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Following a recent discussion on preferred Linux distributions, Felix weighs in on what works for him. Among the distros he discusses with Karen are Arch, OpenSuse, Ubuntu, and Debian. He talks about what it took to get him where he is and his transformation from Linux Evangelist to OS Agnostic. |
Felix insists he doesn't have any favorites. While this may be true, he does in fact have one preferred operating system and one distribution. A distribution is a collection of software assimilated to into a suite. The distribution he prefers to spend most of his time with is Arch Linux. Arch Linux focuses on simplicity of design to create an environment that is straight forward and easy to understand rather than polished such as with point-and-click management tools. Its's package manager, for instance, does not have an official graphical front end. Maintaining it requires the succinct use of commenting, as well as, clean configuration files for quick access and editing. If you're the type of user that isn't afraid of command line, like Felix, this is something you might appreciate it. With the Arch Linux distribution, there is a repository where there is already a bunch of pre-compiled software as is the case with most distribution. He will frequently have to do additional configuration after its downloaded and installed. He basically likes Arch Linux because he has to set up and customize pretty much every feature. The next challenge for Felix, would be Linux from source where everything would need to be compiled.
Felix didn't find the distribution of Linux that's right for him immediately, he confides to Karen, like many people he started his journey through Linux-hood by installing Ubuntu. Having been use to Windows XP, Ubuntu failed to impress him as it was foreign from what he was use to using. After Windows Vista was released, he gave Linux another look after he received an install disk of OpenSuse. The big difference between openSuse and Ubuntu was the default desktop environment. The default desktop environment for openSuse was KDE whereas the default desktop environment for Ubuntu is Gnome. The KDE environment provides a user friendly-desktop environment, which gave Felix a sense of familiarity that he experienced when he was with Windows XP.
From there Felix gives Ubuntu another look, Felix bounces around a various Linux distributions over a period of years. He spends some time with Debian before exploring Fedora.. After giving all these distributions a try he discovered Arch and he’s been using that ever since. Felix believes that people should use whatever operating system they want on whatever machine they choose.
has a minimalist approach which Felix prefers because it allows him to get it set up and built the way he would like it to be. He has to do everything himself except compile. Arch Linux is largely based around binary packages. Its package manager does not have an official graphical front-end, for instance,
