First I would like to thank the many workers who contributed to the following distributions and acknowledge the enormous work that goes into the creation of these wonderful tools that are made so freely available. As a hobbiest programmer, I appreciate the time that even one program takes to get to a useful stage. The following comments are meant as a fairly light-hearted guide to three distributions with the hope that we are all on the road to getting the tools we need to bring our "box" under submission to our wills and our ways. I believe the future is bright for Linux and that is why I have invested a great deal of time in learning the system, learning how to program on the system, setting up a local lan with the system, and using the system for most of my everyday needs. There are still a few core capabilities that need to be refined, mostly involving the multimedia area.
Fedora (Core) 7
The Fedora series of releases has come to be the one I love to hate (really the one that I most use is Fedora series). It has been my choice for some time now but it sometimes disappoints, perhaps because the expectations are great. I have always had pretty good success installing RedHat distributions since 6.2. The 7.2 I believe was the one I got because it was consistent with Kylix, the Borland adventure into Linux. And I did love their C++ approach to programing. I had a lot of fun writing programs in Kylix. But then, you did not learn a whole lot about Linux in the process or programing using one of the desktop favorites such as Qt with KDE. Then there was 9.0 for quite a while before picking up on Fedora Core 3 after realizing that the 9.0 was the end of that line. So right now I have active Fedora Core 3, 4, and 5. I skipped 6, but that is another story.
Fedora 7 seems fairly typical of this genre. There are advances made, the newest desktop applications releases, and some experimental developments that do not always perform as planned. The release is quite attractive, and there appear to be in excess of 8000 packages available. The problem I have is that less is working with this release than with 5. I have two systems with Asus A8V Pro motherboards, ATI video boards (9600 and X1950), Diamond sound cards, and the AMD 3200 chips with one using 5 and one now has 7. I steered away from the 64 bit release because of complications in the past with the mix of 32 bit and 64 bit libraries and applications. I think it is conceptually simpler to stay with pure 32 or pure 64 as much as possible. In this install I had trouble with using the serial ATA and punted to the IDE (PATA). The first install did not result in sound production but the reinstall after disabling the on-board sound chip in BIOS led to functioning sound. The VisionTek (ATI) X1950 Pro AGP board was not detected properly (I think because it was labeled PCIe) but at any rate the drivers other than Vesa have not worked and apparently is not yet supported by the proprietary drivers from AMD-ATI (up to X1900 series). I would probably have been okay if I had left the 9600 board in there. Thus, no hardware acceleration and no performance like dma activation and proper playing of DVDs. The Firefox browser freezes up often so Konqueror is the better option for stability (but not for flash activated sites). I have no useable Flash capability as usual. I consider these at this point in time features that should be already worked out, realizing of course that Fedora distributes only unencumbered software. You ought to be able to get there from here without the herculean effort.
The applications seem okay at this time as I prefer the apt/Synaptic approach rather than the yum/KYum tools. I am not faulting the amount of work here as it is undoubtedly prodigious. My only lament is that I recall back when the Blue Curve theme surfaced that the statement was made that improvements in multimedia were still needed. That statement is very pertinent today. I have yet to get reliable DVD burning using K3B to this day (CD burning is fine).
My recommendations are to get this release if you need the latest KDE packages and the new KDevelop version (3.4). I have the latest OpenOffice, KOffice, and most of the Gnome counterparts. My programs compiled fine with this version using Qt 3.x. These are available for downloads as examples of hobbiest programs using Qt framework. This relsease has some issues and be prepared for that reality. For comparison, see my reviews of Debian 4.0 and Ubuntu 7.04.
If you like having a lot of packages right out of the chute, a lot of choices during install, and you know where all the configuration files are and how to tweak them on Fedora, it sounds like you are going to stay with this series for a while longer. I like to be in control and I like to be root when I want to be root and this system lets you be root and log in as root without a hassle!
Debian 4.0 (Etch)
This is my first foray into the Debian system and I would like to say after some initial bumblings on my part that this is a very nice system. I went for the 64 bit package (it smokes) since the package distribution is complete for 64 and mostly avoids mixes with 32 bit it appears. I used the KDE version and the install is almost completely automated with not much input required or called for. The only thing I did was enter my local lan information so that the installer knew how to proxy out for more packages and it did that to the tune of some 732 packages or so. The hardware detection seemed fairly flawless but of course we are going to be on Vesa video support. See my comments on Fedora 7.
The apt system is far more complex and powerful here than with Fedora, with many options and a whole lot of new packages I have never seen before. Aptitude is the recommended vehicle on the command line (console), but I found the KPackageManager fit my needs just fine until I could get a better grasp of Aptitude. I also loaded up Synaptic as well because I like the flat presentation of packages rather than the categories since with the latter you need to look all over for related software instead of having say all the KOffice suite together in the package list. But I like the KPackageManager view of the dependencies and suggested packages and the progress and configuration business. Apt over here is really an even more impressive package management system and this obviously goes for the Debian distribution folks in their planning.
What more can I say? I downloaded everything I could think of and some more besides so I have over 2000 packages loaded out of the over 18,000 available. My own software came over okay and I recompiled it for this OS and everying works fine. The compiler blazes.
This philosophy allows you to be su but not log in as root on the desktop GUI environment by default. My only statement is that when you are doing an install you need to be the Administrator in my view and that means root. I get tired of the logging in back and forth when you need to be in complete control. To each his own but it forced me to be a permanent user and that was instructive in getting all my stuff set up properly. There are several ways to allow root log in to the GUI mode but I am not going to give that information here as it is available elsewhere and is counter to the Debian philosophy. Being a user for most tasks is no problem.
This is a mature distribution operation and as far as I can tell as solid as a rock. There is thorough testing and development on a less accelerated release schedule than Fefora. Go for it!
Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty)
Again, a first venture into this line of release. I was surprised that the boot up went into a live CD version that you could then install as a starter to the release. The hardware detection did not realize that I was on a lan and therefore did not configure some of the network business correctly. There was no opportunity to interject into that process that I could see. Furthermore, the configuration file was missing for apt (apt.conf) which I consider a fatal error for the neophyte user (also can set environment variables). This literally leaves you cut off from all help and how to get there. This gets the "bummer" rating. This is not an impossible escape situation but not what you want to require during an installation for the unknowing. There is a lot of help if you can get internet help, that is.
The main question to me is does this distribution offer anything beyond what Debian offers since it follows the Debian protocol in package management and stucture. In other words, are we going to keep everything working that is already working and improve on the multimedia area for example. I leave that to your own imaginations. Since the distribution is a little more in tune with the latest and greatest, it offers the later versions of more desktop applications than does Debian.
The other philosophy I do not much care for is the use of sudo for Administrator operations. This appears to me to be a rather contrived attempt to avoid full root login as well as su login. If you need to do what an Adminstrator needs to do (and this certainly applies to installation and setup of a new OS) then why do you have to play a sudo game when you are going to be the Adminstrator anyway but you are made to jump through more hoops. I do not buy it, and it irritates me to no end. That is a prime reason that this distribution will not be one of my favorites. Like I said, I like to be in control when I want to be in control and I am in control of my own computer. Free as they say in freedom and this cramps my freedom but then, since they author it they are expressing their freedom to restrict my freedom. I dig it but I do not like it so we will part as friends with mutual respect as we separately pursue our views of freedom, software development, OS, and programming philosophy. Of course there are ways to log in as root on the GUI but look for that howto elsewhere. As I said, I respect the view of the authors of the distribution without agreeing with it.
Fortunately, I have taken the time to learn to program in a number of languages that allow me to introduce the features that I want in the applications that I most use. I understand to an extent my own programs and how to get them to do what I want. I am not into doing a whole OS and distribution so I have to choose something closer to my vision of what I want on my box to start with. I am guessing that there is nothing in the basic Linux kernel that keeps you from being root or from logging in as root for that matter. Try as they may to discourage anyone from being root, I can work that way on a routine basis and have yet to booger the system so bad that I had to reinstall the OS. Maybe that is not the original design usage, but I am not limited to what the original design was anymore than anyone else is limited to some one else's vision. The original design was probably closer to a text mode graphics and a multi-user environment. Today we are using Linux for a desktop workstation with a GUI and a single user. This suggests that Administrator status is a valid option. True freedom of course is free submission and loving obedience to the Creator. The Linux gurus or those who pretend as such just do not measure up to that standard. But I respect the point of view of the distribution so I am not about to mess with that.
This is one of the most popular distributions as I understand it. The package system is like the Debian approach and a huge (>21,000) number of packages is out there. There is likely to be updated packages from the unofficial routes to handle some of the multimedia issues but I did not try to get them loaded with the 64 bit version I used here. My programs compiled okay on this OS with KDevelop. This is an attractive distribution as well, so go there if this sounds like you. There was a bug also in the X configuration (xorg.conf in /etc/X11) that causes an error message but not a crash (wacom, see web references on this).
Open Suse 10.3
This is my first foray into the Suse line. This is a very nice distribution to say the least. I like the original color scheme (green) and all the good things they do over here in Suse land. The package management is different but very powerful and effective. They also like KDE over here and have their own adaptations when you want to try them such as their own KMenu format. This is a profesional, stable, and complete distribution with a lot of packages. I liked this distribution so much that it is now the one I default to most for this computer. I also like the Debian as well so they are both highly recommended.
I would just like to say that I am glad I ventured into the other distributions after using Fedora so long. I like these distributions, especially Suse and Debian. Top of the line, really.
Conclusion
Live long, prosper, and keep your head about you. Also, pray if you like, especially without ceasing.
Bill