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I'm curious which distributions the Linux users use. Me: After about four years of splitting my time between Arch (desktop) and Ubuntu (laptop), I've switched

I'm curious which distributions the Linux users use. Me: After about four years of splitting my time between Arch (desktop) and Ubuntu (laptop), I've switched to Debian (Wheezy) on my new laptop. So far so good - I haven't missed anything from Ubuntu, and if anything it's a bit easier to manage overall.

lrvick 12y ago
Arch / Gentoo here
joveian 12y ago
I'm using Arch at the moment and intend to go back to NetBSD when the Intel video support stabilizes. I've used Ubuntu also and find Arch mostly an improvent. One thing I miss from Ubuntu is the installation of (most) games under /usr/games, so when I want to play a game I can just ls /usr/games to see what is available, although I prefer that games go in a games directory in my home directory (I should just symlink stuff there, which is what I do for anything installed under wine). I've also just kept a text file of applications that I've installed and am likely to forget about since I tend to install stuff that sounds cool to try it out from some casual mention on the web somewhere. I prefer that my OS be as simple and understandable as possible and Arch makes that much easier (other than systemd, which is the source of most of the problems I've had with Arch). More important to me than the OS is the details of my desktop setup, which is the same under any of the above: I run GNU screen in urxvt and ratpoison from screen. That way, any output from applications launched from ratpoison goes to screen 0. I make various aliases for things I use regularly, so e.g. e starts an editor in a new screen window. I can use screen or ratpoison window splitting if I need to see multiple windows at once. This is by far the least annoyance setup I have found on any OS. There are menu apps that work with ratpoison, but I find the text file + command line + aliases method to be much less annoying than any app launcher I've used on any OS.
kelnos 12y ago
I cut my teeth on Red Hat 5/6 (pre-Fedora), but switched to Gentoo in 2002 or so. I finally bit the bullet last year and went to Debian (unstable), after getting tired of fiddling with Gentoo and waiting for things to compile (MacBook Air here, not super fast).

lrvick 12y ago

Arch / Gentoo here

joveian 12y ago

I'm using Arch at the moment and intend to go back to NetBSD when the Intel video support stabilizes. I've used Ubuntu also and find Arch mostly an improvent. One thing I miss from Ubuntu is the installation of (most) games under /usr/games, so when I want to play a game I can just ls /usr/games to see what is available, although I prefer that games go in a games directory in my home directory (I should just symlink stuff there, which is what I do for anything installed under wine). I've also just kept a text file of applications that I've installed and am likely to forget about since I tend to install stuff that sounds cool to try it out from some casual mention on the web somewhere. I prefer that my OS be as simple and understandable as possible and Arch makes that much easier (other than systemd, which is the source of most of the problems I've had with Arch). More important to me than the OS is the details of my desktop setup, which is the same under any of the above: I run GNU screen in urxvt and ratpoison from screen. That way, any output from applications launched from ratpoison goes to screen 0. I make various aliases for things I use regularly, so e.g. e starts an editor in a new screen window. I can use screen or ratpoison window splitting if I need to see multiple windows at once. This is by far the least annoyance setup I have found on any OS. There are menu apps that work with ratpoison, but I find the text file + command line + aliases method to be much less annoying than any app launcher I've used on any OS.

kelnos 12y ago

I cut my teeth on Red Hat 5/6 (pre-Fedora), but switched to Gentoo in 2002 or so. I finally bit the bullet last year and went to Debian (unstable), after getting tired of fiddling with Gentoo and waiting for things to compile (MacBook Air here, not super fast).