Switching to Linux, but which one?
Submitted by Robert Daeley on Mon, 2009-12-21 15:45.
In VirtualBox at the moment, I have three virtual machines:
- Ubuntu 9.04
- Ubuntu 9.10, and
- Xubuntu (also 9.04).
The last of those is my most recent, after I started doing a bit of reading on Xfce, which in turn was prompted by the combination of Gnome getting more and more embedded with Mono apps/libs (and therefore infected with Microsoft cooties) and also the UI direction Gnome is headed for in version 3.
Both of these things can be “undone” on a case-by-case basis by uninstalling Mono folderol or enabling old UI bits, but I’m reluctant to put that much work into making a desktop usable and then having to monitor it all to make sure it doesn’t keep happening. Also, this recent brouhaha creeped me out about Gnome.
In trying to decide what exactly I’m switching to next year (or next month possibly), I’ve been experimenting with a few options. In addition to the above, I’ve tried out Kubuntu, a Debian install, a Mint install, and a GUI-less build this year.
KDE’s interface just felt entirely too clunky — like what I imagine a Windows user would want if they didn’t want to use Windows anymore but still wanted to feel comfortable. [Shudder!] There are a lot of great apps available, but naturally those are available on other desktop environments if I don’t mind the library overhead.
Debian was fine, but there were enough moments where things didn’t just work (or just didn’t work) where they did in Ubuntu that I decided to leave Debian aside for now. In switching operating systems, I will have enough to adjust to without worrying about fundamental OS pieces not working. However, I will revisit it in the future.
Mint, while pretty to look at, didn’t really add much value for me to consider it an improvement over Ubuntu or, indeed, Debian.
The GUI-less server install I will be using quite a bit as I switch servers from Mac to Linux, but I’m not going to go completely CLI with my initial desktop/laptop changeover. See Debian above. Maybe some day. ;)
So…more on this later, but at the moment I suppose I am actually trying to decide between Ubuntu 9.04 and Xubuntu 9.04.
Heya, im @RHLiz on twitter i was trying to talk but 140 chars just isnt enough!
Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu are all the same thing, same packages and sources. Since you are not going to use a GUI there is no difference between them at all. Ubuntu do however make a server distro which is good.
If you are new to server admin and need a gui i would suggest Webmin+Virtualmin GPL which is free. Just dont install virtualmin via the webmin module, use the setup.sh script they have.
Centos is another one you can look into which is also often used and common. Its based off RedHat and uses rpm. I prefer the debian based ones myself like Ubuntu however :)
Hi Liz, thanks for stopping by! Well I think I might have been unclear. I’ll be using the CLI to access and control my various servers via ssh — I’m trying to decide what DE to use on my laptop. Thanks for the info though!
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