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Sabayon?
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21 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
Ubuntu does support the proprietary nvidia driver but you need to install it. Please double check the version, though, because support for the 970 only began in the 346 version I think (someone please correct me if wrong). If Ubuntu does not offer that version directly, please check out the Xorg Edgers PPA.
If you are dead set on a different distro, Sabayon installs the proprietary drivers by default and they are frequently updated. Sabayon is a rolling release distro based on Gentoo.
Don't use Ubuntu. It'll stand in your way when you want to do the "hacking, stuffing around, maybe even learn a bit of coding". If you're feeling ambitious, try Arch or Gentoo, but if you want to have something up and running quickly that you can hack well later, try Sabayon (I'd recommend the Sabayon 10 amd64 Xfce version, or x86 if on 32-bit). Sabayon is based on Gentoo and stays very close to it. It has all the good of Gentoo (extreme customisability) but with binary packages and comes pre-built for you. When you get a better feel for your new system, you can start messing around with the more Gentoo-y options available. The main Sabayon developer is also a Gentoo developer and he makes sure Sabayon stays as a thin layer on top of the extremely powerful Gentoo. I have recommended Sabayon to a friend of mine recently and so far he's loving it and says that in two weeks he's learnt more than in the past half a year with Mint, which is based on Ubuntu.
One good thing with Gentoo and Sabayon is the rolling release system - you never have to burn a disk with an upgrade. When you update all the packages installed on your system, it is the newest version of the system. It is never the case that you upgrade your customised, personalised system only to be faced with something completely new, unlike when e.g. Microsoft introduces changes to the Windows desktop or when Cannonical switches desktop environments again.
Check out Mint Debian Edition. It's rolling release running Gnome 2.x and a cinch to install. Mint comes with proprietary drivers and plugins (Flash, Java, etc...) enabled by default.
It looks like your laptop has a integrated graphics and an Intel 6300 wireless card so driver's shouldn't be an issue unless Dell swapped in one of their Dell-branded, Broadcom-based wifi cards. Even if they did, it's easy to get it running.
Best of luck.
Edit: If you're feeling adventurous, you might also check out Sabayon, a rolling distro based on Gentoo. They have Gnome, KDE and E17 releases available.
If you are thinking about Gentoo. Then you must try out Sabayon it's base on Gentoo. I used it for 6 months and love it. It was the only Linux distro I install that everything work right out of the box.
I started on Ubuntu with version 7.04 (in 2007, of course). Did some distro hopping when I started understanding Linux a little more. Eventually found Sabayon and really liked it since version 3.5 (2008 version) so I'll generally use that still. However, unfortunately I am stuck using someone else's computer which has Win 8.1. Normally I would at least dual-boot because I do play PC games, but it's not my computer.
So until I get my own computer, Windows 8.1. When I do get my own again, Sabayon.
Try out Korora it's base on Fedora.
Then try out Sabayon it's base on Gentoo.
That's all I do. I distro hop. In 11 years I try out 40 Linux distros.
Try out
OpenSUSE
PCLinuxOS
SliTaz
Puppy
If you really want to learn more about Linux. Get yourself a Raspberry Pi B+. Try out their ARM Linux Distros.
Linux is a blast. I won't use nothing else.
Now I got a kick using a tiling Window Manager. And just use many CLI Applications in the Terminal.
I would definitely advise you try it; it's not much of a leap from Arch.
Gentoo isn't a distribution in quite the same way as Arch or Debian; it may be better to think of it as a sort of meta-distribution. You're given a superb packaging system (portage) and CLI (emerge), and you can do whatever you like.
I'll try to elucidate the differences by comparing pacman to emerge:
| pacman | emerge |
|---|---|
| Will only install most recent version of a package | Can install any version of a package. Dependencies are version-aware. |
| Downgrade packages with the rollback machine. This may or may not work. | Downgrading consists of installing an older version. Dependencies will be re-installed as required. |
| If something is broken, pacman -Syu | Versions are "masked" based on their stability (for a particular architecture). You can explicitly allow unstable versions. You can also explicitly mask versions that break your system. |
| AUR is separate from pacman, pacman will happily break user packages | User packages are treated no differently, they are applied as an "overlay" on top. emerge will respect the dependencies of installed user packages. |
| pacman performs binary installs only | emerge can perform source or binary installs. Binary packages can be automatically generated with every source install |
| ... | USE flags, CFLAGS |
I used Arch exclusively for a long time, and it's great about 95% of the time. The problem is that when things break or you want to do something unusual, the tools are insufficiently intelligent.
In contrast, I think it's most accurate to say that gentoo may make the common case a little more difficult, but it far better handles complex situations.
You also may want to look at Sabayon, it's gentoo with a binary package repository. I haven't used it myself, but I have heard very good things and it should provide the flexibility of gentoo with the ease of use of Arch.
From some other posts, there seems to have been many problems with the *buntu live environments. If you can, try mint or Sabayon, they're both extremely user-friendly and have easy-to-follow instructions, but may have a more usable installer.
You said you've reformatted the entire disc as ext4, are you willing to use the entire disc without Windows (or use it in a VM)? If you're planning on dual-booting it's important to install Windows first.
You can try, people have had mixed results, usually you'll have to repair the bootloader after installing windows.
Because neither installer is recognizing the Windows partition, the only options left are to install over Windows, then reinstall Windows; Try a distro that uses a completely different installer like Sabayon; or the manual install.
Seems most of the bases have been covered by other users. Since I have yet to see it mentioned though, I would suggest setting up a dual boot with Sabayon Linux. The full dvd comes with a ton of native Linux games and you can look on the forums there for how to get other games working in WINE. As far as I know, Minecraft and TF2 are a cinch to set up in WINE, though I've not tried myself.
Also, to ease your mind, you just burn the iso to a cd or dvd and reboot your computer with the dvd in the drive. If it's set to boot from the cd drive then you're off, you just select the option to install alongside your windows installation. You don't need to know anything about programming or kernels. Just be careful not to overwrite windows unless you don't want it anymore.
Sabayon is a great gaming OS. They have several images including some fairly minimal ones as well as their main KDE and GNOME DVDs. I know for a fact they have Mate (GNOME2 fork) and XFCE both of which are pretty far removed from modern design. There might still be an image with Enlightenment if you'd like something a little more exotic, and pretty but still lightweight (and still not looking like iOS).
Sabayon is a binary distro based on Gentoo. I've had excellent luck with it, especially considering it's a true rolling release with weekly updates.
Sabayon ships with a pretty sane KDE 5 installation. I've been using it for almost a year now and its GNOME and KDE spins get a lot of love from the developers. Unlike Arch, it focuses on being ready "out of the box" and includes applications like Chrome, VLC, LibreOffice and Steam as standard. Unlike OpenSUSE, it will work with proprietary graphics out of the box. I do know that Tumbleweed in particular is a pain in the butt to keep proprietary graphics up to date in. Any software you do not want can be uninstalled. Like Arch and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, Sabayon is rolling release with updates every Saturday. Faster updates can be enabled by using the sabyonlinux.org repository which is updated as packages come out of their testing repo.
I think it's a great fit for people who do not want to configure Arch but want to move on from the Ubuntu family.
Try out Sabayon. It's a Gentoo fork. I used it for 6 months. It was the only Linux distro I install and everything work out of the box. I install Sabayon and was ready to go. It's amazing how it's setup. I never got used to the Package Manager. The learning experience was still enjoyable. So It was still worth the time I spent with it. I'm a true distro-hopper. been hopping to different Linux distro's for 12 years. I manage to try out 40 Linux distro's and used them as my primary OS. For the past 12 years. I haven't stop hopping, and properly never will. Not even Arch made me stop hopping.
Sabayon is based on Gentoo and works out of the box.
Similar to Manjaro based on Arch, see this comment
After a quick look at your post, something like Sabayon with XFCE would fit you well.
Sabayon's Rolling release, so you never have to reinstall, only reboot every so often. It comes with LibreOffice and many other programs you'll need or want. You can get Steam and Wine from the official repos to help with gaming, and XFCE is one of the furthest DEs from feeling like Windows.
I absolutely loved this system, and it taught me everything I needed to know before moving on to Arch and BlackArch. With the official repos, you can choose if you want up-to-date, cutting edge, or bleeding edge by enabling the testing or hell repos. There's a great community around it, and there's nothing you can't do with it, the only advantages of going to Arch or Gentoo after this is to get slight performance boosts and more control over your system.
Sabayon and Calculate are both Gentoo-based Rolling-release distros. Since you're new to GNU/Linux, Sabayon is probably a better match for you.
Honestly though, if you have about 30 minutes to an hour, you can get Arch set up using their Beginner's Guide.
The main differences between Arch and Gentoo are their design philosophy, Arch focuses on simplicity, Gentoo (and it's variants) focus on speed.
Edit: Linux Mint Debian Edition is rolling release, but slower than Arch or Gentoo, and just not so configurable during install.
At home: Sabayon!
- Out-of-the-box expereince. - I like having an abundance of things available right away (XBMC, Steam, Chromium, LibreOffice, proprietary drivers, etc.) that I can then pare down if I feel the need.
- Access to Gentoo's Portage tree - If I want to custom compile software and have it managed, Portage can be made to work alongside Equo (though I'm still reading how to do this) to allow for bleeding edge or niche software to be installed.
- SteamBox and Media Center modes - Allow you to boot into a minimal session that then runs Steam in Big Picture mode or XBMC respectively and nothing else so you can get straight to your entertainment. The install disk will let you install just one these modes if you're building a more specialized machine.
- Rolling Release...ish - It isn't as frequent as I thought it would be, but Sabayon updates on a regular basis with no need to reinstall. It seems to handle even large upgrades (multiple months) gracefully too.
I've got Sabayon KDE installed on both my laptop and my desktop and it works really, really well. Much better than even Ubuntu did. I'd say its the perfect distro for intermediate users.
At work: OpenSUSE!
- We're cheap, it's free.
- Yast is a gift from the gods of computing! It allows you to make changes to nearly every part of the system with a nice, easy to understand graphical interface even an ncurses one for server installs.
- Wasn't my choice but I love it anyway.
If your system can boot off a USB device then the answer is yes.
- https://wiki.sabayon.org/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Booting_Sabayon_LiveDVD_Image_from_a_USB_Device_with_Grub
- http://www.sabayon.org/article/live-usb-creation-frustration
Boot Linux from USB the Easy Way http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2012/06/20/boot-linux-usb/
There are many ways of doing this. Just Google it.
>If Debian uses systemd, Slackware will have to as well (kicking and screaming?) as they simply don't have the resources to go it alone.
Resources for what? What exactly changes for Slackware if Debian moves to systemd? They never shared initscripts or anything of the sort. Like I said, there's hardly any software that depends on systemd. Also even if Debian moved to systemd, it would still maintain alternative init system for the other ports. Also having support BSDs and other UNIXes like OS X and Solaris means that most software will keep on running without Linux specific dependencies. There are rare exceptions but those are hardly essential. I think you are heavily underestimating the number of people who are interested in non-systemd systems.
Like you said, Gentoo supports it as alternative, I'm not aware of anyone pushing it as the default or that happening anytime soon. The Gentoo systemd teams seems quite active though and it definetly helps that Sabayon moved to systemd by default and pushed the changes upstream.
Those quotes from Volkerding don't seem particularly enlightening.
If I were to implement such a database, I'd have entries like this (using my new distro as an example):
Distribution Name: Sabayon Is based off of (if applicable): Gentoo
Package Manager (GUI/Command Line, Source/Binary): Entropy (Binary, GUI), or Portage (Source, Command Line)
Configuration: Initscripts, OpenRC
Kernel Version: 3.5.4
Proprietary Drivers Available Through Package Manager: Yes
Architectures: x86, amd64
Available Spins: Gnome, KDE, LXDE, XFCE, Enlightenment, ServerBase, SpinBase, CoreCDX, Gaming
NOTE: Would need to have generic spin names, probably just graphical environments as well as Multimedia, Minimalistic, Server, Stable, Beta
Release Cycle: Rolling-release
Mediums: Live CD
Installer: Graphical
Development: Active
Website: http://www.sabayon.org/
And I'd throw in a description and brief history of the distributions as well.
In the event that I get bored tomorrow and perhaps throw something together (if I did, I'd have distro's user submitted and then moderator verified as I don't have the time or willingness to research every single distribution so for starters, let me know if you'd be willing to submit information on a distro or two) please make some suggestions as to what you would do differently. Using this system, every piece of data on the distro would be selected from a finite list of options, so that when someone goes to search for a distribution, they only need to select what requirements they have from a list of check boxes for each category or no boxes for no preference.
Other idea (too tired to go up and edit the list) - Spec requirements, in case someones looking for a distribution for their ancient Egyptian Turing Toaster.
I suggest installing gentoo from a better live environment than the gentoo livecd as the best way to go. I like sabayon's kde4 environment myself but a normal ubuntu disc works just as well. If you don't need gentoo specifically I also suggest installing funtoo instead. It's a better version of the same thing written by the originator of gentoo. That being said when you partition your disk just use a graphical partition editor like gparted or kde partition editor to do your disks then mount --bind dev and proc, copy etc/resolv.conf on over and chroot in while you enjoy using a web browser to copy and paste commands from the install page.