Fedora

As it said, if you don't know where to post, post it here. :-)


**I have been running Linux now for many years but I am an amateur compared to many gurus. There is a big difference in using an OS and really knowing the OS. I started off with Debian for about 6 months, Gentoo for a couple of years, and Ubuntu for about three years. I have dabbled with FreeBSD, Fedora, Mint and some other OS's that people told me to checkout but for no more than a week if that.*
* *The end of last year I got my Linux+ certificate (which now also gets you LPIC1 and Novell CLA certifications) and have been looking for a Linux Admin position but most job postings are for CentOS or Redhat which I have book experience with but not much hands on experience.*
* *In order to expand my horizons I plan on installing and running 10 different distros (listed below) on my laptop and grade them on criteria which I will list below as well. I am writing here so that others may provide there insight, thoughts, and feedback about this experiment before I get started. This is also a way for me to commit myself to completing this experiment ;-) I have not worked extensively with a lot of these distros and I am not 100% sure what to expect.
* *My goals in this experiment are to learn more about each distro to the point where I would feel comfortable managing it, figure*out which OS is currently my favorite, and perhaps be able to provide feedback to others that plan to use Linux for the first time or that may feel ready to try out another distro.*

Distros: all distros will be the AMD64 of the latest version as of today 7-13-12
Mint13-cinnamon*
Ubuntu 12.04-desktop
FreeBSD-8.3
CentOS-6.3
Debian-6.0.5
Arch Linux-2011.08.19 (rolling distro)
Fedora-17
Gentoo-20120621 (rolling distro)
Mageia 2
OpenSuse-12.1

Criteria:
Ease of installation
- I already have 2 OS's (1 windows 1 nix) installed so it must recognize them and modify the boot loader to allow for an option at boot
- How much does the user need to know about the system (I will take off points for each technical question)
- expect all the OSs to use some of the same partitions such as /tmp, swap, and /home.

How long does it take for the Distro to install
- I am going to use net installs whenever possible in order to get the latest and greatest so I may end up needing to do 2 installs of some distros to compare results
- there may be a sub category for getting the distro configured for look and feel. I may attempt to change the same things on each distro and measure the number of step it takes to make the change. *

Bloatware
- I don't have a good easy way to measure this yet so if anyone has any ideas let me know.
User friendly
- will be looking at the different ways to keep the distro up to date, how easy it is to run programs, how easy it is to install programs, how easy it is to run the program you just installed.

Speed
- I could use some advice here on benchmarks to use. *

Hardware recognition
- this won't be an extensive list it will just be whatever I have on my computer and what I plug into the USB

Bleeding edge
- What program version is supported in the distro (this will undoubtedly involve selecting a handful of applications and in some cases downloading or installing to make a comparison)

Applications I plan to test in each environment:
- firefox (including streaming video and playing games)
- kismet
- virtualbox with 3 virtual machines (XP SP3, Win7, Backtrack 5 R2, *I would like to test out that dual boot/virtual box that was covered in the meeting a few months ago if anyone has notes on that. Alas Wednesday meeting tend not to agree with my schedule)
- wine (along with a windows game from the platinum list not yet determined)
- Audacity
If you have some applications you would like me to include let me know. As I install an application in one distro I plan to do the same thing in all distros. This will help me come up with a list of what I am using, what version each distro has, and which distro has that app by default.

* *I plan on running in each of these environments an equal amount of time over a few months but if there is a distro I am having issues with or a learning curve problem, I will spend more time with that distro in order to level the playing field. I will be keeping each version up to date and making notes along the way as to what breaks, what is difficult, and what works well. Once I feel comfortable in each environment I plan to compile all my notes and write something up. I'm not really sure what I will do with the final project but maybe somebody will find it interesting.

I am no mind reader but I expect that someone is going to want the specs on the laptop I am using. It's an ASUS G73 with i72630QM (2.0Ghz), 8GB ram, 750 GB HDD, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M. *For those that like more detail here is the lshw from my current distro:

link
*** description: Notebook
*** product: G73Sw ()
*** vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
*** version: 1.0
*** serial: B5N0AS129706186
*** width: 64 bits
*** capabilities: smbios-2.6 dmi-2.6 vsyscall32
*** configuration: boot=normal chassis=notebook uuid=8002972D-F379-E081-3353-F46D043FD541
* *-core
****** description: Motherboard
****** product: G73Sw
****** vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
****** physical id: 0
****** version: 1.0
****** serial: BSN12345678901234567
****** slot: MIDDLE
**** *-firmware
********* description: BIOS
********* vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
********* physical id: 0
********* version: G73Sw.205
********* date: 02/10/2011
********* size: 64KiB
********* capacity: 2496KiB
********* capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb smartbattery biosbootspecification
**** *-cpu
********* description: CPU
********* product: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
********* vendor: Intel Corp.
********* physical id: 4
********* bus info: cpu@0
********* version: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
********* serial: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
********* slot: CPU 1
********* size: 800MHz
********* capacity: 4GHz
********* width: 64 bits
********* clock: 100MHz
********* capabilities: x86-64 fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer xsave avx lahf_lm ida arat epb xsaveopt pln pts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid cpufreq
********* configuration: cores=4 enabledcores=1 threads=2
**** *-memory
********* description: System Memory
********* physical id: 40
********* slot: System board or motherboard
********* size: 8GiB
******* *-bank:0
************ description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
************ product: M471B5773CHS-CH9
************ vendor: Samsung
************ physical id: 0
************ serial: 9600A9AF
************ slot: DIMM0
************ size: 2GiB
************ width: 64 bits
************ clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
******* *-bank:1
************ description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
************ product: M471B5773CHS-CH9
************ vendor: Samsung
************ physical id: 1
************ serial: 752BA76F
************ slot: DIMM1
************ size: 2GiB
************ width: 64 bits
************ clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
******* *-bank:2
************ description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
************ product: M471B5773CHS-CH9
************ vendor: Samsung
************ physical id: 2
************ serial: 96024137
************ slot: DIMM2
************ size: 2GiB
************ width: 64 bits
************ clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
******* *-bank:3
************ description: SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
************ product: M471B5773CHS-CH9
************ vendor: Samsung
************ physical id: 3
************ serial: 9600AA08
************ slot: DIMM3
************ size: 2GiB
************ width: 64 bits
************ clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
**** *-pci
********* description: Host bridge
********* product: 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller
********* vendor: Intel Corporation
********* physical id: 100
********* bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
********* version: 09
********* width: 32 bits
********* clock: 33MHz
******* *-pci:0
************ description: PCI bridge
************ product: Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
************ version: 09
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pci pm msi pciexpress normal_decode bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=pcieport
************ resources: irq:40 ioport:d000(size=4096) memory:f2000000-f40fffff ioport:e0000000(size=201326592)
********** *-display
*************** description: VGA compatible controller
*************** product: GF106 [GeForce GTX 460M]
*************** vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
*************** physical id: 0
*************** bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
*************** version: a1
*************** width: 64 bits
*************** clock: 33MHz
*************** capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
*************** configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
*************** resources: irq:16 memory:f2000000-f2ffffff memory:e0000000-e7ffffff memory:e8000000-e9ffffff ioport:d000(size=128) memory:f4000000-f407ffff
********** *-multimedia
*************** description: Audio device
*************** product: GF106 High Definition Audio Controller
*************** vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
*************** physical id: 0.1
*************** bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
*************** version: a1
*************** width: 32 bits
*************** clock: 33MHz
*************** capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
*************** configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
*************** resources: irq:17 memory:f4080000-f4083fff
******* *-communication
************ description: Communication controller
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 16
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:16.0
************ version: 04
************ width: 64 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=mei latency=0
************ resources: irq:47 memory:f6a0b000-f6a0b00f
******* *-usb:0
************ description: USB controller
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1a
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.0
************ version: 05
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
************ resources: irq:16 memory:f6a08000-f6a083ff
******* *-multimedia
************ description: Audio device
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1b
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0
************ version: 05
************ width: 64 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
************ resources: irq:49 memory:f6a00000-f6a03fff
******* *-pci:1
************ description: PCI bridge
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1c
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.0
************ version: b5
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=pcieport
************ resources: irq:41 ioport:c000(size=4096) memory:f6000000-f69fffff ioport:ee200000(size=10485760)
******* *-pci:2
************ description: PCI bridge
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1c.1
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.1
************ version: b5
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=pcieport
************ resources: irq:42 ioport:b000(size=4096) memory:f5600000-f5ffffff ioport:ed700000(size=10485760)
********** *-network
*************** description: Wireless interface
*************** product: Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250
*************** vendor: Intel Corporation
*************** physical id: 0
*************** bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
*************** logical name: wlan0
*************** version: 5f
*************** serial: 00:23:15:93:93:c0
*************** width: 64 bits
*************** clock: 33MHz
*************** capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
*************** configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic firmware=41.28.5.1 build 33926 ip=192.168.1.7 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
*************** resources: irq:48 memory:f5600000-f5601fff
******* *-pci:3
************ description: PCI bridge
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1c.3
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.3
************ version: b5
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=pcieport
************ resources: irq:43 ioport:a000(size=4096) memory:f4c00000-f55fffff ioport:ecc00000(size=10485760)
********** *-usb
*************** description: USB controller
*************** product: FL1000G USB 3.0 Host Controller
*************** vendor: Fresco Logic
*************** physical id: 0
*************** bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
*************** version: 04
*************** width: 32 bits
*************** clock: 33MHz
*************** capabilities: pm msi pciexpress xhci bus_master cap_list
*************** configuration: driver=xhci_hcd latency=0
*************** resources: irq:19 memory:f4c00000-f4c0ffff
******* *-pci:4
************ description: PCI bridge
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1c.5
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.5
************ version: b5
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=pcieport
************ resources: irq:44 ioport:9000(size=4096) memory:f4200000-f4bfffff ioport:ec100000(size=10485760)
********** *-network
*************** description: Ethernet interface
*************** product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
*************** vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
*************** physical id: 0
*************** bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
*************** logical name: eth0
*************** version: 06
*************** serial: f4:6d:04:3f:d5:41
*************** size: 10Mbit/s
*************** capacity: 1Gbit/s
*************** width: 64 bits
*************** clock: 33MHz
*************** capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
*************** configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half firmware=rtl_nic/rtl8168e-2.fw latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
*************** resources: irq:46 ioport:9000(size=256) memory:ec104000-ec104fff memory:ec100000-ec103fff
******* *-usb:1
************ description: USB controller
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1d
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
************ version: 05
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
************ resources: irq:23 memory:f6a07000-f6a073ff
******* *-isa
************ description: ISA bridge
************ product: HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1f
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
************ version: 05
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ capabilities: isa bus_master cap_list
************ configuration: latency=0
******* *-storage
************ description: SATA controller
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1f.2
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2
************ logical name: scsi0
************ logical name: scsi2
************ version: 05
************ width: 32 bits
************ clock: 66MHz
************ capabilities: storage msi pm ahci_1.0 bus_master cap_list emulated
************ configuration: driver=ahci latency=0
************ resources: irq:45 ioport:e070(size=8) ioport:e060(size=4) ioport:e050(size=8) ioport:e040(size=4) ioport:e020(size=32) memory:f6a06000-f6a067ff
********** *-disk
*************** description: ATA Disk
*************** product: ST9750420AS
*************** vendor: Seagate
*************** physical id: 0
*************** bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
*************** logical name: /dev/sda
*************** version: 0002
*************** serial: 5WS09PL5
*************** size: 698GiB (750GB)
*************** capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
*************** configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=f5aa6c0e
************* *-volume:0
****************** description: Windows FAT volume
****************** vendor: MSDOS5.0
****************** physical id: 1
****************** bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
****************** logical name: /dev/sda1
****************** version: FAT32
****************** serial: 061b-2182
****************** size: 16GiB
****************** capacity: 16GiB
****************** capabilities: primary hidden fat initialized
****************** configuration: FATs=2 filesystem=fat
************* *-volume:1
****************** description: Windows NTFS volume
****************** physical id: 2
****************** bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
****************** logical name: /dev/sda2
****************** version: 3.1
****************** serial: e4c70375-0be7-d641-a8ba-f568d2c8d740
****************** size: 93GiB
****************** capacity: 93GiB
****************** capabilities: primary bootable ntfs initialized
****************** configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2012-03-29 14:17:34 filesystem=ntfs label=OS modified_by_chkdsk=true mounted_on_nt4=true resize_log_file=true state=dirty upgrade_on_mount=true
************* *-volume:2
****************** description: Extended partition
****************** physical id: 3
****************** bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,3
****************** logical name: /dev/sda3
****************** size: 588GiB
****************** capacity: 588GiB
****************** capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
**************** *-logicalvolume:0
********************* description: Linux filesystem partition
********************* physical id: 5
********************* logical name: /dev/sda5
********************* logical name: /
********************* capacity: 580GiB
********************* configuration: mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered state=mounted
**************** *-logicalvolume:1
********************* description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
********************* physical id: 6
********************* logical name: /dev/sda6
********************* capacity: 8536MiB
********************* capabilities: nofs
********** *-cdrom
*************** description: DVD-RAM writer
*************** product: DVD A* DS8A5SH
*************** vendor: Slimtype
*************** physical id: 1
*************** bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0
*************** logical name: /dev/cdrom
*************** logical name: /dev/cdrw
*************** logical name: /dev/dvd
*************** logical name: /dev/dvdrw
*************** logical name: /dev/sr0
*************** version: XAA2
*************** capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
*************** configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
******* *-serial UNCLAIMED
************ description: SMBus
************ product: 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
************ vendor: Intel Corporation
************ physical id: 1f.3
************ bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
************ version: 05
************ width: 64 bits
************ clock: 33MHz
************ configuration: latency=0
************ resources: memory:f6a05000-f6a050ff ioport:e000(size=32)
**** *-scsi
********* physical id: 1
********* bus info: usb@1:1.4
********* logical name: scsi6
********* capabilities: emulated scsi-host
********* configuration: driver=rts5139
******* *-disk
************ description: SCSI Disk
************ product: xD/SD/M.S.
************ vendor: Generic-
************ physical id: 0.0.0
************ bus info: scsi@6:0.0.0
************ logical name: /dev/sdb
************ version: 1.00
************ serial: 3
************ capabilities: removable
********** *-medium
*************** physical id: 0
*************** logical name: /dev/sdb
* *-network
****** description: Ethernet interface
****** physical id: 1
****** bus info: usb@1:1.1
****** logical name: wmx0
****** serial: 64:d4:da:19:15:33
****** capabilities: ethernet physical
****** configuration: driver=i2400m firmware=i6050-fw-usb-1.5.sbcf link=no

If you made it all the way to here. Thanks for reading!!

David

My own experience is that sharing /home between distros can lead to muddled configuration settings. I've recently switched to running with all of my data in a /Data partition, with shortcuts from each distros /home to /Data/documents, /Data/music, /Data/pictures, etc. That way all the distros get to share my data without them getting tangled in each others' config settings.

That is a great idea and the configuration settings that I would like to set across all platforms I could set on the data partition and symlink to them as well. Thanks!!