I use arch btw

[CrazedNerd]

I'm a programming professional. And as much as I love tinkering with Linux, I'm not a huge fan of having to do loads of maintenance.

There was some quote online i read ago, in reference to stuff i was looking up about debian, "everyone wants to create but nobody wants to do maintenance", i can't say that also doesn't apply to me as well. I keep wanting to experiment with the different distros more aggressively but I can't really justify that to myself without some sort of extra computer...I'm currently computing on a minimalist basis and there aren't any issues with doing that.

 

[MattWinter]

Does it come with sed though?

Yes, it comes with both sed and awk.

I keep wanting to experiment with the different distros

There used to be a site called distrotest that made this easy. I don't see it up any more. I wonder what happened to it.

 

[MikeWalsh]

There used to be a site called distrotest that made this easy. I don't see it up any more. I wonder what happened to it.

Mm. Yes, I remember that. Had a whole raft of Linux OS images which it ran in a QEMU/KVM set-up online, IIRC..? You, the user, didn't need that much in the way of processing power, 'cos the server did all the grunt work. All the user did was to control it....

Haven't seen it for something like, oh, 18 months or more now.


Mike.

 

[CrazedNerd]

There used to be a site called distrotest that made this easy. I don't see it up any more. I wonder what happened to it.

That doesn't surprise me considering that running operating systems in general is no joke. In my experience, virtual machines work just fine, but there a lot of things that are either different [from bare metal] or things that you can't do. To me the easiest and least irritating is installing something on bare metal.

I'll probably end up buying a cheap laptop over the next couple of years...it's just too tempting, it is disappointing that it's currently hard to find a brand new or almost new laptop for $200 or less. I have had nice refurbished laptops but there is a lot of risk and I'm not currently interested in that.

 

[smerte]

As I keep saying, with over 500 gnu-Linux desktop variants, none of which are any better or worse than any other, they all get the job done, whether you pick a full-blown out-of-the-box distro, or a minimal build your own distro, it's your choice, if you do it right you still end up with a solid working desktop operating system,
before you ask, yes I did try it among several others just over 20 yrs ago before I ditched windows, and after distro hopping I settled on Debian and its children as my chosen system, is it better than Slax, Arch,BSD, NO it isn't, but it is no worse either.

BSD is not a distro but I agree to that you can use what ever you want

 

[smerte]

I'd agree with that completely.
Arch is a great distro. But it can be a bit of a maintenance burden sometimes. Especially when there are lots of changes in a short period. Probably doesn't happen too often, but that one perfect storm I experienced was enough for me to jump ship, ha ha!

I'm a programming professional. And as much as I love tinkering with Linux, I'm not a huge fan of having to do loads of maintenance. Hence switching to Debian. It's the laziest distro going, in terms of ease of update and stability. I've literally never broken it! And I can live with the slightly older packages, if it means my experience is always going to be smooth and stable.
If I ever want, or need a newer version of something that isn't in the repos, I can always build and install from source.

But @smerte - you carry on doing you. Nobody is trying to control you either. As I said, Arch is a great distro. The others were just giving you a hard time becase of the initial "I use Arch BTW" flex. It could have been worse. At least you didn't say "I use Kali BTW". Ha ha! Then you would have faced the Spanish Inquisition!

thanks c:

 

[sphen]

Does it come with sed though?

Is there a Linux distro that does not come with sed in its default installation? I would be surprised.

I looked at a few distros and my macOS. The sed binary was in /bin/sed or /usr/bin/sed or both. For the ones that had sed in both directories, the "sed" binaries were identical.

 

[CrazedNerd]

Is there a Linux distro that does not come with sed in its default installation? I would be surprised.

I looked at a few distros and my macOS. The sed binary was in /bin/sed or /usr/bin/sed or both. For the ones that had sed in both directories, the "sed" binaries were identical.

I was wondering because there are a lot of very customizable versions of linux, arch seems to be one of those.

 

[wizardfromoz]

At least you didn't say "I use Kali BTW". Ha ha! Then you would have faced the Spanish Inquisition!

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

(Comes in again)

Seriously, though - I use 84 GNU/Linux Distributions for reasons you can link to from my signature. I have my favourites amongst them, but there is not one of them that I do not find something good about, if that was so, it would not be there long.

I have a Manjaro that is 6 years old, and others nearly as old.

I figure that before you go bagging or roasting another person's choice of distro, you are on shaky ground unless you have built your own distro, and or are one of the key maintainers of a distro.

On our current Membership, that narrows it down to four (4) people.

Food for thought.

Friday here in Oz, so

Avagudweegend

Wizard

 

[f33dm3bits]

I figure that before you go bagging or roasting another person's choice of distro, you are on shaky ground unless you have built your own distro, and or are one of the key maintainers of a distro.

On our current Membership, that narrows it down to four (4) people.

Most people don't have the time to maintain their own distribution even when based on another distribution instead of using Linux from Scratch.

 

[sphen]

I figure that before you go bagging or roasting another person's choice of distro, you are on shaky ground unless you have built your own distro, and or are one of the key maintainers of a distro.

True, but I have noticed that it is open season against operating systems that is not Linux. You might get a pass for a BSD variant, but I see a lot of bashing of Windows and occasionally Mac. They are the butt of frequent jokes and pejorative nicknames here.

I am open minded about operating systems. When asked which one to choose, I advise people to choose the same operating system as the person who will help them learn and use the computer.

 

[ML_113]

I advise people to choose the same operating system as the person who will help them learn and use the computer.

That means my b.i.l, he's a Win and Win only guy. Yik !

 

[sphen]

That means my b.i.l, he's a Win and Win only guy. Yik !

Then the question devolves into which of you is the one helping the other.

 

[sphen]

Is there a Linux distro that does not come with sed in its default installation? I would be surprised.

I looked at a few distros and my macOS. The sed binary was in /bin/sed or /usr/bin/sed or both. For the ones that had sed in both directories, the "sed" binaries were identical.

Well ... duh! This morning I looked at one of those distros (Mint Cinnamon). I should have noticed that /bin is a link to /usr/bin. It should come as no surprise that if you "diff" a file in /bin with its counterpart in /usr/bin, they will be identical. That is because they are the same file.

... but the distros all seem to include "sed".

 

[mrcrossroads]

I see a lot of bashing of Windows and occasionally Mac. They are the butt of frequent jokes and pejorative nicknames here.

I have no issues bashing M$. MacOS is okay. I have a MacBook that I just love even though it's closed source.

 

[ML_113]

I got my hand from an 2010 MacBook Pro, which is as good as a brick (the owner was deceased without leaving his password). I made it work again by erase the whole thing then install MX on it. The experience is unpleasant, even worse than when I revived my old Chromebook.
But I have only myself to blame, there is no free lunch in this life - attempting shortcuts never paid off, but NRM (never read the manual is my type). By the way I do Cyber CPR just for the fun of it.