[Sussex] What distro?

[Steve Dobson]

Paul

On Tue, Jun 28, 2005 at 04:25:12PM +0100, Paul Howard wrote:
> I have been happily using Linspire as my distro of choice for about a year  
> and a half
> now but feel its time for a change.

I'm not a fan of Linspire as (so I read) they run everything as root.
Is that still true?  This will just make it easier for hackers to gain
access to those parts of the system they shouldn't and we all know where
that leads.
 
> Now before everyone starts kicking Linspire,

Opps, to late :-)

> I know all the problems and  
> all the usual
> moans about it but it's still a damn good distro. The trouble is a lot of  
> the apps are
> getting way out of date from their CNR (click and run) wharehouse and I  
> want a distro
> that I can install any app I want onto rather than just the ones that they  
> have had time
> to update.

Well I was going to suggest Debian, esp as sarge has just been released,
but if you want the latest and greatest software then there are other
distros that are better, like Gentoo.
 
> I tried a recent (3.8) I think it was version of Knoppix but it didn't  
> work well with my
> hardware (Dell laptop) and the last time I tried Mandriva I wasn't that  
> impressed.

What Dell have you got?  I've run (and know several other) Dell laptops
without any problem under Debian and Knoppix.
 
> So the question is - what distro to try next. I have always preffered  
> Debian based
> distros so far but would be willing to try an RPM based one.
> 
> One thing it must handle well though is wireless networking. Linspire does  
> this
> wonderfully and detetcs and uses my laptops built in wifi perfectly.
> 
> I have got a copy of Xandros Business edition 3 to try out but haven't had  
> time to
> fiddle with it yet.  Is it any good?
> 
> Any suggestions?

I'm still a big Debian fan.  But then I admit that I am not looking for the
latest versions of software, any I do want I compile myself, which isn't 
often - I look for stability and a good set of standards to help me 
admin the box.

Steve

-- 
QOTD:
	Sacred cows make great hamburgers.
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