Linux Land

Well, I am approaching the one year mark on switching to Linux and I have learned many things.  I started out running Sabayon on both my laptop and desktop.  Sabayon is a Gentoo distribution that is a rolling distribution.  For those of you who might stumble on this lacking a background in Linux buzzwords, here a a few very simple explanations.  Linux is an operating system for personal computers based on the Unix operating system used on larger computers.  It is considered powerful and stable but not generally user friendly.  It is open sourced, mostly, meaning anyone can get the code and modify it for free, mostly.  There are basically two major bloodlines, or flavors, of Linux, Gentoo and Debian.  I believe Debian is the larger.  The difference between the two is beyond my level of geekness, however I think it has to do with when operations are compiled, or perhaps when the os is compiled.  Brands, or styles, or schools of Linux are referred to as distributions.  Some of the more popular distributions of Linux are Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Open Suse, Mandriva.  These are, I believe, all open source, they are most definitely available for use for free.  I also believe they are all Debian based.  Gentoo based operating systems seem less popular.  The rolling distribution means that rather than publishing updates set times a year, the system was updated constantly.  There was an update manager that checked regularly for updates and notified you so you could download and install them.  Fedora did the same though and it wasn't billed as a rolling distribution.

There are some things on Linux that is the same regardless of distribution, however other things may work differently in different distributions.  There are two main desktops, which are not directly linked to the operating system ala Windows, gnome and kde.  Kde is set up sort of like Windows, main toolbar on bottom, menus on left, while gnome is more like Apple OS with the menu bar on top and menus on the left.  The window appearance can be customized out the ying yang, but Sabayon and Fedora defaulted to the windows look with the min, max and close buttons on the right top and the toolbar to the top.  Ubuntu defaults to the Apple look with them buttons on the upper left of the window and the toolbar appears at the top of the desktop when the window is active.  The latest version of Ubuntu however uses a desktop called Unity.  The toolbar is a disappearing bar on the left of the screen, the toolbar is on the top with the available controls on the right.  It is hard to get used to but very pretty.  I have not played with the new version of gnome much, but I think it might be a bit more like Unity.

I was told Sabayon was not a good distribution to start with.  I didn't really get that because I thought things were going well with it.  Sabayon is definitely a pretty distribution.  I think maybe because I was used to fighting with things to make them work, I didn't realize how much extra effort I was putting into it.  There were a lot of things that weren't working right when Sabayon and I parted ways.  I installed quite a few updates on both my laptop and pc.  I was running Sabayon with gnome2.  Sabayon upgraded to 6.0 and installed the gnome3 update.  My pc never recovered.  I couldn't boot into the desktop and the recover mode would not boot.  I could get into terminal though and was able to uninstall and reinstall the desktop, however the system did not run very well.  It was extremely slow.  I finally gave up and reinstalled, which crapped out.  I was able to get my laptop to boot, however it did not like gnome 3 and went to the default desktop which was an ugly version of gnome 2 with no 3 d effects.  I used this to download and install Sabayon 6 kde.  I ran this successfully for a while.  I did download some other distros and tried booting to live cd's.  Sabayon was the only cd that did not loose my monitor, so I went back with it.  I did download Sabayon 6 gnome also, but was afraid to boot it.  I tested some distros on my lappy and went with Fedora on it, once the pc was running again.  Everything was fine until I had a school assignment that required me to create a podcast.  The pc would not recognize my usb mic.  It saw it but no changes I made in my sound setting would stay.  After pondering abit, I tried an experiment.  I unhooked the hdmi cable from my monitor and re-hooked it as super vga.  It now let me boot live cd's with ease.  I wasn't real happy with Fedora, and I missed my gnome 2 desktop.  I really had only 2 problems with Fedora.  It seemed very stable, although I didn't stress test it.  The first issue I had with Fedora was probably my fault.  I had installed a non-repository program and I had accidentally installed it as root.  I then had to uninstall and reinstall it as a standard user.  After that, whenever I used it, I would get a steady stream of security alerts. It was a minor annoyance, but not major.  The other issue I had was that the repository seemed much smaller than Sabayon's and many of the programs I had grown used to weren't available.  I originally chose Fedora because I had a blue scheme, similar but brighter than Sabayon and had good reports on the internet.  It did install quick, booted quick and seemed very stable.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, although I didn't like the default office suite, there was a second one in the repository.  

I wanted gnome back on my desktop, but after several live cd's I went with Ubuntu 11.04, but because it was so damn different.  It's bright and colorful and warm where Sabayon was wonderfully blue, black and cold.   Unity is taking some getting adjustment, but overall I like it.  Once I installed the proprietary video driver, I was able to switch back to hdmi.  Otherwise everything is awesome and so far everything works with no fight.  I set up my surround sound and have great sound and the mic works.  I think once I get used to the desktop, I will be good.  I rather like it, it's quick and seems stable.  I was actually able to set it up and install everything on both computers in a single Sunday afternoon and still did my assignment on time.  I feel a bit guilty about abandoning Sabayon, but oh well. 

If you are used to Windows, but want to switch but don't want to much strangeness, try Mint.  It is the version of Linux set up to mimic Windows as much as possible.  If you are computer literate any distribution that uses a kde desktop will be easy for you to pick up.  Many times you can download either the kde or gnome version.  If you prefer Apple os and want your pc to work similar any gnome distro will work, although Ubuntu 10.8 will have the windows already set right for you.  If you just want to try something different, Ubuntu 11.04 with unity might interest you.