Best Linux Distro

[Wurmer]

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I have a little question here. I have an extra computer which is pretty decent even though it's on the low end side ( e2180 + 2 gig of rams) and it will end up with Linux on it. I have tried Unbutu on the live CD and liked what I saw. My question is can I install it from the live CD directly to my computer even if it has no OS on it like when I tried it on my windows machine ? It would a fresh install.

 

[Nothinman]

My question is can I install it from the live CD directly to my computer even if it has no OS on it like when I tried it on my windows machine ? It would a fresh install.

Did you even try clicking the install icon on the desktop of the LiveCD?

 

[Wurmer]

No I did not because I tried it on my Windows machine and I didn't want to install it on that machine. My other computer is not fully functional yet that's why I am asking.

 

[DarkThinker]

Originally posted by: TC91
My friend showed me his linux the other day....

my friend today showed me his ubuntu linux more in depth today...

today i played around with my friend's ubuntu...

If you want to try something different, I say you should come over and play with my Fedora... I just love it when others play with my Fedora!

 

[cipher00]

I've had good luck with Ubuntu 7.04 (Fiesty) with a clean upgrade to 7.10. Only problem was my wireless NIC. It was a Broadcom chip that I just couldn't get to work. After replacing that with a Cisco set it worked very well. Note: this installed and runs great on a 600 MHz laptop. Yes, I bought the damn thing circa 1999 and it's still working (I just use it to surf). Couldn't get it to recognize my network printer, but that may just be me. FWIW.

 

[KlokWyze]

I've used Ubuntu Dapper Drake(6.06) off & on & have recently grown to love it. No it won't replace my windows box yet, but everything is VERY intuitive & the online documentation & community are good, not outstanding, but good. It took me 2 or 3 days of heavy tinkering with it to get my M-Audio 24/96 card to do what I wanted & figure some other stuff out.... once I did, I was very happy with it. I'm now currently trying to become familiar with the terminal/console commands so I can customize & understand linux more thoroughly. Linux is incredibly powerful & customizable... & it's free!!!! WTF!

One recommendation though.... I would say get a full list of all the hardware in the rig you want to install linux on & check it against distro compatibility lists. Ubuntu (probably most other distros too) can be a MAJOR pain in the ass or IMPOSSIBLE to get some hardware to work @ all or do what you want without extensive knowledge of the systems.

 

[BriGy86]

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

here they list some info about the most downloaded distros.

 

[Iron Woode]

I have to give 2 :thumbsup: to PCLinuxOS.

I have tried many distros over the years and PCLOS was by far the easiest install yet. Updating is simple and installing stuff is very easy too. Its as easy as using windows.

I installed it on my old Abit BP6 system running dual 366 celerons and 640 megs of ram to experiment with and use as a webserver. I had samba working in less than 2 minutes and sharing files on my lan. Apache was a 1 minute set up as well.

I will be trying this OS on some newer hardware soon.

 

[BriGy86]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode
I have to give 2 :thumbsup: to PCLinuxOS.

I have tried many distros over the years and PCLOS was by far the easiest install yet. Updating is simple and installing stuff is very easy too. Its as easy as using windows.

I installed it on my old Abit BP6 system running dual 366 celerons and 640 megs of ram to experiment with and use as a webserver. I had samba working in less than 2 minutes and sharing files on my lan. Apache was a 1 minute set up as well.

I will be trying this OS on some newer hardware soon.

I'm planning on getting rid of windows all together and going with that one. We'll see how it goes

 

[zach0624]

Originally posted by: BriGy86

Originally posted by: Iron Woode
I have to give 2 :thumbsup: to PCLinuxOS.

I have tried many distros over the years and PCLOS was by far the easiest install yet. Updating is simple and installing stuff is very easy too. Its as easy as using windows.

I installed it on my old Abit BP6 system running dual 366 celerons and 640 megs of ram to experiment with and use as a webserver. I had samba working in less than 2 minutes and sharing files on my lan. Apache was a 1 minute set up as well.

I will be trying this OS on some newer hardware soon.

I'm planning on getting rid of windows all together and going with that one. We'll see how it goes

execellent OS I may get rid of windows on my laptop entirely and run PCLOS, it is way easier to use than windows and I would use it on my main rig except that I like to play new games which probably wouldn't emulate great.

 

[djnsmith7]

I've played around with Red Hat 7 & 9 & had great experiences (they're older versions of Fedora, basically)...

I'm kind of old school when it comes to Linux because I haven't done much with it lately...But I know what worked well before...

I tried Ubuntu & unlike many others, my experience wasn't all that great...It was fine to install, but the system wouldn't let me back in after going into Windows then back into Ubuntu...Not sure what corrupted the files, but it was enough for me to stick with what works for me...

From what I've read, Ubuntu is supposed to be very user friendly & work really well for beginners, so I won't try & steer you away from trying it...From what I've read, I would say that my experience was an anomoly & you should definitely consider it as one of your top options...

If you have an older system laying around or older parts to build one, I'd start there...You don't have anything to lose & you can blank the drive if things get crazy & reinstall...Think of Linux as an open-ended project with a lot of fun in mind...It's a great learning experience & a great way to understand an awesome programming language...

Amazon.com is a great resource for Linux books for dirt cheap...I bought about $250 worth of Linux books for about $45, no joke...I bought the Used ones with the small mark on the side & saved a ton of cash...You can easily find $40 - $60 books there for $7 plus S&H...

To dig just a tad deeper, if you ever want to learn how to run your own web server, Apache is built into Linux in most cases, so you can do that without installing a bunch of additional software...There are also tons of Apache books for cheap at Amazon as well...

 

[Nothinman]

I'm kind of old school when it comes to Linux because I haven't done much with it lately...But I know what worked well before...

Which explains your problems, things change quite quickly in the Linux world. People who think they know better and don't take the time to learn how to handle things like udev and initramfs images usually get themselves into trouble pretty quickly.

 

[djnsmith7]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I'm kind of old school when it comes to Linux because I haven't done much with it lately...But I know what worked well before...

Which explains your problems, things change quite quickly in the Linux world. People who think they know better and don't take the time to learn how to handle things like udev and initramfs images usually get themselves into trouble pretty quickly.

No need to try & insult my intelligence...I shared my experience & still recommended the distro based on what I've read...

Ubuntu crashing had nothing to do with my level of knowledge of udev nor initramfs, for your information...

 

[Nothinman]

No need to try & insult my intelligence...I shared my experience & still recommended the distro based on what I've read...

I'm not trying to insult you, but saying "I'm kind of old school" implies things like Slackware, lilo, monolithic kernels, etc and since most modern distributions rely heavily on an initramfs and it's loading of udev early to boot properly that's usually the cause of problems when people try to apply their "old school" experience to a new distribution.

Ubuntu crashing had nothing to do with my level of knowledge of udev nor initramfs, for your information...

IME if there isn't a hardware problem then it does. No Linux distribution that I know of just gets corrupted without some form of user intervention or hardware problem.

 

[djnsmith7]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

No need to try & insult my intelligence...I shared my experience & still recommended the distro based on what I've read...

I'm not trying to insult you, but saying "I'm kind of old school" implies things like Slackware, lilo, monolithic kernels, etc and since most modern distributions rely heavily on an initramfs and it's loading of udev early to boot properly that's usually the cause of problems when people try to apply their "old school" experience to a new distribution.

Ubuntu crashing had nothing to do with my level of knowledge of udev nor initramfs, for your information...

IME if there isn't a hardware problem then it does. No Linux distribution that I know of just gets corrupted without some form of user intervention or hardware problem.

There may have been a hardware problem that caused the corruption...Which again, is why I still recommended the distro...I had 2 other projects come up that were higher priorities, so I didn't spend much time investigating...I just ditched the project...

What I do know is that I was able to successfully log in to Ubuntu, went into Windows a couple times, went back to Ubuntu (without changing anything in Ubuntu) & was no longer able to log in...I received a multitude of errors & after several attempts, just let it be...

 

[wiin]

Which distribution is perfect for a system with 1000mb hard drive? I've tried two versions on this but was unable to install. Live CD workd perfectly though. Any suggestion of a lean distro would be appreciated.

 

[Minjin]

Lean distros that I've liked are Damn Small Linux and Slax. At times when my main computer was down, I would put either one on a cd, then use it to boot up my PII 166mhz PC, running it completely from ~200mb ram. The computer doesn't even have a hard drive. Running it like that, it works extremely well. The biggest annoyance was that DSL's refresh rate was limited to 60hz so if you're using a CRT, you're gonna have an unbearable (at least for me) flicker.

IMHO, thats about the only good use for Linux for the average desktop user.

 

[Fox5]

Puppy Linux is also worth a shot for lean PCs. Will even run off a flash drive.