Linux Distro for the Pros

Not really learning much about linux as I only use the gui. I'm planning to purchase some books on linux so I can get more familiar, but I'm curious what distro do the pros use? What distro do linux gurus use?

 

I stay with the easy stuff lol. But if you want a brain-workout try these.

Archlinux
Slackware
Gentoo
Fedora
PCLinuxOS
Crunchbag

 

Add LFS/CLFS to the top of the list

 

Try a minimal install of Ubuntu. You can install it and run it without a GUI, or you can play around with just about any desktop. The best part is that it's less than 20MB:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

It goes to show that any distro can be "light weight."

 

Why not keep what you have, and fire up the Terminal and learn how to use it? Even the easiest Linux distro can be made "complicated". Ever since moving to Fedora I primarily use the Terminal for updates and installing software... the GUI for these two task seem to run rather slow...

If you really want a new ditro... since you started with Ubuntu... why not try Debian?

 

I agree to that part of the list. As for the rest, well of course you can learn something with them as well, but in principle that goes for every distro. So if you need a distro that forces you to learn, go with one of the above!

btw: BSD is also a good way to learn things about Linux. BSD has a very steep learning curve and you'll often be in a situation where you recognize something you've already seen in Linux, but this time you'll have to do it on your own instead of telling some fancy wizard what to do.

 

I've got to disagree. You can start from a minimal 20MB image of the most popular distro and do a command line install, a process that will lead to a lot of learning.

What steep learning curve? OS X is based on BSD? It goes to show just how much of a difference a GUI makes, although admittedly, Apple has been doing a lot of kernel development.

 

I suggest to re-read my previous post. I said you can have a lot of learning with nearly any distro but if you need one that forces you to learn (and it seems like greycolor needs such a distro since the fancy GUI always distracts him) you'd better go with one of those three (or LFS of course).

Set up a working and convenient FreeBSD desktop from scratch and we'll talk again!
btw: Saying that OS X is based on BSD is like saying Android is based on Linux. Both is true from a certain point of view but that doesn't say much about the end-user's experience with them.

 

I was in the same boat quite a few years ago. I used ubuntu in the gui only and rarely messed with terminal and the real underlining linux system. In 2009 I installed 9.04 server and instead of installing a GUI like I had for all previous servers I kept it CLI only. Forced me to perform every task through CLI and taught me quite a bit. Granted I learned the most from a class series I took, but that was more of a refresher and to help build new skills and strengthen old ones.

You could make a virtual machine on your current box and try to accomplish a few goals with the machine without a gui. Or just open the terminal and learn.

 

I'd actually suggest CrunchBang. On one hand, it's pretty easy to use and has access to most of the Debian/Ubuntu repositories for software (at least, last I used it about two years ago). On the other, it's "GUI" is more of a window manager than an actual desktop, so it's not going to completely hold your hand. I found myself spending more time in the CLI with that distro than I have with any other.

 

Again the question would be what do you want to learn using Linux ? Many people really want to learn linux but really are caught up by each person telling a different place to start with.

Again the distro is totally upto your choice:

- If you just want to learn bash commands and stuff I'd say learn bash scripting - try to do some fancy stuff using bash scripts - say you'd like to extract id3 info from a set of MP3 files in a recursive directory structure, then use the metadata collected to build up some sort of simple table or database (even a simple CSV file), sort them based on their genre and stuff - a very easy and fun task IMO. In fact you can even dump all this info into a file and re-parse it the next time you open it. I know it can be better done using perl/python/ruby and other scripting languages - but doing it using bash should give you a good idea of various bash commands.

- If you want to learn more about writing low level C programs using the linux kernel ABI - then you need to get a good tutorial of some sort to help you with this task.

- If you just want to learn more about the package management tools for your distro - then you should refer to the distro's community for the guide and usage, where to get other 3rd party repos and stuff

There are lot of such things you can learn - go step by step and you should be good.

I honestly prefer the GUI package manager in openSUSE - it has been very well done and easy to find packages and install. But at the same time I wont hesitate to use the CLI package manager zypper which are both based on the same backend libzypp and equivalently good to use

I always prefer to see the directory's contents on the terminal rather than in nautilus

So yes using the command line wherever efficient and works for you makes a lot of difference.

 

You can even set up a basic desktop-like system without installing an X-Server (or framebuffer graphics).

- Replace the desktop with a bunch of terminals. This can be done with "screen".
- file manager: mc
- text editing: vi(m), emacs, nano - whatever. With antiword you can even convert MS Word documents to text only. (the first thing you should write is a note where you put your mouse, in case somebody you know needs one )
- browsing: links, elinks, lynx
- e-mail: mutt, pine
- music: moc, mplayer, orpheus
- video: mplayer -vo aa will give you a greyscale ASCII art representation of your video, -vo caca will even give you colors but is very resource hungry and imo less pleasant than aa.
- picture viewer: aview (greyscale ASCII)
- pdf viewer: pstotext and then view the text file

There's something for instant messaging and rss feeds too but I've never used that. Some casual games like nethack or gnuchess have CLI's.

 

Go the forum in my signature and see what these guys are using....many of them are indeed pros.

 

I see what you did there.

 

I would suggest Arch or Debian. Arch, in particular, has great documentation for the newbie.

 

It doesnt matter where you start or what distro you use. Test the main flavors of linux RH and Debian and see which you link the best. Then search the sub distros based off the main ones that suits you the best and play around with it. Building a system from the ground up will teach you so much about the workings of linux and give you a healthy respect for the system and how it works.

Nobody can tell you which distro is the best because there isnt one. The best distro is based off personal opinion and is only the best for that person. I have played around with a few distros and picked debian as my best distro and therefore I recommend it to everyone. Does that mean that its better then a RH variation for you? No. Linux is all about experimentation and exploration and that is what you must do to become proficient with the OS. If that doesnt interest you then windows and OSX are that way. If it does get your hands dirty, setup a system then explore test and hack until its either the way you want it or you have to reformat.

Sure it sounds destructive, but its a great way to learn at least for me. Hell I took at least a month to learn ubuntu server with several (and I mean SEVERAL) reformats due to errors and screwing some config file up. What did that yield me? A server that ran from 9.04 to just a month or so ago when the PSU died (shuttle so getting parts is impossible). Im going to be ripping the harddrive out one of these days and transplant into another box and boot up and keep her running as my only ubuntu server. That or Ill let it collect more dust on my shelf.

Basically there are several ways to learn:

1) Take a structured class(es)
2) Buy teach yourself books and follow the lessons
3) Mess around with the system

Pick which one works for you.

 

The pros? Hm...

Well the people I know who use Linux in a professional setting break it down like this:

If they need commercial support for mission-critical systems: RedHat Enterprise Linux.

If they don't need commercial support, but do need something that will work consistently and reliably: Debian.

If they want end-users to use it: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (for now -- Unity is going to change that, come 2013...)

 

In my company where we do almost all the core development in Linux based environments - IT usually install and support CentOS because the license is free and it is stable (even if outdated). Devs are also allowed to install their own preferred version of distro if they wish to. I've seen 90% of the devs who took that step to install their own - went with Ubuntu, the remaining Fedora. I myself installed openSUSE - but it really didnt matter which distro we chose - we have been able to do our dev on all these distros without a hassle.

The only difference though I have noticed between different distros is -
1. How easy it is to install the proprietary drivers, codecs and stuff
2. What packages are easily available in official and 3rd party repos for your distro
3. Distro-specific customizations like a Control center, package manager frontends/backends, other visual customizations per distro (which is not that tough to mimic in any other distro too)
4. How outdated/stable the packages are in the repos
5. Support on their community forums