Let me state up front: (a) I'm trying to start a war here, (b) please send all responses off-list. I don't want to flood the list with messages on an off-topic subject.
That being said: I have been considering going to a different Linux distribution, and would like some input from the LyX list participants. Currently I am running Mandrake 8.0, with a number of patches and updates installed. I have not gone to 8.1 for reasons that there is an issue with devfs, which at this point, Mandrake only has a work-around for, and not a fix. Given that devfs was one of the primary reasons to consider upgrading, I decided to hold off. That has given me the opportunity to consider looking at a different distribution. So far, there are two distributions I have considered: SuSE and Debian. I have used SuSE in the past, and remember to be a very well thought out distribution. I have never used Debian, but am constantly hearing good things about it, so I have become curious. The only distributions I have ruled out (at least for now) are RedHat and Caldera. I have RedHat at work, and don't like working with it. Not to mention the issues with their choice of compiler versions to ship with the distro. As for Caldera - well, do I need to say anything else? :) So, this is how it stands: - Madrake 8.1 (Wait for a devfs fix) - SuSE 7.x - Debian Are there any other distributions I should consider? Why should I consider them in comparison to the three listed above? More to the point, is there a distribution that stands out as being head and shoulders above the rest where LyX and it's associated tools are concerned? That is: better distribution of tex, sgml / uml / xml tools, better set of external tools (viewers, etc.)? Do you compile LyX on your distro of choice? Did you need to update any libraries, or pass in special parameters to get it to compile? Any other conisderations in this area? What are the developers using? Is there any one distribution that they favor overall? Please understand, LyX is a mission critical tool for me. It only makes sense that any consideration I make towards changing distributions would be on the basis of there being a better environment for this tool. Thanks for your time! // George
