linux and my experience so far

Hello,first off this is not a rant.
I have tryed quite alot of distos.
these are the ones ive tryed as a dualboot: ubuntu 8.10,fedora 10,debian lenny,Fedora 11.
With ubuntu 8.10 and fedora 10 at first they both had same problem the version of network manager they used was unreliable for wireless connections.
samba worked and i could print to my printer downstairs connect to my parents xp machine. I installed the nvidia driver from rpmfusion and enabled desktop effects. flash player worked on both. rythumbox worked on both.
runescape which is a browser game which uses java crashed quite alot on both. I could mount my ntfs partitions. I could play dvd's using libdvdcss2 from livna repo.

so i thought about it and decided to go for a more stable distro which in my case was debian Lenny.
Debian Lenny was a bit more of a challege.
For a start i had to manually type in which partition i wanted to install grub to since i was doing a dualboot.

once it was installed installing certain things such as codecs was as easy as fedora and imo easier than ubuntu thanks to the debian multimedia repo and that repo even includes dvdcss2 since it is an unoffical repo.
installing the nvidia driver took a few atempts since i had to edit a line of the Xorg config file by hand and i put the text in wrong place so i restored back and then tryed again and it worked.

I couldnt mount ntfs partitions and other people on this forum had the same issue with debian lenny.
I had same problem with java and runecape.com game would just crash the browser every so often.
Some websites that needed certain codecs or plugins were eiether jumpy or wouldnt work at all.

Today i tryed fedora 11 and after i found out the issue with later version of linux distros and easybcd i managed to get it to start.
Fedora 11 has alot of issues atm ime. even with all the updates kwin crashs alot,flash player download finishes at 4.1kb and packagekit tries to install it.

overall for the stuff i want to use my computer for i cannot use linux due to some issues even with the most stable distros. i also found out somethings work better in bleeding edge distros than they do in stable distros. I would like to point out some issues arent the fault of linux such as runescape.com game issues. i can only run with the older detail settings on opensolaris as well and it also crashs on that platform.

any comments or questions are welcome.
Im hoping as more people use linux these type of issues will be solved.
i will continue to try linux but for now im stuck with windows.

 

my advice,
hop some more distros,you will fiind your final one in the end.btw did you install ubuntu and checked??

 

I found Ubuntu to be the most stable of them all. I think you should give 9.04 a spin. Fedora is a perpetual beta, so things may or may not work. Debian and CentOS are so stable you'll be hard-pressed to move them. Too stable for desktop use, as you will see in my soon to come CentOS review.

There's no perfect distro and habits are a killer. But for day to day work, Ubuntu seems to give the best overall performance. You will have problems of course, every system has them. Just go through the event viewer in Windows and see how many errors are there. There's no perfect. Maybe suspend won't work or you'll be annoyed by this or that ... the only way to ensure almost perfect stability is to custom tailor OS to hardware. This is what Mac people have been doing. But this too, has its price.

Bottom line, try Ubuntu.

Mrk

 

Hello,
I will try ubuntu 9.04 later. its downloading atm.
thanks for the replys.
any idea how to use the opera deb repo on ubuntu?

I used it on debian lenny in the past but it doesnt seem to have links for ubuntu releases.

now i know i will be able to get dual boot working i may try mandriva first. ive always liked the fact it has a central for all the options.

 

http://kyleabaker.com/2009/04/04/how-to-opera-repository-for-debian-based-linux/

I just download the deb from Opera's download site.

 

Even better for you than Ubuntu 9.04 would be Mint 7. It has Opera in the package manager. The only problem you should run into is if you are using dual monitors with nvidia drivers and that is easy to fix.

One of the mistakes people who are switching from Windows make is to try the "expert" distros instead of the "casual user" ones. Arch, Gentoo, Debian Lenny etc, are great distros but take more expertise than Ubuntu, Kbuntu and Mint. Mint, IMO, is the distro that requires the least "tweaking" for new users.

 

I have been sampling distros now for a couple of years. I guess my biggest problem is I can't find any email client I like as well as Outlook in Win. Been using Outlook for over a decade, and I just like it best. But I can get by with TBird in Linux. I don't care much for Evolution, it had font issues last time I used it. Otherwise, I have had pretty good luck with various distros. Ubuntu has been my favorite mostly because it seems to have the least number of issues/problems for me.

Lewmur, I am downloading Mint right now, it's been a long time since I had a look. I remember it was pretty nice a year or so ago. Thanks for that suggestion. Which edition do you use?

 

Ime PCLinuxOS works OOTB better than other distro. If you haven't tried it you're shortchanging yourself imo.

 

Yep, that was my 1st love 2 years ago, used it for a long time. But now, still no x64 which makes me move to other choices....

 

The latest, Mint 7. It is based on Ubuntu 9.04. I like Ubuntu based distros for new users better than PCLinuxOS mainly because it has a much larger user base, and, IMO, better wireless support.

 

The latest Unbuntu wouldn't work on my puter so downloaded Mint 7 today, trying that later-
I was trying to get away from the 'doze' experience..

Got PCLos, but sorry, guys, sorta bored with it!

Like Dream as a 3rd OS, but maybe time to switch up that one too...

My puter hardware (and OK! Lack of tweaktime/knowledge too) gets in the way of a lot of lux distros I've tried.....

But the lux experience has been an eye opener... and likin' it still.

 

What is your hardware, what Ubuntu version and how didn't it work? The only thing I know of that won't work properly with Ubuntu 9.04 is some older ATI video cards.

 

I have a Dell Demension 2400 with an Intel Pentium 4 2.2Ghz
What seems to be the sticking point-

display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device

The ones I have trouble with, supposing it's not the burn, which shouldn't because I have a new dvd burner,
then the vid of the distros goes all wonky after booting a few times or doesn't show up at all..

The last Ubuntu I couldn't use was Jaunty Jackalope, might try the KKoala version...Heron version worked, seems hit or miss to me...

 

Hardy Heron is the last release to support that Intel integrated video chipset out-of-the-box because that is the last kernel with the drivers. There is a sticky in the Ubuntu forums on how to get it to work with Jaunty but I don't know that it is worth the effort when you can get a new video card here for under $30 including shipping.

I know I get a little ticked when people tell me to spend my hard earned money to solve a problem but I think this would be a good investment. However, if you aren't happy with Hardy and really want to get you computer to run Jaunty, let me know and I'll try to help. The problem is, every time you update the kernel, you'll have to go through the procedure again while a new card will solve the problem for a long time to come.

BTW, there are no Vista drivers for that computer either.

 

What's a Vista?

I'll prob go the 'buy a new graphics card' route, if anything, they're a few distros I'd like to be able to spend time on....

Thanks for the advice, lewmur!

 

Have you tried Kmail (which is a part of the personal information managament suite Kontact)? It's excellent IMHO.

 

You are forgetting one of "The seven excuses people have for not switching to Linux." They have a "favorite application" in Windows they just absolutely can't do without. Of course Outlook is one of the first programs ever ported via Wine, but what the hey, an excuse is an excuse.

 

I would also cast a vote for Mint, I find it to be even easier to use than Ubuntu.

I've downloaded Mint 7 but haven't gotten around to installing it yet. I thought Mint 6 was really good, so I'm looking forward to trying out 7.

BTW, a co-worker of mine bought a HP notebook that only had FreeDOS installed. I installed Mint 6 and she's extremely happy with it, been running it for a few months now. Does everything she needs to do. Do you recommend doing a system update to 7 or a clean install? Or should she stick to 6 as long as it's running well?

 

Have you tried installing Outlook with Wine or Crossover? You can check their sites, if I recall correctly only Outlook 2007 is still a bit flakey, 2000 or 2003 should work pretty well.

 

If it were mine, I'd update. But for a client (by client I mean anyone else I've installed it for, paying or not,) if it ain't broke, don't fix it.!!!

 

Sounds like some sage advice You've got a point, breaking your own china is one thing, someone else's another.

 

Yep, used Kmail for a while, but it's text only as you know, no html, and 95% of the emails I do with people are html.

 

Don't tempt me with your eye rolling lewmur. There are plenty of other reasons why I don't go Linux. But the simplest is, I just like Win better. In the end, I think that's why most people stay with Win. I have been thru them all (distros), over a period of more than 2 years now, and there is only 1 I would even consider using on a daily basis.

But let's not get into a Win vs Linux war here. That IS what you're trying to start, right?

I am pretty much a Win man, but I do enjoy "playing" with Linux as well.

 

I gave WINE a quick try in Mint, but the Outlook installer failed to do it's thing. I also have some objections to mixing Win and Linux together. That just seems kinda idiotic. I'd rather keep it pure. Truth is, there really are no decent email clients for Linux. Evolution is junk, TBird is barely adequate, and KMail, although fine, is text only.

 

According to this, KMail reads and writes html mail. You might want to check out Zimbra Desktop, it's also cross-platform. I've never tried it but it looks like it might be an interesting free alternative to Outlook.