Thanks to everyone for your answers. I worked with a couple of flavors of *nix years ago and am interested to see how it has progressed since then.
On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 8:54 AM Alex Shroyer <[email protected]> wrote: > You will probably get many different answers to this question. > For someone new to Linux, I recommend starting with a massively popular one > like Ubuntu. > It's not necessarily better (that's subjective), but because of its > popularity, it is really easy to find answers to questions you might ask. > Sites like https://askubuntu.com/ cover a lot of ground. > > > > > > > On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 2:11 PM Devon McCormick <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > Thanks for this, Raul. I have seen a litany of complaints about systemd > on > > /. over the years but it's good to see the problems with it laid out like > > this. > > > > On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 9:05 AM Raul Miller <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > It's probably worth noting that for many purposes, devuan -- > > > https://devuan.org/ -- is an alternative to debian. > > > > > > I don't think they explained the systemd issue well enough, so here's > > > a few high points (or... low points). Some of these may have been at > > > least partially addressed, but it's been dreary: > > > > > > (*) Systemd is not modular, and replaces most of the linux > > infrastructure. > > > (*) Systemd (and dbus) is poorly documented. > > > (*) Systemd breaks compatibility with various internet standards. > > > (*) The systemd boot process is non-deterministic, and can > > > intermittently fail to boot for people who reconfigure it. > > > > > > It should be possible to fix all of these issues. But poor > > > documentation slows everything down. (The systemd developer has, in > > > the past, mostly simply stated that these are not problems.) > > > > > > Anyways... another alternative that I've messed around with a little > > > is OpenBSD. J needs a few things changed for that environment, but it > > > wasn't too bad when I was trying that. > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > -- > > > Raul > > > > > > On Sun, Feb 23, 2020 at 2:58 PM Bill Harris <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > > > > Devon, > > > > > > > > FWIW, I've used Debian Stable (https://debian.org) for >10 years. > I > > > trade > > > > off bleeding-edge software versions for stability. > > > > > > > > I have used Debian Unstable (aka Sid). It is bleeding edge, but I > > don't > > > > recall having many problems with it, and those that did occur tended > to > > > get > > > > fixed quickly. Then again, that was perhaps 10+ years ago, and my > > memory > > > > of that is probably not too accurate. > > > > > > > > I explicitly don't use Debian Testing anymore. I tried it once and > ran > > > > into the problem I had read about: > > > > > > > > > > > > - I encountered a bug (happened to be with grub, so booting became > > > > problematic IIRC). > > > > - Debian fixed it rather rapidly and put the fix into a 2-week(?) > > > > testing period in Sid. > > > > - It failed--more than once, IIRC, resetting the 2-week testing > > period > > > > each time. > > > > - After multiple weeks, I finally got a working grub. > > > > > > > > I can't promise they still have the same process. > > > > > > > > With Sid, I would have gotten a fix immediately. The first two or so > > > would > > > > have failed, but the last one would have come my way without the two > > week > > > > wait. > > > > > > > > With Stable, I wouldn't have seen anything until the new, tested, > > working > > > > code was there. > > > > > > > > Have you seen https://distrowatch.com/? > > > > > > > > Bill > > > > > > > > > > > > On Sun, Feb 23, 2020 at 9:53 AM Devon McCormick <[email protected]> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > Hi - does anyone have a recommendation of a good flavor of Linux > > > (includes > > > > > MacOS) or a warning about the same? > > > > > > > > > > I'm interested in trying out Shakti which is a new version of K but > > > it's > > > > > not available on Windows. > > > > > > > > > > I mostly care about being able to run emacs which I assume is not a > > > issue > > > > > for any *nix. > > > > > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > > > > > Devon > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > > > Devon McCormick, CFA > > > > > > > > > > Quantitative Consultant > > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > For information about J forums see > > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > Bill Harris > > > > http://makingsense.facilitatedsystems.com/ > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > For information about J forums see > http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > Devon McCormick, CFA > > > > Quantitative Consultant > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Devon McCormick, CFA Quantitative Consultant ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
