TipMonkies has an article highlighting some of the major distros and their derivatives. The article discusses some history and the advantages and disadvantages of each distro. If you have not been keeping up with Linux developments, or have yet to try a distro, it may be a good place to start.
Quite up-to-date as well (it mentions that Mandriva has acquired Lycoris). I’m just a bit disappointed that it didn’t mention Kubuntu in the Ubuntu section… 🙂
More like the beginner’s guide to eye strain. That page has some tiny fonts.
More like the beginner’s guide to eye strain. That page has some tiny fonts.
LOL, the beginner’s guide to eye strain
FOr me, scaling the fonts isn’t a big deal,b ut it’s a bit of a pain in the ass when sites make fonts that small. While I’m not suggesting they should go all out and make their sites speech-enabled for the hearing impaired (although that would be nice, I suppose), I dunno why they assume that we all have 20/20 vision either.
While I’m not suggesting they should go all out and make their sites speech-enabled for the hearing impaired
That’s not what I meant *slap*
I looked at the .CSS for the site and it has the font size set to 8pt. What the hell, everybody knows that text needs to be at least 10pt to be readable. Some people even have trouble with anything less than 12pt.
Hard to believe that somebody would write an article such as this. You are only asking for a non-stop barage of hate mail. Must be a glutton for punishment.
This is probably the best one of these “distribution round up for beginners” articles I have ever seen. Its about time that someone did a good one.
..I must say this is written pretty well. A fine read for everyone who would like to weat a feat into the Linux. Overviews of distros are balanced and very unbiased. Good work!
…is a bit off I think. He mentions Pat’s health, which yes is a concern, but AFAIK Pat is trying to think of a way to handle things if anything where to happen to him. Its reads to me as if to say ” good distro but seek else where”. Which after using many distros I always end up back on slackware and find it to be eaiser to use since there are no autoconfig tools to get in the way
People who want 2 use Slack and Gnome could better download Dropline GNOME befofter installing Slackware. http://www.dropline.net
Secondly Slackware & Gentoo both needs an better understanding of Linux and is not meant for the absolute beginner. I think Ubuntu is great for the beginner and for office use who don’t expect too much from the command-line.
The core of the OS [Slackware] is based off of BSD, whereas Debian and RedHat are based off of AT&T UNIX
Uhm, what’s that supposed to mean?! In which way “based off”? I believe that
– Linux and BSD are both based on AT&T UNIX (with regards to ideas, not the implementation)
– Slackware, Debian, and RedHat are based on the Linux kernel written by Linus Torvalds
– The BSD’s (FreeBSD, NetBSD, and others) are based on, well BSD.
Am I to learn something new here?
Uhm, what’s that supposed to mean?! In which way “based off”? I believe that
Slackware uses BSD style inits. other than that, it looks an awful lot like Redhat, Debian, and other distros.
Slackware uses BSD style inits.
Ever looked at the init scripts in NetBSD or FreeBSD? RCng is completely different from Slack init. Slack uses executable bits to decide for most services whether they should be started or not, which is fairly unique (and clean IMHO).
But the Slack init scripts are no “BSD-like”.
I reckon the fonts are easily readable, but that’s me. “CTRL +” to increase the font size of a page.
First, we do understand the fonts are quite small. We’re working on a complete site revamp with a whole new look, and yes, bigger fonts.
As for the article, we appreciate all comments good and bad (though it seems most comments, even on Slashdot, have been positive). We’re a relatively new site (around for less than two months) so there are still things we’re working on. We do plan on doing some similar articles in the future, such as a Live-CD roundup, and have some interesting interviews coming up as well. Thanks everyone for reading though.
Quite up-to-date as well (it mentions that Mandriva has acquired Lycoris). I’m just a bit disappointed that it didn’t mention Kubuntu in the Ubuntu section… 🙂
Actually it does mention Kubuntu in the Ubuntu section. The last sentence metions it
For those that prefer KDE, you can install it via apt-get with Ubuntu, or you can also check out Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with KDE out of the box.
“- Linux and BSD are both based on AT&T UNIX (with regards to ideas, not the implementation)”
BSD is a direct decendant of AT&T UNIX. Linux is just a POSIX Compliant Kernel.
I was rather disappointed to see that the author simply grouped Xandros and Linspire together and hardly says anything about them. These are two of the user friendliest distros around. I also like how he grouped Lycoris with them. Lycoris is hardly Debian based.
Actually it does mention Kubuntu in the Ubuntu section. The last sentence metions it
Mmmm…I’m pretty sure that wasn’t in the original article, I think they may have added it after my comment. I think I did a text search for Kubuntu and came up empty-handed.
Oh well, whatever, I’m glad they put it in. Kubuntu rocks!
/Mandriva on my desktop, Kubuntu on my laptop
BSD is a direct decendant of AT&T UNIX. Linux is just a POSIX Compliant Kernel.
But it is still true that BSD does not contain any code from AT&T UNIX, isn’t it?
…Lycoris is *not* a Debian derivative.
Berkley’s original License for AT&T UNIX was with AT&T it gave them a license to actual UNIX Code and to modify it as they wished, they came into conflict with AT&T and were forced to make some modifications. in total i believe 3 files were removed from BSD and numerous files had to be modified. so BSD still contains code of AT&T UNIX origin, but only what AT&T would permit.
also its because of this dispute and its ratification that SCO can’t try and build a case against BSD like it did against Linux
I don’t think this guy has ever used slackware or Debian.
He should know about Debian stable/testing/unstable…
The core of the OS [Slackware] is based off of BSD
What does that mean? My Slackware has linux 2.4.29 / 2.6.10 / 2.6.11.11, i cannot find a bsd kernel here.
whereas Debian and RedHat are based off of AT&T UNIX
Debian and Redhat are linux distros too, aren’t they?
No place for articles like that in osnews.
I am the head administrator of TipMonkies, and I wanna first thank everyone for checking the article. Now, as for the Slackware/BSD confusion, Jason was discussing the init scripts from my understanding. As for other distros, there is only so much we could write without publishing some extended history of Linux. Remember, there are hundreds of distros available. We will be doing a live-cd article soon, and may discuss various “user friendly” distros in the future.
…Lycoris is *not* a Debian derivative.
Correct. It was originally based on Caldera.
First, we do understand the fonts are quite small. We’re working on a complete site revamp with a whole new look, and yes, bigger fonts.
I really enjoyed the article(what font problems?). It was extremely informative, concise and professionally written. I’ve been linux (yes, I’m a distro whore, I suppose) and I picked a number of little nuggets that I wasn’t aware of. Keep up the good work. I’m bookmarking this one.
so BSD still contains code of AT&T UNIX origin, but only what AT&T would permit.
Ah! I didn’t know that. Thanks for the information.