Linux Format "Ultimate Distros" Article

twoup · n00b Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 14 Location: Australia

I personally believe the their judgements are partially based on advertising. They are always giving away Mandrake, SuSE to readers for letter of the week..etc..

Its obvious that they havent spend much time in Gentoo and have a thing against source..

Doesnt really matter we all know which distro is #1.

Cheers
Twoup

theBlackDragon · l33t Joined: 23 Nov 2002 Posts: 768 Location: Belgium

dezydery · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 23 Jul 2004 Posts: 87

weirdo · Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:02 pm Post subject:

YeahSure · n00b Joined: 16 Nov 2004 Posts: 15 Location: New Brunswick

Its a shame that the reviewer doesn't know the real reasons people use Gentoo.

Mine:

-IT DOESN'T EVER CRASH!!!!! (other distros will)
-Prelink is trivial to enforce
-Reiser4 is easy to install
-Kernels actually compile
-Compiler tools are all there! (ever try to install from source on a binary distro? Oh, wait! You have to install the compiler tools before you get to compile, cos the toolchain's NEVER complete!)
-Documents are modern, complete and CLEAR.
-Community will actually try to help you. RTFM (if ever mentioned) usually is followed by at least a reference as to where to look in TFM.
_did I mention IT DOESN'T EVER CRASH?

andyfraser33 · Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:30 pm Post subject:

It doesn't surprise me. Linux Format seems to be aimed at the beginner to intermediate home Linux user and IT managers (who generally don't appear to have much IT knowledge here in the UK, at least IME). Of course this is my opinion based on the last few times I read it (quite a while ago now). :wink:

BTW does anyone have the complete list of distros and their final position?
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STEDevil · Apprentice Joined: 24 Apr 2003 Posts: 156

nelz · Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:21 pm Post subject:

andyfraser33

theBlackDragon · l33t Joined: 23 Nov 2002 Posts: 768 Location: Belgium

andyfraser33

pwaring · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 99

theBlackDragon · l33t Joined: 23 Nov 2002 Posts: 768 Location: Belgium

pwaring · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 99

theBlackDragon · l33t Joined: 23 Nov 2002 Posts: 768 Location: Belgium

STEDevil · Apprentice Joined: 24 Apr 2003 Posts: 156

andyfraser33

Elim · Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:34 pm Post subject: Going off on a tangent...

Heres what ive found and why:

I have found Gentoo is exactly right as long as you have patience and like linux in the 1st place you can't go wrong with it as its extremly flexable. Personally i use mainly fluxbox for games etc and i enjoy having the latest bleeding edge software i have an amd 64 running in 32 bit mode - flys

the reason being is when ive booted this rig into fluxbox i have only used 50 mb of ram so the other 710 mb's or so is free for my apps and games

. My games and apps are alot more slugish on say mandrake because it uses 150 mb of ram at startup and its all binary. Its also got neat scripts which allow you to control linux - unlike distros of a similar nature eg slackware and arch which are imo not 1/2 as good. Its got 100,000 packages and there all available with two commands emerge -s x emerge x i personally find mandrake harder firstly because of rpm HELL and because i need to constantly scour the web to find a rpm or whatever its jsut so much easier. the guys at this linux mag should be a bit more patient really. (they probably sat in front and watched it compile on a p2 500 now that would take a while lol (my g3 400 took 56 hours of non stop compilations to get kde

i had to use debian on that its just too darn slow) anything faster than an Athlon 1.33 ghz would be fine though.... unless you have far more patience than me if so good on and go out for the evening or something because your in for a wait.
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Garbage Pail Kids · n00b Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 10

fender1212 · Apprentice Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 165

reply to the original post here

first off, the XP is slightly faster than the 64 (5 percent) but i doubt that would matter, and for the most part, the magazine is right. in fact i would say they were being quite liberal with the 15%. thats pretty high benchmark. really should be lower, so i would clap for the magazine on that one. and for the most part, compilations don't usually add enough performance to be noticable. they usually bloat the program too much and actually slow things down if you don't know what your doing. but then again i don't use gentoo for performance reasons

blaster999 · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:43 am Post subject:

fender1212 · Apprentice Joined: 20 Sep 2004 Posts: 165

if it's the same model xp versus same model 64 (for instance Athlon 64 3500 vs, Athlon XP 3500) it should run 5 percent slower

blaster999 · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 7:20 am Post subject:

And I wonder where did you get this data from. As I've read, the performance of 64's is much greater than of any x86 CPU with the same rating (be it Pentium 4 or Athlon XP).

BTW, this tread is becoming more and more offtopic.
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Hudzilla · n00b Joined: 19 Jan 2005 Posts: 1

'lo all,

My name is Paul, and I'm the Deputy Editor of Linux Format magazine. Someone forwarded me this link, and both myself and Nick (the editor) have read through your comments with interest - we do value all feedback, from readers or non-readers, even if you *do* use Gentoo

(that was a joke, relax!

First up, as someone else said, we do give away Gentoo on our coverdiscs as new releases come out. Our Disc Editor, Neil, is a Gentoo fanatic, so even if we did have some huge grudge against Gentoo he would make sure to ignore our wishes

Second, we were indeed referring to compiling the system from scratch, ie stage 1 - sorry we didn't make that clear in the article.

Third, we do not, have not, and will never alter our opinions based upon advertising.

Fourth, the final table of placings was this:

1st: Mandrake
2nd: Red Hat
3rd: SUSE
4th: Debian, Yellow Dog
6th: Gentoo
7th: Linspire
8th: Conectiva
9th: Knoppix, Ubuntu
11th: Slackware
12th: MEPIS
13th: Turbolinux
14th: Lycoris, Yoper

We have already received a great deal of feedback about this feature, which is really no surprise - trying to write a feature on distros is as flame-inviting as writing a feature on text editors

However, we use a selection of distros in-house here at Linux Format and have no particularly strong ties to any of them.

Fifth: Our awards nominations were decided by readers. We specified classifications (ie Desktop Software, etc) and they told us the products they wanted listed - we didn't just choose ATI as a nomination for Best Hardware Support, and we didn't just choose SUSE for Best Desktop Software.

Sixth: Yes, our testing was quite specific: we wanted to find a distro that anyone could pick up and use. We aren't a newbie-oriented magazine - anyone arguing such probably didn't notice that in the Ultimate Distros magazine we had six tutorials, of which one was newbie-oriented, one was art-related, and the other four were out-and-out programming. Debugging with GDB isn't something we'd choose for a newbie magazine - but we do try to appeal to a wide audience.

I hope this explains our position. We're not Gentoo haters, Debian haters, Lycoris haters, or any such thing - we're well aware that each have their own unique benefits and advantages, and can appreciate them for that.

Take care,

Paul