Jungle or candy store?

Story: The Distro JungleTotal Replies: 9
Author Content
lcafiero

Jun 29, 2007
3:11 AM EDT
Jungle? Um, despite the menagerie of "animals" representing some of the distros, I don't think of the wide variety of distros as threatening. It's more like a candy store.
r_a_trip

Jun 29, 2007
4:15 AM EDT
Very good metaphor. It exactly describes the situation with the many distro’s. They are nice goodies to choose from.

On the other hand, Windows users have been presented with liquorice for over two decades. It must be earth shattering to discover there are mint drops, fruit toffees, chocolates and a myriad of other nice things too.
azerthoth

Jun 29, 2007
9:37 PM EDT
Explains why once the conversion process starts new users start gobbling down all the various distros they can find that look appealing.
Scott_Ruecker

Jun 29, 2007
11:55 PM EDT
Quoting:Explains why once the conversion process starts new users start gobbling down all the various distros they can find that look appealing.


You got that right! Once I broke the ice, I must have downloaded and installed a boatload of different Linux flavors. I settled down after a while but even now I still check out a new one every so often. I have a machine that I must have installed at least 15 or more different Linux's on.

I am glad that most Distributions now have "Live" versions so checking them out is a lot easier and quicker. In my opinion Knoppix is far and away the 'Gold Standard' by which all other "Live" Linux's are judged. From what I have seen most of the other "Live" distros use some form of the Knoppix boot loader which is a testament to Klaus Knopper's talents.

I keep saying that I am going to set up a machine with two CD drives so I can run Knoppix and be able to use the other to burn and read with.

Hmm...maybe I should get off my butt and give it a shot.

:-)
azerthoth

Jun 30, 2007
12:03 PM EDT
There is an easier cheaper way to test out distros. If I remember correctly your running debian of some sort and I seem to recall your saying you have brought your kernel up to 2.6.20+.

do 'aptitude install kvm'

or if your under 2.6.20

'aptitidue install qemu'

Either way will allow you to run a test distro under emulation inside your existing install. They also have the interesting feature of using overlay files, which lets you do a base install and then use the .ovl files to do what ever you want. If you subsequently blow up whatever your running under emulation you still have the original in an untouched state. Very handy, because if like me you played with Gentoo or derivatives its really really easy to blow it up.

If you need or want a hand with it you'll have to remind me what IRC channel you hang out in. I know its one of the ones I talked to Jim in, but I'll be jiggered if I can remember right now.

Scott_Ruecker

Jun 30, 2007
1:14 PM EDT
No Kidding!?!

Yes we should hook up on IRC.

either

freenode - mepis

and/or

OFTC - debcentral

I have not been hanging out much as of late but if you tell me your coming I am usually on both at the same time.

Scott
Steven_Rosenber

Jul 02, 2007
11:40 AM EDT
I've found QEMU painfully slow -- slow enough to be unusable (and this is on a 3 GHz Pentium 4).
Sander_Marechal

Jul 02, 2007
12:09 PM EDT
If it's debian-derived you can probably use debootstrap too :-)
Steven_Rosenber

Jul 02, 2007
2:34 PM EDT
Can somebody explain debootstrapping to me?
Sander_Marechal

Jul 02, 2007
2:39 PM EDT
With deboostrap you can install one debian-derivative from another one, in a separate directory. For example, you could use an Ubuntu installation to create a fresh Debian Etch installation in /home/steven/etch and after that, with the "chroot" command you could enter that system and play with it. It's not a fully functional VM but very usefull for testing and especially clean-room compiling and automated build-testing.

Found a nice tutorial at http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/426

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