Which Linux Distro do you run and why ?

[Nick Rhodes]

If things goto plan I should be able to dump Windows soon, currently planning on using Caos flavour of Linux, mainly because one of my best friends uses it on all there servers he looks after (over a dozen at different locations) and is a maintainer.
I don't really know if it is a good distro or not (I've only ever used Slackware in depth before years ago), so I thought I would see what you guys run and why ?

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

Once you get the hang of things, it doesn't really matter what you use.
That said, Suse and Ubuntu are my first choices:

Both very stable, rich in applications, developed constantly.
Strong user community, professional forums.
Lots of reps, lots of manuals, easy access to knowledge.
Continuous support.

Good for both beginners and advanced users.

Being major players, you have a good chance of finding the right stuff quickly and fast - and first - often software will be tested on these platforms.

I'd advise staying away from Gentoo as a beginner.

Mandriva, RedHat, Fedora are pretty much like these fellas above.

Mrk

[malformed]

My favourite is Mandriva - Large user base, active community, cutting edge if you wish to use those repos.

But I also like and use the following:
Debian - Great history, solid stand on 'free' (example: firefox name/logo issue), well developed and mature distro, very stable.
Kubuntu - Large user base, foundation is Debian, lots of support and documentation, great 'starter' distro, I use Kubuntu to demo Linux to friends that are interested in trying Linux.
Slackware - the most stable Linux distro out there, and the longest standing.
Fedora - another quality well rooted distro

Specialized Distros > SecureDVD - http://securedvd.org/about.html which includes both Auditor (which has now been merged with Whax and is only available afaik as Back Track) and Back Track - http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html.

[FastGame]

PCLinuxOS

Easy, fast, stable.

Best Control Center

Root and User accounts.

Don't need Command line, unless you want.

One of the best KDE RPM builders there is, Texstar

Top notch hardware detection, one of the few distros that automaticaly detects & configures Linux compatible dialup modems.

Everything works out of the box, full multimedia support without using voodoo to get it.....

Re-master your own LiveCD's with "mklivecd ISO"

PCLinuxOS truley is "Good for both beginners and advanced users."

I also use PC-BSD, its nice :)

[800ster]

Agree with PCLinuxOS. Also MEPIS is comparable for a new user or Kubuntu if you know a little already. These are all KDE and I tend to switch around between them as new versions come out. Found these more user friendly than the more mainstream OpenSuse, Fedora etc.

[Genady Prishnikov]

I have to agree with the praise for PCLinuxOS. As I said in another thread, it is the easiest distro for PC users to make the transition. It auto-mounts drives, very "Windows-like" but in a safe Linux environment. The "final" release should be coming soon, it has been delayed, but I've been using the LiveCD with no problems in detecting network, printer, drives, audio/video, etc. It has a nice package of programs and everything is there to have you up and going in no time. You can use the LiveCD or install on your PC. As nice as Ubuntu is, PCLinuxOS is far easier for anybody new to Linux.

You can give it a spin here:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/page.php?7

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

But you must admit that command line is 99% of fun in Linux ...

It's all nice and well for beginners, but once they dig in, compiling, tweaking, getting drivers to work, hacking the printer, all those make for an excellent learning experience, a huge ego / confidence booster, geekage, and overall Linux knowledge.

Once you get the hang of it, it's really the matter of taste.

Mrk

[Alphalutra1]

Arch Linux

1) Optimised for i686 (runs faster since it is compiled for more modern computers)

2) KISS philosophy

3) Great installer, that enables me to get a base system installed in about 5 minutes

4) Install allows me to install only the "base", so no other apps that I don't need are included and I start with a very minimal system, so then I build my own custom system with no worthless junk I will never used.

5) Pacman - Great package manager, it just works

6) Great community - excellent forums, IRC group, and wiki

7) AUR - Basically, anyone can make a package and upload it there, so weird and arcane packages are simple to install since someone has already done all of the hard work involved

8) ABS - Arch Build System, brings the freebsd style of ports to linux, along with allowing me to rebuild applications already on my pc with different options

9) Did I say fast, like lightning speed

10) Command line orientated, so it is simple and quick

11) Umm, a lot more, just let me think for a little while

Also, you shouldn't restrict your choices to just linux, freebsd is also excellent for the desktop.

Secondly, don't be scared of gentoo, if you can read documentation, you can install it which is the hardest part (it holds your hand), and they have an excellent community. I don't run it because of the compile times mainly, since I have an older computer, and upgrading my system would render it useless for a day or two (but it does provide an excellent space heater).

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: "Hello,

But you must admit that command line is 99% of fun in Linux ...

It's all nice and well for beginners, but once they dig in, compiling, tweaking, getting drivers to work, hacking the printer, all those make for an excellent learning experience, a huge ego / confidence booster, geekage, and overall Linux knowledge.

Once you get the hang of it, it's really the matter of taste.

Mrk" }-

True, my webserver runs Linux and I know enough commands to manage mysql and apache and php (edit config files, restart the services etc), infact when I was at uni all the Minix/Linux I did (and programming) was all command line as well, so I am quite happy to jump into the deep end... conversely though it would have to be also an OS which is as easy as XP to use for my Wife (which all she does is email and surf the web)!

:)

[tlu]

I recommend Ubuntu (one important reason can be found here (http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1202417,00.html)), especially the version with the KDE GUI called Kubuntu which is probably more familiar for users coming from Windows.

[Old Monk]

-{ Quote: "I have to agree with the praise for PCLinuxOS. As I said in another thread, it is the easiest distro for PC users to make the transition. It auto-mounts drives, very "Windows-like" but in a safe Linux environment. The "final" release should be coming soon, it has been delayed, but I've been using the LiveCD with no problems in detecting network, printer, drives, audio/video, etc. It has a nice package of programs and everything is there to have you up and going in no time. You can use the LiveCD or install on your PC. As nice as Ubuntu is, PCLinuxOS is far easier for anybody new to Linux.

You can give it a spin here:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/page.php?7" }-

Genady and all on this thread.

Thank you soooo much ;D

I've read Mrkvonic (and others I hasten to add) many, many threads on Linux and never really had the courage to dive in :-[

I did try a live CD of Ubunto a couple of years ago but my laptop monitor wasn't compatible.

Having come across this thread this morning - I'VE DONE IT ;D ;D

I'm sitting here looking at my laptop with what appears to a successful live CD running of PCLinux OS and can't quite believe it :blink:

Boy, am I going to have a play now ! The tutorial looks very user friendly.This may just be the start of something I'm really going to enjoy.

Thanks again for this thread

[djg05]

-{ Quote: "Hello,

But you must admit that command line is 99% of fun in Linux ...

Mrk" }-

Horses for courses Mrk. Please bear in mind that some don't want to see the command line, instead just want it to work.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
No worries. Whatever rocks your boat. But in that case, you will only have about 1% of fun. Not that it isn't much. It's quite all right. Most people don't even have that. Windows users are somewhere around 0.1%.
Mrk

[tansu]

I was pretty ok with XP x64, but after vista I decided to make a complete move to Kubuntu, which was my second OS for a long time.
Now I only use Kubuntu.
The main reason is, enough for Windows.. I thought I must go minimalist. A friend gave me a vista ultimate as a present, I tried for a week and saw that it is a joke. All new stuff, especially security stuff was a joke.
There are two videos (http://blog.doctus.net/2006/10/20/program-kurma-karsilastimasi-windows-vs-ubuntu/) in this page. The first one, installing opera in a common way in Ubuntu (apt-get) the second video is like we all know installing to windows. there were some people who think, installing software is a hard work in linux, so I made these. Which one looks easy?

[Mr2cents]

I'm dual booting Windows Me and Xubuntu. I tried several live cd distros before choosing Xubuntu. I have an older computer with a 700 mhz intel celeron processor, and only 192 mb of ramm. So I needed a lite running linux, and Xubuntu was the one I chose. As others have stated, Ubuntu, Kbuntu, Ebuntu, Xbuntu have a huge forum. If you have any question. Someone can answer you pretty quick.

Most of the time you can find your answer just by doing a search on their forum. Someones probably already had the same problem as you, and it has already been answered. I really like the synapitic library that ubuntu has. If your looking for any kind of program. It's probably in there. There are hundreds of programs in their. Possibly thousands. Just get what you want, and it's free, and you don't even have to take it back. LOL.

Among some of the other distros I tried were Puppy, which also has a huge following. DSL, or Damn small linux, Feather Linux, I couldn't get feather to work because it couldn't detect my wireless mouse. I liked puppy, dsl, However, they weren't as good as detecting my hardware. So, I chose Xubuntu.

After hearing about pclinuxos. I downloaded it last night, and ran it as a live cd. I'm very impressed with pclinuxos. :) It detected all my hardware, even my printer. However, I couldn't get the printer to print. Maybe it was because I was running a live cd. I don't know. I'm completely new to linux so stuff like that is to be expected. I'm surprised that I was even able to run pclinuxos on a live cd. Because the website states you need a minimum of 256 mb of ramm. More would be better.

Actually, it ran pretty good with 192 mb. Not as fast as Xubuntu, but that's to be expected with the little ramm I'm running. So, to answer your question. I run Xubuntu.

[FastGame]

-{ Quote: "After hearing about pclinuxos. I downloaded it last night, and ran it as a live cd. I'm very impressed with pclinuxos. :) It detected all my hardware, even my printer. However, I couldn't get the printer to print. Maybe it was because I was running a live cd. I don't know. I'm completely new to linux so stuff like that is to be expected. I'm surprised that I was even able to run pclinuxos on a live cd. Because the website states you need a minimum of 256 mb of ramm. More would be better.

Actually, it ran pretty good with 192 mb. Not as fast as Xubuntu, but that's to be expected with the little ramm I'm running. So, to answer your question. I run Xubuntu." }-
Hardware detection is the biggest battle in Linux, your printer was detected so you won that battle :)

I take it you DL the 2007 Test ? if so remember its a test and not a full release. I'm sure what ever you need for your printer to print will be in the full release or its in the repository.

With your PC and seeing how you like Xubuntu maybe you'd like to try SAM (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=sam), its the XFce version of PClinuxOS.

[Pedro]

When i get the HD to backup my files, etc. I will go for GNU/Linux
I'm thinking about Debian, Kubuntu, Arch Linux (is it too hard Alphalutra? or is it the best to learn?), and another one i don't remember.
Debian seems more appealing for the moment.:)

[Lamehand]

I use Ubuntu, but after reading this thread i downloaded the liveCD from PClinuxOS.
I liked that KDE-desktop, it looks good.

Lamehand

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "I was pretty ok with XP x64, but after vista I decided to make a complete move to Kubuntu, which was my second OS for a long time.
Now I only use Kubuntu.
The main reason is, enough for Windows.. I thought I must go minimalist. A friend gave me a vista ultimate as a present, I tried for a week and saw that it is a joke. All new stuff, especially security stuff was a joke.
There are two videos (http://blog.doctus.net/2006/10/20/program-kurma-karsilastimasi-windows-vs-ubuntu/) in this page. The first one, installing opera in a common way in Ubuntu (apt-get) the second video is like we all know installing to windows. there were some people who think, installing software is a hard work in linux, so I made these. Which one looks easy?" }-

i just viewed the videos and it does look quite easy.
is the command the same for all installs except you change opera to e.g. firefox?
lodore

[farmerlee]

-{ Quote: "If things goto plan I should be able to dump Windows soon, currently planning on using Caos flavour of Linux, mainly because one of my best friends uses it on all there servers he looks after (over a dozen at different locations) and is a maintainer.
I don't really know if it is a good distro or not (I've only ever used Slackware in depth before years ago), so I thought I would see what you guys run and why ?" }-
I'm currently messing around with Slax, running it from a usb flashdrive. I'm a complete linux newb so this way if i screw anything up a reboot fixes everything.

[LockBox]

Thanks Genady and others!!! I downloaded PCLinuxOS last night and WOW! It detected everything on my system with the live cd. Color me impressed!

[Nick Rhodes]

Well my master plan to get a non-windows only printer has fallen through, looks like im stuck with XP for a while yet... (unfortunatly I need professional print quality and the linux drivers have half-toning problems).

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: "Arch Linux (is it too hard Alphalutra? or is it the best to learn?)" }-
You can try it, and make sure you look at all of the documentation and stuff, but it may be over your head, and cause you to despise linux until you learn the beauty of arch linux. For starters, go with kubuntu, get a working system up and running, start experimenting with what you like (which WM or DE like kde, ubuntu, dwm, wmii, ratpoison, enlightenment, etc., which browser, which e-mail client), and get comfortable. Then, start delving into the command line. Use apt-get instead of synaptic, move around the file system via the command line, edit configuration files, pick and get really adept with either nano, vim, or emacs, etc.

Read up on the arch linux documentation, the beginner's guide is excellent from what I heard. Also, join the forums and get aquainted with the people and pick up some good info. Then, install it in a virtual machine. That way, you will have a working internet access and can switch back and forth getting it set up, and messing around with it.

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

[herbalist]

At the moment, I'm using and old copy of Knoppix, version 3.6. Running a Poor Mans install. (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Poor_Mans_Install) The newer version didn't recognize my hardware properly, but with this version, everything works properly.
As much as I'd like to, I haven't found the time to work with a real installed version. The ones I've tried have all had problems working with my old hardware. I don't know enough about Linux to fix the problems. Besides, can't get much more secure than a Live CD.
Rick

[tansu]

-{ Quote: "i just viewed the videos and it does look quite easy.
is the command the same for all installs except you change opera to e.g. firefox?
lodore" }-
If you have it in the repositories, yes, just change the word..
And there are lots of applications in the repositories such as:
apt-get install vmware-player

[Nick Rhodes]

Good news, Ive finally found some Linux drivers for my printer which appear to not have halftoning issues (something to do with ghostscript generating halftone information and not leaving it for the printer to sort out).
So tomorrow I am going to be blasting Caos on my server and after a trial period if things seem good (especially printing), move my laptop over to Linux.

Cheers for all the input guys, been very informative info.

[Pedro]

:thumb: Hope to hear from you:)

#Questions regarding file format: GNU/Linux works on FAT32 and others right?
main()
{
1-what other formats;
2- advantages/disadvantages comparing to NTFS, mainly i'm concerned about max. file size (.iso can be big), but do elaborate...
printf("answers please;D ")
}

TIA

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: ":thumb: Hope to hear from you:)

#Questions regarding file format: GNU/Linux works on FAT32 ?
" }-
Yes, but why would you ??? I like using JFS, XFS, and ext3 for linux. JFS for laptops since it is so low cpu usage, xfs for large files (like my external harddrive), and ext3 is just the norm (stable, fairly fast, etc) All of these have better performance, speed, journalling, etc. that FAT32 lacks, so don't use it. If you want to share files between windows, just install ntfs-3g for full read-write capabilities with ntfs.

no real file-size handicaps you have to be worried about on these file systems.

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

[Pedro]

That's the answer i was looking for, believe me or not:) . I had this idea that "Linux" was FAT32... I read about other formats, but i'm clueless... (or ignorant lol).
a)In every distro i get to choose the format?
b)exterior would be NTFS, so i can use it on others pcs... internal maybe xfs??? what formats can handle big files, what sizes, and between those, what's the best overall? Give me links if you prefer, i'll read them! I don't need to handle HUGE files, but i don't want to be constrained, that's all.

Thanks

[Pedro]

Seeing a comparison here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems), it looks like ext3 and xfs are very good. Others too, but it's very hard to analyse this table. I'd like to sort by OS's (or filter), sort by file size...;D

Not to mention i only get the first table. The others... Hard links, Block journaling, WTF?
Boy, do i want an article, to accept whatever the guy says... mommy plz make them stop!:ouch:

[clansman77]

i run ubuntu edgy 6.10 with a vmware server running xp on it.;D mainly coz i find support is excellent for ubuntu and any doubt/problems will have an answer in the forums 99% of the times.:thumb: it is useful both for the novice and the advanced user.i also had a brief encounter with dreamlinux and i find it also very good looking and user friendly(like pclinux os)it uses the xfce DE and looks very similar to the mac osx.i find it lacks some documentation.the release cycleand development is also fast..so guys check this out too
DREAMLINUX (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=dreamlinux)
:thumb:

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: ":thumb: Hope to hear from you:)
" }-

Up and running !
Printer needed packaging (courtesy of my friend ;), print quality is actually better than the windows driver, picking up colour mismatches that do exist but publisher was hiding, print speed is as quick as windows. Got SMB up and running, just installing open office and other desktop stuff for testing purposes and then in a week or 2, it will be time to move the laptop over to Linux :)

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
Great to hear! BTW, I have a Lexmark E232 family printer, which has no drivers for Linux whatsoever. Guess what? Installing HP LaserJet 6L drivers for it, works like magic. I also setup sharing with Windows machines, as this printer is connected to a Linux machine. Shared CUPS on port 631, even installed HP drivers for it in Windows (as it thinks it is an HP machine....), works fabulously!
Mrk

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: "Seeing a comparison here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems), it looks like ext3 and xfs are very good. Others too, but it's very hard to analyse this table. I'd like to sort by OS's (or filter), sort by file size...;D
" }-
Just use ext3, it is pretty much the standard, and has a large amount of tools for repair and recovery compared to other filesystems.

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

[pcalvert]

I like Debian. It is very stable and it comes with lots of software. Many distros keep things simple by making decisions for you. Debian leaves more of the decision-making up to you, and that gives you the flexibility to make your system the way you want it. Right now I am using Xfce as my desktop, and I have just a small part of KDE installed so I can use some KDE software like kppp, kghostview, and ksnapshot. I also have IceWM and fluxbox installed, and could use either of those window managers instead of Xfce if I wanted to.

Phil

[Reposed]

Well, I was put off by different distros of linux because it was just so counter-intuitive for a Windows user. Just trying to install a wireless pcmcia card that is not supported by any distro, was a task that seem to require a good deal of requisite knowledge.

Anyway, I've been playing round with pclinuxos and I think I've been converted!!. Still counter-intuitive on many levels but not nearly as bad as others I've tried. Once I found the driver for my wg511v2 (no mean feat in itself) it was just a case of pointing the wireless setup gui to the appropriate .inf file - and presto - done!

Synaptic is genius! However, still trying to get all the components together to compile non-Synaptic packages(compiler keeps coming up with new components I have to install to complete compile - now I need a boost library?). Its a pain, but I'm slowly getting there.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

You say it's problematic to install non-supported driver in Linux. True. But if you know what you're doing, you'll succeed.

In Windows, try installing non-supported driver. No chance.

Mrk

[herbalist]

Decided to give the Live CD of PCLinuxOS a try. I expected it to be slow, being a live CD and running on my old hardware, but this was unbearable. Was using FF to connect here, then tried to open the hardware configuration interface. After several minutes of CD activity, everything just locked up. Getting the internet set up was easy enough. It had no problems with my internal hard drives. Mounted the primary partition of the external drive fine, but couldn't unmount it. It still came back to a problem I've had with most versions of Linux, Knoppix 3.6 being the lone exception. Can't get sound. I'm using an old Creative Sound Blaster 16. I'd love to know why this sound card is such a problem. At least with this one, it was just sound that didn't work. Other distros had problems working with my external drive, floppy drive, CD, etc. It takes a lot of the incentive out of trying Linux when it starts with making hardware work, then still doesn't come close to matching the performance of what I've already got.
Hardware issues aside, I still haven't found a version that gives me anything near the speed I'm getting with Win98, or the stability. Can anyone name a specific version that's suitable for a Linux newbie to start with, not just command line, that will perform decently with 160MB of RAM and a 366mhz processor? Am I wasting my time with this old hardware?
Rick

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

Puppy Linux:

http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1

>> 100 Mhz processor or better + 32 MB RAM and an IDE (hard disk or CD drive). 420 MB hard disk will do, or 4X CD drive.

>> 128 MB RAM will be optimal if used with hard disk, and 256 MB or more RAM if used without hard disk.

Mrk

[FastGame]

herbalist

160MB of RAM and a 366mhz processor is going to be dam slow with PCLOS Live CD, your CD drive needs to decompress alot of data that quickly fills your ram and you'll be forever in the swap file. I imagine you couldn't unmount the primary partition because it was using the temp swap file it created (my guess).

With your hardware it would be best to use one of the lighter distro's for Live CD, and better yet if the install was to the HD.

As Mrkvonic suggest Puppy Linux and you can try Dam Small Linux (http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=damnsmall)

[Genady Prishnikov]

-{ Quote: " Can anyone name a specific version that's suitable for a Linux newbie to start with, not just command line, that will perform decently with 160MB of RAM and a 366mhz processor? Am I wasting my time with this old hardware?Rick" }-

Maybe. The 366mhz processor is an original Pentium 1 is it not? With only 160MB of ram, running anything as a LiveCd may be damn near impossible. I run PCLinuxOS on a Pentium 4 2.4 and it is very, very fast. But, your hardware may just frustrate you, unless you choose to actually install one of the lighter distros like Puppy as mentioned above. I can only imagine the frustration of a LiveCD with those hardware specs, I would be very frustrated as well. try not to let that turn you off from PCLinuxOS or any other Linux distro. Good luck!

[iceni60]

i use suse 10.2 because it supports my hardware - sata fakeraid. i always uninstall the software updater and install another package manager (smart) because they are very, very slow and use lots, and lots of resources. i think most people at least uninstall the updater (zmd), then suse is good. suse has made some great changes to both gnome and KDE.

here's the KDE desktop (the start menu is different to other KDE desktops)
http://en.opensuse.org/Image:Screeny102_kickoff_menu.jpg

and here's the gnome start menu (it's different too compared to other distros)
http://en.opensuse.org/Image:Start_menu.jpg

i like distros that use one of these desktops/WMs - gnome, xfce or fluxbox. when i started using suse i wasn't a huge fan, but after using it i quite like it mainly because of the repos it uses - it has lots of up-to-date software. 8)

i took a picture of my desktop 8)

http://xs512.xs.to/xs512/07071/fg45GFdfghtdz.png.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs512&d=07071&f=fg45GFdfghtdz.png)

[iceni60]

here are 3 podcasts about pclinuxos. it's a podcast aimed at new linux users, so i think it will tell you how to set it up then how to download software and how to configure stuff.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/linuxreality/linuxreality008.mp3
http://media.libsyn.com/media/linuxreality/linuxreality009.mp3
http://media.libsyn.com/media/linuxreality/linuxreality010.mp3

i prefer ubuntu to pclinuxos, it has better support, more software you can install using just the mouse and doesn't use KDE :thumb:

[Pedro]

Something wrong with KDE? By the way, nice desktop;)

[iceni60]

-{ Quote: "Something wrong with KDE? By the way, nice desktop;)" }-
thanks. no there's nothing wrong with KDE, i just don't like it, if it was the only linux desktop i'd stay with windows i think.

KDE uses the qt gui toolkit. gnome uses gtk, i just prefer the look of gtk apps

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "thanks. no there's nothing wrong with KDE, i just don't like it, if it was the only linux desktop i'd stay with windows i think.

KDE uses the qt gui toolkit. gnome uses gtk, i just prefer the look of gtk apps" }-

thats the point thou linux has alot of different desktop so you can try different ones and use the one you like the best.
windows just has the windows theme and even with window blinds you still know its windows;D
lodore

[FastGame]

-{ Quote: "i prefer ubuntu to pclinuxos, it has better support, more software you can install using just the mouse and doesn't use KDE :thumb:" }-
Why do you say ubuntu has better support ? actually PCLOS has better support and the need for support is less ;) :D

Software install for PCLOS is a mouse click away and it has all the major-minor-usefull software that one would need, if something is missing a simple request and its added. :)

KDE is tops.

[iceni60]

-{ Quote: "Why do you say ubuntu has better support ?" }-it's just a fact, i bet there are 20 times more members at ubuntu's forum and 40 times more on the irc channel and the wiki is many times bigger too, plus there are more ubuntu blogs and podcasts and probably 3 times as many programs available in the average persons repos.

ok, i just had a look at the forums -

pslinuxos - Users Online 49 Guests, 37 Users (2 Hidden)

ubuntuforums - Currently Active Users: 3512 (589 members and 2923 guests)

:P

[cthorpe]

I use ubuntu 6.06 server edition.

The machine is a 400mhz celeron with 192mb of ram and acts as a print server and nothing else. It has been up for 39 days now with no problems at all. Of course, I don't tinker with it, so why would there be a problem?

I chose ubuntu because it was simple to install, and HP had specific instructions for installing their drivers on it.

C

[FastGame]

@iceni60

Numbers have absolutely nothing to do with the quality of support when comparing the two Distro's ::)

-{ Quote: "3 times as many programs available in the average persons repos. " }-
Are you one of those with 20,000 programs installed ?

There's also plenty of junk in them there repo's...all in the name of choice I guess :-X

Like I said, if something is missing in PCLOS, ask and you shall recieve.

[midway40]

-{ Quote: "it's just a fact, i bet there are 20 times more members at ubuntu's forum and 40 times more on the irc channel and the wiki is many times bigger too, plus there are more ubuntu blogs and podcasts and probably 3 times as many programs available in the average persons repos.

ok, i just had a look at the forums -

pslinuxos - Users Online 49 Guests, 37 Users (2 Hidden)

ubuntuforums - Currently Active Users: 3512 (589 members and 2923 guests)

:P" }-

I did have PCLinuxOS installed at one time and then moved to Ubuntu. While the Ubuntu forums have more members, I missed the "personal" touches a small forum such as PCLinuxOS has. On Ubuntu's forums I felt like a faceless entity among thousands of others. Not really knocking Ub's forums since it is excellent for searching for solutions to your problems but it just didn't feel right for me.

[iceni60]

lol i'll leave you all to it then, i really don't care what you do, you can use an abacus for all i care.

[FastGame]

-{ Quote: "lol i'll leave you all to it then, i really don't care what you do, you can use an abacus for all i care." }-
I like that....

PCLOS (abacus) vs ubuntu (calculator) (http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/abacus-contest.html)

[Nick Rhodes]

Just to let you know, things are running great, been partitioning and formating and copying data from NTFS and repartitioning and growing etc and after a bit of juggling I now have all 4 hdds converted to linux filesystems (ext3 for boot and XFS for main partitions + swap partitions).

Infact I just finished things off from work via putty/ssh :) in my lunch break.

Of course I am now starting to loath working on Windows at work :D

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
Another convert!!!
BTW, I cannot imagine how anyone can compile in C under Windows. An abomination unto kernel.
Mrk

[lodore]

I cant stand the crappy windows server at college and the crappy computers.
last year aka the year before i went to my college they used to use a novel server but this year they converted to a crappy windows server and have had nothing but problems. do you want to know why they went to a windows server?
the stupid technicians didnt want to learn linux;D
the profiles used to be in kb but now they mega MB per profile and take ages to login.
why cant they go back to a linux server!
my home pc is working better atm thou so thats a good thing.
lodore

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
Another convert!!!
BTW, I cannot imagine how anyone can compile in C under Windows. An abomination unto kernel.
Mrk" }-
MinGW ;)

But as to ubuntu linux, it has a HUGE userbase, great forums, and excellent IRC channel in addition to pretty darn good documentation. Documentation is an essential point I look for in a distribution. Arch Linux is improving their wiki and it is continually growing, gentoo has the handbook and excellent wiki, and freebsd has one of the best handbooks ever created.

BTW lodore, I run windows on one of my boxes, but I bet you can't tell it is windows (you would probably think it is fluxbox or blackbox). There are alternate shells you can use in windows, such as litestep or bblean (http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/)).

Great to here you have the system going nickr :thumb: . However, I don't think you will need ext3 for the boot partition, since ext3 adds journaling which is great if the partition needs to be constantly mounted and used in case of a crash, but it also takes up a lot more space. Since the kernel is loaded into memory, boot does not need to be mounted, so you can save space (and have more kernels 8) ), if you just use ext2. But, ext3 is fine if you only have two or three (not the crazy amount I have and screw around with :wacko: )

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

[TheQuest]

Hi, Alphalutra1

-{ Quote: "i really don't care what you do, you can use an abacus for all i care." }-
I have an Abacus that I was given as a child [well over 60 yearscul ago] and I see no wrone in using it, I can calculate faster that most moden Calculators and some people probably can use one much faster then I. :o

So why Ridicule the Abacus, which is nothing to with any OS. ;D

Take Care,
TheQuest 8)

PS: This is said light-hearty and not as a flame. ;)

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: "
Great to here you have the system going nickr :thumb: . However, I don't think you will need ext3 for the boot partition, since ext3 adds journaling which is great if the partition needs to be constantly mounted and used in case of a crash, but it also takes up a lot more space. Since the kernel is loaded into memory, boot does not need to be mounted, so you can save space (and have more kernels 8) ), if you just use ext2. But, ext3 is fine if you only have two or three (not the crazy amount I have and screw around with :wacko: )

Cheers,

Alphalutra1" }-

For a boot partition, what you say is true about ext3, but also it wont harm either...

[MarGa]

I use Gentoo because I feel like I have control over packages installed. I also use OpenSUSE 10.2, for no particular reason.

[Meltdown]

Recently switched from PCLinuxOS to Zenwalk. PCLOS is great but sluggish on my computer; Zenwalk is faster and smoother.

[Arup]

Ubuntu is nothing fancy, but it works and right out of the box, also whatever little app or tweaking thats needed is covered up adequately by its excellent support system, take for instance installing nvidia drivers, every other distro I tried out had problems, in Ubuntu, one of the support members Alberto Milone wrote an excellent program called Envy, just install it, get out of the X server, type Envy and select option and you have a working 3D system with latest nvidia drivers downloaded from nvidia's site. There may be other fast, attractive and multi featured Linux distros out there, but very few achieve Ubuntu's functionality.

[FastGame]

-{ Quote: "There may be other fast, attractive and multi featured Linux distros out there, but very few achieve Ubuntu's functionality." }-
Interesting, speaking of "functionality"

What do you need to do to get dialup modems working ? (this is easier in Kubuntu but still need the CL)

Auto mount drives, USB sticks, Windows shares ?

Full multimedia support ?

You need to hang out in forums, read tutorials and learn the CL right from the start. So much for that "but it works and right out of the box" stuff ::)

Of the Ubuntu's types, LinuxMint & MEPIS are better choices for functionality and works right out of the box.

Of coarse all I've said means little to those experienced in Linux, but, to those new to Linux this could be the difference between sticking with it or running fast back to M$.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
The best support for hardware I had was SUSE 10.1, btw. Very little tweaking. Also it depends on your hardware and vendors' support. Imagine you had no drivers for your mobo in Windows. You'd be doomed.
Mrk

[malformed]

For those that had mentioned PCLinuxOS 2007 - Thanks. I had previously tried/used PCLInuxOS because it was based on Mandriva (my favourite distro - as well as Slackware, Debian, and Fedora), the last release I used was 'Big Daddy' 0.94 - the last stable release. I'm currently installing 2007 on one of my PCs, it looks good, I'm impressed so far.

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
The best support for hardware I had was SUSE 10.1, btw. Very little tweaking.
Mrk" }-
Don't all distro's have the same hardware support, since they all share the same linux kernel (actually, some may be better then others since they use a later kernel, but very few continually upgrade the kernel). If you mean automatic detection with no user intervention, then of course suse or *buntu is going to win.

Cheers

Alphalutra1

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
That was the idea, in regard to the one post above mine :)
I had more trouble with SUSE 10.2 or Ubuntu 6.10, but mainly due to via drivers for a very tricky mobo.
Mrk

[Pedro]

Where does Debian fit in those descriptions? Do it yourself, or if it's supported, auto?*puppy*

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: "Where does Debian fit in those descriptions? Do it yourself, or if it's supported, auto?*puppy*" }-
Do it yourself. Ubuntu is ancient African for "can't install debian" ;)

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

[FastGame]

-{ Quote: "Where does Debian fit in those descriptions? Do it yourself, or if it's supported, auto?*puppy*" }-
It depends on what you're talking about, Debain the disto or Distributions based on Debian (http://www.debian.org/misc/children-distros.html)

-{ Quote: "Do it yourself. Ubuntu is ancient African for "can't install debian" ;) " }-
Good one :D

[Pedro]

-{ Quote: "Ubuntu is ancient African for "can't install debian" ;)
" }-
I see:D . Very pratical language. One short word

[Pedro]

-{ Quote: " Debain the disto or Distributions based on Debian (http://www.debian.org/misc/children-distros.html)
" }-
I was aware of that, but that's why i'm so interested in Debian, AKA, the original:) . I'll see if i can cope with it first. If not, Ubuntu.

[Pedro]

I see that the debian-installer doesn't come with the X Window System. It's command line. It's ok, but i wish there was one manual that handles all of this, not like:
-{ Quote: "Just be aware that the X system is completely separate from debian-installer, and in fact is much more complicated. Installation and trouble shooting of the X window installation is not within the scope of this manual." }-
Buu.:P
Where do i find info about installing the X Window System on Debian? Are the comands and procedure the same in every distribution?
BTW, Debian's page could be simpler. I like to learn, but not spend most of the time looking for the info. This is not bad criticism, just an opinion.

EDIT: i found the info. Not easy to find. Information is all over the place i'm afraid. It doesn't put me off, but it is annoying.
Best all in one info-> books, copyrighted books... I'll ignore them for now.
I just need another method to look for info. It's not Windows world, i have to adjust

edit2: it seems all there is to know is in Debian's site. I was just lost in there... i have newbie written in my forehead:D

[Kerodo]

I went to Linux about 5 months ago and have tried a dozen or more distros and find that I now get the best performance on this old PC with Ubuntu. Also like PCLinuxOS quite a bit. Both are easy to use and nearly perfect out of the box. At the moment it's Ubuntu...

[Pedro]

I just configured Debian from a "Debian 3.1 (Sarge), minimal install" VM appliance, and it looks exactly like Ubuntu. I forgot to configure a user account, so i logged in as root...
Debian with GNOME is basically the same as Ubuntu, except for packaging sys. etc.??

[Nick Rhodes]

I had terrible printing problems yesterday.
Needed to print 36 page word doc.
Firstly open office totally failled to print it.
So tried across the network off my laptop from MS Office, still would'nt print.
Coverted the file to PDF and the file started printing no problems.
Printer stops at page 4, no error from printer, it thinks its still in the middle of printing.
So I turn it on and off and pages 1-4 come out again.
Restart the printer, then restart cups.
Still same problem.
So, I recreate the PDF from pages 5 to 36.
Prints to page 18 and stops.
Restart printer, restart cups.
Manages pages 19 to 31 this time.
Restart printer, restart cups.
Last 5 pages come out.

Not sure if its a driver issue or a cups/ghostscript issue... got some alternate drivers to try out, but need to get this sorted as sometimes I need to print 200-300 pages in one go and this is gonna be a pain.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
What printer?
Try exporting your document to .ps (postscript) - then print it.
Mrk

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
What printer?
Try exporting your document to .ps (postscript) - then print it.
Mrk" }-

I would of thought PDF'ing will have the same effect as I can lpr a pdf, but will give it a try.

[Pedro]

Typing from Kubuntu, inside VirtualBox (by the way great program), using this Konqueror.
I'm thinking about giving up on Debian, and going for this straightforward OS. Using KDE really reduces the inicial weirdness. Things are not upsidedown.

Debian is a bit alien for me. I can install it, but not without trying real hard to figure out what the hell they're talking about half the install. Super weird, and a no go for now. Kubuntu is Debian based, sure, but better, in that i can understand it. So i get best of both worlds.
I just don't know if i will be able to make sound work good when installing it for real. And what drivers are sub-optimal.

Next PC i buy will have to be compatible. It will be my main criteria. If it only works for Windows, it's not really a ready to use computer, but a Windows terminal. Lets see how things work out in a Toshiba Laptop. I can't wait, but i have to...

[Pedro]

Help to choose a distribution:
An article: http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT3269115798.html
Good read, and quick.
A quiz: http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?firsttime=true
This quiz asks good questions, and came up with interesting results for me - Fedora, Mandriva and Ubuntu. They add more alternative in the bottom- Kubuntu, Open SUSE and Debian.
Not science, but interesting. I suggest taking it.

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: "
A quiz: http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?firsttime=true
" }-
It recommended slackware, arch, and gentoo for me, so it is pretty good:D

Alphalutra1

[Pedro]

That makes two out of two! The questions are pertinent, that's for sure:thumb:
Notice that there are alternatives in the bottom.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
It found no matches for me....!!!
Mrk

[pvsurfer]

It's likely I'm going to give Linux a try and I'm wondering why no one has mentioned Linspire or Freespire?

From what I've read, they are based on Ubuntu and are the most user-friendly of all Linux distros for those with familiarity with Windows!

[Pedro]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
It found no matches for me....!!!
Mrk" }-
Share the results!:)

[Nick Rhodes]

As of last night both my Machines (server and laptop) are running Linux.

Installed cAos on my laptop last night, running a treat (and surprisingly quick).

Got an issue with the wireless disconnecting every 10 mins, but not had chance to investigate that yet, using a bcm43xx driver and WPA stuff - my friends laptop works fine, so its gotta be a driver or config issue.

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,
nick, did you solve the printing issue?
Someone, as to my results, I don't remember what I answered. A bit of this and that - and no match found. This means that I'm not meant to be using Linux - or just use any distro ...
Mrk

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: "Hello,
nick, did you solve the printing issue?

Mrk" }-

Hi, not yet.

Drivers were tested for ghostscript 8.15, we are on the last of the 7's for some reason ! So once wireless is up we are going to package up GS 8.54 and test that out, I also have some alternate drivers to try after that. But I dont need to do any important print jobs for a while so not in a huge rush.

[Nick Rhodes]

Found some newer drivers and they are Belkins own, using them over the generic broadcom ones I was using so far 100% reliable tonight and connects in half the time.

Cheers, Nick.

[dylanfan]

Hi there ;)

New happy user of Knoppix 5.11 (LiveCd, of course, but also hard-drive install!) which impressed me very much lately.

Still learning about it and how to take full adavantage of it, but no doubt I'm hooked. It boots in no time, and a complete install of the system takes a few minutes to complete. What a difference with the usual time Windows needs to install!

It now cohabits on my laptop with WXPSP2, about which I'm quiet happy also. (I guess I only need an additional MacOS to complete the team and make me the happiest guy in the world.)

Cheers

[incursari]

Gentoo and Debian always my favorite. I’m going to try PC-BSD when I have free time.

[lucas1985]

Has anyone tried Sabayon Linux (http://www.sabayonlinux.org/)? It´s based on Gentoo, but it´s more user-friendly.