The [Main] What Distro should YOU use? - Page 9


View Poll Results: Best Distro for Low resource PC?

Voters
170. You may not vote on this poll
  • Dam Small Linux

    20 11.76%
  • Debian

    42 24.71%
  • Feather Linux

    3 1.76%
  • Gentoo

    13 7.65%
  • Puppy Linux

    9 5.29%
  • Slackware

    38 22.35%
  • SuSE

    9 5.29%
  • Vector

    10 5.88%
  • Yoper

    0 0%
  • Other

    26 15.29%
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Thread: The [Main] What Distro should YOU use?

  1. #121
    Join Date
    Dec 1999
    Location
    Rockford, IL
    Posts
    755

    Question

    What a wonderful little post! I'm thinking of diving back into the Linux world after a pretty long break, and may need some advice this time:

    Quote Originally Posted by ions
    What apps do you use most?
    Firefox, Firebird, Sunbird, Peachtree Accounting, OpenOffice.org, GIMP, NVU, eBay TurboLister, PayPal postage printing (printing to an HP laser), Azureus, video playback, and on rare ocassion I'll boot up a game like Neverwinter Nights.

    Do you have a broadband connection?
    Yes - SBC/Yahoo DSL

    How familiar are you with computers?
    Very - worked as IT support for several years. Don't keep up with it as well as I did back then though.

    How familiar are you with Linux?
    Not very, any longer. I was at one time fairly fluent, but that was about six year ago and I haven't touched it since. Will probably be lucky if I can remember how to create a new directory at this point.

    How much time are you willing to invest into learning Linux?
    Not much. I no longer have the time to sit around for hours/days/weeks tinkering with something trying to get it to work.

    How powerful is your computer?
    I don't have it memorized, but I believe it's a 1.3Ghz, 512MB, 80G HD, video card I think is probably a bit on the crappy side but I can't remember how much memory it has.

    Anyway, the reason for my post is that my Win2K is getting very tired, I was holding off on upgrading because I didn't want to buy XP right when Vista was about to come out -
    And then Vista was released, and I was just about floored when I read the requirements (not to mention I'm never happy with Windows prices and licensing/registration agreements).

    This made me think about Linux again - I tried it out back around the turn of the century (back when RedHat & Mandrake were both fully open source & free) and although I though it was OK, I found certain aspects to be so frustrating that I decided to jump back to Windows.

    What I'm hoping for now is to be pointed in the right direction (even if it's unfortunately back towards Windows) -
    My techie days have pretty much passed, and I'm running a small business in my "spare" time now, so I don't want to waste a bunch of time in the meat of the OS - I want to be able to just log into the computer and have stuff work.
    That means not having to jump through 50 hoops to get my accounting package to work, and if some file needs updating I need to be able to just hit a couple of buttons and have the software take care of it - I still have horrible nightmares of trying to keep up with system file dependancies when trying to update even the most basic programs.

    Don't know if it matters much but at the time I had a preference to Gnome for the GUI, and taking another look it looks like it's still one of the nicer ones out there.

    SO - right now after doing a little looking around, Gentoo looks like it might be a possibility, or maybe maybe Mandrake if that's gone through improvements (and it's called something else now I think?) but I figured you guys would have the best suggestions - watcha think!?

  2. #122
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Houston, Texas
    Posts
    299
    Shadoglare, if you don't want to spend too much time tinkering or tweaking, as your post says, then I'd recommend you stay away from Gentoo. On the other hand, getting back into the full swing of Linux might 'infect' you. And you will find youself spending "...hours/days/weeks tinkering with something trying to get it to work".

    I'd like to recommend Debian or a Debian based distro. Much has transpired in the six or so years you'be been away. It will blow you away.

    Good luck.

  3. #123
    Join Date
    Dec 1999
    Location
    Rockford, IL
    Posts
    755
    Quote Originally Posted by loopback48
    I'd like to recommend Debian or a Debian based distro. Much has transpired in the six or so years you'be been away. It will blow you away.
    Would probably be worth a look, although I wasn't a big fan back in the day. I see their website is still pretty lacking as far as "hook 'em in" information - features, screenshots, etc.
    And is it seriously up to 15 CDs in size!!?

  4. #124
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    94
    Since you have broadband, I'd just download the single netinstall cd. Then you can just install your required packages from the net. Haven't played with it but I hear the new installer is very nice.

    Have Fun!

  5. #125
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    681
    debian is a good distro. i use it as my testbox i also run a slackware box and a gentoo box which is my desktop graphic machine. don't download all 15 debian cds its a waste of time. i would get the packages you need by using apt-get command.


    azurues/ktorrent (if running KDE) = bittorrents
    amarok = media player much like itunes
    k3b = cd/dvd burner
    gimp = graphic program
    firefox = web browsing

    what Window manager are you thinking about kde/gnome/fluxbox ? you should relrean some basic gnu linux commands.... you will need to use them on a regular basis. As well as understand file permissions.

    i would go with debian . its a good distro. ubuntu is also a debian based distro and you might want to check it out. I havn't used it .
    "Software is like sex: it's better when its free."
    -LINUS TORVALDS

  6. #126
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    681
    Would probably be worth a look, although I wasn't a big fan back in the day. I see their website is still pretty lacking as far as "hook 'em in" information - features, screenshots, etc.
    the main reason i love debian is beacuse of the all the binary packages avaible by apt-get. it makes it very easy to update . well as using other distros you spend alot of time upgrading if they arnt usuing a similair package manager. with modern times thou this is becoming way eaiser with Yum , apt-get, slapt-get, and emerge as was as ports on freeBSD
    "Software is like sex: it's better when its free."
    -LINUS TORVALDS

  7. #127
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    875
    Yah I'll have to chime in here, Download the Debian netinstall cd, its about 200mb and go for it. Installing packages is as easy as apt-get install firefox from a terminal as root, or if you you want a gui front end use the Synaptic Package manager. Oh and welcome back.

  8. #128
    Join Date
    Dec 1999
    Location
    Rockford, IL
    Posts
    755
    Quote Originally Posted by crow2icedearth
    what Window manager are you thinking about kde/gnome/fluxbox ? you should relrean some basic gnu linux commands.... you will need to use them on a regular basis. As well as understand file permissions. i would go with debian . its a good distro. ubuntu is also a debian based distro and you might want to check it out. I havn't used it .
    It looks like I'm probably still going to have a leaning towards Gnome - hoping Debian will give me an option of which I want when I do the install.

    Out of curiosity has Debian developed a "dependancy sensing" system when you have to update system files?
    Nothing drove me nuts more than downloading a program, and having it tell me "your <blah> file needs to be updated."
    Then I'd update it, and it would then tell me "OK.. but now your <blah> file needs updating."
    ...update.... "OK.. but now your <blah> needs to be updated."

    I remember there were times I spend all %@$#$@% night updating little 200k files just to get some stupid program to work that I downloaded. You'd think it would just figure out the tree by itself and just update everything that needs to be updated.

  9. #129
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    San Diego, CA
    Posts
    505
    Quote Originally Posted by Shadoglare
    It looks like I'm probably still going to have a leaning towards Gnome - hoping Debian will give me an option of which I want when I do the install.

    Out of curiosity has Debian developed a "dependancy sensing" system when you have to update system files?
    Nothing drove me nuts more than downloading a program, and having it tell me "your <blah> file needs to be updated."
    Then I'd update it, and it would then tell me "OK.. but now your <blah> file needs updating."
    ...update.... "OK.. but now your <blah> needs to be updated."

    I remember there were times I spend all %@$#$@% night updating little 200k files just to get some stupid program to work that I downloaded. You'd think it would just figure out the tree by itself and just update everything that needs to be updated.
    Dependency hell has been resolved in many distributions. Apt is very good at resolving the dependencies of packages in the repositories.

    If you try compiling your own applications, and veering away from the given repositories, your mileage may vary.
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  10. #130
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Zoetermeer, Holland
    Posts
    147
    Not able to choose between Slackware & Debian I ended up with Arch.
    I use it a few months now and I am very happy
    It's a known "problem" with OS/2. It runs continuously until the underlying hardware crumbles under you hands....

    the irony of quality

  11. #131
    Join Date
    Dec 1999
    Location
    Rockford, IL
    Posts
    755
    Weelllll... considering Partition Magic just magically borked my XP install, this might be as good a time as any to reinstall & repartition so I can dual-boot :P
    My first quick attempt at the Debian net-install showed that it's going to have trouble seeing my network connection to do the full install over the 'net - haven't had a chance to try a manual config yet tho.

  12. #132
    Join Date
    Dec 1999
    Location
    Rockford, IL
    Posts
    755
    OK... repartitioned, reinstalled windows, installed the Debian net-install...
    Seems to find the network adapter OK, but it says it can't find a DHCP connection (which I thought the DSL modem was), and even if I set it up with static addresses it still can't see the modem Probably time to do some searching and/or move to a new thread through (so much for those plug-and-play hopes!)

  13. #133
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Republic of Texas
    Posts
    5,898
    sometimes you need to restart the modem for it to assign an IP to a new computer...
    Need help in realtime? Visit us at #linuxnewbie on irc.libera.chat

    Few of us will do as much for our fellow man as he has done.
    --Andrew Morton on RMS

  14. #134
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    2
    Ok, the computer I want to use has a 10G hard drive and 256k RAM. Not sure on the speed, but I imagine it's around 500k or so. So I want a distribution of Linux for it that includes everything I need to compile. I tried BeaFanatix before discovering that I was going to have to figure out how to install tons of other crap just to compile and rather than do that I'd rather find a distro more suited to me needs. The ONLY thing I want to do with this computer is tinker around with a MUD, not even putting it online, so I need about zero resources.

  15. #135
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Hillsboro, Oregon USA
    Posts
    19
    Xarin, I expect you will use a different computer to download, but if your intended host computer has a DVD-ROM, I think the easiest to use would be openSuse 32 bit with the DVD version as it would have all the apps you need on one disk. The CD version has them but you might need to do some more tedious swapping and searching with a slower host computer... but I am not a real Linux person and you seem to be more conversant in Linux. I did install this on a P4 32 Bit and A64 64 bit with no problems for me as far as installing the OS was concerned.
    Wall socket? You have to plug it in to a wall socket?

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