Linux distro with Rolling Release that can meet my needs

Ok guys really sorry I keep changing the question up, but my needs and wants keep slightly changing.

What I'm looking for is a Rolling Release Linux Distro that has a great community, a great team of developers backing it up, its easy to use, has a lot of ready and available applications to install, has built in messaging menu, stable, and cutting-edge technology.

I also prefer to be using a GNOME environment. I would try out KDE distros however. I have grown attached to Unity to Ubuntu as well, so I think GNOME-Shell would be the desktop environment to be looking at next.

Again thanks for the input!

similar linux system edge rolling cutting operating ubuntu release distro os canonical

asked Aug 14 '11 at 20:51

JordanV
4.1k●62●82●124

edited Aug 15 '11 at 00:27

Isn't it possible to get the me menu on Linux Mint?

(Aug 14 '11 at 21:04) ryebread761

I think in normal Linux Mint yes because it uses Ubuntu's repos. But it also follows the same release cycle as Ubuntu, which means it isn't rolling release which isn't what I'm looking for.

(Aug 14 '11 at 21:11) JordanV

4 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

Well you do have a some choice here. I am actually using LMDE Xfce edition right now, so I'm obviously partial to it. It is probably possible to integrate the me-menu with it, but I'm personally not interested in the Me Menu so I haven't looked into it at all. (it is not in the Debian testing repos however, which is the base for LMDE).

You could try Open Suse. If you enable their tumbleweed repo, you will have a rolling Open Suse distro, and I know that they have the me menu in their repos (actually they might even have it by default in their Gnome edition--don't quote me on that though :)). The overall system is quite different from Debian (and therefore Ubuntu) however. They use RPM packages rather than .debs, and yum rather than synaptic, for starters. I played around with it for a little while, but I came back to the Debian side of things after not too long.

answered Aug 14 '11 at 21:12

AlanStryder
2.0k●8●20●42

edited Aug 14 '11 at 22:01

Yeah I tried openSUSE before. It was different and new. I absolutely hated Yum. It was such a pain. I'll definitely check it out though, thanks! :)

(Aug 14 '11 at 21:24) JordanV

I believe Debian started this whole rolling release thing that's so common now. I like Debian, because it's one of the lighter Gnome environments. Personally, I like Light distributions, because I don't need an extremely bloated piece of software on a lower specced computer.

My favorite environment is LXDE, and my favorite distribution is Lubuntu (even though it's not rolling release).

answered Aug 14 '11 at 21:46

catchatyou
20.7k●89●165●383

I personally prefer GNOME or KDE. It doesn't bother me to have a heavier desktop environment since I have the specs for it.

Personally, I like Unity and GNOME-Shell. KDE seems to "Windows" to me.

I might try Debian, but I would prefer a more "easy" distro. Especially since I could just use Linux Mint Debian Edition.

(Aug 14 '11 at 21:55) JordanV

If you are looking for an easier distro that's rolling then I would really suggest LMDE. Mint is doing a great job at "easing" the rolling process which has resulted in a number of breakages in the past. They are testing out a couple of specialized repos for this right now, and will be a part of the respins that are coming within the next couple of weeks.

Essentially the distro will include 1 of 2 repos:

1 will be the "Incoming" repo which essentially gets all updates straight from the Debian testing branch. Members of the communtiy then test the updates and report problems and bugs (and/or bug-fixes) so that the Mint team can address them. Once everyone is satisfied, this will get pointed to the "Latest" repo.

2 is the "Latest" repo which contains the updates that have already been tested from the Incoming repo. What happens here is that you get all your updates in a monthly "bulk" update. So you are technically not 100% up to date, but rather a month behind. In exchange for this, you get a tested and stable system.

There is still of course a 3rd option which is to point directly to the Debian testing repos as it has always been with lmde.

These repos are available right now, but you'll have to enable the sources manually, or you could wait for the respins.

I'm right now using the the 2nd option, the "Latest" repo and it seems to be working quite well.

check here for more info on this:

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1781

(Aug 15 '11 at 00:48) AlanStryder

Hrmm.. I definitely like the sound of the "Latest" repo. I'll have to check it out. I'm guessing that Mint will be adopting Gnome 3 in the future as well.

(Aug 15 '11 at 01:32) JordanV

yeah, Gnome 3 is in Debian testing now, so it will be coming soon. BTW, the Gnome panel indicator applet is in the repos--I think that is the same as the Ubuntu me menu?

(Aug 15 '11 at 01:44) AlanStryder

The indicator applet is, I believe to be at least, where your settings are for network and volume. I think the messaging menu is a little bit different.

By the way, I don't need the exact carbon copy of the messaging menu. I would just like a integrate messaging system in my OS. Ubuntu's "Me Menu" was the only one I could think of. I think GNOME-Shell has this integrated, so that will be good.

(Aug 15 '11 at 01:52) JordanV

I'd say the closest you will find will be Linux Mint Debian Edition, which the Mint XFCE edition now uses as a base.

answered Aug 14 '11 at 22:10

Condoulo
176●4

Hrmmm yeah. That seems to be the only distro that I can find that is rolling release and is as close as possible to Ubuntu.

(Aug 14 '11 at 23:17) JordanV

1	I will have to agree with everyone. LMDE is definitely your Linux solution. answered Aug 15 '11 at 20:53 Drmgiver 1.2k●2●5●22 Alright I'll be checking it out in a little bit. Thanks! :) (Aug 15 '11 at 21:19) JordanV

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