General linux question

[RichP]

OK for those of you who use linux heres the question. I've been using mandrake for about 8 years since 5.0 came out, currently running 10.0. I'm doing some development work and mandrake is getting very frustrating. Everytime I go to make something I'm missing libs, whether gnu or gtk or whatever, end up downloading the dependencies, installing them and then finding even more dependencies, download one library, find I need 3 more, download them and find I need 8 more, grrrrrrr. And this is with the full developers packages installed. So, I'm going to move, while I wanted to work in solaris solaris x86 has squat for pcmcia and nic drivers, which is really stupid on their part if they are trying to push Solaris but thats their business, already been thru that for the last 8 days trying to get a sony vaio laptop to connect to the network and I'm NOT paying $100 for the lynnsoft drivers that *may* work, so Solarisx86 is out. Mandrake 10.0 picked up the nics, both of them pcmcia cards and the USB stuff with out even a hiccup...
What version of linux is geared towards development work ? I started downloading denbian but 32 frigging iso's, geeze, gimmie a break. it's going totake me a week to burn them all, the new version of bsd is out and I'm downloading that now. Any suggestions ? need the release with the best librarays, newest M4, etc...

 

[mdl]

OK, dont ever run anything that is RPM based. Debian is a great place to start, is very stable but not the fastest. Sounds like you kno what your doing. Why dont you just try to install Gentoo. Lots of compiling and downtime in the install but its by far the fastest. Debian uses "apt-get" for its package management and is pretty sexy but i must say gentoos "emerge" which is a front end for "portage" is much more sexy. Really though, i would do debian (what i run) because its the most stable and if your doing development you dont want problems every 10 mins. Get the sid DVD iso, I like woody as well but SARGE is my favorite version of Debian.

 

[JeepFreak21]

I :heart: SuSe, but I did have some issues with dependencies too.
Billy

 

[ChiXJeff]

SuSE. Yeah, it's got some dependency issues as well.

I'm working on a series of systems now with RedHat Enterprise Linux 3. Uck. Not from a development standpoint, from an admin standpoint.

 

[Root Moose]

I tend to agree with Helix. I'm a Gentoo biggot/zealot of the first order but if you are doing dev work and want a gentle intro to a new distro I think Debian would be the one to pick.

Later, when you are "off the cams" and have time to play and familiarize yourself you can get up to speed with Gentoo for your next project.

I should clarify, Gentoo is stable. Our dev AND prod server farms run it. However, the learning curve can be a touch onerous as it takes a different mindset than if you are used to RPM/DEB based systems. If you know/embrace/love FreeBSD then you'll take to Gentoo/portage like a duck to water.

If you do decide to do Gentoo, do a stage 3 install and you will be up in running in around 45 minutes with a bare system. Once running you can do your customization stuff in the make.conf to optimize for your hardware. Let it "emerge --newuse world" in the background or over night and you should be eeking out every little cycle out of the hardware.

HTH

 

[Gridikal]

A few guys at our lan parties are trying to convert me to Ubuntu- how bout that one??