Repost: Arch linux anyone? Distro choices blah blah.

[huw]

Oops!  My reply went straight to Dom, sorry about that.  Here it is
again...

-------- Forwarded Message --------
> From: huw <huw at synapticsilence.net>
> To: dom at latter.org
> Subject: Re: Repost: Arch linux anyone? Distro choices blah blah.
> Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:56:40 +0000
> 
> On Fri, 2009-12-04 at 01:17 +0100, dom at latter.org wrote:
> > 
> > > I, too, have been having problems with Ubuntu 9.10 which seemingly nobody is able to help me with
> > 
> > What gives?
> 
> Lots of little problems which have cropped up with 9.10, not least the
> new GRUB which takes forever to do anything, but the straw that broke
> the camel's back is huge interface lag.  Whether I'm clicking a panel
> launcher or a button within an app - say Evolution or Totem - the system
> has to have a good think about it for a second or two before responding.
> It all adds up and it's driving me mad.  I'm really annoyed because
> Ubuntu has always worked fine on this PC.  Both upgrading from 9.04 and
> using a fresh install of 9.10 result in the same issues.
> 
> > I've looked at FreeBSD again and come to the same conclusion again - it's a server OS.
> 
> Yeah, so I've heard many people say.  What makes it a server OS as
> opposed to a desktop OS for you, though?  Myself, I'm just curious, and
> my tastes in software are pretty conventional so I doubt I'd be forced
> to live without anything I've gotten used to using in Linux.
> 
> > Gentoo - that way madness lies. [...] But you end up fiddling with the OS rather than just using it.
> 
> Sounds like fun!  Again, just curiosity, and the above-mentioned issues
> with Ubuntu 9.10; an OS which is customised for my particular PC sounds
> like a good idea at this point.
> 
> > Debian - good choice for a server... never run it as a desktop OS.
> 
> I ran it as a desktop OS pre-2006 and it wasn't up to scratch, but
> apparently it's great these days and I have a lot of respect for the
> Debian team in general.  I'm definitely willing to try it again.
> 
> > BTW your line lengths are (in my mail client, Thunderbird) excessively long, which makes replying
> > a matter of reformatting your text...
> 
> Hmm.  I'll have to look into that.  My last post was from my Webmail
> account because I was at work.  This one's from Evolution; hopefully it
> looks better.
> 
> Huw