There and back again. Ubuntu.

[chrispche]

I have used Ubuntu since the days of Dapper Drake. Now I use Jaunty Ubuntu 9.04. Recently I got curious and decided to try out some other distros. So there I was browsing through Distrowatch. I decided to try out openSUSE, Mandriva and Fedora.

What I want to know is I tried all these out. None can compare to the stability and usability of Ubuntu. The best of the lot if I have to say is Fedora.

So once again I'm back using Ubuntu. The others were just to quirky. But they have there following right? So it must be usable to some. Why am I stuck on Ubuntu.

I'm not the only one after some research I find other's who are unable to pull away from Ubuntu. I mean it's like a drug or something, you simply cannot give it up. My reasons for wanting to move on is I think it's about time.

Seems to me I'm stuck.

[Confuseling]

Without trying to sound trite; use whatever works best for you.

Being stuck on a distro could be seen as annoying, but then so could chronic distro hopping.

Basically, Linux is Linux. Some distros are better at some things, and some work better with different hardware. If you find a distro that you enjoy using, with a community you feel comfortable in, then what's the problem?

[and if you can't get rid of the itch... do what I do. Have another partition (or a few) and when you feel like trying something new, go for it! I learn something new about the Linux tree every time I poke around on another branch...]

Also - if you like Ubuntu, but want something a bit more powerful, try Debian. It's basically the same, but less rigid, and the testing version is a rolling release (or at least can be used as one), presenting its own challenges.

[growbag]

I used Ubuntu from version 5.04 until 8.04 and was very happy with it until two sad events -

1. A string of bad "updates" that started around 7.10 and seemed to be getting worse which caused total system mess-ups each time I updated.

2. The forum became overwhelmingly fascist in their enforcement of political correctness over help and support. With clueless rude kids in charge, instead of level headed responsible people.

I switched to openSUSE 10.3 and was amazed at how stable it was in comparison. I had used Ubuntu on 5 of my computers including using it as a router/web server/file server/mail server, so not just simple desktop stuff!

It took a few months to get used to doing things differently, but I now know more, and can tackle seemingly harder problems with openSUSE, than I could with Ubuntu.

I have one word to describe openSUSE - Professionalism! However I will concede that Kubuntu 9.04 is a very well put together distro, and is the best non-suse distro I've seen so far.

[NZCyrus]

Originally Posted by chrispche

None can compare to the stability and usability of Ubuntu. The best of the lot if I have to say is Fedora.

I recently decided to give a KDE desktop with openSUSE a go, and made the switch from GNOME with Fedora 11. Mainly because it was a bit too 'cutting edge' for my ThinkPad R51 and a number of times my system borked after upgrades.

Am quite pleased with openSUSE and KDE but am finding 'zypper' and how the 'repositories' are set up, a steep learning curve. As of today, give me 'YUM' any day.

However, plodding on and waiting for the next stable openSUSE KDE release mid November, and hope that I can find my way around a bit better by then.

[smpoole7]

Originally Posted by chrispche

What I want to know is I tried all these out. None can compare to the stability and usability of Ubuntu.

It depends on what you're trying to do. If all you want is a desktop that's painlessly easy to use, Ubuntu seems to be a good choice. But on the other side of the aisle, I had to install Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on one of our servers and have thus far been completely underwhelmed. In fact, I'm tempted to call it a "boat anchor," but that would probably be unfair. Some of this is just what one gets used to: for example, just this past week, I was looking for a way to change the runlevel on this Ubuntu server ... only to discover that Ubuntu doesn't do it that way. To disable GUI login, you basically delete the "gdm" or "kdm" startup links in the /etc/init.d directory!

To my way of thinking, that's kind of clunky. Ubuntu's propensity for using the "sudo" command, rather than having you log in as root when you're doing major changes, is another big difference for me. I understand their reasoning, and I'm not going to say it's wrong, per se. But my choice is for "su," followed by the commands that I want, then "exit" to become a normal user again. Personal preference.

(One reason I prefer this is because, under their approach, even directories such as "/root" can be viewed. That's a security risk, in my book. But admittedly, there are other views of this and I accept that.)

Bottom line: it's a matter of choice. Those choices will be determined by what's important to you. In my job, I need to be able to go in with SSH to administer these servers. Yast ("Yet Another Setup Tool") is by far the best I've ever seen for that, and it's an Opensuse exclusive.

To each his/her own. If you're happy with Ubuntu, well ... I'm very happy for you. You're another Linux user, and that's what counts the most.

[deano_ferrari]

@NZCyrus: Yes, there is a learning-curve with zypper package manager (as with yum or apt-get) but its worth it:

http://opensuse-tutorials.com/2008/0...ps-and-tricks/

Zypper/Usage/11.1 - openSUSE

Zypper cheat sheets as provided in recent links:

http://files.opensuse.org/opensuse/e...at-sheet-1.pdf

http://files.opensuse.org/opensuse/e...at-sheet-2.pdf

[devnullv2]

Ubuntu stable? lol.

Sorry, but no. Debian is stable, CentOS is stable. if you stay with just official and packman repos OpenSuse is pretty stable.

Gentoo and Arch's stability are usually directly proportionate to the user's knowledge and level of wisdom in their choices.

Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Mandriva, etc.. are all flaky by comparison by far.

[TaraIkeda]

I too like Ubuntu as for the most part its pretty usable, granted I do like openSUSE too but being more of a Gnome fan right now Ubuntu is my distro of choice.

[mmarif4u]

As mentioned by Confuseling above, it all comes to your choice and taste with the different hardware. I used Ubuntu(started with Ubuntu). Then jump to openSUSE, because i find it more stable than Ubuntu. And till now i am using openSUSE. I had installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my office PC, i want to change it but as we know there is not much time to change things in office.

Even sometime openSUSE didn't detect wifi on my old PC, but i follow the hard way to do it, and that's why its said:
"Have a lot of fun".

So the conclusion is use any one which suits you better. All are Linux flavors.
I can't go back to Ubuntu on my personal laptop, because i am in love with openSUSE and KDE.
Other than that, i like zypper more than apt. YaST more than Synaptic.
It works more flawless for me than Ubuntu.

And yeh, you can use VB to install any other distro. How many...upto you.

[TaraIkeda]

Originally Posted by mmarif4u

YaST more than Synaptic.

Except when it auto closes after installing a app, I dislike having to restart YAST each time for a new app that I forget when installing a mass amount of packages.
YAST should have the option to choose between having auto close and closing at the users leisure.