Considering switching distros

idk the details, i'm just basing it on the valve linux blog.

Why wouldn't it work on other distros out-of-the-box? Do you mean that they only will provide a Ubuntu .deb or that is no chance getting it running on for example Arch Linux?

Although pulling a .deb apart and repackaging for other distros might make it possible to install it, what if they have compiled all of the Steam games for a specific set of libraries? SDL would be a good example of such a dependency if they chose to use it. If you didn't have that version of SDL then you would not be able to run any of the Steam games that needed it. I'm not necessarily saying that it'll be SDL but there are other libraries that the could link to. As Ubuntu has a 6 monthly release cycle there could be a 6 month release cycle for Steam to update the application in line. You'd then find that for any other distro you would have to install multiple versions of libraries to get Steam games running in addition to your normal software.

This is not definite but is just one of the things that could happen.

I remember reading somewhere that they stick with ubuntu just for development, on launch they want to support multiple distros.

btw: supporting 'only ubuntu' is a dangerous new trend among many proprietary software companies, I hope it doesn't get much larger

Although pulling a .deb apart and repackaging for other distros might make it possible to install it, what if they have compiled all of the Steam games for a specific set of libraries? SDL would be a good example of such a dependency if they chose to use it. If you didn't have that version of SDL then you would not be able to run any of the Steam games that needed it. I'm not necessarily saying that it'll be SDL but there are other libraries that the could link to. As Ubuntu has a 6 monthly release cycle there could be a 6 month release cycle for Steam to update the application in line. You'd then find that for any other distro you would have to install multiple versions of libraries to get Steam games running in addition to your normal software.

This is not definite but is just one of the things that could happen.

Ofc, but I thought he meant somekind of drm or something.

So I tried again today, got everything including LXDE running on VirtualBox, but with the MBR partitioning. Is it possible to use GPT? I don't like the 3TB limitation, and I'll probably get an UEFI board in the future.

You tried what exactly?

EDIT: Oh, Arch? Make sure you use the very latest install media, they just moved to systemd as init system.

And yes, of course, you can do GPT. Just do a GPT setup intsead of a MBR setup, I'm not sure what you mean. The installer doesn't give you any options, because there is no installer per se. You got MBR because you followed the steps to set up MBR.

EDIT2: You did follow this, didn't you? https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide

I ended up using Parted Magic to set up my disk, and I'm using GPT. Installing now. Will report progress in this post. Mind you, I'm doing the netbook now. Will switch the main PC if this works.

____________
1: [done] Partitioning
2: [done] Base system
3: [done] fstab and chroot
4: Crap. In my GPT setup, syslinux couldn't set /dev/sda1 as bootable. Help?
→ NVM, didn't have gptfdisk. installing it now.
4: [done] Bootloader
...aaaand we have the base system!

Installed X, installing GNOME.

I see how this thread turns out - with the OP trying Arch. I guess it's the only logical way of making sure everything is perfect for you. Good luck with that. It's like TV these days. Thousands of distros, but nothing that meets all criteria

Instead of installing Arch, I went the route of installing Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon (it's an LTS release) and customizing it to my needs and abilities (changed the theme, changed some minor things in Cinnamon's Javascript applets, installed CairoDock, changed the file manager, and a few other things). My abilities here is the limiting factor.

In three years, when this LTS release expires, I would like to switch to Arch or some other distro with a rolling release system. I feel that I'll be able to install such distros easily by then without a GUI to guide me.

Well this was unexpected. Apparently, Ubuntu's touch drivers are kind of screwed up, because touch works like a charm now in most applications. I installed most commonly used apps already, and will be restoring backups tomorrow. I like how GNOME Shell actually works now. The performance increase over Ubuntu sure was worth the effort. Configuration is still in progress, but I can foresee myself using Arch on my main PC.