What Linux distribution do you use as a desktop? Debian Testing and Unstable

Posted by tadelste on Feb 19, 2006 2:57 PM EDT
Lxer.com; By TxtEdMacs
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Fedora Core 3 ... became my default desktop until late this past year when Debian Sarge was loaded followed by packages from mainly Testing and a few from Unstable on the tower.

I have two machines that have alternated as my desktop: a tower with differing internals with swapped out components and a laptop. Both got Linux sometime in 2002 or earlier, starting with tower: Red Hat 7.x that refused to print, that lasted very briefly by moving into a then current version of Mandrake through all of 8.x, most if not all of 9.x and 10.x ending with the Spring 2005.

On the laptop, either much later in 2002 or early 2003, began with a mostly with a broken installation Mandrake 9.1 Pro. Upon discovering how badly broken that system was replacements from source was instigated, which resulted in steady improved desktop. Nonetheless, some source installations failed and other flakiness was observed, which just seems to be a Mandrake characteristic. With trepidation, in early 2005 the Mandrake was wiped and a new installation of Fedora Core 3 proceeded seemingly flawlessly. It became my default desktop until late this past year when Debian Sarge was loaded followed by packages from mainly Testing and a few from Unstable on the tower. This machine, the laptop, retains it OEM installation of Windows 2000, but is run just to search for missing emails.

At that point I ceased to even use the laptop, all was fine on Debian. Upon getting a second larger hard drive I installed a copy of Ubuntu 05.04 and even spent some time there, however, I always returned to Debian, where I was more comfortable. All was well until I attempted a dist upgrade on Debian due to the possibility that not all the needed security updates had been installed. That went badly awry. Moreover, full new installations on a mostly reformatted disc were even worse. Finally I have a semi broken Debian Testing with too many missing features as my temporary desktop. While I was able to upgrade the Ubuntu successfully to 05.10 previous to the Debian upgrade, I have since lost access due to my problems with Debian. Hence, I think I will be back looking a Ubuntu as my default desktop with a fresh installation. Perhaps later when Fedora Core 5 comes out, I may upgrade the laptop and then decide which to keep. I am used to problematic systems. If they do mostly what I wish and are fairly stable I learn to live with them.

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