Linux bitches Options

[impala454]

Ok so I actually have reason to "refresh" my linux skills.

1. Which distros do people use now (mainly for software development)
2. What C++ compiler is the standard? (Chuck, feel free to mention those you work with, they will probably matter more to me)

[Seeker]

ubuntu/fedora/gentoo

gcc

[impala454]

cool, fedora and centos were mentioned by.. "them" as typical ones they use.

[Hartmann]

Slackware still has a following (even it is just me).

gcc is of course the only way to compile

[Seeker]

cool, fedora and centos were mentioned by.. "them" as typical ones they use.

i like centos better than fedora, updates are free

who is "they"?

[impala454]

would rather not say yet... will give more info within the next week or so

[pebkac]

Ubuntu - probably the easiest to use. It also has the best package management system of any linux distro (but this is highly debatable). Use Debian if you want a less "user friendly" version.

Fedora - pretty easy to use, but you have to want to run bleeding edge (read: unstable) software.

CentOS - This is a pretty good distro for development. It's not a good choice if you want the latest and greatest software though. Most of the software is somewhat outdated though because Red Hat tends to be more conservative with their enterprise distributions. This can mean a more stable platform, but can also mean more security holes.

Gentoo/slackware - Never used them, but I hear they're great choices for masochists.

FreeBSD - This is probably a better choice for a server, but it is also pretty usable as a desktop OS. Setting up a graphical interface can be a total pain, but you also get some power. What I like best is that I think its package management beats out even Ubuntu/Debian's IMO. You've got the option of using pkg_add (which is kinda like Ubuntu/Debian's apt-get) or compiling ports (which is kinda like gentoo's portage system). The best of both worlds.

As for compilers, gcc is probably what you will want to go with, but I also want to throw one other option out there: LLVM. It basically takes your C++ code and compiles it into byte code and runs it in a virtual machine. This allows for some interesting possibilities like building a garbage collector into your code or mixing multiple languages.

[chook]

I am actually out of the loop. I use some old unix version that has an Ada compiller on it. I can say I use gcc to compile at work, but haven't used linux at home in a long time.

[Dogmeat]

Ok so I actually have reason to "refresh" my linux skills.

1. Which distros do people use now (mainly for software development)
2. What C++ compiler is the standard? (Chuck, feel free to mention those you work with, they will probably matter more to me)

If you wanna refresh your skills don't puss out. Go with a basic Slackware distribution....I mean, get the slackware CD's, install the basic binary utilities package, a compiler, and the kernel source ...

Then, build from there.

Gentoo was supposed to be the distro that automated this, but back in the day before GCC was optimized for 586 instruction code (which now I'm assuming it's optimized for newer processors as well) I'd get pgcc, then recompile _EVERYTHING_ with the 586 flags set, etc ..

I would literally install as minimalistic of Slackware base as I could then tweak that and build it up from scratch from there, manually building the system and checking basic security along thw way ..

Worked wonders, I always had the leanest fastest nicest Linux systems ...>WAY< better than the default bloatware rehdat crap, etc..

One of these days I will do this again.

If I knew Linux would work on my laptop I'd probably have it on here right now.

[impala454]

I may have to give that a shot as well, thanks.

[zetec]

ubuntu\debian

gcc

[pebkac]

I've been using Debian a little bit lately. I think it's the perfect compromise between configurability and ease of use (at least for what I want to do). I definitely think it's not quite a good choice for Joe Internet User though.

[jwttu]

whats the best distro for a novice? I want to play around with linux

[pebkac]

whats the best distro for a novice? I want to play around with linux

Probably either ubuntu or mandriva. Out of the two, I'd probably recommend ubuntu as that's what I've had the most personal experience with.

You can also try out fedora or openSUSE, but I'd get the older versions for both of those (version 8 for fedora and I believe version 10.3 for openSUSE). They both tend to use a lot of bleeding edge software and if you're a novice, it can be difficult to determine if a problem you're having is based on something you're doing wrong or if it's a bug (or both).

Also, VirtualBox is great for trying distros out in a virtual machine without actually installing anything on your computer.

[impala454]

So as predicted my work has turned me on to linux a little. My new mess around comp should be arriving today, and I'm probably going to build as much from scratch as I can. Seems most people around here use KDE, is gnome any better? What window manager/setups do people like? I don't want some normal ass boring looking setup.

[Seeker]

personally, i prefer gnome over kde

[impala454]

i messed with slackware a little bit the other night, got to kinda an empass when trying to install some of the GNU tools... said I needed a C compiler... and ... thats... what ... i was... tryin... to... installl

[impala454]

so apparently there's a buncha bugs w/most distros and the atom processor right now. looks like ubuntu is the only one to have fixed it. seems kinda gay. it's a nice looking UI and all, but doesn't really give you that "home built OS" feel to it. definitely would be awesome for someone who wants an eye candy OS for free that they don't have to jack around with to get it to work.