Poll: Switch distributions?

[spacemky]

I hear LOTS of people saying that RedHat made a bad move with Fedora, and that they're switching distributions. Some say they're going with Debian, while others say SuSE or gentoo. Do you think that you'll switch distributions?

[Yusaku]

I'm evaluating fedora, more the community than the distro that seems good. I'll see nexth 2 months if stick with fedora or migrate to debian or gentoo.

[neighborlee]

I'm evaluating fedora, more the community than the distro that seems good. I'll see nexth 2 months if stick with fedora or migrate to debian or gentoo.
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I'll support distro with track record of easy installs and decent desktop naviagation which to me is mandrake..

atm fedora is just too buggy ie: rpm and weird flash install issues..but mainly having hard time abiding rpm crud ;(

latre
leebo

[jwb]

I'll support distro with track record of easy installs and decent desktop naviagation which to me is mandrake..

atm fedora is just too buggy ie: rpm and weird flash install issues..but mainly having hard time abiding rpm crud ;(

latre
leebo

That's how Linux installs go. I've been using Mandrake for 3 years now...... since 7.1. This summer, I started using RH9 because I was giving thought to getting my RHCE.

I ended up going back to Mandrake, because there were some some little things that I didn't like.

I put Fedora on my laptop 4 days ago, and I liked it well enough..... so now I'm trying it out on my workstation. I'm osrt of going the opposite direction- Mandrake to Fedora.

Funny that you mentioned flash installs- it took me forever to get flash working on Mnadrake 9.2. I got it right off the bat with Fedora.

I agree with you- Mandrake has a great track record on the install and as a desktop machine. We use it for our production servers, too.

For some reason, though, Fedora has hooked me- at least for a while.

That's what I love about Linux...... changing distros weekly on your workstation isn't a big deal. It's like when I was a shareware junky under Windows a few years ago...... only know is a distro junky. ;-)

Have you used yum with Fedora? Urpmi was the one big thing I missed from Mandrake...... yum seems to be just a powerful and reliable as urpmi (thanks to the yum.conf file I found here in the faqs).

The one *big* thing that I notice with RH9/Fedora vs. Mandrake is stability with X. Every now and then, X would lock up on me with Mandrake. Every version that I can remember. All on the same hardware. And I keep it all updated. On the same box- RH8/9/Fedora have never had a single issue with X. I don't know why.

I do wish Fedora was more flexible with the install. I try to do a slim install..... with Mandrake, I can get Gnome, Open Office, Evolution, SSH, some other basic stuff for a decent workstation at under 1GB. Since RH/Fedora pre-selects so many packages....... trying to get the same install comes in at around 1.7 GBs for me.

Sorry....... I'm rambling.

I think it would be hard to use Fedora in a production environment based on what they're saying now about errata. of course- that's what RH is aiming for. RHEL sales. I just hope Mandrake doesn't move any further in that direction. They've already dropped their errata support to 12 and 18 months respectively(for desktop and core packages.)

[nickshub]

Upgraded one RH9 workstation to Fedora and RH7.3 server to Debian. So far Fedora has been running ok on desktop, but it remains to be seen if I'll use it as server distro.

[jpearl24]

I am liking the fedora so far ... i only had a problem with the java install untill i read the FAQ. Flash installled fine and all programs are working fine... I dont like the add remove package program. i have been using mandrake 9.2 up until now .. mandrake is just toot slow but everything works on the distro... Every time i install dabian i cant get it to work lol..There is so many bugs in it that i cant stand it... i end up fixing thedistro for hours and X server is not very reliable...I personally think devian has alotta growing up to do...

[cheatersrealm]

I switched from gentoo, because I wasn't sure if I should keep compiling everything from source or not.. and it seems like fedora is just as quick, but without the large compile times..

other than having a few issues in setup, I've really been liking fedora..

not sure if I'm staying with it yet though..

[rsr]

For me, the problem is not that I don't like Fedora, it's that I need a stable OS for use in a server environment. Fedora is a beta quality distribution for hobbyists with a 3 month life cycle. I've installed a copy to play and, for what it is, it's great. I probably will keep a spare box around running Fedora so I can play with the latest bleeding edge stuff but I would never run a server in a production environment on something like this.

I will definitely be switching our servers from Red Hat to another distribution but I don't know which yet. I'm looking into White Box Enterprise Linux which is a Free (as in speech) clone of Red Hat's Enterprise Linux.

http://whiteboxlinux.org/news.html

I haven't tried it out yet but it looks like an interesting project.

[boodie]

I've been trying Linux distros for several years. Every time I do an install, some piece of hardware is not supported. With Fedora, I used a PC (this one) I've had for some time, so I figured all the hardware would be acceptable. I was wrong - Fedora doesn't even detect my SB AWE64 soundcard.

I had Mandrake 9.2 on the test HDD I use for Linux, but it would not set up my USR 56K modem correctly. It detected it, but would not configure the right COMM port.

Since I'm a Linux newbie, I will keep on trying out distros until one detects all my hardware, and I can actually use it. Until then, I use 98lite (with Mozilla!).

[dswalinski]

I've been trying Linux off and on for a little while now. I downloaded RH 7 and 8 and someone in the office purchased 9. I've installed and played to various degrees with each (mostly 9 which is actually serving as a print and file server in the office). I've also downloaded and tried Debian on someone's suggestion. Didn't care for all the work it required in just getting it running and have now started working with Fedora to give it a shot. So far it seems to be what I'll stick with given it's ease of use. Of course the low cost allows me to keep looking around and seeing if there's something better... and isn't that what it's all about? :)

[Beller0ph1]

This is my first shot at Linux with Fedora Core 1, and so far so good. I guess I just haven't experienced anything else. Could I switch distros while keeping fedora installed?

[dswalinski]

This is my first shot at Linux with Fedora Core 1, and so far so good. I guess I just haven't experienced anything else. Could I switch distros while keeping fedora installed?

Sure. Just create another partition. Assuming you have Grub installed it'll just make it one of the choices during boot.

If you're new to Linux I'd suggest that you'll be fine with Fedora as long as you know that Fedora is meant to change quickly (every 6-8 months). Old versions may receive support but the majority will be on the next release.

[Beller0ph1]

If you're new to Linux I'd suggest that you'll be fine with Fedora as long as you know that Fedora is meant to change quickly (every 6-8 months). Old versions may receive support but the majority will be on the next release.

Ooo, then I get upgrade experience!

[rogerdugans]

I have been messing around with various distros for about 10 years or so- RH7.3 (with the LTSP packages) was the first time I stuck with any distro for a long period.
Since that time I have ALWAYS had linux running on at least two computers and currently on 4.
RH9 was pretty good but there were two things I despised:
console booting requires an edit to inittab
wine didn't work

Fedora Core 1 has changed that:
wine works

console boot still requires an edit though, and installing/compiling some software (like NVidia drivers!!!!) is a royal PITA!!!!!

Nevertheless, I ma very pleased with Fedora so far, and still use it on my main machine as the sole OS. The other three linux pcs I have are currently testing other distros however, and at least two of them (NForce2 motherboards) will probably NOT get Fedora installed again: by the time driver issues are simplified and no longer a hassle I am sure to have found another distro I like equally well- or maybe better!!

Without the issues above, I would not even be looking.