Ok for a Linux Newbie that just wants to play and learn while dual booting to XP, which distro is better?

[jediphx]

Yoper
Suse Linux 9.2
Simply Mepis
Xandros Desktop 3.0 Deluxe
CentOS

I have tried Yoper, Xandros and CentOS briefly. Xandros seemed to have the most included nice software and very user friendly but unlike Yoper which installed 3d enabled Geforce2 go drivers for me at install I still cannot figure out how to install same type of drivers on Xandros. Yoper allowed me to set monitor 1600x1200 lcd which is correct. Xandros would stick to super vga 1024x768 no matter what i did. Yoper also seems much faster than Xandros on my P3 lappy. Ok comment away

the really nice thing about Xandros 3 deluxe is that it comes with all this by default

* KDE 3.3
* RealPlayer 10
* Firefox and Thunderbird 1.0
* Macromedia Flash 7
* JVM 1.42_05
* Kernel 2.6.9
* Updated Samba
* Synchronized with Debian 3.1 (Sarge)
Personal Firewall
DVD data cd burning
PPTP VPN client
* CodeWeavers CrossOver Office 4.1
* Journaling file system (ReiserFS)
* Ext3 file support
* USB 2.0 support
* Firewire support
* Wireless 802.11b Networking Support
* X.org 6.7 + commercial drivers
* Java 2 Runtime Environment 1.42
* glibc 2.3.2
* gcc 3.3.4



but the fact that I cant seem to get 3d accelerated gf2 go drivers installed is a no no.

 

[Hyperblaze]

You forgot Mandrake!

 

[JFoobar]

Don't overlook Ubuntu. Debian-based, Gnome, very nice from what I have seen so far.

 

[dragonlord2112]

I tried out alot of them (even Linspire/Lindows) and I like SUSE (on DVD) the best of all of them, with Mandrake right behind that. I dunno, SUSE/Mandrake/Fedora3 seem alot more polished than the others I tried. Of course, it's up to you to find which one you like best. Also, don't forget Knoppix, since you don't need to install it to a HD.

 

[jjungman]

I've tired Mandrake and Fedora 3. I really like Fedora so far.

 

[GhettoFob]

I'm dualbooting Ubuntu on my laptop. I like it so far.

 

[Churnd]

I'm dual booting Suse 9.1 on my older machine. I like it a lot. I tried out Mandrake first and had no problems with that either. Tried Ubuntu, but had graphics issues (lines going down the screen) that I didn't want to try to solve, so switched back to Suse. I want to try out Fedora Core but I get the feeling I'm not giving any one distro enough time to actually learn enough about Linux to where I know what I'm doing.

 

[OffTopic1]

Suse 9.2 is the most polished KDE out of the box for me, however the limited RPM packages turn me back to Debian base distros.

Mandrake & Fedora are both nice distros, however they are limited by a weak collection of packages.

I have tried both ProMepis & SimplyMepis and the are both great distro with very nice KDE lay out of the box (not as polish as Suse), and the 8700+ DEB packages at a few key strokes a way "is the only way to fly". I lost my sound setting after intalling Gnome, Enlightenment, XFCE, and Kaffeine with SimplyMepis, but sound were quickly restored after running alsaconf.

IMHO, XFCE is the best windows manager there is, because it have a very functional layout that take less resources than Gnome & KDE. And, Gnome come close behind XFCE because cause of it clean line and functionallity (to day is the first time I played with Gnome after defected to KDE for 5 years). KDE is a nice manager, however it take more resources than previous manager to for the eyecandies. Enlightenment still need some work to make it a workable tool and is behind Fluxbox for for quality.


Suse came prety much pack with all those packages that you mentioned pre install and firing up Yast control manager to access the rest of the 1000 RPMs that are pre pack on the DVD or add your own source url.

SimplyMepis & ProMepis default install with both CrossOverOffice & Win4Lin, and give you the option of pulling down more packages throug Apt-get/Synaptic, and you also have the ability to install pretty much any package managers that are inexistent if needed be.

Yoper, I played around with it for a while and found that it is not that refine of a distor when compare to other major distros.

PS. I didn't have any problem installing Geforce driver on Suse or Mepis (didn't try it with Yoper).

 

[jediphx]

offtopic what do u mean limited rpms? Im totally new to linux so i need a explanation . so if I went with suse pro 9.2 what would I be losing out on not going with debian based?

 

[OffTopic1]

Originally posted by: jediphx
offtopic what do u mean limited rpms? Im totally new to linux so i need a explanation . so if I went with suse pro 9.2 what would I be losing out on not going with debian based?

Suse/Mandrake are Redhat base distros because they use RedHat Package Manager. I'm not too sure as to how many RPMs each distro has. I had to roll a few of my own packages under Mandrak/Redhat & a few days ago Suse 9.2. Roll your own packages isn't that bad, however have to roll a few dependencies on top of it is a pain in the but.

Most distros have their own version of package manager that do just as good of a job as Apt-get, however there aren't as many RPMs available compare to DEBs (IMHO, Debian DEB is the most comprehensive).

Don't base your decision purely on other opions, because each person have their own like & dislike. It is nice that you have tried out a few distros, and keep on sticking with the multi boot theme because you will learn and eventually have a preference for a perticular distro.

Good luck.

 

[JFoobar]

This comment may very well not apply towards the OP, but I thought I would share the opinion anyway. If you are serious about giving a Linux desktop distro a try, I would recommend against dual-booting.

It takes awhile to get completely up and running with Linux so give yourself the chance and run it on a dedicated system. Lots and lots of very cheap PCs out there and Linux will run quite well on just about all of them. Use a KVM if you need to save on the desktop space.

If you have to restart your machine and reload MS every time you need to do something that can't be done in Linux (a game, some other software you use that hasn't been ported yet or you haven't learned the Linux equivalent of yet), your chances of giving up on Linux increase dramatically.

 

[Davegod75]

i would try ubuntu

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Davegod75
i would try ubuntu

 

[D1gger]

I'm a fan of Fedora, although Mandrake is also a good distribution for newbies.

 

[Shamrock]

you can also try KNOPPIX, it's a Live CD. You dont even need to install it onto a hard drive, just pop it in your CD-ROM drive and reboot. It runs completely off the CD-ROM, no installation of files at all!

 

[JFoobar]

Originally posted by: Shamrock
you can also try KNOPPIX, it's a Live CD. You dont even need to install it onto a hard drive, just pop it in your CD-ROM drive and reboot. It runs completely off the CD-ROM, no installation of files at all!

Ubuntu also has a Live-CD .iso for eval.

 

[Shamrock]

i realize that, just throwing in another option is all