Linux Chooser

[Longboard]

Take an interactive poll to find distro of your choice/best suited:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?firsttime=true

Just a little diversion ;)
My suggested Distros: SuSE, Mandriva, Ubuntu
( PCLinux OS = 4th because requires some Linux knowledge)

Regards

[sukarof]

Ubuntu, Mandriva, Kubuntu and Open suse for me who dont know anything about Linux. I always thought Mandriva was for professionals...

Luckily I already use Ubuntu, it isnt as easy as windows. Couldnt recommend it to my less computer savvy friens yet, but the developers are obviously working really hard to make it easy, and little googling has solved all the questions this far.

I have tried different Linux distros for years but always lost interres coz its been a hassle to do stuff in it.
But for the first time, with Gutsy Gibbon, I have not given up after a couple of hours. I´ve been running it constantly for two days now.
When I manage to understand wine better (or Roboform comes to linux) I dont think I will be that far from migrating..
Somehow Linux feels more fresh with the constant and fast development. And I just love the new lightning fast Compiz. Yes, its eye candy but useful such imo. And pure joy not having to worry about AV or firewall (yet anyway)
Who knows, soon I might be one of those aggressive fanatics on different commentary fields whenever something is Written about Linux :P (I hope not, fanatics doesnt make Linux more appealing really)

[zapjb]

PCLinuxOS is by far the easiest Linux for the n00b to use.

By gosh I'm using it. That's proof. :P

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

[19monty64]

I installed PCLOS recently, but when I tried to open Synaptic Manager, clicked in password, SynMgr. would flash&close without being able to use. Upgrade to GutsyGibbon proved troublesome. So far DSL (last stable& current beta) and FeistyFawn work great, other than resolution issues.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "Take an interactive poll to find distro of your choice/best suited:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?firsttime=true

Just a little diversion ;)
My suggested Distros: SuSE, Mandriva, Ubuntu
( PCLinux OS = 4th because requires some Linux knowledge)

Regards" }-
Actually, PCLinuxOS 2007 is probably the easiest of them all and the only one that really doesn't require any knowledge or experience with Linux. Most of the others need at least a little tweaking to get them fully functional.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "I installed PCLOS recently, but when I tried to open Synaptic Manager, clicked in password, SynMgr. would flash&close without being able to use. " }-
Sounds like you may have just typed in the wrong root password.... although I'm sure that occurred to you....

[wilbertnl]

The suggestions for me:
Mandriva, openSUSE, Debian, Kubuntu, Fedora, Ubuntu.
Interesting that I have tried most of them.

[19monty64]

-{ Quote: "Sounds like you may have just typed in the wrong root password.... although I'm sure that occurred to you...." }-
The results were the same in LiveCD as was the installed version. The root password worked in everything except Syn.Mgr??? In LiveCD (root) and installed (the one I gave during installation). PCLOS actually replaced XP completely, but I couldn't add/remove programs or check for updates. I still use the LiveCD for playing and will wait a month or two and re-dLo to try again. As far as adapting to wide-screen resolutions, recognizing my printer and opening apps. quickly, PCLOS is my 1st choice by a mile!

[Kerodo]

My personal favorite now is SuSE 10.3... very slick and polished, easy to install and setup, works out of the box except for videos, just download VLC and you're set. A overall well done distro now.

[Kerodo]

-{ Quote: "The results were the same in LiveCD as was the installed version. The root password worked in everything except Syn.Mgr??? In LiveCD (root) and installed (the one I gave during installation). PCLOS actually replaced XP completely, but I couldn't add/remove programs or check for updates. I still use the LiveCD for playing and will wait a month or two and re-dLo to try again. As far as adapting to wide-screen resolutions, recognizing my printer and opening apps. quickly, PCLOS is my 1st choice by a mile!" }-
Wow, that's weird then. I have never encountered that one myself. Sometimes odd things can happen with releases though, specific to certain PCs and so on. I had trouble with SuSE 10.2 installer, which then cleared up fine in 10.3. But yep, you gotta have access to Synaptic for sure. You may have better luck with the upcoming next release of PCLOS hopefully...

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

Ooops, it gave me Gentoo!! And Slackware...

Anyhow, the easiest I have found are ... all of them actually. They are all equally simple (save Slackware or Gentoo in fact). The only difference is personal taste and personal compatibility.

There could always be little incompatibilities that might steer a choice.

Example, my confession: I have upgraded one of my Ubuntu 6.10 to 7.04 two days ago. Lo and behold, I have encountered some errors. Apparently, the 7.04 kernel does not like my hardware too much - no restricted drivers and beryl white screen. I'll upgrade up to 7.10, but if the little quirks remain, I might downgrade to 6.10.

It comes down to which mistress pleases you best. I'm having my affair with SUSE and Ubuntu, each one winning one or the other round. For example, Ubuntu did struggle a bit with Beryl, while SUSE was flawlessly smooth. But Synaptic is so much better than Zenworks. And so it goes. The love tale.

All in all, with so many distros available, all you need to do is try them all, see which one you like best. There's always a chance of some bugs or hardware incompatibilities, but these are either ironed out in new versions or enhanced ... A bit of googling and patience will usually sort everything out, unless it's more kernel-ish.

I'm also installing my Linuxes on fairly new hardware, so I'm really testing the latest support for newest stuff, which might cause a few bugs here and there, but it's the best way to learn.

All that said, the new user should probably try either SUSE, Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS.

Cheers,
Mrk

[clambermatic]

...funny, ??? they got Foresight-L but most testers here wasn't even given that choice.

Foresight-L to me, is even easier to manipulate for newbies, than Ubuntu (any flavours, including latest r10.x ).

:blink:

[GlobalForce]

Community forum, livecd, conary package manager, nice repo browser .... look's good cm. Thank's for the lead. ;)

Homepage: http://www.foresightlinux.org/


GF

[HURST]

Results for me:
Kubuntu
Freespire
openSUSE
Mandriva
Ubuntu

I have tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Debian, Sabayon and Slax. Every time I had trouble with WiFi. And I connect via wireless at home (have been to lazy to bring the LAN cable to my room, but sometime I will) so each time I get stuck and can't really do much, except when I can get a place to connect with cable. So I go back to Win each time.
Now I am triyn wifi-slax... You can put it on a usb-drive, so no modifying of my laptop's drive partitions... So far it recognizes my wifi card, but I can't connect yet... I hope I manage to fix that this week...

[GlobalForce]

"So far it recognizes my wifi card ..." - Doesn't help us any. Post the spec's. ;)

GF

[HURST]

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400/E1505, with Intel i945 Mainboard... Wireless card is Intel iw3945...
Anyways, Wifi-Slax detected it and i'm working on get it to connect to the internet...
Maybe I'll start posting for help soon ;D

[GlobalForce]

Is the driver (http://www.slax.org/modules.php?category=drivers) ipw3945 (I think) in your /opt directory?

Alt present, loaded (yes I know you have iw): lsmod | grep ipw3945

If installed (http://www.slax.org/doc_modules.php#useonfly) check "auto daemon loading" here - http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/INSTALL

++++++++++++++++++++++++

You can overlook most paying attention instead to:
*Don't type this # it only signifies root.

-{ Quote: ""And now we can try to load the module, first clearing the kernel log:

# ./load debug=0

Finally we can check to see if things worked:

# iwconfig eth1

You should see something like:

eth1 unassociated ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Channel=0 Access Point: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Bit Rate=0 kb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

And now you are ready to go. Configure your AP using iwconfig:

# iwconfig eth1 essid Whatever
# iwconfig eth1 key DEADBEEF00
# iwconfig eth1

eth1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"Whatever"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:11:95:18:18:30
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:DEAD-BEEF-00 Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality=98/100 Signal level=-53 dBm Noise level=-81 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

The specifics of how to bring up the interface is heavily dependent on
the specific distribution you are using from here on out."" }-
This is the best I can offer not running a wireless card of my own. Hopefully it's enough to start in motion the wheel's of progress. Should you wish to make it official, take the initiative and open a new thread titled "Help Configuring Intel IW3945 WIFI Running Slax" or "How To Configure Intel 3945 WIFI While Running Slax" .... something along those line's. Mod's will handle the break. ;)

Update: See here - http://www.slax.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19134. *Mind you I know not which version, nor which kernel you've got prepared, six final look's to be out soon. One more worth review, posted by "velosprinter (http://www.slax.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=90153#90153)."


GF

[HURST]

Thank you GlobalForce:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
I really appreciate your suggestions and will take a look into it.
I'll tell you how it went!

[Mele20]

I just installed a new hard drive and I partitioned it with 30GB for some flavor of Linux. I used Ubuntu (premade) a little in a VMWare machine and have the live CD and have used it a little bit but am basically a Linux newbie. I could see from the little I used Ubuntu that I would have to understand WINE before I install any version of Linux as the one application from Windows that I cannot live without is the Proxomitron. I have run everything through Proxo for five years and before that had Ad/Subtract from the moment it came out in beta. Seeing ads, gif animation, flashing marques, having to endure crap at my home site when I have special Proxo filters, etc. has not happened to me for so many years I can't stand a minute of any of that. I hate using a public computer. Not having Proxo in the VMWare Ubuntu drove me up the wall immediately and I couldn't even really try Ubuntu.

I took the interactive test and it said:
Ubuntu
Mandriva
Suse
kubuntu
Freespire
xandros

I have never heard of the last two distros.

[Cerxes]

Sorry for jumping into this Linux thread, but if someone is curious about trying different flavours that is not based on the linux kernel, but with the same desktop environment (except for Solaris Express DE), here are some suggestions:

PC-BSD (http://www.pcbsd.org/)
DesktopBSD (http://www.desktopbsd.net/index.php?id=31)
Nexenta (http://www.gnusolaris.org/gswiki)
BeleniX (http://www.genunix.org/distributions/belenix_site/?q=home)
Solaris Express DE (http://developers.sun.com/sxde/)

/C.

[wilbertnl]

-{ Quote: "here are some suggestions:" }- Cerxes, I sure appreciate your jump into this thread. :thumb:
I'm very fond of the BSD style *nix and I have used freeBSD for a long time. openSolaris looks very promising too.
My experience is that both *BSD and *Solaris offer less adequate support for hardware components than linux. When I tested openSolaris a few months ago it didn't have any support for wireless WPA security.

You are right, though. These *nix derivates deserve more attention!

[FastGame]

-{ Quote: "I would have to understand WINE before I install any version of Linux as the one application from Windows that I cannot live without is the Proxomitron. I have run everything through Proxo for five years and before that had Ad/Subtract from the moment it came out in beta. Seeing ads, gif animation, flashing marques, having to endure crap at my home site when I have special Proxo filters, etc. has not happened to me for so many years I can't stand a minute of any of that." }-

WoW !, I couldn't imagine my PC usage would depend on one program ??? And how would you feel about not needing your AV's, AntiSpyware ?

Proxomitron isn't the only animal, lock down isn't limited to Windows.....

Linux runs Firefox, Opera and uses all available options for both. For those who can't stand even an ounce of net glamor there's Dillo (http://www.dillo.org/) (fastest browser on earth).

Just to name a few other options (I'm sure there's others)

DansGuardian
OpenDNS
Privoxy
Tor-Tork
Squid-SquidGuard

BTW, I don't think the Linux Chooser is very good.

[19monty64]

My results were Xandros*, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva, FreeSpire, OpenSUSE* and Kubuntu. The stars denote (the ones I haven't tried) the ones without Live-CD's. Oh well, I'll try again in April...

[Mele20]

-{ Quote: "WoW !, I couldn't imagine my PC usage would depend on one program ??? And how would you feel about not needing your AV's, AntiSpyware ?

Proxomitron isn't the only animal, lock down isn't limited to Windows.....

Linux runs Firefox, Opera and uses all available options for both. For those who can't stand even an ounce of net glamor there's Dillo (http://www.dillo.org/) (fastest browser on earth).

Just to name a few other options (I'm sure there's others)

DansGuardian
OpenDNS
Privoxy
Tor-Tork
Squid-SquidGuard

BTW, I don't think the Linux Chooser is very good." }-

Every Proxo user who moves to Linux goes through agony and a large number come back to Windows because they can't live without Proxo. I have seen so many posts about this over the years. The only happy Linux users who were Proxo devotees on Windows are the ones who have managed to get Proxo working on some flavor of Linux. Privoxy is lousy. It is in no way a substitute for Proxo.

As for how I would feel about not needing antivirus well I go for long periods with only an antivirus program on right click demand only. I practice safe computing and really only need an AV to scan downloading programs and email attachments. I use Fx and Opera. I noted that Fx runs really good on Ubuntu. But the web was not being filtered through Proxo and I want to see the web the way I want to see it not the way webmasters want me to. Proxo is not so much for security as for allowing me to see the web as I wish to see it.

For me, my motivation to seriously look at leaving Windows is solely because of Microsoft's WGA crap and the fact that they are moving to a web based subscription model for Windows and I strongly object to that too. I like XP a lot and still like my other computer with 98SE. It's Microsoft's attitude toward its customers that I object to. I don't like being called a thief apriori and I don't want a web based OS (plus, I don't want DRM which is going to be used by Microsoft for a lot more than copyrited music and movies). I think most folks coming now to Linux are coming to get away from Microsoft and not because they really want Linux.

[Longboard]

-{ Quote: "BTW, I don't think the Linux Chooser is very good." }-Of course not, just a toy..:)
@cerxes thx for the reminder re the *nixies

I have had an interesting time with PC-BSD: I really like it for oob functionality and imho is a real contender for my desktop and will be looking at The FreeBSD 7 and DesktopBSD releases.
I really congratulate the PCBSD devs for what they have achieved.
The Nexenta looks like it might be worth a look.
Heh: I suspect the forums at PCBSD are a little nonplussed at my amazingly naif q's. :blink:

What I have found to be a terrific aspect of my forays into the Linux and *nix world is the amazing smorgasbord of options. I have been able to run very fast desktops on a couple of really old LT's with very little effort for my simple needs.

It will take some time to get to grips with some new concepts and tbh I have been looking for the lazy options to be up and running with minimal effort.

By lazy options, for me, I mean amazingly sophisticated user friendly releases of PCLinuxOS , PCBSD, Mint, Sabayon, Freespire, MandrivaOne, VectorLinux, Knoppix.
Also had good experience with Arch and Absolute.

I have, heh, challenged myself with DSL and Puppy and Fedora7: interesting.

All free. !! Live CDs, VMWare, VirtualBox...., easy installs if you want: and I aint no expert.

I dont have wireless at all and so avoid what seems to be a common issue for many.

I am still sussing out best printer/scanner/projector support.
I will be getting some newer Hw soon: wait and test again...or use this box: will be great.

Ftm this is just experimenting and familiarising: steep curve ! but doable, very doable. ;)

I am not able to move away from M$ completely yet for some business apps, but not having issues at home. Experimenting with presentations for work.

I know I'm not telling "the pros' anything they dont know: just letting anyone know it can be done.

Not quite but very nearly a full replacement for M$.

From a Distro_watch review of Mandriva2008:
-{ Quote: "There were aspects of this Mandriva release that I really liked, such as the installer and the Control Center but overall the system didn't really grab me. It is quite a decent, well put-together operating system with all the basics and a few extras like the Control Center and 3D desktop effects. It was stable and ran well, but on the whole it didn't seem to offer anything exciting enough to make me want to switch to the distribution permanently." }- See; for me it was INCREDIBLY exciting to have a whole superfast OS doing almost everything I needed with style just oob in 700mb, in minutes: literally: AMAZING.
Play with it, use it, learn, dont panic about breaking it: fabulous.
regards.

PS: watching wubi with interest hoping someone may port it to PCLinuxOS :D

[Alphalutra1]

Just saying that the Proxo works perfectly with WINE (Even gives you the cool all-seeing green eye in a little tray thingy :P ). All you have to do is install wine (there is probably some guide in the ubuntu forum on this or in the documentation) with something like apt-get wine, then configure using winecfg(i think that's right) then extract the Proxo zip file into the wine directory, and type "wine pathToProxo.exe" then it will run and work. I know I didn't describe it very well, but it works perfectly fine.

(Oh, and it said I should use Arch, Gentoo, or Slack), but little did they know I use a BSD ;D

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

[GrailVanGogh]

-{ Quote: "Every Proxo user who moves to Linux goes through agony and a large number come back to Windows because they can't live without Proxo. " }-

Really? Do you have some stats to show that EVERY user goes through agony without Proxo and returns to *unix because they can not use Proxo? I would be interested in seeing some numbers on this.

I also have not read of any DEATHS attributed to the lose of proxo use. Has this happened in Hilo HI to someone you know?

[Lanik]

-{ Quote: "Seeing ads, gif animation, flashing marques, having to endure crap at my home site when I have special Proxo filters, etc. has not happened to me for so many years I can't stand a minute of any of that." }-Install Adblock Plus with EasyList USA filters ... problem solved. I don't know why you're so stuck on Proxo but whatever floats your boat.

[Mele20]

-{ Quote: "Install Adblock Plus with EasyList USA filters ... problem solved. I don't know why you're so stuck on Proxo but whatever floats your boat." }-

That in no way resembles the Proxomitron. There is NOTHING that resembles the Proxomitron. You must not know much about Proxo if you would claim that Adblock Plus with those ad filters is the equivalent of Proxo with Sidki's or Grypen's filters. There is no comparison.

Other folks have posted many times about their agonies with getting Proxo to work with Linux and not one of them has suggested using some poor substitute other than some tried Privoxy and were disappointed. If you really wanted to be helpful you would have explained, step by step, how to get Proxo to work with Ubuntu rather than insisting I get some other application. Besides, I use Opera, SeaMonkey, IE 6 and Maxthon. Proxo works for all. Ad Block won't so why suggest that as a solution?

[Alphalutra1]

-{ Quote: "If you really wanted to be helpful you would have explained, step by step, how to get Proxo to work with Ubuntu" }-
Well, I tried, but this is definitely more specific (found it by typing in google "ubuntu wine" without the quotes of course)

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wine

Cheers,

Alphalutra1

[Lanik]

-{ Quote: "If you really wanted to be helpful you would have explained, step by step, how to get Proxo to work with Ubuntu rather than insisting I get some other application." }-Do you know how to use a search engine? ;) Enough said. You do realize there is no IE in Linux, unless run through wine. ;D And doing a simple search yields plenty of results for adblocking with Opera. I'm sure you're aware Seamonkey is a Gecko product. You must know nothing about Adblock Plus, its not an application its a browser extension, it helps when you read the docs you know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extension_%28computing%29

Obviously you're not looking to get help otherwise you wouldn't be taking cheap shots at me. ;D

[GrailVanGogh]

-{ Quote: "If you really wanted to be helpful you would have explained, step by step, how to get Proxo to work with Ubuntu rather than insisting I get some other application. Besides, I use Opera, SeaMonkey, IE 6 and Maxthon. Proxo works for all. Ad Block won't so why suggest that as a solution?" }-

Are you lazy or did you just forget how to use a Search Engine? Seems to be happening a lot with you lately that you want others to do the leg work for you.

Big deal that you use all those different browsers because you do not know how to use anyone of them properly and your history with Proxo issues speaks for itself. How many threads are started just at DSLR by you about site issues you blame on others when at the end of the day it was proxo and you mucking things up?

As lanik said Adblock is an extension for Fx which works on many platforms and considering you constantly bring up how long you have used Firefox you certainly have learned nothing about it.

[iceni60]

adblock trolls are idiots i don't know what the big deal is about it ??? you can't mention proxo without some moron turning up and going on about adblock lol

just install wine -
sudo aptitute install wine

then copy this -
#!/bin/bash -

sleep 11 ; wine "C:\Program Files\Proxomitron Naoko-4\Proxomitron.exe"
exit 0
and save it as whatever you like - proxo_startup, or something like that. you can save it to ~/scripts. that's the same place as /home/USERNAME/scripts

then i suppose it needs to be made executable like this (when you run this command make sure the terminal can see it, so if it's on your desktop when you run it, open your terminal and run 'cd Desktop' first note: desktop has a capital 'd'!) -
chmod a+x SCRIPT_NAME
or if you named it proxo_startup -
chmod a+x proxo_startup

then open the session program -
gnome-session-properties
and add that script location to Stratup Programs, so it should look a bit like this -
/home/ice60/scripts/Proxo_Startup

when you first install wine you can configure it with this command winecfg, but i think the defaults are OK.

edit. ok the order might be a bit wrong.

install wine, and run winecfg, then get the proxo files and put them on your desktop, then run this
cd Desktop
wine name_of_proxo.exe

then when it's install i think you can follow the instructions.

[GlobalForce]

*Had this setup before iceni's excellent ~ first-hand I take :shifty: ~ info hit the board. View it as that "little bit extra."

Proxo appear's to run fine Mele. Go with Alpha's link, a good one. Then read through this whole tuopf's thread (http://prxbx.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=72) to help you sort the particular's, and one (http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=272624#p272624) to show the skeptic's you're not alone in your praise for Mr. Lemmon's superb creation. Happy filtering! ;)


GF

[GrailVanGogh]

-{ Quote: "adblock trolls are idiots i don't know what the big deal is about it ??? you can't mention proxo without some moron turning up and going on about adblock lol" }-

Adblock was mentioned to inform mele what adblock is. An extension for Fx.

Do you have problems reading posts also?

Save your name calling for your high school buddies.

[19monty64]

-{ Quote: "Take an interactive poll to find distro of your choice/best suited:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php?firsttime=true

Just a little diversion ;)
My suggested Distros: SuSE, Mandriva, Ubuntu
( PCLinux OS = 4th because requires some Linux knowledge)

Regards" }-
was the thread-starter... -{ Quote: "Install Adblock Plus with EasyList USA filters ... problem solved. I don't know why you're so stuck on Proxo but whatever floats your boat." }- then... -{ Quote: "adblock trolls are idiots i don't know what the big deal is about it ??? you can't mention proxo without some moron turning up and going on about adblock lol
" }- then... -{ Quote: "Do you have problems reading posts also?
Save your name calling for your high school buddies." }-
Now, now...let's stay on topic. By the way, what was your results???

[GrailVanGogh]

-{ Quote: "By the way, what was your results" }-


Fedora,
Ubuntu,
OpenSuSE

[lucas1985]

-{ Quote: "Every Proxo user who moves to Linux goes through agony and a large number come back to Windows because they can't live without Proxo. I have seen so many posts about this over the years. The only happy Linux users who were Proxo devotees on Windows are the ones who have managed to get Proxo working on some flavor of Linux. Privoxy is lousy. It is in no way a substitute for Proxo." }-
WebCleaner (http://webcleaner.sourceforge.net/) (?)

Another Linux distribution (from my country) Ututo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ututo) :)

[Bubba]

A number of posts were removed that in no way contribute to this techinical thread.

Let's keep the childish like bickering to ourselves Please and simply discuss the topic at hand which happens to be ones choice concerning Linux. For those that wish to continue the off topic discussion focusing on Proxo, Please do so in another thread.

Thanks,
Bubba