[NBLUG/talk] Linux Distribution Chooser

David shadoweyez at hotpop.com
Mon Jan 9 14:44:28 PST 2006


I know this may seem like trolling and/or unholy words, but (in my experience at least) in general terms there seems to be more similarities than differences among the main linux distros.  To illustrate:
	Biggest perceived differences:
		Install routines (simple GUIs, complex GUIs, text-based, manual)
		Package management systems (rpm, apt, portage, source)
		Default installed stuff (KDE, gnome, various apps and utilities)
Although with newer versions of distros the 'default installed stuff' seems to be pretty similar as standard features seem to be OO, Firefox, KDE/X.org, gaim, Gimp, and a few utilities - thank goodness for the quality and stability of these apps.

But the similarities seem to be more evident, at least when compared to windows or even the BSD's
	Biggest perceived similarities:
		Many program and system config files are similar if not the same
		Many of the utilities needed to manage the system are the same
		Many of the commands/utilities and shells are the same
		The kernel and consequently the supported hardware is usually the same
		Troubleshooting issues are usually similar in nature and not distribution specific
		At a programming level, the tools, APIs, and debuggers are similar if not the same
		The overall modularity and flexibility and 'usability' of the system is the same

Granted there are lots of idiosyncrasies with-in the various distros (that's why there is a distrowatch.com!) but when looked at as a whole or from the perspective of setting a system up to do a given task, all the distros can pretty much be tweaked to do a given task or range of tasks.  The day-to-day difference then (after install and setup) boils down to the package management system.

Am I far off?  Crazy?  Insane?  All three?  BTW, my current distro of choice is gentoo, and when I took this test that's what I got even though I kind of knew "how" to get to any of them.

~David~

Augie Schwer wrote:
> A cool test to see what Linux Distribution is best for you:
> 
> http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php
> 
> Augie.
> 
> 
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