Install Ubuntu or Fedora Core 6
I am bought a couple of Linux distros to install on my desktop. I currently have Fedora Core 4 on it, and use it a decent amount for development. But I have never been completely satisfied with it, mostly due to lack of time to fine-tune it and lack of experience with Linux. I decided to do a fresh install and try out both Fedora Core 6 or Ubuntu Edgy Eft. I played around with Ubunutu using the live CD to get a feel for it, and was amazed that everyting just worked - browsing the web, playing a CD, etc…
I decided I would partition my hard drive and install both, but ran into problems. I had to pick one distro to try first, so I went with Fedora because I was familiar with it. After installing Fedora, I ran into some problems with it recognizing my Ethernet card, something that had happened before with Fedora 4. While I was able to resolve the problem before, I knew it would work out of the box with Ubuntu, so I shut down and installed Ubuntu. I have not used Ubuntu much, but I am impressed with how it just works. I decided to install KDE (I guess turning it into Kubuntu?), and used synaptic to search for “kubuntu-desktop”
Ten minutes later I was logging in with KDE. Next, I needed to install PHP5 and Apache2. Going from
this webpage, I used apt-get for Apache and PHP5 and had a working version. The real test came when I viewed a webpage with the compile info of PHP5. On Fedora Core 4, I was forced to compile PHP5, as the default install lacked a lot of things I needed, like SOAP. PHP5 with Ubuntu has SOAP thankfully, no worrying about compiling PHP again. To be fair, I haven’t tested Fedora Core 6, but my initial impression is that Ubuntu is just a lot easier to use for someone with limited Linux skills like myself. I am looking forward to playing around with it some more!
February 15th, 2007 at 4:18 am
Why do you install Fedora Core 5 rather than Core 6? Or even better - why do you not wait for Fedora 7 (both Fedora Core and Fedora Extra in the same distribution) that are due for 20th April?
February 15th, 2007 at 11:20 am
I have Fedora Core 6 - not sure why I posted Fedora Core 5 and I have fixed the post above. Long day in front of the computer…. One of the reasons I am attracted to Linux is the ability to choose and experiment. I think Fedora Core makes a great desktop, but I wanted to try a new distro and see how it works, see the differences and see what one I like better. When Fedora Core 7 comes out, I may very well install it and see how I like it.
My initial impression is that Ubuntu is easier to use, at least in my specific case. But that impression may change, or I may install Fedora Core 7 and feel that it is better than Ubuntu. Or I may find another distro that I like better…