[tlug] Looking for a distribution to replace Ubuntu

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

Ubuntu has a fair number of annoyances for me, as folks are probably
gathering from my posts here. It's finally got enough stuff wrong that
can't be fixed as easily as installing a new window manager package that
I'm looking for a new distribution. I'd like to solicit suggustions.

Here are my criteria, in approximate order of importance.

* Support for "full-disk encryption," or as close as Linux gets (which I
guess is an unencrypted boot partition), and an enter-passphrase-on-boot
system usable by a non-sysadmin.

* A working DNSSEC resolver, preferably using the BIND 9 library. This
should be used by the standard OpenSSH package to use authenticated
SSHFP records.

* All network-facing services off by default. Well, within reason:
disabling ICMP echo replies would be a PITA. But installing an Apache
httpd package should certainly not start a server. Ideally, too,
services are configured securely by default, e.g., sshd is configured to
disallow all root logins over the network and password logins for any
account.

* Good driver support for desktop systems, particularly in the ability
to use modern graphics cards to some basic level of performance. I can
live with Aqua-style stuff being slow and not being able to run games,
but I do need a basic 2-D window manager and programs such as Firefox
to work well, and I need multiple-head support. ACPI suspend and power
management working well would be a good bonus.

* A reasonably broad range of binary packages available, and having the
latest production-ready releases available sooner, rather than later.
Automatic updates and all that, too. A fairly coarse package granularity
is fine; I have little concern about how much disk space the system
uses.

* Some reasonable default configuration for window manager and so on
that office staff comfortable with Windows and the Gnome environment
will be comfortable with, and a set of graphical system management tools
that enable these folks to, e.g., easily find and install programs such
as the Gimp.

* Including include files and any other basic tools one needs to compile
against a library with the library itself, rather than as a separate
"dev" package. I don't mind if they want to put the profiling libraries
and suchlike in a separate package, though I'd prefer they do not.

If I can find a good candidate, we'd like to replace Ubuntu on all of
the desktops at our office, and on several notebooks.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974   
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