[SciPy-dev] Scipy Compile and Testing Problem from SVN

[Skipper Seabold]

On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 6:05 PM, Charles R Harris
<charlesr.harris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 3:45 PM, Gael Varoquaux
> <gael.varoquaux at normalesup.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 02:17:06PM -0400, Skipper Seabold wrote:
>> > First before I get into the last few things that I can think of, sorry
>> > for all the questions.  If the next few steps don't work, I am open to
>> > switching Linux distributions and seeing if I have more luck because I
>> > am about at the end of my abilities (and time constraint).  I have
>> > seen that Debian-based distributions are usually better for Scipy and
>> > the extensions.  Is there a particular "flavor" that is popular for
>> > Scipy developers?
>>
>> Stick with mainstream: use Debian or Ubuntu.
>>
>> I use Ubuntu on most of my boxes, because I like the 6 months release
>> strategy. Debian stable is usually too old for me (although I do run one
>> of my server under it). I've also had good experiences with Debian
>> unstable, though I find it lack the polish of Ubuntu, and is very
>> slightly more of a moving target.

Thanks for the suggestions.  I've got the development versions of both
numpy and scipy up and running on Kubuntu Jaunty 64-bit (I really like
where KDE 4.x is headed).  It didn't go completely without hiccups,
but it was pretty straightforward.

I receive the same test results as is found here
<http://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/scipy-dev/2009-March/011555.html> but
at least it's a start.

> And I prefer Fedora because it isn't a pain to install on software raid1 and
> doesn't require an hour or two to set up for software development. Suse was
> my favorite years ago, I wonder what happened?

Hope I'm not too off topic, but there are some good things going on
with openSUSE.  Yast is a pretty helpful tool in particular, but it
doesn't seem like they're too focused on scientific computing.  IIRC
from the forums, a few people had left over the years after problems
with LAPACK specifically.  Probably some people on here.  I should've
taken heed.

> Ubuntu is easiest to upgrade, however, and the unfree codecs and video
> drivers are easier to install.

I was pleasantly surprised at the handling of this.  The community
seems to be a little better organized as well.  I see why they say
it's the preferred route for new Linux users.

Skipper