What is Digg?38 Comments
- grepgrep, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Nice thought piece. Given your history I thought you were going to say that Ubuntu was the end-all be-all of linux distros. Glad to see you're not a zealot.
- LightsOut06, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9No. Even tho Ubuntu's strong point which is supposed to be usability and installation, it is STILL not the best distro. PCLinuxOS beats Ubuntu hands down when it comes to usabilty AND installation. Not to mention it doesnt have the long bootup time Ubuntu does. The ONLY thing that seperates Ubuntu over other distros is it's strong and very active community. Other than that, installing graphics drivers, setting up mp3 support, enabling DVD playback, etc. are just as easy (or hard for that matter) to set up on any distro (except for distros like PCLinuxOS and Linspire in which all these things are setup automatically). The only difference is that the Ubuntu community has created great scripts (automatix, easyubuntu) that allow for these things to be setup easily.
- eurleif, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@iamacitizen:
"Even if it is Linux, it violates the GNU GPL by having proprietary crap already installed."
Please Google for "mere aggregation". - arsgeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I honestly debated on using that for a good five minutes while typing this on the train. But I'm 15 as well so I used it.
- subgeniusd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Yeah, I was ready to get sarcastic again but this is a nice, balanced article from an author who obviously knows what he is talking about. I was just discussing the U-phenomenon with a skeptic today, I'll link him to this article.
"A rising tide lifts all boats" right? I Dugg it. - vitalstatistix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Those claiming that ubuntu startup time is faster than XP are being disingenuous. I have two boxes that dual boot XP and ubuntu and XP (with a little tweaking to disable unnecessary services) start up much faster than ubuntu. However, ubuntu, once booted, doesn't need to be rebooted as often as XP (or never needs rebooting at all) - and that's an advantage.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6@LightsOut06:
Uh... I dunno what version of Ubuntu you use, but I can boot, and be on the desktop in under 35 seconds. With a 1.5GHz processor. And 512 MB RAM :-P
PCLinuxOS is, IMHO, an insult to the Linux community. Even if it is Linux, it violates the GNU GPL by having proprietary crap already installed. Is it just me? Does anyone else feel the same way about PCLinuxOS? - Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I haven't used many distros so I can objectively say if Ubuntu is the best (for a n00b since that's basically it's targeted audience), I've only used Fedora Core, Mandrake and Ubuntu... Ubuntu being the best out of the three, mainly because it has GNOME and is debian based. I am currently getting ready to try out "The Mother" (ie. Debian itself) and see if using Ubuntu is actually worth it since from the VMWare testing it seems like the two are pretty much the same. I almost installed Gentoo once but as soon as I got to the whole 100000 questions part I just stopped the install since I am a Uni student, I do have a life and I don't have a week to setup a bloody OS. It may be a good distro but it sure as hell isn't easy and fast to work with.
I also wanted to install Slackware which for some reason I respect (though I have never used it), but I somehow couldn't install it... I dont remember why. I will probably try installing it on VMWare soon.
Anywho from what I've used Ubuntu is definitely the best distro... which doesn't really say much. It's a good distro, it's popular, it's easy to setup, it's fast to setup, it's easy to work with for any n00b... I guess Suse is a close second though it uses KDE and YaST... evil. - KWhat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6The answer is yes if and only if Ubuntu is the best distro for everyone. For me, the answer is no, Gentoo is the best distro for me. Q.E.D. Invalid argument.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"PCLinuxOS is, IMHO, an insult to the Linux community. Even if it is Linux, it violates the GNU GPL by having proprietary crap already installed. Is it just me? Does anyone else feel the same way about PCLinuxOS?"
PCLinuxOS .93 and above does not ship with proprietary items already installed. All are installable through synaptic, just like in Ubuntu. And PCLinuxOS is NOT an insult to the community buddy...you need to give it a shot before you shoot it down. PCLinuxOS has converted TONS of new users from Windows in its short existence. As the admin of mypclinuxos.com and wiki maintainer for PCLinuxOS...as well as an open source advocate and Linux user since 1995, I find personal offense at your "PCLinuxOS is an insult to the Linux community" comment. Your uninformed and malaligned comment justifies your ignorance quite well. - Ikioi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4http://duggmirror.com/linux_unix/Ubuntu_the_best_Linux_distribution/
- LightsOut06, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@iamcitizen
I wouldn't call having mp3 and video support available from the get go an insult but I do get your point. As far as bootup time, I haven't counted the seconds that Ubuntu takes to start up but it's noticeably slower than XP, SuSE, PCLOS, etc. The only linux distro that I've used that is as slow or slower is Linspire. Ubuntu's bootup time is so slow in fact that when I was using ubuntu I regularly choose to bootup XP instead because of how long it takes to start ubuntu. I have a Pentium M 1.7 mhz processor with 1 gig of ram. - dbk927, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think its an honest article, they even say in there that there is no right answer to what is the "best distro"... I think some of you that are getting all up in arms over this didn't even read the article.
- livestradamus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Zenwalk (3.0) & PCLinuxOS for the win.
But Ubuntu's nice too. - arsgeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hey thanks. Where'd the rising tide quote come from? I like it.
- arsgeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks for your take on the various distros! I certainly don't claim to be *nix god (I'm still somwhere around the groveling/peon level) - I actually started learning Linux here as a form of defense against other Linux enthusiasts and then got hooked.
And for humility, nothing makes me more humble than Linux From Scratch. I highly recommend the experience as I learned a LOT but man was that a lot of work and frustration as well. :) - spacebar14, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3>A rich benefactor cum space tourist
Thats disgusting!
Yes, I'm 15. - Ikioi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4It's a good thing no distro is the "best". Otherwise, can you imagine the amount of bloat it would require to satisfy everybody's needs?
I personally use RHEL and SuSE. But, I also like Debian based distro's, like Knoppix. It's all about who you are selling on the idea of Linux. If I want someone to try it out, I'll give them Knoppix on a Live CD, because its highly optimized for just this task. If I'm making a computer for someone who's never even owned a computer, or who only really needs 2 apps (browser/word processor), and I don't want to answer too many questions after they bork something up, they get Ubuntu. If I'm recommending a desktop for a geek who doesn't want too much CLI (but just enough to make them learn it eventually), but likes to play around with some advanced software like Xen or XGL, I recommend SuSE. If they want to run a dedicated server, I recommend RHEL. If they want to run a complex farm across a few CPUs, I tell them they're on their own to pick and choose between the BSD's and Nix packages that support Xen. If they need more help, I charge per the hour, friend or not, heh.
If I think the person could use a little more humility (you know, your neighborhood "l33t h4xor"), I recommend Gentoo. Nice distro, don't get me wrong, but then... I tell them that all the best hackers have memorized every cflag and compile twice daily. ;) - Kratos76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@iamcitizen
It looks like you didn't even read the description of this story. Much less the article!! Another digger just trying to be the first to submit a comment. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9Answer: Yes.
Also, there have been at least 20 stories like this on the front page. We know Ubuntu > * - Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well my (***** up) Ubuntu Edgy install boots in 3 minutes... BEAT THAT!!!! Seriously it does, I don't know why but it does :S But I have seen reports of Ubuntu booting in around 10-20 seconds which is definitely fast and a lot faster than Windows (since it also has to take like 5 minutes to get everything setup while already in the OS). Search the ubuntuforums for a "bootchart" thread
- trogdoor, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_rising_tide_lifts_all_boats
- sixdays, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Good breakdown. But I have to say that I prefer debian for RHEL. Although I haven't been running anything out of Redhat for a couple of years.
- Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why digg him down? Apart from the "Digg going down the drain" part, which is his personal opinion, he's right. No one can say which OS is good for you.
- Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1was supposed to be "can't objectively say.." oops. :P
- Xilon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How so? I understand your frustration, I also hate the "Ubuntu this", "Ubuntu that", "Ubuntu is 1337 zOMG!!!!", but when people see everyone using Windows for example, they think that it's good (well in Windows's example they don't know there even is a different OS), so if everyone starts talking about Ubuntu and how good it is then people will start thinking that it's good and might want to change. Though digg isn't the best place to "gloat" about using Ubuntu.
- nickdot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2In Dapper Ubuntu starts slower than Windows XP, but Edgy beats Windows in startup time hands down, not to mention that it shuts down even faster. Although Edgy was announced as cutting edge distro with eye candy, it feels more like a lot of work is made under the hood to make it a faster and more stable distro. BTW I have patience for all this OpenGL eye candy such as XGL (or Beryl now), as the only thing which really seems useful to me is the expose feature. But that you can use already a bit more primitive by Skippy (gnome) or Kompose (kde). Since using the very snappy Edgy, I don't even want to return to the Dapper.
- oxandrolone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Anybody tried edgy eft recently? Boot time is definitely much faster
- psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I love Ubuntu and all but . ..
who are the freakin arseholes who keep digging stories like this ????
make a mental note guys, by doing this you're skaring away potential users of Ubuntu and probabaly potetntial users of digg.com too - stasis88, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2 Yeah this story is like dupe times 1000... Nobody can say one distro, or OS for that matter is best, it all depends on what it is being used for and personal preference. Digg is really going down the drain...
- jabowery, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3I just installed the latest Ubuntu desktop (6.06.1) on a system with a wireless interface.
Well, let me qualify that:
I installed it with 4 wireless interfaces. None of them worked right. Two of them acquired their IP address properly but it wasn't possible to ping the gateway. Two of them didn't even acquire an IP address, even though the ESSIDs were visible in the network configuration properties.
I've a few more wireless cards/USB's to try. - stasis88, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I believe it would be the ***** fan boys that digg anything that is related to linux...
- i440, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5"Even if it is Linux, it violates the GNU GPL by having proprietary crap already installed."
Well, when open source software just won't cut it, what else is there to do? - eurleif, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Posted this in the wrong place, please bury.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Your answer is yes because it's all you've used. Try something else. God damn ububtu noobs everywhere.
- cliffy2000, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1A pro-Ubuntu story on Digg? Never!
- trogdoor, on 10/12/2007, -12/+2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_rising_tide_lifts_all_boats
Edit: I swear I hit reply, oh well, bury this please.
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