[mythtv-users] First Stab at a Shopping List

[Rod Smith]

On Friday 13 April 2007 13:23, David Frascone wrote:
> Oh -- another stupid question:  What is the most popular distro to use?
> (Assuming that the most popular distro would be the one that would have
> the least amount of issues -- and fastest updates)

I'm not sure about THE most popular, but some that seem to get a lot of 
mentions include:

- Ubuntu -- This is the one I'm using for MythTV. It's a general-purpose
  Linux distribution with MythTV packages. Setup shouldn't be too hard
  if you're familiar with Linux, but you may need to tweak a few things.

- Fedora -- Similar comments to those for Ubuntu, although I've never
  run MythTV on it myself so I'm assuming there are no major "gotchas"
  based on what I've read rather than personal experience.

- MythDora -- This is a variant of Fedora that's geared specifically
  towards MythTV use. I've never used it myself, but my understanding is
  that it's a bit quicker and/or easier to get MythTV running since the
  package set and installation options are geared towards a MythTV
  installation.

- KnoppMyth -- This is another MythTV-centric distribution, but it's
  based on Knoppix.

- Gentoo -- This is another general-purpose Linux distribution. I've got
  a desktop system that runs Gentoo, with a slave backend (and extra
  tuner card) and frontend for occasional testing use installed. Gentoo's
  big draw is that it's designed for users to compile most packages
  locally, which enables system-specific tuning options (for CPU
  optimizations, for instance); however, it's not exactly the most user-
  friendly distribution, so I wouldn't advise trying it unless you're
  already quite comfortable with Linux.

Keep in mind that some people can get quite attached to their distributions, 
and there can be idiosyncratic hardware issues (driver A in distribution X 
works well with system 1 but causes problems with system 2, whereas driver B 
in distribution Y works well with system 2 but causes problems with system 
1). Thus, you can run into conflicting, and sometimes quite passionately 
conflicting, recommendations. The truth is that each one has its advantages 
and disadvantages. For distributions in similar classes (such as 
general-purposes distributions or MythTV-centric distributions), the 
differences aren't likely to be huge for most users, although they could be 
if you run into those idiosyncratic hardware problems.

-- 
Rod Smith
http://www.rodsbooks.com