Ok I posted this on the Ubuntu Forums with this of the intent of a non distroist post 
So I replaced the openSUSE option with an Ubuntu option to see what you guys think. And yes, if you wish, you can be a patriot and vote on that forum too 
Iām not voting because Im an Ubuntuser by heart cheers
Vote? ā¦
Voters: 12. You may not vote on this poll
Ooops ā¦ never mind ā¦ 
I voted Fedora ā¦ for what I am not sure ā¦ is he running for mayor?
Fedora 13 vs Ubuntu 10.04 vs Mandriva 2010 Spring vs Sabayon 5.3
This is very vague ā¦ it lacks a question, as in āWhat do you use?ā, āWhich is most stable?ā, āWhich has the best eye candy?ā, āWhat is the best bathroom OS?ā, āWhich has the latest version of ncurses?ā, ā¦
Fedora 13ā¦ thereās no other optionā¦ I specially like the Ubuntu implementation of Plymouthā¦ not to mention the implementation of Gwibber (broken ? lol) and eventually the long update processā¦ the beauty of GRUB2 implementationā¦ amongst other minor thingsā¦ Ubuntu is miles away from Fedora, but I do like Ubuntuās concepts about modern desktops and some of their software like notify-osd and unityā¦ but the implementation of other things is very poorā¦ not to mention that they contribute a lot to major upstream projects like GNOME (1% from Canonical vs 16% from Red Hat)ā¦ they nice at taking hikes from other people
Cheersā¦ gotta go fedoraā¦
Hello ketheriel,
After 10+ years of /suse/i, Iām running FC13 exclusively. I will boot OpenSUSE 11.3 on my netbook occasionally to make sure that everything is still broken ā¦ but FC13 is just sooooo stelar ā¦ I donāt really want to boot OpenSUSE on my netbook anymore ā¦
I have never used Ubuntu and have no desire to do so. 1% ā¦ yep ā¦ that says alot about Canbecomical, the great penguin innovator ā¦
Furthermore, I have read several articles that indicate Canbecomical does a ()&&*$ job with updates ā¦ things magically get broken ā¦ if that interested me ā¦ well ā¦ Iād run windoZe ā¦
I have read all your posts about the openSUSE package management. Actually, I have read most of your posts. I find it interesting that you have left openSUSE for the same reason I left Mandrake (now called Mandriva). The main difference for me was that even the Mandrake/Mandriva developers admit that smart package manager is better than urpmi. The Mandriva developers recommend that you use smart package manager. They say urpmi is ok for simple and basic dependencies, but smart is much better for handling the complex dependencies.
I left Mandrake back before Conectiva was bought out. I left when it was still in discussion. This was not my reason for leaving though. My reason was that urpmi borked my system so badly, I had no system left. It uninstalled urpmi, rpm and another 4000 some rpmās. All I was doing was an upgrade. I know/knew about repositories, even back then. That was not the problem. Even the Mandrake people I talked to at the time admitted it should not have happened.
Now then, I have used just about ever package manager there is out there. Package management is one thing I know fairly well. I was involved in the smart package manager project for over 3 years and was writing the documentation for it. I also wrote a plugin for smart.
I have used Fedoraās yum, and Sabayon and Ubuntu. Do you realize that the package manager in each of these systems is in python. If you break python, you have a broken package manager. I did this in Sabayon 4.x. I have also used pkgtools in Slackware and *BSD.
ZYpp, zypper is closest to smart. After that itās closest to yum. Both smart and yum are written in python and ZYpp is written in C++. Donāt blame satsolver because in rpm5 satsolver is included. I sometimes talk with Jeff Johnson. He used to work for Red Hat and maintained rpm. He developed rpm5.
zypper doesnāt have some commands smart does, and I do miss them, but then thatās why there is openfate.
What keeps me with openSUSE now, is some of the minor things. 1) I do like the software module in YaST. I like the layout. I also like the way the software module/zypper handle dependencies. Thanks to libsatsolver. Other than that itās the menu. Yes, the menu. Other distros do not do the menu like openSUSE. I like how itās laid out and organized.
After 10+ years of /suse/i, Iām running FC13 exclusively. I will boot OpenSUSE 11.3 on my netbook occasionally to make sure that everything is still broken ā¦ but FC13 is just sooooo stelar ā¦ I donāt really want to boot OpenSUSE on my netbook anymore ā¦
I would also prefer yum to zypper, not counting that yum doesnāt have a usable GUIā¦ there are some broken packages here tooā¦
In fact, I left Fedora only because one day all GTK menubars disappeared (yeah, ALL menubars from ALL applications :().
But now I wouldnāt go back to Fedora even if I got back my menubarsā¦ as for me, I find the Suse desktop much more complete than the Fedora one.
+1 for zypper, its a really nice bit of programming.
Hello Jonathan,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here ā¦
While itās certainly an exaggeration to say that I have āleftā OpenSUSE, my father taught me well,
never let the truth interfere with a good story
, so letās just say that I have left OpenSUSE for now ā¦ :).
None of my criticisms have been directed toward the technical merits of OpenSUSEās approach to package management. I donāt think I have presumed so much knowledge as to offer such a critique. My āargumentā is actually very simple ā¦ OpenSUSE NEEDS to make XXXYYY a little easier and less error prone. As people are intrinsically defensive by nature ā¦ I ended up in a much deeper technical discussion/argument than I had anticipated ā¦ and across several threads ā¦ and I enjoyed it.
The deeper understanding I have gained from this discussion, including what you have just written, reinforces my preconception that /suse/i has had a superior approach for several years. A better implementation of gnome from /suse/i has been on my wish-list ever since gnome became usable. I am still unsatisfied with my own technical understanding of the issues around ZYpp/Yast/packagekit/gstreamer integration. I can only say, and have said ad museum, the gstreamer/packagekit integration in FC13 is AWESOME! The end result, āease of useā, is what we should work toward, what I am trying to advocate, irrespective of the technical underpinnings.
After playing the irreverent gadfly so often on this forum of late, I actually feel obligated to point out some of OpenSUSEās real strengths over other distributions:
)
Iām still having fun!
oxala
How about Arch? Pacman is written entirely in C (if Iām not mistaken) and if you break C in Linux, well, youāve broken more than youāre package manager - so C gets treated pretty carefully - other than that, itās customizable like gentoo, binary like everybody else, rolling release, and very fast.
I used Arch for a while, but needed windoze for a college class I took, and after it was over, I went back to linux, but I didnāt want to set up arch again, so I found debian, then Ubuntu (8.04). Ubuntu became my easy installer for Debian, and I got lost in the fandom/crowd. And I lost my root(s) (pun intended).
All I know is that if you get an LPI-C you get (for absolutely zero $) Novel certs as well. They are like <$200 each. RHCE costs like over 4k, doesnāt it? But for home/end user/desktop experience I have to say (of these choices) Sabayon - if only for itās rolling release style. And the bootup music is pretty spiffy =D
Ubuntu because its my second favorite distro (openSUSE being first) and 10.04 is a good release
I voted for Ubuntu. IMO you cant compare Ubuntu LTS with Sabayon. Sabayon is cutting edge like Debian testing while Lucid is similar to Debian Stable.