Graham, In practice there are two main differences between various Linux distros:
1) Package manager - every distribution has its own way of handling 'packages'. Red Hat has RPM, Debian has apt-get, Fedora has the YUM, and so on and so forth. and 2) Preconfigured Kernel / Bundled Application - Ubuntu's kernel and bundled applications geared more to the home user, whereas RedHat is geared more towards enterprises, etc.. Mind you, one can make any distro bundled with any application he likes, and one can tune his kernel to whatever he wants. So basically when I, personally, asked your question several years ago, I took into consideration which package manager was most flexible to me, AND which was popular at that time. I am a Debian lover, and have been using it for the past 5 years. As regards to the wireless, PCMCIA, etc stuff you mentioned, you need to read more about Kernel configuration. IF you switch to a distro which will have wireless configured in its kernel and solves your problem, rest assured that in the future you'll stumble across another problem which will not be dealt by the stock kernel. So just read and learn, and if you have difficulties, just ask here in the list. On 1/23/07, Graham Petley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hallo, This may seem a stupid question, but what difference is there between the different Linux distributions? I currently run Suse 10.1 and KDE on my laptop, and have DVD's for Suse 10.2 and Ubuntu Edgy Eft. Is it worth updating or switching disti? I'm not that happy with Suse because the PCMCIA slot doesn't work (it does in XP); wireless doesn't work (in XP it does) and I think my kernel is tainted with something called Linuxant; in battery mode the screen is dimmed and I can't control this; when I upgraded to 10.1 my file system was changed from Ext3 to reiserfs without asking me (although now I think reiserfs is better); the upgrade also deleted software I use like kedit, which I had to reinstall from source and it isn't as stable as it was. I don't think Suse or Ubuntu will make any difference in getting these things to work. I also don't think they'll make any diference in offering me the new features I really want like the ability to read and write an NTFS disk partition; to use the Windos key-E combo to open a new console window; the ability to play DVD's easily; a photo viewing program as easy to use and print from as Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. The only thing I'm really certain I will see is a new KDE interface which could mean all my menu customisations will be trashed. Then I've got Crossover Office. Will that still work? Are there any opinions on what real and useful differences I would see with either of these new distis? Saluti, Graham Petley _______________________________________________ MLUG-list mailing list [email protected] http://mailserv.megabyte.net/mailman/listinfo/mlug-list
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