I have no idea why you say BSD is bad for the desktop. I've run it as my desktop OS since about 1992. -- Lennart On Apr 22, 2007, at 15:07 , Tom Harper wrote:

I'd go with the one you feel is the best desktop OS. For me that usually counts BSD out (great server, bad desktop). I'd stick with your favourite version of Linux unless you have some special requirements.

On 4/22/07, David Cabana wrote:

...

I have a spare Windows machine I want to put to better use. I want to turn it into a Haskell hacking box, and was wondering whether any particular *nix or BSD distribution is best (or worst) suited for this. Any thoughts?

Thank you, David Cabana _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

-- Tom Harper Computer Science Major '07 Syracuse University +1 949 235 0185 Public Key: http://aftereternity.co.uk/rth.asc _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

I'm not dissing Windows; I work with it all the time, just not for Haskell. On the other hand, I am writing this on my Powerbook. My desire to use linux is mostly aesthetic. I want to go mouse free (I'm thinking Xmonad), and neither Windows nor OS X naturally lends itself to that. With respect to choice of linux, the machine I have in mind is not terribly fast, so I prefer to install from binaries rather than source. Do Debian and Ubuntu provide more or less the same Haskell packages? On Apr 22, 2007, at 10:09 AM, Neil Mitchell wrote:

Hi David,

At the risk of getting into an OS war, its perfectly feasible to develop Haskell on Windows. Some Haskell applications are only available for Windows (WinHugs mainly), but you are likely to have a less bumpy ride compiling GHC if you aren't on Windows.

Pick what you want, Gentoo and Debian are both quite well supported for Haskell.

Thanks

Neil

On 4/22/07, David Cabana wrote:

...

I have a spare Windows machine I want to put to better use. I want to turn it into a Haskell hacking box, and was wondering whether any particular *nix or BSD distribution is best (or worst) suited for this. Any thoughts?

Thank you, David Cabana _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

On 22/04/07, Ryan Dickie wrote:

Many of the haskell packages including darcs, ghc, and well over 100 other packages (mostly libraries) are in the package manager ready to be installed.

The problem with Ubuntu (at least until the Feisty release a few days ago?) was that GHC wasn't up-to-date by default; it came with 6.4. Moving to 6.6 isn't a difficult feat (the generic binaries from the GHC site seem to work fine for Edgy, if you install libreadline too) but being behind that curve is noticeable. If you want to stay on the cutting edge Gentoo takes a lot of the hassle out of it, since you can use the repository stored on haskell.org. The downside is having to keep the rest of the system updated if you've got a slow machine. You pays your money, etc. D.

If you opt for ubuntu, have a look at http://groups.google.de/group/fa.haskell/browse_thread/thread/e63e73e7fc9e96c2/be76e381f8c33f39?lnk=st&q=%22haskell+cafe%22+%22Trouble+trying+to+find+packages+for+ubuntu+linux%22&rnum=1&hl=en#be76e381f8c33f39 This little hack enabled me to do a sort of "one shot install" for all the haskell packages available for feisty, although I was running dapper ("long term support") ubuntu. This meant a lot less dependency chasing when I wanted to install something nonstandard, or with nonstandard dependencies, eg HApps. (nota bene, I think the issue of dependency chasing should hopefully cease to matter when the cabal developers figure out how to do that during an install.) thomas. 2007/4/22, Ryan Dickie :

I'm running feisty. ryan@0pt1mu5:~$ ghc --version The Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compilation System, version 6.6

--ryan

On 4/22/07, Dougal Stanton wrote:

...

On 22/04/07, Ryan Dickie wrote:

...

Many of the haskell packages including darcs, ghc, and well over 100 other packages (mostly libraries) are in the package manager ready to be installed.

The problem with Ubuntu (at least until the Feisty release a few days ago?) was that GHC wasn't up-to-date by default; it came with 6.4. Moving to 6.6 isn't a difficult feat (the generic binaries from the GHC site seem to work fine for Edgy, if you install libreadline too) but being behind that curve is noticeable. If you want to stay on the cutting edge Gentoo takes a lot of the hassle out of it, since you can use the repository stored on haskell.org. The downside is having to keep the rest of the system updated if you've got a slow machine.

You pays your money, etc.

D. _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

_______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe