The [Main] What Distro should YOU use?

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05-28-2005, 03:33 PM
ctkroeker

Re: Slick Distro, for Low resource PC.
Quote:
Originally posted by adwilson
Can anyone sugest a good distro for a low spec PC?

The spec is:

AMD K6 400MHz
256 MB Ram
5 Gb HD

My own criteria in order of most desired:
[list=1][*]A Responsive System (no problems using Xface, IceWM etc)[*]Can install new junk/software.[*]Will leave me with enough power to play DVD's, MP3's etc and browse the web at the same time! (my favourite passtime)[/list=1]
Any suggests are most welcome, I'm currently running Debian (Sarge), which is ok, it runs and does just about all I want, but I think there are slicker options available. (also got puppylinux, which is fast I have to say, but I can't get connected to the internet on it:( )

Feel free to sugest ones I haven't mentioned in the poll.
definetly Gentoo.
05-29-2005, 02:05 PM
nairanvac

I've used Mandrake10 for about 8months. I know my way around a shell. My computer has

An 800Mhz AThlon processor
512MB of RAM
A 64mb Radeon 7000 Vid card
9gb of RAM

I'm interested in dual-booting Linux and Windows2k. I intend to invest my whole summer into learning. When I had Mandrake a few months back, I mostly used these apps:

WINE
The GIMP
Firefox

Which distro is right for me?
06-01-2005, 07:01 AM
birdylim

I need YOUR recommendationS...

Hi, I am new to linux/unix-like environments... I would like to have your recommendations on which distro I should use on the following spec.,

NEC-Branded Japanese Ver. Laptop
===================================
1. Pentium III - Mobile 933 MHz [512KB Cache]
2. 512MB PC133 RAM
3. 40GB [Toshiba 1.8" miniHDD, 4200rpm/2MB cached]
4. 16/32MB VRAM [Shared with Main Memory]
OnBoard Video Card - Cyber ALADDiN-T(TM) made by Trident/ALi [ I know this s**ks... ]
5. 12.1" TFT XGA 1024x768 Screen
6. Japanese Layout Keyboard [with Touchpad]
7. Built-in LAN [RJ45 100BASE-TX/10BASE-T]
8. Built-in Modem [RJ11 FAX Modem]
9. USB2.0 x 3
10. IEEE1394 [4pin] x 1
11. PC card slot x 1
12. CF card slot x 1
13. Built-in Sound Card
14. Wireless LAN Card 802.11a / b [Dual, forgot the manufacturer...]
===================================

Have been staying with Windows for 10 years... tired for keeping upgrade the Windows Ver. as well as the Hardwares... damn costing... I hope to use Linux/Unix-like environment ONLY in the future, NOT dual-booting because such spec. in WinXP SP2 runs too slow... Therefore, I am looking for a distro that can run fast and smoothly under the spec. above.

I will use it for mainly Internet Surfing, Mailing, DVD/CD-Burning (with external drive), Watching Movie, Listening Music. But, due to it is Japanese Ver. Laptop, I am worrying about the hardware compability. Or if I missed out some important hardwares above, please kindly let me know. m(_ _)m [Japanese like to use this BOW sign for begging...]

By the way, I will need an environment that allows me to multi-linguistic input, e.g. Japanese, Chinese and English. Thanks ^.^|||

I am thinking to step in Linux/Unix-like environments but at this stage, I am really confused with too many selections. I am considering FreeBSD because I heard that it is totally FREE of charge but any other suggestion? By the way, I decided to step in Linux/Unix-like environments also due to the DAMN COOL interface, just very personal characteristic expression!!! ^___^

Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu! ["Please" in Japanese.]
06-01-2005, 10:36 AM
techwise

Ive done Mandrake
Suse
Vector
Libranet
Turbo
RH
Gentoo
FreeBSD
Mepis
Slackware . . .

But Im getting older and have less and less time on my hands so Im on Ubuntu right now.

It is Debian and has all the bells and whistles and has almost unlimited financial backing by its developers.

I think it is the most well rounded laptop/desktop distro out there.

Debian on the servers though.

Mike
06-09-2005, 11:49 AM
rwtoften

use Mandrake 10.1, it does the job for me. Used slackware, mepis, libranet, redhat but for some reason always come back to mandriva (mandrake).:p
06-09-2005, 02:28 PM
psych-major

I voted for Slackware, because in the real world that's what I use on older, slower systems. If the system is moderately slow, then I'll run kde with the eye-candy way down, but if it's really slow, I'll use xfce or no gui at all.

However, that being said, I have also used Damn Small. It is really resource friendly and is definitely worth looking at for someone with a really old PC like a 486 or something under 200MHz.
06-14-2005, 05:20 PM
psych-major

I just tried out a live CD called Zen Linux and it is very cool. It is a live CD and "100% Debian compatible" installer. I booted it on an IBM Thinkpad and it found all my hardware, including an Atheros wireless card, boasted some serious eye-candy right out of the box, and within seconds I was able to run apt-get to install qtparted and ntfsprogs in order to adjust my NTFS partition. I'm generally not a huge debian fan, but this distro blows my mind as a live CD, and it makes getting up to speed with debian a fairly easy affair. I am almost persuaded to leave Slackware...

So, even if you're not a live CD junkie like me, it's still definitely worth a look.
07-16-2005, 08:34 AM
blackbelt_jones

Changing my answer

Now that I have got my good computer back, apparently running properly with a new Asus motherboard and Rosewill power supply, Simply Mepis seems almost ideal for me, because it's nothing more or less than my beloved Debian with two of my most persistent installation problems solved for me: the mplayer mozilla plugin, and the proprietary nvidia driver. I don't care how many millions of debian users have found these installations easy; for me they have been frustrating beyond words... and Mepis makes them easy. I don't know how current the nVidia driver is that I installed with a single click into Simply Mepis, but I do know that it works just great.

As always, there is a fly in the ointment. There seems to be a problem with the unstable repositories that prevent me from apt-getting gnome. When I first got this computer working, and I tried on several distros to see what felt best, I was able to install gnome with no problem and it integrated great-- and then, when I installed Mepis for good, I wasn't able to do it. I get the following message:

Quote:

Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
gnome: Depends: gnome-desktop-environment (= 1:2.10.1.1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: gnome-office (= 1:2.10.1.1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

It worked on Saturday, but on Monday it didn't. Bummer.

Today may be the day that I make that bug report. In the meantime, I am stuck with KDE... Not my personal favorite desktop environment, but I expect that this is a temporary glitch, and it's more a matter of taste than utility.

I miss Sarge. Something about the idea of running "real" debian appealled to me. I prefer the look and feel of it. I dislike the Mepis boot screen with that pyramid background . Someday I may solve these two problems... or maybe I'll just get the geeks at my LUG to help me... and then I'll be back with Sarge to stay... but Mepis works for me, now.
07-16-2005, 12:14 PM
J-Val

Ubuntu Fan

Canned MDK 10.1 - trying to install with it's package manager was a pain for me. Easy URPMI helped a little, but I found I had to build from source a lot, and it made finding my dependencies a pain also.

So I switched to Ubuntu. The support via the community is outstanding. I can google any problem I have and include "ubuntu" in my search, it always takes me to an anwser in the ubuntu forums. I didn't like how GNOME looks, so I installed the KDE desktop. There are TONS more packages in the Ubuntu repository (which is updated often), and apt-get makes it easy to solve dependencies. I can count on 1 hand how many applications I had to install from source because they wouldn't install via apt-get. I've been using it since March. Installation is easy, but don't expect there to be any kind of flashy interface like MDK had.

If you are new to linux, and want TONS of applications at your disposal to choose from, go with Ubuntu, or any Debian derivative for that matter. I've not used Mepis, Gentoo, Knoppix, or Debian Sarge, but I'm sure they are just as good. My decision was made from using the live CDs, and that Ubuntu was only just on one CD (Mandrake had a few), and from seeing how supported the community was.

Here's something to make you smile:
Software and Sex
08-04-2005, 08:31 AM
splutterbug

Another bloody newbie

First things first, I want to thank the people posting here who have really opened my eyes to Linux, I'm currentlly running Windows but have been looking to get to grips with linux for some time, I finally have a new external hard drive and a bit of space to try things out. So I have a relatively new but low powered PC

P3 1Ghz
384mb ram
64mb Geforce 4 graphics card
A shiny new 80 gig external hard drive

So now I just need to get started, I tried a live CD of Knopix (I think?) but it just felt like windows to me, (be gentle I am a newbie). I have never done programming before, and am coming to linux as a clean slate and would really appreciate some advise where to start. What I want is the ability to dual boot so I still have windows until I'm confident with linux. I also use the PC predominantly for backing up DVD's, playing music and surfing the net. But really I just want to learn something new and figure out why stuff works, and what more my PC is capable of. I've been edging towards slackware but it seems but from the feedback I've heard it seems a bit intimidating for an out and out newbie, any recomendations.

And thanks again, trawling through the forums here has really taught me a lot, I didn't even know what a distro was before coming here.
08-04-2005, 11:04 AM
J-Val

If you are a newbie, I would not recommend slackware. IMO it's not made for people who are "new" to linux. What distro you should use is gonna be based on how much time do you want to spend tweaking your OS. You have to think about installation (some are easier than others) and desktop environment (KDE,GNOME, Fluxbox,etc), and also community support- meaning where you will find anwsers to your questions.

In your case I would try live CDs of several distros and see what ones you like. Here's a few, MEPIS, Ubuntu\Kubuntu (which I use, comes highly recommended), and Knoppix.

As far as "best newbie distros" you have:
Fedora, Mandriva (formerly Mandrake), Ubuntu/Kubuntu, MEPIS, SUSE, and maybe Gentoo.

my 2 cents.
08-24-2005, 09:00 PM
d3rt

ANOTHER nix noob

Hello nix gurus!

I am very keen to install and use a linux distro as I'm just starting a career in the IT sector (not certified yet) and of course, if I want to go anywhere I'm going to need to know my nix.

My home PC is thus:

AMD64 3800+
Asus nforce4 mobo
2gig Corsair ram
1x200gig SATA hdd
leadtek 6600GT vc

net connection: adsl accessed via a wireless AP

I will be dual booting with xp (i like my games)

I am a complete and utter noob to linux. I need a recommendation for a distro! I used dos as a child on my 386 and have basic command line knowledge but a GUI would certainly streamline the process.

Recommendations?
08-25-2005, 02:13 AM
eskaypey

I'd go for Gentoo if i had that ammount or RAM.

But thats only because i love my Gentoo.
08-25-2005, 08:05 PM
airjrdn

New here, first post. :D

I've been a Windows software developer (in the working world) for about 10 years now. My first PC was an Atari 400, and my main PC's today are:

desktop - 2.8Ghz Intel w/1G of RAM, 320G HD, and a Radeon 9700 Pro
laptop - 3Ghz Intel w/2G of RAM, 60G 7200RPM HD, 17" widescreen

The Distros (mostly LiveCD's) I've tried in the last 3 weeks or so have been:

Code:

Xandros DSL.iso dynebolic-1.4.1.iso Elive_0.1_nibeta_nialpha.iso featherweight-live-v1.2.iso freespire.iso gentoo livecd packages-x86-2005.1_pre1.iso gNOX-2.0-pr2.iso GoblinX-1.1.iso KANOTIX-2005-03.iso KNOPPIX_V4.0-2005-06-08-LINUXTAG2005-DVD-DE.ISO KNOPPIX_V4.0DVD-2005-08-16-EN.iso KnoppMythR5A16.iso kubuntu-5.04-live-i386.iso linspire_live_5.0.69-001.iso Mandrakelinux-Move.i586.iso monowall cdrom-1.11.iso mutagenix_kde-2.6.11.8-i486-1.iso pclinuxos-p91.iso SantaFeCTR3.iso Simply Mepis.iso SimplyMEPIS-3.3.2.test02.iso slax-5.0.6.iso slax-killbill-5.0.6.iso TheOpenCD-3.0.iso ubuntu-5.04-live-i386.iso

and I'm downloading ZenLinux as I type this.

I've tried Linux off and on since around Redhat 7 or so. I typically install it, get frustrated w/something, then leave it behind for awhile. It seems to have come a long way since RH7.

From my admittedly limited experience, I can say this...

Mepis is the only LiveCD to recognize my laptop's Broadcom wireless NIC and get it working without intervention. It does however take a tweaked XF86Config-4 file to display the laptop's native resolution of 1440x900.

Slax requires about two commands (and the windows drivers) using ndiswrapper to get wireless working, but I can't get 1440x900 working. Great thing about Slax is you can run it entirely in RAM. You can also build your own "versions" but I haven't tried that yet.

Ubuntu boots up into 1440x900, but wireless doesn't work and ndiswrapper isn't installed by default. KUbuntu is the same I believe.

Most of the others boot into 1024x768 and wireless doesn't work. The only two I've gotten wireless working in are Mepis and Slax.

I currently have Xandros installed on an old box and to be honest, for a Windows user, I think it's probably the easiest to get used to. The community (as was stated previously) is very nice. You won't hear "RTFM" constantly, and you're also unlikely to see "Windoze/Winblows/etc.". Personally, I'll admit as soon as I see those I immediately put the person in the same category as those who type "teh" for "the" all the time.

Linux has it's positives, it's free, tweakable, open source, techie oriented, etc..

In my experience however, it has it's negatives as well. Besides not supporting a lot of hardware as well as Windows does, it's not as "crash proof" as many like to tout it as being. In some distros if I play a DivX avi, then double click an MPG it's an instant lockup. Xandros was left running for a few weeks and when I went to use it, the GUI wouldn't respond. The mouse did, but windows weren't movable. A restart of X was required to get it working again. I've had numerous other apps lock up and often times lock the entire OS so tightly that I couldn't even restart X. Note that these have happened with multiple distros and multiple PC's.

Given that one of the biggest gripes Linux users have about Windows is the need for reboots, I do find it extremely strange that the simplest of changes require a restart of X. If I want to change my clock from a 24hr display to a 12hr display I have to restart X. If I want to change my mousepointers from one set to another I have to restart X. X of course restarts much more quickly than rebooting Windows, but from a users standpoint, having to "restart" just to change the simplest of things makes people often equate Linux's GUI to that of Win 3.11/95.

I apologize if it sounds as though I'm bashing Linux, that's not at all my intent. I just find some of these things strange and honestly, am curious as to the technical reasons why they are the way they are.
08-25-2005, 08:52 PM
Lucas_Maximus

I been using fedora core 4 for some weeks now, and have installed it on my main machine, I am very impressed with it.

I hated redhat based distro's, but this time they appear to have got it right.
09-01-2005, 07:31 PM
Smithboy

I'm looking to get into Linux again. I've tried first Debian, then Mandrake and Red Hat. I never got x windows working right with Debian and found it a little too hard, but I really liked the idea of the apt-get. Mandrake never felt right, but Red Hat wasn't too bad.

I'm thinking from reading the previous posts to get into MEPIS or Ubuntu perhaps, and as another poster said, into Debian and Gentoo afterwards.

Quote:

What apps do you use most?

I use my PC for web browsing, mp3 listening, movie watching and gaming. I'm going back to school now taking a digital media course and I think I'll be using Lightwave, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and some other programs

Quote:

Do you have a broadband connection?

Yes, a pretty fast Cable modem.

Quote:

How familiar are you with computers? / With Linux?

I am quite experienced on the hardware side of things (just built this rig myself) and I'm quite fluent with Windows. For Linux I'm not a total newb anymore, but I don't feel like I've learned much from my experiences yet.

Quote:

How much time are you willing to invest into learning Linux?

If I can find a good reason to boot into Linux instead of Windows, I'll spend more time learning Linux. For now I'd like to keep it fairly GUI-oriented and windows-like to keep it easier, but I don't mind learning how to get my hands dirty in the OS.

I find from previous installations, that it was fun setting the OSes up. It seemed a bit too much of a pain to try and get certain programs running though, and I found that whenever I was at the boot prompt, I had little reason to choose Linux over Win XP, so I let it go. That was a couple years ago though and I know the distros and programs have gotten better and I hope I can find some good use in Linux after I have the OS operational.

What I'm thinking right now is to utilize my 64-bit processor by running Linux instead of my 32-bit WinXP. Maybe get some speedier 3d rendering done on here and anything else that'll run faster than on Windows.

One of my concerns is this is new hardware and I don't know how well it will work.

Quote:

How powerful is your computer?

Motherboard:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce 4 Ultra
Processor:
Athlon 64 3500+ socket 939
Memory:
OCZ 2x512MB PC3200 DDR Premier Dual Channel
Video Card:
Asus AX800XL 256MB PCI-E
Sound Card:
SB Audigy OEM
Hard Drives:
2 Samsung 160GB P80SD 7200rpm SATA II w/ 8MB Cache in Raid 0.
Optical Drive:
LG GSA-4163B Dual Layer DVD±R/RW Drive

These are some concerns of mine:
I couldn't get both my Marvel and nForce LAN adapters to work under WinXP until I installed the drivers, so would I have to find certain drivers for Linux before they would work under Linux too?
How do I get it to recognize my Raid 0? For WinXP I have a driver disk.
Does ATI have good drivers for Linux?
Do these distros utilize my 64-bit processor? Does it do that in the i386 packages or I need the x86_64 or amd64 packages?
09-02-2005, 07:49 AM
JoSnow

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Val

Here's my response...any suggestions will be much appreciated. Keep in mind, I really wanna stop the dual booting completly, and just use linux exclusively, but I doubt it's possible (ITunes).

All kinds....GIMP when I cant use Photoshop (cause WINE wont work right for some reason) Open Office, K Office, Adobe Acrobat, Firefox, Thunderbird, Amarok, Itunes (kinda need windows for that), Mplayer, K3b, Konsole, vim (cause I havent found a decent C++ IDE I liked).

Yes- Cable Modem

Very. 2 years comp sci experience, been around computers since I was 7. Familiar enough to know that Windows sucks, and how to get it to do what I want it to.

Not as much. Only experience I had was with Red Hat, and Mandrake in college, and even then all I could do was install it. When it came time to update packages, upgrade apps, kernels, etc, I was lost. Still am a little.

As much as it takes, since I want to make this my primary OS

Decent.
1 GB RAM
Athlon XP 2700 CPU
Asus A7N8X-E Motherboard
~100 GB HD Space
64 MB GeForce4 TI 4800
CD/CDR Drives
Philipps Seismic Edge PCI Card (32 MB)
About 6 USB ports and 3-4 Firewire ones (2 dont work cause Antec screwed up the wiring)
Antec Sonata Case.

Now Im on MDK 10.1 Download now and it's running fine. There are some annoyances that I dont like, upgrading some apps are a pain depeding on whether I have to build from source or not, but most of my issues are with the window managers- not the OS itsself. I'm a believer that anyone can use rpm to install packages, and URPMI is great in mandrake, but not everything has rpms released, but I also believe that anyone should be able to build/configure/install any program from source. Mandrake has only got easier to install and detect my hardware. My biggest issue is just upgrading packages. Should I only be using RPMS because I'm running mandrake, or should I switch to an OS where I can use both?

Thanks

Dude,

You can run iTunes under CodeWeaver's Crossover Office 3.0
09-02-2005, 05:13 PM
Teladi

First Post... User that wants to abandon windows once and for all.

PC:
3 GHz intel P4
512 MB DDR
fast internet connection

Laptop:
1.6 GHz centrino
512 MB ram
bluetooth + wifi

Prgorams i use:
Visual C#(most important)
3Ds Max 7
internet/mail from mozilla
some games
Open Office 2.0 Beta

My issue:
Hello,
I'm 19 years old and about to start uni. my windows system has been pissing me off since i was a kid(started using computers with 5) and I would really prefer to leave windows completly behind me, and all it's cursed microsoft programs.

My problem is, that I don't know anything about writing programs for Linux, I've got a good experience in C(no C++ mind you), VB(yes the devil, but that's where i started) and C#.
Also I'd like to go on with my hobby 3d stuff, it's not anything serious, but it's more fun than photoshop/gimp for me.

I used Fedora and Slackware-lifeCD and got along with them pretty well, however, if anybody got some good guide how to setup Linux stuff without the need to get into command line modification(don't get me wrong, I like command lines, but a system SHOULD have a GUI setup pannel) or any other linux guide I'd be glad to hear from you.

Thanks in advance
09-02-2005, 05:32 PM
psych-major

For a completely GUI experience, you might check out the recently released OpenSuSE. You can read my thoughts about trying it here .

It's a really smooth package, and lets you choose between a laptop, server, or workstation install. It has some really nice features like automounting/unmounting of USB drives, etc.

That being said, however, I use Slackware on my laptop and desktop and am very happy with it!

Good luck!
09-07-2005, 05:58 PM
seldomseen

For most machines I would probably use Slack or a Slack variation, such as Vector if I want stability and performance within limited resources. I really like Vector. My main unit runs on Kanotix/Debian Sid, but I'm fixing to install Vec as my workhorse. Somehow using Sid for mission-critical stuff (especially while the Debian repositories are still screwed up) is not the way to go here.

For one of my test units, however, it runs best on Puppy. This test unit, a Pentium 1, has 48MB RAM, 267mHz, and a 3-gig HD. Even the standard low-resource specialists such as Vector run haltingly on this one, if at all. Tried Slax with Flux; even that was slow. DamnSmall worked pretty well. But Puppy is much more complete a system as far as apps go, and it runs like this is a new computer or something. If you're using EXTREME low resources, it will be definitely worth your while to set aside a swap partition. Even in this 48MB unit, with a swap partition, Puppy will load into memory and you can kick the CD out.

Been using Linux exclusively for about 18 months. W***ows 98 is on my hard drive. It's there, and I use it only to convert documents for the benefit of these folks who live and die by Microsoft.
09-11-2005, 04:21 AM
loopback48

Three recommemdations to make. Debian Sarge, DebianPure (debianpure.com) and Ubuntu. If you can wait until next month, Ubuntu 5.10 - Breezy - will be out. Obviously all three are debian based. I think Debianpure has a leg up on the original because it come with some of the features most folks can't do without or expect. Like Flash, Java and multimedia. I'd go with a netinstall for both the original Debian and DebianPure. There is no netinstall for Ubuntu that I"m aware of. But that's OK because you only need one CD to install it. Unlike other distros that require 4 or 5 CDs.

Just to throw you off a little, Ubuntu is my main desktop. Love it. One other thing to knock you off stride - Frugleware. Great distro. But it's not for newbies.

I've run all three on my old PC which has:

PIII 550 Mhz processor
384 Mb ram
ATI Mach 64 video card
10Gb HD
CD-Rom

Not exactly a speed demon, that old PC, but not bad at all. They all preform very nicely.
09-20-2005, 10:25 PM
4eyestaylor

Anyone...................... I have installed debian sarge on 3 comps and have not gotten x to start once.....
09-20-2005, 11:58 PM
ions

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4eyestaylor

Anyone...................... I have installed debian sarge on 3 comps and have not gotten x to start once.....

This thread is not the place to ask about this. Post again in the software section and instead of periods include useful information like a dmesg, what vid card and what you've tried.
10-25-2005, 12:23 AM
cyberazi

What apps do you use most?
Most office applications and maybe some games
Also wanna try allocating my 2 hdd sapce to my sister pc only tru login... cant seem to able able to do this on my windows PC

Do you have a broadband connection?
Yes cable broadband. My cable modem is behind a wireless G router

How familiar are you with computers?
i'm very good wif Hardware but know 'nuts' abt software

How familiar are you with Linux?
tried red hat 9.0 before and had a horrid time installing the geforce drivers for my video card

How much time are you willing to invest into learning Linux?
i'm taking it slow i wanna know mostly how to allocate hdd space for all users in the workgroup and maybe password protect it.. I willing to spend the next 3 months just to learn.

How powerful is your computer?
Intel 2.8 GHz Lga775
1GB DDR 400 ram
Gigabyte intel 915 chipset mobo
2 x 36GB raptors raid 0 on a PCI silicon image raid card
200GB hdd
16x DVD+- RW
Ati X700 pro gfx card
Pinnacle pctv pro (tv card)
Creative audigy2zs sound card

so can anyone help..... i wanna go back to linux and maybe put good u use to ite especially the hdd space sharing part
12-25-2005, 06:36 AM
ladoga

What apps do you use most?
Firefox, aterm, Eterm, irssi, centericq, mplayer, xmms, dcpp, amule, bash (is fluxbox an app?)

Do you have a broadband connection?
8/1Mb/s ADSL

How familiar are you with computers?
Been using computers from childhood. First ones being Spectravideo and C64.
First PC was Toshiba "laptop" with 286 cpu and 8MB ram. Lot playing with MS-DOS, modems and BBS stuff. I never got into windows 3.1. With Windows 95 i finally switched to windows, but didn't like it because my games ran slower under it than under DOS. With internet i was finally forced to jump into windows wagon. Tried linux about a year ago, converted in instant.

I always assemble my computers. (have done so for last 10 years) So i know its interior well too.

How familiar are you with Linux?
Umm..i dunno. More familiar than with windows and I want to learn more.
Familiar distros. Ubuntu, Debian, Knoppix, DSL.
Little experience of Gentoo and Red Hat.

How much time are you willing to invest into learning Linux?
as long as i enjoy learning it...much

How powerful is your computer?
1GHz Duron ,640MB, 9800pro
Athlon 3000+, 1GB, x800xt pe

Im going to buy a thinkpad X41 laptop soon. So that i can enjoy installing linux again. With my desktop puters i havent had any hardware issues. almost everything has worked "right out of the box" and things i've had to set up myself have all been very straighforward.

I hope laptop will give me some challenges. Atleast i'll learn how to boot from network. Im still not quite sure if im going to put debian or gentoo on it. Or maybe i should even try slackware. I don't know. I like simplicity of debian and apt-get very much. Gentoo install might be a boring experience. i've done stage 1 install once before and it took loooong, tho i learned a few things, but mainly it was just waiting for something to compile. Otherwise i think id like gentoo, maybe id like even portage. I never used it enough to make my mind. Good package manager is something i want. Nothing against compiling stuff tho...i do that quite much. But i dont like playing with dependansies, searching and installing libraries. Maybe slackware isn't for me? Im sure i'd be happy with debian, but maybe im missing something by sticking to it :)
12-25-2005, 09:01 PM
PandaZ3

What apps do you use most?
Folding, light parlor games

Do you have a broadband connection?
This one will be on a "T1" line.... Whoa! don't get excited it is one T1 line going to 260 apartments and is often slower than a 28.8 modem.

How familiar are you with computers?
Hardware pretty good, rudimentary familiarization with Windows

How familiar are you with Linux?
I have tried dual booting many times and always revert to Windows. I have tried Debian very briefly, and longer on Red Hat, Mandrake, Lycoris, Suse

How much time are you willing to invest into learning Linux?
This will be a Linux only machine, I have other computers for Windows tasks. I intend to do better Linux wise

How powerful is your computer?
EPoX 8RDA6+ Pro
Sempron 2800+
2 x 256 Kingston PC3200
ATI AIW 9600 XT
Seagate 80 Gig Sata HDD
In-Win Mid-Tower (C583)
Power Man 350 W PSU 18 Amps on +12V rail (looks well cooled, I believe it to be In-Win's house brand)(I have a Seasonic S-12 430W new, waiting to be called)

I want to learn how to install things os the Distro, I am easily frustrated that there are so many different terms and ways to do the same thing within the different distros. ONE way is all I desire at the moment.
12-29-2005, 05:19 PM
EmpJohnIV

What apps do you use most?
Open office, fire fox, also needs any good media player
Do you have a broadband connection?
No I will have to buy the disks.
How familiar are you with computers?
Not to bad I can do tech help for my friends but nothing too fancy, no formal training.
How familiar are you with Linux?
Minimal. I've played with red hat a little (Not much at all). And have Mandrake 10.1 running on a half dead p.o.s. laptop.
How much time are you willing to invest into learning Linux?
If I can get it working within the first few weeks or so, I plan to keep using it as my primary OS, so a long time.
How powerful is your computer?

AMD 64 +3000
nVidia 6600 (256 megabyte) (have had driver problems with fedora core 4 and mandrake 10.1)
512 ram
250GB Sata hard drive with 16 Mb of cashe (Some linux has problems with this I read somewhere)
MSI K8N Neo4

I am confortable in gnome and would just like to get a distro to work on my computer so I can start learning.

I want to: surf the net, get email, play those great free games, watch and listen to movie/music files (many many formats), have an office program, and some day run some form of wine.
01-04-2006, 04:33 PM
DarkDexter

Here are my quick thoughts on the overall topic:

I prefer a distro that I can choose the packages that go in and out very very specfically. Thats why I prefer Debian becuaes I can install the base then just apt the programs I really want. Now I realize that not everyone is like this and alot of people just like to be able to install it and having it all up and running. Alot of people starting Linux are confused by things like Gnome vs KDE vs xfce vs fluxbox.

I think that for Windows > Linux converts KDE is the easiest GUI. I know that both gnome and kde can be configured to look the same but KDE comes out the the box looking and feeling alot like windows. Also, the distro should have GREAT hardware detection cause most startups dont want to be compiling kernel modules and modprobing stuff. Finally, the distro must be full featured with most commonly used apps and Windows to Linux functionalty buit in.

Therefore by this standard a few distros come out on top. First MEPIS becuase it comes with great hardware detection and a ton of different things (like mplayer, nvidia, and realplayer) preinstalled and set up. Second, SuSE is great because it has really great hardware detection on some obsecure things.

I personally started with Fedora, and hated it :p ! I then moved to MEPIS a bit later and fell in love with Linux, I did everything in MEPIS and stoped using Windows all together. After some time I began getting interested in installing Linux on old computers and I learned Debian and have since stuck with Debian as my Linux distro of choice. On really old hardware (200Mhz or less) I use FreeBSD becuase it seems to be faster on really old hardware like that.

My overall point in this is that Linux shot be simple at first to get the user to begin to like it and prefer it. Then work into understanding crazy stuff. Now I have quite a few X-less Linux and BSD machines spread throughout my house and am very fammilar with Unix in general now. I know some people disagree with this idea and want to throw new users into config files and the command line (*cough* Slackware *cough*) but I think easing in the user is best.
04-12-2006, 03:06 AM
NighttimePunk

hell i dont know , this the only distro ive ever tried? 2.4.20-8 (shrike) im impressed....
04-12-2006, 03:09 AM
NighttimePunk

my desk has gnome, x11, and kde, some how i think the iso's i was given were ,hmmmm? custom? 8hrs of downloading, 14 gigs on 3 dvd's, i must of been lucky that night, no errors on 3 dvd's thats like a royal flush!!!
04-24-2006, 11:11 PM
Shishio

Quote:

What apps do you use most?

I'll list the windows programs I use, since I am not that familiar with Linux yet: Opera, Irfanview, CDisplay, Bit Comet, Photoshop, and mIRC.

Quote:

Do you have a broadband connection?

Yes.

Quote:

How familiar are you with computers?

Not very.

Quote:

How familiar are you with Linux?

Ditto.

Quote:

How much time are you willing to invest into learning Linux?

As much as necessary, but it isn't coming easily for me.

Quote:

How powerful is your computer?

- 533 mhz Intel Processor
- 160 mb SDRAM
- 80 & 250 GB Hard Drive

My ideal distro would be something easy to use and install, like Mepis or Ubuntu, but able to run on my computer. Something that had a live CD (And preferably a graphical installer on the CD.) I know Ubuntu and Mepis could probably run on my system, but I think they would be very slow. I also tried Xubuntu, which is supposedly an Ubuntu derivative for low-end machines, but the installer hangs at the third step. (When you set your timezone and location.)

I have used the Damn Small Linux CD a lot, and even had it installed on a spare hard drive for awhile, but it is too difficult to use for my liking. (And if there are still any doubts after that statement, yes, I am a complete and utter computer retard.)

I cannot make a working CD of Puppy Linux, it asks me for a username and password, which, according to their forums, means something is wrong with the image. I redownloaded and reburned it, still no go.

And I have not tried Vector due to the fact that it does not boot from the CD.

I would be most grateful to anyone that could point out a distro that meets my needs.
04-30-2006, 07:14 AM
newtonbabbage

Good Morning

I'm new to the forum and new to linux, however I would like to learn more about linux and I'm willing to put in the work required. I would like to dual boot linux with my current Windows XP OS. Which distro would you reccomend, I have limited knowledge of linux, I have messed around with RedHat 7.2, just some command line stuff. My current laptop specs are as follows:

Dell Inspiron 9400
Duo Core Processor 2.16
2Gb Memory
100Gb Hard Drive
256Mb Nvidia GeForce Go 7800
Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Card
Broadcom 440x 10/100 Intergrated Controller
SigmaTel High Definition Audio
DVD rewriter etc
I have a broadband connection linked to my Belkin 54g Wireless router.

I am familiar with computers and have worked with Microsoft products for many years, I mainly use MS Office apps and the internet is a must for me.

I hope you can point me in the right direction.

Regards

Kevin
04-30-2006, 09:30 AM
Parcival

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtonbabbage

I am familiar with computers and have worked with Microsoft products for many years, I mainly use MS Office apps and the internet is a must for me.

Most of us have used MS products for many years until they did the switch. Once you do it, however, you will find out that your knowledge of Windows is only limited help and Linux will look like an alien world several times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtonbabbage

I would like to dual boot linux with my current Windows XP OS.

Virtually every distro boots with Windows, most of them will automatically detect it. Just make sure to install Windows first (or shrink an NTFS partition) and install Linux second.

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtonbabbage

Which distro would you reccomend, I have limited knowledge of linux, I have messed around with RedHat 7.2, just some command line stuff.

It depends on what you are looking for. If you want an easy to use distro, go for SuSE. It has KDE as default desktop and YaST which is similar to Windows' system settings.

If you want a distro with the goal to learn as much as possible about Linux in a short period of time, if you want to keep your focus on the command line instead of some fancy GUI, if you want a system perfectly tailored to your needs, and if you have a high level of frustration, then I suggest you go with Gentoo.

If you think you are somewhere inbetween, then I recommend Debian or Ubuntu/Kubuntu (has the more current software packages). These distros will do most things automatically for you, but every once in a while you will still be required to fire up a shell and do some manual editing.
04-30-2006, 03:22 PM
newtonbabbage

Many thanks for the quick reply, I want to learn Linux and mainly the CLI stuff, I am however concerned about the availability of certain drivers, especially the ones for my wireless card.

Anyway, I will give it a go, many thanks again for your assistance.

Kevin
04-30-2006, 09:36 PM
Parcival

Quote:

Originally Posted by newtonbabbage

Many thanks for the quick reply, I want to learn Linux and mainly the CLI stuff, I am however concerned about the availability of certain drivers, especially the ones for my wireless card.

Yes, I noticed you have very decent/new hardware, so I'm not sure how good hardware support is for your setting. However, I can say that I didn't have any problems with hardware that sits inside the case for the last two years anymore. The only stuff giving me headaches sometimes is external hardware like printers, scanners, etc.

Wireless cards often lack Linux support because the vendor doesn't care. However, depending on the chip that sits on the card you may still have a driver. In other words, the chip is important, not the card type, sometimes the vendors change the chip on the same card. If you don't have Linux drivers for your wireless, you may still be lucky running Ndiswrapper. I don't really know anything about Linux and wireless since I don't have wireless, but if you search the forums you will find a wealth of answers.
05-01-2006, 12:23 PM
EnigmaOne

Best Distro for Low resource PC?

LFS is the way I'd go...but that's me.
05-04-2006, 05:44 AM
nicekit

What apps do you use most?
errrr does World of Warcraft falls into this category?
if not it will be Firefox and xplayer (video)

Do you have a broadband connection?
Yes

How familiar are you with computers?
Know how to assemble computer from scratch.

How familiar are you with Linux?
nada... i am a windows user ..
abit with MacOS 9/X exposure.

How much time are you willing to invest into learning Linux?
depends i guess

How powerful is your computer?
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
with 1GB of memory
with 320GB of harddisk but 75% full
plan to do the linux experience on Microsoft Virtual PC
because currently VPC is installed to do my windows emulation.

some help pls :D

i have Redhat 9 CDs in hand
and also Mandrake 10 i guess ....
05-04-2006, 11:03 AM
hard candy

For running virtualization, I would recommend Opensuse 10 (free and downloadable or web install). It seems to me to have the best documentation and the best packages available for virtualization. Redhat 9 is a little dated.
05-04-2006, 02:30 PM
nicekit

Quote:

Originally Posted by hard candy

For running virtualization, I would recommend Opensuse 10 (free and downloadable or web install). It seems to me to have the best documentation and the best packages available for virtualization. Redhat 9 is a little dated.

okie will try that out

on hand i have Knoppix 4.0
Debian 3.1
suse 9.1
Redhat 9
and i cant find my mandrake

as u can see
i wanted to learn linux...

some bump that preventing me to do so...

1. redhat/debian/suse that i tried last time.. on VPC and VMware doesn't work properly... (havent try knoppix yet)

2. do not know how to install application
most thing i saw requires me to compile the application..
i am a user not a compiler.. simple command .. still managable...

3. any good and SIMPLE guides..
to get me started first.. :D
05-04-2006, 04:06 PM
hard candy

Linux Newbie Administrator Guide

OpenSuse Documentation

Hacking OpenSuse

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