[CM] what linux?

[Jeremy Shaw]

At Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:40:09 -0600,
Heinrich Taube wrote:
> 
> i did run into ubuntu which seems to be a branch of debian with what  
> looked like a liveCD iso but i dont know if anyone uses it. 

Ubuntu has ranked in the #1 or #2 spot on distrowatch for the past
couple years. It is funded by a former Debian developer, Mark
Shuttleworth, who previously started a company that he sold to
VeriSign earning him 500+ million dollars. So, now he has plenty of
time and money to devote to his linux 'hobby'. I believe Canonical
(the company behind Ubuntu) is around 50-100 employees now (mostly
engineers).

http://distrowatch.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_Ltd.

> it has a package system called symantic or something that ive never
> heard of (not that that should stop me i guess...) but i need to be
> able to easily install software like svn etc. 

Ubuntu is based on Debian and so it uses the debian based package
system. The command-line interface is apt. There are also a number of
graphical frontends to apt including synaptic.

To install svn via the command-line you would just run:

 $ apt-get update 
 $ apt-get install svn

'update' makes sure your package lists are up to date. It does not
need to be run everytime.

The installer for ubuntu is very easy (and graphical). If you are just
doing a take over install, then I think it is only 5 or 6 easy steps
such as: what is your name, what timezone do you live in, and what
keyboard layout do you like. 

> the nice thing about planetccrma is that i never had to install
> anything!

True! If you do switch to Ubuntu, at least package installation is
very painless and there is a wide selection of apps packaged. 

If you need libxcb 1.1 then you will need to install the development
release, Hardy. Hardy is a long term support release, scheduled to
come out in April (they are usually pretty good about hitting
deadlines). The long term support release is supported with security
updates, etc, for 5 years. 

Or, you could try to the stable release, Gutsy 7.10, which has libxcb
1.0, and see if you have the same problems or not. 

Hope this helps,
j.

note: There appear to be two graphical package managers in
ubuntu. Under Applications->Add/Remove you can access common popular
packages. But, if you want to be able to access all the available
applications (e.g., clisp, etc), you need to go to
System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager.

> 
> 
> On Feb 21, 2008, at 5:21 PM, James Baker wrote:
> 
> > Rick,
> >
> > Have you considered Debian? It's certinly well supported.  The only
> > thing is that there isnt a "planet ccrma" for debian yet, so you need
> > to build a realtime kernel etc yourself.
> >
> > James
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 10:16 AM, Heinrich Taube <taube@uiuc.edu>  
> > wrote:
> >> can anyone recommend a well supported linux that i can (easily)
> >> install on an older dell?
> >> my first choice would be planetccrma except there is some issue  
> >> with a
> >> fedora X library and juce that im not sure i can solve beyond waiting
> >> for the next release of fedora.
> >> my next choice would be gentoo but their livecd doenst even boot.
> >> these are the only linux versions that i know work well (well, at
> >> least planetccrma works well but ive heard good things about gentoo)
> >>
> >> anyway i dont want an installer that boots me in a shell as superuser
> >> and tells me to run fdisk! (my second attempt at booting gentoo)
> >>
> >>
> >> -rick
> >>
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> >>
> 
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