Just wondering what distros you guys are using with your Pearls? Are there any that are better suited for the Pearl than others. Sorry if this has been answered somewhere else, I haven't really been following the Linux community in this forum. I'm pretty much a Linux n00b (only know basic command line and enough to get a basic server running) but would like to get more involved.

I have redhat on one system, ubuntu on another, and carry dsl on my flash drive.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7290/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

It has nothing to do with my BB but I use FC5 for a family file server..

When it comes to your BB, the utter lack of support by RIM pretty much means "anything with a recent kernel for USB mass storage support" is good enough. Sad, but true.

I use Fedora Core on workstations and Red Hat Enterprise/CentOS for servers; I've been a Red Hat guy since day #1, it was the first thing I used on a college campus around 1994 (?) and have stuck with it. It works for me and of course the knowledge gained in 10 years is not worth throwing away to use another distro.

(I'm not saying there's anything wrong with another distro - like Ubuntu - don't misread me)

I change distros all the time! I am currently using Suse 10.2... Before that used FC5 and before that Ubuntu.... This is just in the past 12 months....

totally noob question here - what's the point in changing distros?

(should i have started another thread to ask this - sorry if i've hijacked this one)

I've converted over to Ubuntu 6.1 from XP. Ubuntu is just more fun to work with. I haven't gotten (or tried) anything that works with the blackberry as of yet, but I hardly ever sync any more.

It's about finding something that works for you, which is sort of the legacy of UNIX/linux/*bsd. Everyone's minds work differently, and some distros have a "way of thinking" that may be more in tune to your personal style. It's hard to quantify what is "better", because better is based on your brain; hence, some folks switch to different distros to try it a new way and see if they jive more.

The biggest example of differences would be SuSE versus Gentoo; the Gentoo folks are knob-twiddlers and config tweakers, they like spending time getting the most perfomance out of their hardware in exchange for time spent learning compiler tricks and tips. A sort of 'tinkerer' mentality. SuSE serves the other way, they cater to a crowd that likes stability and ease of use, in exchange for quick easy download/install packages which take very little time to get in exchange for unoptimized code for their unique machine. Their is nothing *wrong* with either distro, they just have different kinds of users.

It's hard for some people coming in from the Mac or XP side, where you're used to being given one way of doing things and you have to live with it; Linux appeals to the person who wants their computer to adapt to their mind, not adapting their mind to their computer. Sometimes it takes trying several distros to achieve that goal.

I just like trying the new Distros to see what they offer.... Right now I am lovin the Suse gnome menu... When Ubuntu FF is released I will probably download it and play with it for a while..... By then FC7 or Suse 11 might be out...

I actually prefer the 8700. I have tried opensuse, ubuntu and my favorite is Fedora, which is what I'm running now, FC6

FC6 is pretty sweet! But I am *currently* diggin the suse gnome menu

I started ten years ago with Redhat.. before it was Fedora Core or whatever it is now... a few months in, switched to Debian, and then about a year and a half ago to Ubuntu (mainly because of Debian's slowness in upgrading Firefox, and other things)

I'm using ubuntu

6.06 or 6.10???

I have Gentoo, Ubuntu, Debian, and FreeBSD

Suse 9.3 Pro dual Booting with Simply Mepis.
Going to tri boot with OSX when I get time only because of more ease of use for multimedia as it is very friendly and none of the codec troubles

I used to use mandrake, suse, redhat, slackware, then gentoo... now I'm on mac. Just anything anti-microsoft windows

Downloading FC6 now... Gonna give it another try as last time I only played with it for 2 days after it was released....

FC6 user here as well. I don't feel that any one distro is "best" as ultimately, it depends on a combination of how you want to use your computer, what you expect of your computer and what you're accustomed to in your computer. All the same basic technologies are there in all distros save package management and any given custom kernel patches. Some distros don't mind inclusion of proprietary and/or IP encumbered stuff such as Sun's Java (not the GPL'd) or MP3 codecs and the like. Fedora doesn't include those things though they are rather trivial to install if you find the right guides. (google for FC6 guide...)

I've been RedHat from the beginning and I'm just comfortable with it.

Me too. it was my first distro, so I just stuck with it.... but I have been feeling a bit suse curious lately. Even though they made a deal with the devil (microsoft).

Resist the urge, resist. I have a pal on AIM who is stuck with SuSE at his work and he's always running into a brick wall trying to do something that "just works" a lot of the time in Fedora. His calls for help have turned me off to ever even trying SuSE on my systems...

Come on rivviepop..... I LOVE Suse!...

Currently running Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn <= who thinks of them) sticking to debian based distribs for a while as its so much easier to find deb based apt-get sources, apt is now avail on FC but findin rpm sources for it or yum is a pain imo. Before this FC6, but i couldnt find the odd few dependancies for some things and got bored of looking. Also had a half installed gentoo for about 2 hours until i realised it was going to take me 10+hours to dl and build gnome. Will have to try it again somepoint when iv the time free.

Also tried SuSE 10? and Mandriva 2007, good if youv no or slow internet and want to install everything off disc, but not enough sources for other testing or unstable packages without having to use webpages to find them.

Still need to try solaris 10 at some point tho.

My main problem is Suse is YaST.... It is still horrid.... I really wish Suse whould dump it...