So... I gave Mint (KDE 64-bit) a whirl....

[retired1af]

And while it was nice, there were a slew of minor irritants that makes me appreciate VL even more (although it WOULD be nice to get the 64-bit version of VL back on track!  ).

Some of my observations......

Programs are modified to behave differently. For example, instead of minimizing to the tray, some minimize to the "task bar" instead. Or completely removing some options like check for updates.

No support for the older ATI proprietary drivers. Reading some of the forums, it was stated it won't work. Don't even try it. Hmmmmmm, says I. I'm going to try it anyway. They're right. Attempting to compile the older driver into the kernel resulted in an ugly situation.

It was my first real exposure to Gnome as well (tried the "Main" version first before ripping it out and trying the KDE version). I don't like Gnome. LOL

It is rather interesting I think, that even though I'll play with other distributions, I always have one constant on the machine I'm using. There's always a copy of VL on it, and it's my primary distribution. Vector must be doing something right. 

[MikeCindi]

I've used Mint off/on since it was released. When it detects all my hardware on the initial install then it does well but it never seems to impress me enough to give up VL. Now I will check it out if I'm having a hardware issue with VL to see if it will detect the device.

[GrannyGeek]

It is rather interesting I think, that even though I'll play with other distributions, I always have one constant on the machine I'm using. There's always a copy of VL on it, and it's my primary distribution. Vector must be doing something right. 

I stopped playing with other distros years ago. When I tried other distros, I was always disappointed because VectorLinux was always better in some way. Almost always faster. Usually better looking. Consistently true to the "Linux way," not trying to ape Windows. Respectful of the user's intelligence. Having a great community and a great support system with this forum and the available documentation. The fabulous OpenSourceBistro. Support for hardware old and new.

To stay in the loop as far as Linux distros go, I read reviews and look at screen shots. Even if another distro does something better than VL does, rather than switch I'd prefer to stay with Vector and do what I can to help our distro improve (not that I can do much but test).
--GrannyGeek

[retired1af]

It would have to take some extreme awesomeness on the part of a Linux distro to get me to switch. However, I do like playing with other flavors, if just to see what the differences are and how they do things. My external drive has plenty of room for experimenting which is one of the primary reasons I bought it. Might have to get another one, too. LOL

Next on my list? Gentoo. I've always been curious about it and it's high time I satisfied that curiosity. 

[tomh38]

Some time ago I gave (believe it or not) Xubuntu a try on a PIII found in somebody's trash (not that one, this was a few years ago, before the "global economic meltdown").  I had Vector on it, and it worked fine except the onboard ethernet wasn't detected.  So a few months after I found it I decided to throw something else at it, to see if I could determine whether it was a software or hardware problem.  I had heard that the *buntu family had hardware detection and configuration that was as good as anybody's so I installed "Intriguing Ichthyosaur" or whatever it was.

By the way, you know that show "Hoarding:  Buried Alive"?  That's me, except with old computers and computer parts.

Anyway, it was a hardware issue, I'm pretty sure.  Along the way though, I tried out Xubuntu.  I have to say, it wasn't bad.  You could definitely tell you were using Xfce with some GNOME stuff added on, and there some things I didn't like and would have changed if I had left Xubuntu on there (the overuse of "sudo" for example), but overall it was a pretty pleasant experience.  Once I'd turned off a bunch of daemons, it wasn't noticeably slower that VL.  Anyway, it's Linux.  I know that it's kind of the popular thing in the rest of the Linux community to bash make fun of Ubuntu, but I think it's all right.

Vector is still my favorite distribution by far, though.

[never_stop_learning]

All of our personal PCs and every machine we give out (almost 400 so far) as part of the Reno Cigar Lions Computers for Kids program has VL 6.0 loaded.

However, it's still interesting to check out other distros just to see how other folks are getting from 'point a to point b'.

[w2ibc]

i still check out other distros myself. been playing with ubuntu's 10.04 for a couple weeks now on the laptop.

but as retired said, VL is going to need to step up the 64bit. were kinda getting on the edge where 32bit will be a thing of the past lol