What Linux distribution do you use?

#81 I am running Linspire 5-O and Ubuntu

#82 Since sometime last winter, I've switched to Ubuntu. I must say I'm really pleased with this descision. Gentoo broke one too many times for me, and I finally decided that even though the geek in me really likes Gentoo, I needed something stable so I can get the work done. Ubuntu has provided that environment while still being as easy to update. To be perfectly honest, Gentoo stable probably is as rock solid, but what then would be the point of running Gentoo? =)

#83 Sad to say, i no longer use gentoo, nor any other linux distro anymore due to the fact i got very frustrated in maintaining the system, having to almost constantly edit cryptically formatted text files. And then there's the whole package update nightmare (the horror, the horror), and of course buggy drivers (don't use an ati card, i repeat, do not use an ati card!). Not to mention that in all the time i used it, i could never get the machine to "suspend", "sleep", or "hibernate" without everything going haywire.

Safe to say, i've grown to prefer the relative simplicity of a mac coupled with Mac OS X :)
Now, where's that "Who uses a mac?" thread...

#84 Yeah, ati support is a lame duck, go Nvidia! - that is why I'll never buy ati until they fix their linux drivers.

I use Mandrivia 2005 LE and find all my hardware supported out of the box, NTFS shares automagically setup, sound drivers for a std soundblaster Live! already working without doing anything, everything rocks right out of the box!

It isn't geeky or fancy, it just gets the job done, blender, wolfenstein and gimp are all really easy to set up.

#85 James: I can understand the editing of config files been a pain. dispatch-config eases that by allowing you to roll back and redo config changes just in case you make a hash of it, but it still is a pain when config updates don't merge easily. Then again, the only config files I need to spend any time keeping up to date are on my web/email server for apache/php/mysql/postfix. For my desktop machine, I've never had to manually edit a config file (post initial setup) so far.

Keeping packages up to date it could not be any easier.

emerge sync
emerge world

Ensures I have the latest stable version of any program/application installed on my machine. IMO that is a huge improvement compared to keeping windows up to date. Yes you can keep the OS itself up to date via windows update, but you still have to check for patches for most other applications you have installed (unless the app/game has auto update support).

Having used gentoo daily now since January-05 I've yet to have a problem keeping the OS/Apps up to date. Latest security fixes for any app find their way onto my system without any trouble at all :)

ATI support has always been terrible on linux, anyone wanting to install linux and considering a new graphics card would strongly be advised to get an Nvidia card.

That said, I've heard a lot of good things about the Mac recently, so I can't blame you for getting one :P End of the day whatever OS you feel you're most productive on and supports the tools you use the best, should be the OS of choice. Theres no point using Linux just for the sake of using Linux, at least for a work based environment.

#86 Slackware. I still boot back into Win2k for some things (Photoshop, games) since I haven't been in a mood to get WINE working. I highly recommend Slack if you're a tinkerer at heart, and don't mind the occasional config file. Personally, I enjoy them and it's what beckoned me to Linux. :)

#87 For my development server, I use slackware. My Girlfriend recently asked me to hook up a computer for her, though, and I'm thinking that MEPIS looks pretty sweet and easy. Anybody have any experience with it?

#88 Been using Gentoo since it came out, and before that it was Debian or Slackware as my poison of choice.. hehe

Don't have any problems with Gentoo as it's certainly come a long way since it was first unleashed... and I got my computer setup exactly how I like now so I'm happy :)

Plus I can spit out Win32 and Linux versions of Torque with one command so that's fun too.. hehe

#89 Gentoo for a workstation, Slackware for a server.
Debian if I don't have time to properly install Gentoo.

EDIT: (11/18/2007)

Times change. Now, I'm all about Ubuntu, across the board.

#90 I use series 4 FreeBSD for my server. I'm not too fond of Linux workstations, but I've always had great experiences with SuSE.

#91

Quote:Plus I can spit out Win32 and Linux versions of Torque with one command so that's fun too.. hehe

Steven: Are you saying you have cross compilation of TGE setup to produce a win32 exe? If so I'd be interested in knowing what you did to get this up and running.

#92 Yes, I've a cross-compiler set up, and it wasn't fun doing it either... hehe
I'll go through it all again and write down everything I do, and post up a tutorial over the weekend.. how's that sound?

#93 Sounds great :)

I've done cross compilation a few times in the past, although usually to compile to a compleatly different architecture like the mk68 and SX52. I've never gotten around to finding out how to cross compile for windows though, so a tutorial would be a great help :)

#94 Well I had a spare couple hours so just did it just now... hope it helps :)
http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=34330
Post in there if you get any problems in it.. it was rather quickly done and I may have screwed up a bit.. hehe

#95 Ubuntu 5.04

#96 I've started off with trying out rpm-based distros back in 1999, but for a couple of years I settled down with Slackware and FreeBSD. I was told about Gentoo in such high regard, so I finally tried it out this year.

I think I will stay with Gentoo, because it is the first distro that I'm completely happy with having all of my programming/development tools packages installed properly in quite a while. I don't mind if it takes a day or so to recompile everything when I update, because I have another computer right beside it. I also like it because there's a gentoo ebuild in the portage tree of one of the programs I wrote for Linux a while ago. :)

#97 Ubuntu 5.10 on a Dell Inspiron 9300. 17" 1920x1200, 2GB RAM, 6800 vid,...not quite a fast as my workstation but for mobile dev it is a sweet setup for cheap. Out-of-the-box Wine installs with a couple mouse clicks, and that fills most of the wholes left by the tooling developers that ignore us Linux folks :)

For servers, CentOS hands down. A game server never needs the latest and greatest...only needs to be reasonably up-to-date and ROCK solid. CentOS is great for the price...free...when you can't afford some of the commercial servers or enterprise distros.

my two cents...

#98 I've been using Arch Linux(think something in between debian and slackware) - no dual boot - since last summer as a desktop fairly successfully. I've had to accept using the console as the main means of getting stuff done beyond program-launching and moving files, and also occasionally having to dig through a config or something that breaks following a package update or to get a compile working, but those cases are relatively rare and the system runs so smoothly the *rest* of the time I'm no longer bothered by this tradeoff in elegance. Plus because Arch is a very minimalistic-DIY type of deal(hmm indie spirit there...never thought of that way) I have a decent understanding of how the system works, which is satisfying. It was only once I was willing to make those certain tradeoffs(and did a bit of hardware monkeying) that I really had a decent experience with Linux.

Even so I'm contemplating getting an external drive and putting an XP install on it now.... for app compatibility purposes, since even though Wine is doing quite well for a lot of stuff now there's always a missing piece...

#99 Ubuntu 6.06 and Fedora Core 5

#100 Just installed it on Ubuntu 6.06, runs fine