. If I ever install Ubuntu, it’s the regular version or Xubuntu.

The append feature in blender. You can find it in the File -> Append menu, or press shift+F1. It lets you import stuff from one .blend-file to another. So if that works 64-to-32, there’s not much of a problem with .blend-files.

Anyhow, I’ve decided to try Arch Linux first, with the Arch64 iso. There’s slightly less packages in the 64-bit repositories, but I think I can manage. If it doesn’t work out too well, I’ll try something else…

not sure, never tested append facility on 64 bit berfore.

OK.I hope it works.