Using Which Version of Linux

[Terry Hancock]

It uses DEB packages, which are apparently better, but
software (I find) is much easier to find in RPM format.

I find this a bit of a deceptive impression. It is easier to
find *third party* RPMs. OTOH, the Debian distribution makes
it far easier for me to find DEB packages than RPM for the
VAST majority of packages.

That is to say, there are far better central repositories of
DEB packages, even though they don't as often packaged by
the original software authors. I think this is because
DEBs, due to their finer dependency system are harder to
make (but easier to keep).

So it's a bit like proprietary software proponents who point
to the local CompUSA and say "Look at all the software
available for Windows, and one tiny shelf for Linux --
there must be more software for Windows", ignoring the fact
that the one tiny shelf may well have more software on it
than the rest of the store combined. Don't be snowed by the
boxes.

Similarly, I see RPMs by ones and twos all over the place,
and only a few places with DEBs. But the DEB repositories
are HUGE.

Also, it tries to emulate a Windows-style file
hierarchy. This is very irritating because:

"it"=Ubuntu, Red Hat, or Debian?

a) Windows-style file hierarchy is ugly and stupid, and
certainly not worth emulating
b) it is emulated badly.

Hmm. Not sure what you mean. I first thought you were
criticizing FHS, but now I don't think so.

If you're talking about the KDE/Gnome menus, that may be
interesting. I've seen a lot of conflicting and inconsistent
layouts, and I'm not sure how I would do it, given the
chance.

 

[Mike Meyer]

Similarly, I see RPMs by ones and twos all over the place,
and only a few places with DEBs. But the DEB repositories
are HUGE.

Try rpmfind.net. It's not clear where the rpms reside, but it's not
really important - it's a huge collection of RPMs.

<mike

 

[Steve M]

(Mark Shuttleworth, ...
really loves Python - he gave me quite a lot of money for using it).

Please elaborate.

 

[Norman Silverstone]

Please elaborate.

Mark Shuttleworth is a very wealthy man who is supporting the development
of Ubuntu. His wealth came from Linux and Python I believe. He was the
second civilian to visit the International Space Station, travelling on a
Russian Soyuz, for which he paid 20 million American dollars. If you want
to know more look at the Ubuntu web site or, if you wish, I may be able to
find you some more references.

Norman

 

[Magnus Lycka]

ok, i m going to use Linux for my Python Programs, mainly because i
need to see what will these fork() and exec() do. So, can anyone tell
me which flavour of linux i should use, some say that Debian is more
programmer friendly, or shold i use fedora, or Solaris. Because these
three are the only ones i know of that are popular and free.

Maybe you've already figured it out, but Ubuntu is your distro.
See http://www.ubuntulinux.com/

It's based on Debian, but while standard Debian is a bit daunting
to get up and running the first time, Ubuntu is one of the easiest
Linux distros. Ubuntu is also much more up-to-date than the stable
Debian, but still very stable.

If you just want to try it out, and don't want to repartition your
disk (or install a second disk), you can try the Ubuntu Live CD.

Ubuntu has good support for modern hardware and a polished user
interface, and it's very much focused on Python. You'll find a lot
of Python modules that are maintained in the Ubuntu repositiories
and will be kept up-to-date with something similar to Windows
Update, all very convenient if you're on the net. Naturally, you
can install Python source packages and run 'python setup.py install'
the normal way, but then you won't get this auto-update feature.

Mark Shuttleworth's projects, such as Ubuntu and School Tool, are
also investing good money in Python development. You can even get
Ubuntu CDs sent to you for free! Order ten and give out to your
friends! I think it's a good way to promote Python.

I've used Linux since Slackware 2.3. (Or 2.2?1994?) I'm certainly
computer literate, but never had the stamina to get the normal Debian
distro to work. After Slackware, I've tried Red Hat, SuSE and Mandrake
etc, and I mainly use Red Hat Enterprise Linux at work, but given a
choice I prefer Ubuntu these days.

 

[rainbow.cougar]

Hmm, I use FreeBSD at home, and Red Hat, SLES10, Fedora, etc. at work,
and have used HPUX, Solaris, AIX, and I don't see any of them as more
or less programmer friendly.

They all have Python, PERL, C (or can get gcc), make, vi, emacs, cvs,
all the basic tools you need.

It's up to you to decide what to use, and all have the ability to
enchance your environment, say with Idle, cooledit, gmake, gdb, etc.

They all have XWindows, so if you want fancy editors or IDEs, just get
a package or tarball and build it...

 

[vinjvinj]

I would strongly recomend ubuntu server 5.1. I installed it on about 15
servers. Its secure out of the box. no ports are open. It comes with
python 2.4.1 and a ton of python modules. The install requires only 1
cd and uses only 400 mb.