Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

brazzmonkey · 2011-12-19 15:49:47

Hi there,

I have a workstation running Kubuntu Hardy with KDE 3.5. This release wasn't tagged LTS (although the Ubuntu version was), and as a result I can't upgrade straight to latest LTS version.
So I thought maybe it's time to switch to something else. I'm looking for something stable, with long term support or suchlike, good KDE integration, and good VmWare support.

I thought about Mint, but its KDE version usually comes in the late. It has an LTS version, though.

I don't consider Arch because it's too cutting-edge and not enough "out of the box" for a single workstation (keep in mind I still use Arch on my personal laptop).
I'd be interested in Chakra but I think it's not stable enough yet to be run on workstation.

I used Opensuse in the past and didn't quite liked it. That may be stupid but I don't feel at ease with RPM distributions.

Any opinions or ideas are welcome,

thanks.

bendersteed · 2011-12-19 16:03:38

Well I guess Debian Stable would make the trick.

SS4 · 2011-12-19 16:13:40

+1 for Debian Stable although you'll probably find that all distros ship KDE4 as default now although Trinity still has kde3

toad · 2011-12-19 16:23:42

Chakra

brazzmonkey · 2011-12-19 16:29:05

That may sound stupid, but I never tried Debian. I don't think of it as an "out-of-the-box" OS. Am I wrong?

orlandu63 · 2011-12-19 18:42:08

brazzmonkey wrote:

That may sound stupid, but I never tried Debian. I don't think of it as an "out-of-the-box" OS. Am I wrong?

Yes.

/dev/zero · 2011-12-19 19:16:05

brazzmonkey wrote:

That may sound stupid, but I never tried Debian. I don't think of it as an "out-of-the-box" OS. Am I wrong?

The default comes with Gnome; it feels a bit like a more vanilla-ish flavour of ubuntu. I personally don't use the default, I use the netinst.

The netinst installer is graphical. The system you obtain only has a CLI, like a new Arch install would. If I recall correctly, everything you need to administer the computer and install new packages is already configured - you know, sudoers, networking, and so forth.

Debian netinst ftw :-D

arinlares · 2011-12-19 22:10:58

brazzmonkey wrote:

That may sound stupid, but I never tried Debian. I don't think of it as an "out-of-the-box" OS. Am I wrong?

Yes. You could boot the installer with the argument "desktop=kde|xfce" (whichever you choose), or install gnome by not doing anything, if you do a netinstall. You can also just download an ISO image pre-configured with your environment of choice. I prefer the latter.

Last edited by arinlares (2011-12-19 22:11:26)

lucke · 2011-12-19 23:23:27

KDE4 is a different beast than KDE3. Are you familiar enough with it to know that this is the DE you want to use?

.:B:. · 2011-12-20 02:10:30

brazzmonkey wrote:

That may sound stupid, but I never tried Debian. I don't think of it as an "out-of-the-box" OS. Am I wrong?

How much more out of the box can you get than installing OpenSSH and have Debian start the service for you automatically?

sidRo · 2011-12-20 05:34:32

Use Debian Stable or CentOS.

sitquietly · 2011-12-20 06:08:34

brazzmonkey wrote:

Hi there,
I have a workstation running Kubuntu Hardy with KDE 3.5. ... I'm looking for something stable, with long term support or suchlike, good KDE integration ...
I don't consider Arch because it's too cutting-edge and not enough "out of the box"...
Any opinions or ideas are welcome, ...

I came to Arch from Ubuntu because of what I saw as quality failures in Ubuntu 10.10. I really enjoy Archlinux, which unfortunately fails in different ways. I cope by building my own semi-stable distro from Arch pkgbuilds. I use my own set of scripts to ease the process of building everything from source: my Sandy Bridge system runs kernel 3.1.4 / KDE 4.7.4 without any apparent problems.

For a couple of months I've been reading the Ubuntu development plan, reports from the last Ubuntu Developer Summit, and checking the manifest and build status for Kubuntu 12.04. Ubuntu, and Kubuntu, have instituted some real changes in quality assurance procedures and as far as I can see Kubuntu 12.04 is going to be an excellent release with very long term support. The daily builds are already very good. You could try the latest build to see if it satisfies you:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/

Mr_ED-horsey · 2011-12-20 18:55:01

I'd go for Debian Squeeze and just install the Trinity Desktop (the KDE 3 fork). There are instructions on how to add the repo in Debian here if you're interested. I mean, you obviously were a fan of that setup since you kept it for so long, so why rock the boat too much?

Last edited by Mr_ED-horsey (2011-12-20 18:55:54)

brazzmonkey · 2011-12-21 09:46:19

Thank you all for sharing your views.

Actually I find KDE 4 is now good enough for a daily use (starting from 4.5), BTW, Squeeze only offers 4.4.5?

I have such an old setup because my current internet connection is too slow. It would have been risky to try to update the beast over a week-end. My intention is to bring the computer with me on holidays and get it updated in half a day using a fast connection. I'm talking about holidays. I can't afford to spend more than half a day in the process.
Do you have an idea about how long it would take to set up a fully operational Debian?

lucke · 2011-12-21 10:35:03

Squeeze seems to be offering only 4.4.5 indeed. If you want KDE4 newer than 4.4.5, you might consider giving openSUSE another go - it offers an out-of-box experience, fresh KDE4 (with nice integration, e.g. of Firefox), KDE3, quite a lot of packages, 8-month release cycle (longer than Ubuntu's or Fedora's standard 6 months, which can mean a more stable system) and 18 months of support, delta updates (less to download on updates - your connection would like that) and a CLI package manager I prefer to apt.

Mr_ED-horsey · 2011-12-21 13:49:25

brazzmonkey wrote:

Thank you all for sharing your views.
Actually I find KDE 4 is now good enough for a daily use (starting from 4.5), BTW, Squeeze only offers 4.4.5?
I have such an old setup because my current internet connection is too slow. It would have been risky to try to update the beast over a week-end. My intention is to bring the computer with me on holidays and get it updated in half a day using a fast connection. I'm talking about holidays. I can't afford to spend more than half a day in the process.
Do you have an idea about how long it would take to set up a fully operational Debian?

Depends on how you install it. You can do a netinstall in expert mode and install your system almost exactly like Arch (except it automatically configures kernel modules and startup daemons), or you can do a Live ISO image and just install everything much like you would on Mint or 'Buntu and that doesn't take long at all. There's much less documentation on Debian than Arch obviously, so that may slow you down a bit if you run into problems, but with that said, if you can install Arch Linux, Debian shouldn't give you any serious headaches. It took me about a little over an hour to get everything installed and setup on my new HDD I put in my desktop, and I have very limited experience with APT (I did the netinstall/expert mode). I think the difficult reputation with setting up Debian is way overblown.

Last edited by Mr_ED-horsey (2011-12-21 13:53:16)

hitest · 2011-12-22 12:01:13

Mr_ED-horsey wrote:

I think the difficult reputation with setting up Debian is way overblown.

Agreed. Debian is a high quality system that generally works out of the box, it has excellent hardware detection. Another excellent system to consider using is Slackware 13.37. A full install of Slackware works out of the box with all dependencies met. There is a bit of a learning curve with Slackware, but, if you read the Slackware book and the supplied documentation you will prevail.

brazzmonkey · 2011-12-27 23:16:04

Due time constraints, I'm on my way to upgrade kubuntu. I had to download kubuntu 9.10 CD image, mount it, and launch the upgrade process from CD image; Looks like it's upgrading straightly to 10.04 LTS, which is a good thing. I just hope everything goes smoothly.

Thanks for your feedback, I guess I'm gonna try Debian for my next clean install.

Cheers.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-12-19 15:49:47

Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#2 2011-12-19 16:03:38

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#3 2011-12-19 16:13:40

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#4 2011-12-19 16:23:42

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#5 2011-12-19 16:29:05

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#6 2011-12-19 18:42:08

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#7 2011-12-19 19:16:05

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#8 2011-12-19 22:10:58

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#9 2011-12-19 23:23:27

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#10 2011-12-20 02:10:30

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#11 2011-12-20 05:34:32

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#12 2011-12-20 06:08:34

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#13 2011-12-20 18:55:01

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#14 2011-12-21 09:46:19

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#15 2011-12-21 10:35:03

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#16 2011-12-21 13:49:25

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#17 2011-12-22 12:01:13

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

#18 2011-12-27 23:16:04

Re: Upgrade Ubuntu or switch distro ?

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