Which Distro?

[Ludootje]

I'm a distropimp, tried slack as well. pkgtool and the other pkg installer didn't work. Furthermore, they don't have dependancy checking, and since I think the installators and packages used by a distro is what makes the distro, I didn't like it. I don't think slackware is anything for me, but I will give it another try one day. I've once asked for the good stuff about slackware, and got nothing else then crap from some 3l33t slackers.

[rioguia]

slack is a great distro (and has a cool net install) but its reputation suggests that its harder to install than some others (i.e, you are going to experience a steep learning curve). good luck.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Ludootje

actually, mdwatts isn't a guru at all. he's an AI perl bot, designed by Caldera Inc. to spam on linux forums. soon you'll see him trolling about UnitedLinux, right mdwatts? :p

Whatever you say Ludootje we all know you're always right.

Did I mention I just installed UnitedLinux beta at work today?

:cool: UnitedLinux Caldera version :cool:

:D

[Dexatrim]

All I know is, if I had a web site, and I wanted a lot of traffic, I'd post a question like What's the best Linux.

[psyte]

sounds like fun. I'll give it a try.

[psyte]

ok, you were definetly right about the learning curve. know of any sites I could check out to get more info on installation? too many questions to ask here.

[Saptech]

Just boot with Slack CD disk and choose the Expert or Custom installation and don't install everything.

I found a site that mentions installing a minimum installation but can't remember the link, I'm at work now but I have it at home. I will post it when I get home in the morning if you haven't figured things out by then.

[Ludootje]

is UnitedLinux beta good?
and what's that 'UnitedLinux Caldera version'? are there UnitedLinux SuSE versions etc. too?

[mdwatts]

Actually I haven't booted it yet though I will in a few minutes.

X4.2, 2.4.19 kernel, Gnome 2, KDE 3.0.3 and Yast2.

SuSE, TurboLinux and Connectiva should have their own beta versions.

[disco_andrew]

I have run Slackware before but the new version doesn't seem to want to work for me, and instead of troubleshooting I am d/l'ing Mandrake 8.2. As far as distros for beginners I found Slack 8.0 to be the easiest for me, but I liked working in the console - don't worry though thats just for extracting packages using tarballs. I think that we are all working towards is getting competent enough to use something like FreeBSD so just get used to using the Konsole when you get installed. Do not rely on the X based package installers as they are not what you want to use as well as they do not work that great.

[qbp]

Hello. I need some ideas for a distro. I'd like to set it up on a Pentium I (586) box. I don't want to create separate partitions and stuff because I don't really want to risk the data that much. I have two HDDs, one has Windows XP and a few programs, the other one is only programs. The latter is the one that I'd like to put Linux on. I do have a few requirements, tho (of course ;)):
Xwin
Small
Easy to set up

That's basically what I need. No other packages that need to be downloaded up front, please. I only have a 56k connection, so it needs to be small. Xwin because I want xwin so there :) Also I'll need something (preferably a browser or graphical FTP client) to download other packages as I need them. Can anyone help?
Thanks. :)

[rdeschene2]

I haven't a clue what xwin is, so I can't help you there. Do you mean XFree86, the X-windowing system? Well that is now pretty standard among all commercial distros: RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, Connectiva, Caldera...

You can usually specify which hard-drive to install to during installation: hda is the master on the IDE primary channel, hdb is the slave on the IDE primary channel, hdc is the master on the IDE secondary channel...and so on. So that shouldn't be a problem.

Small? Give a technical definition please: #MB/GB. There are Linux distros that fit on a floppy. Command line of course! :)

I've found SuSE Professional to be very well thought-out, some of he kinks (e.g. browser plug-ins) ironed out, and easy to set up. I would expect version 8.1 to come out in October, maybe November. Just do the barebones installation to start with, and then add packages off the CD post-installation as you desire. That's the biggest benefit of SuSE in my experience -- there's an absolute ton of stuff on the 7CD's/1DVD.

Have fun!
Rick D.

[qbp]

Well...small = I can dl on a 56k :) Under 50 MB if possible...my ISP in particular is prone to redails.
Yes, by xwin I mean XFree86, also known (to me mainly I guess) as XWindows. I may just go to cheapbytes (or whatever it's called) and buy Mandrake if there isn't anything better...

[semperbufo]

Qdp.. I was in a similar situation to you. Older PC PII 400 320MB RAM 2x20GB HDD. I have Win98 on 1 HDD and ended up installing a old version (6.0) of Mandrake on HDD #2 that came with a copy of Linux Journal from way back. I should mention I did this just to see what would happen and because I wanted to experiment with Linux. Xwindows would not run properly, I suspect because I was using such an old version ( would not recognise my AGP). I could not configure my video card correctly ( Rage Fury Maxx ). Y(Yah, I know, everything I own is old but I'm just waiting another few months to upgrade.) I probably would have been better waiting but WTH, I wanted to do something now.
Anyway, my thinking was, I want to run Debian. I want the purity of a totally open source system but I know I do not have the skill base to handle it right now. so.. I waet with Mandrake 8.2 because I had Mandrake and also because what I read said it was ok on the desktop. Ordered off CheapBytes ( I feel ok plugging them since you mentioned them) and am now waiting for my CD's. I looked at all the distro's long and hard and decided on Mandrake because I'm learning ( I have some UNIX way back but am solid Great $atan right now) and I want something easy to learn. It's been ok so far but I miss the GUI.
Anyway, I'd say, at this level, if you were like me it doesn't really matter what you pick, just get in and start working on it. Eventually, you'll find out what you need. Buy the CD's from a cheap reseller. Not a full install but as long as you get started you'll figure out what you'll need. Remember, there's no test... just have fun. Ps.. once I decide on my distro.. I'll throw my money their way.. got to support the cause.

[medrewsclues]

try corel linux ;)

[Timothy L. Miller]

Well, it's not really small, but it can be installed that way. LIBRANET! Version 2.0 essentials is quite good, and incredibly easy to set up. It includes X even on a minimal install. And since it's based on Debian, you can always apt-get anything else that you want.

[AK_Dude]

WICH version of linux is best 4 me

2.4.19. The 2.2.x kernel is older, and 2.4.19 is plenty stable. I wouldn't go later because they are still development kernels.;)

I'm just giving you a hard time--what you actually want to ask is which DISTRO is best for you. Personally, I like Slackware, but I've also heard good things about Mandrake, which is probably easier to install.

Of course, you can always download and install all of the distributions you want to try and keep whichever one you like. Isn't open source great?:D

I don't think slackware is anything for me, but I will give it another try one day. I've once asked for the good stuff about slackware, and got nothing else then crap from some 3l33t slackers.

Ludootje--I like Slack because it is a clean distribution. I tried a Caldera installation, and couldn't fit everything I wanted on my (admittedly small) HD. With Slack, I installed the same services and had room to spare. Slack was also much easier (for me) to install than FreeBSD (although technically, FreeBSD isn't actually a Linux distro).

You are right about pkgtool, though...I've had problems with it, too.

[rdeschene2]

50MB max. AND XFree86? I think you'll find that's not possible.

Semperbuffo's suggestion of "burned copies" makes the most sense. There's also Linux Central that sells these for a nominal fee.

[Ludootje]

With most distros you can choose which package you'd like to install and which not...

[jglen490]

I've installed Mandrake, with X window, and other useful components on a 1.1GB partition and had room to store some data. If that fits your definition of small, then actually any distro will fulfill your requirements.

[WeeBo]

Why is it good, sorry I just gotta :)

"I choose to use slackware because it doesn't use a lot of voodoo hacks and stuff like most other distros, is not bloated like most other distros, and is more secure than most other distros. (It's like BSD, but easier!) I like the tgz package system. They get the job done, without all the cruft of RPMS. Also, it's nice to be able to tell if something is installed with a simple 'ls /var/log/packages | grep foo'. I like the bsd style init system. It is simple to use, and works well, the idea that all the adminning can be done from the command line, it runs great on older systems. I also like the ability to compile my own kernel without worrying about (redhat&co's) stupid init crap barfing. I like the ease of Slackware to understand what's actually going on inside the system."

[Ludootje]

Originally posted by WeeBo
Why is it good, sorry I just gotta :)

"I choose to use slackware because it doesn't use a lot of voodoo hacks and stuff like most other distros, is not bloated like most other distros, and is more secure than most other distros. (It's like BSD, but easier!)
Until here, I understand & agree totally.

I like the tgz package system. They get the job done, without all the cruft of RPMS.
Also, it's nice to be able to tell if something is installed with a simple 'ls /var/log/packages | grep foo'.
AFAIK, rpm doesn't have a cmd to check that. apt can check it too, however.
I prefer the apt package system to tgz, I think everyone does :)

I like the bsd style init system.
I don't know anything of init styles, so I can't judge here. A lot ppl say this, so I presume it's true.

It is simple to use, and works well, the idea that all the adminning can be done from the command line
Here I have to disagree... it isn't simple to use compared to SuSE and other distros which come with config utilities. Those are simple to use.
As for doing everything trough the CLI: this has nothing to do with slack, this has to do with linux. This isn't a unique feature of slack ;)

it runs great on older systems.
Didn't knew that, I might use it on an old box then.

I also like the ability to compile my own kernel without worrying about (redhat&co's) stupid init crap barfing.
stupid init crap barfing? AFAIK, compiling kernels is just as easy on slack as on other distros, no? :confused:

[QUOTE]I like the ease of Slackware to understand what's actually going on inside the system."[QUOTE]
Well, this is possible with every distro, although that slack forces you to do so a bit more then for example SuSE & mandrake. I think that, to really understand what's going on inside the system, you need LFS.

Thanks a lot for explaining!

[WeeBo]

Well, I played with some other distros, RH, MAndrake, even Corel (eww). And I had some problems with the RH crapping out on me, I dont know if thats a personal thing or not, but I'm just giving my reason :) not everyone elses.
So that was my 2 cents :)

[Ludootje]

Your 2 cents are very appreciated :)

[sarah31]

Arch Linux

[iceydee]

I need help finding the most suitable distro to use for my webserver... we're gonna swap from Win2kServer to Linux in a couple of months, and meanwhile I'm trying out different distros on my comp. at home to see which on would be most suitable for the cause...

it needs to be small, only the most needed stuff should be there... like apache, mysql, php - perl and other scripting languages, gcc.... etc..... I'm not gonna install an Xserver, don't need it, so it would be nice with a distro that's easy to configure from shell...

I've made a 512mb Primary partition for testing out the distros... I don't want it to exceed this... the server will have much more space, but that will be reserved for webpages/images and stuff... I also have a 512mb swap partition...

I've tried Slackware and Suse so far... Suse was easy to configure... I could install the programs I needed... Slackware is nice, I like it alot, but I find some things quite difficult... I couldn't figure out how the /etc/rc.d/ thing works in slackware... In SuSE it was simple... I don't like the package system in Slackware either... I want to be able to download/install packages directly from an FTP-server... well, this is not important as I won't be installing packages very often... once the server is up and running I don't want to have to do alot of administering of it...

btw. is there some ASP port for Linux? we have made most of our programming in ASP so far, and it would be nice to have them still on the Linux box. we will eventually make PHP scripts to replace the ASP ones, but meanwhile it would be nice to be able to use the ASP scripts so that we don't have to reprogram everything before we go for Linux...

I'm gonna go and tryout Redhat and Debian now...



btw. I don't care if this and that videocard/printer/scanner etc. won't work on the distro, all that needs to be working is the Ethernet card, a ps2 keyboard/mouse (just for the setup, then we will be running telnet), cdrom (also just for the setup), ide harddrive...

[Bluester]

You may download nvidia driver here:
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_display_1.0-2960

Before you install them read the documentation:

http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-2960/README.txt

It will save you a lot of time.

I just installed Red Hat Linux 7.3 a few days ago.

I am running it on:
PIII 733
MSI Gforce2 GTS
40GB HDD
256MB PC133
VIA 693AS Motherboard (old)
USB Ethernet connected to cable modem

It works great.
I also installed UT with the Linux Patch from www.lokigames.com. Install the nvidia drivers first.
It will be very slow and unplayable if you do not.

You can also download an Office Suite from:
www.OpenOffice.org The latest version is 1.01
However Linux does comes with a few applications for word processing.

I have not used Caldera, but I heard it is also good. Especially for those who like to play around with the OS and like gaming.
Red Hat (from what I have seen) is more user friendly. I am swithcing from MS OS's.
Too expensive!!!!!

Good Luck :cool:

[AK_Dude]

With most distros you can choose which package you'd like to install and which not...

Right. I selected the same (or equivalent packages) when I installed Slackware (7.1) and Caldera. Caldera still took more disk space than Slack when I installed similar packages. My point was that Caldera seemed more bloated than Slackware.

It also used the commands a little differently than Slackware, and since I was already used to Slack, I decided to remove Caldera and load the newer version (8.0) of Slack, which I liked even better.

[mdwatts]

I always suggest http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ as the place to start when looking for specific requirements for a distro.

Some distributions have server versions of their products instead of the standard workstation.

Redhat has server versions along with SCO Group (formally known as Caldera).

I'm using Caldera's OpenLinux Server 3.1.1 on two of my work pc's for setting up documentation, software inventory and cdrwriter servers. They all require Apache, PHP and MySQL.

[qbp]

Sorry, I'm not making myself clear really. Any size is OK once installed...it's the dl size that I'm wanting to have around 50 mb :)
Will Libranet install on a partially used FAT32 partition? Alternatively, is there any way to shrink my existing FAT32 without erasing data and then add the needed Linux partitions? Thanks for your help :)

[Dun'kalis]

Debian is one of the best distributions for servers. They are security freaks.

In reality, all distros would work fine, as long as you secure it.

And, mdwatts, how is UnitedLinux?

[Elijah]

This post could keep going ... and going ... and going ...and .... :D

[rdeschene2]

Well, if you go to www.xfree86.org and go to the download section, you'll see that the XFree86 binaries alone are 60MB. So that plus applications (word processor, spreadsheet, browser, e-mail and newsgroup clients...), plus the actual Linux O.S. itself is going to be a few 100MB anyways.

If you want really compact, forget the GUIs and learn the command line. It's very powerful and quite capable, but it is indeed strictly text.

As far as resizing your Windows partition for a Linux installation, this is certainly possible, and how many people start out. You will certainly want to defrag your existing Windows partition and write down all the information you can about its details. BACKING UP your precious files is also a good idea at this point.

The program GNU parted (search www.sourceforge.net) I have found to be very helpful for this. The online manual also gets into very helpful information on how to use the program to obtain information about your existing hard drive, repartitioning the hard drive to prepare for a linux installation, etc..

Also, try a Linuxnewbie forum search on "dual boot", etc.. You'll find a ton of info.. Good luck.

[AK_Dude]

is there any way to shrink my existing FAT32 without erasing data and then add the needed Linux partitions?

I haven't used it, but I hear that Partition Magic (commercial only, I believe) is the best way to change/resize/add partitions without backing up, repartitioning and reformatting your hard drive.

I'm not sure if it's still available, but Slackware used to have two versions of their distribution ("ZipSlack" and "BigSlack") that would run on top of Windows. That way you could use Linux while keeping your Windows partition intact. Take a look at www.slackware.org for ZipSlack and BigSlack. The disadvantage is that performance is a little slower using these two as Slackware was designed to run on a native partition, not over a Windows partition.

[raggensdraddle]

I'm with Mandrake 8.2. Easy to install. Powerful. The sound program alone is worth it all. I guess if one OS is gonna use that much storage space for download it better have the whole lot in it.
But, I'm still trying to find out from ALSA if that new Creative Sound Blasater Audigy Platinum EX coupled with the Propperhead Reason studio music system (Watta Beast!)
Sound Blaster says its a Go!
Awaiting Reason.
And Nero still doesn't love us.
I've downloaded a mirror of the Mandrake 9.02 beta. This will not turn out like Red Hat 7.3 did.
Right now, I say: Mandrake has the magic.
Check out www.mandrakesoft.com

[iceydee]

ty. I'll check that website. I will probably try out all of the distros you suggested... btw. while we're talking about security, is there any good program you would recommend that can test the security of a website?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Dun'kalis

And, mdwatts, how is UnitedLinux?

I had a few problems with UL not installing all the necessary packages for KDE3.0.3, but that was due to the DVD drive I used at work.

Maybe it doesn't like cdrw's.

I did install the missing packages and also installed the latest nvidia drivers.

I've only used it for a day so far, but I really like what I see. It uses Yast2 for the installer.

I'll be installing UL on my home pc this weekend using my Raid drives.

UnitedLinux will go into open beta sometime this month. Right now it's closed.

If this is some indication on what the final product will be like, I'll be quite happy. Even for the first beta, it's seems to be very stable.

[sharth]

not perticularly sure, but I belive that debian has a image that is based off a few floppy images (either 4 or one, not sure). and then you can download all the programs you need from ftp.debian.org or mirrors.

[Dun'kalis]

Whats UnitedLinux based on? I'm curious about this beast created by Caldera...Doesn't mean I'll use it, but I'm curious anyway.

I'll have to try the open beta when its released. Lets see if it can hold a candle to Debian.

[devurandomguy]

Linux ix linux.

[GonzoJohn]

Debian if you want a Linux server is a no brainer.

I've heard very good things about FreeBSD too. FYI, LinuxOrbit.com runs on Debian and it handles everything very well.

[sol-dude]

Go buy SuSE 8.0 for $39.00. Great distribution. Much better than Red Hat
in my opinion.

I think caldera used to be one of the best but not any more. Maybe that's wny
they call themselves the SCO Group.

Mandrake is ok if you are a beginner too.
Some like Debian and or Slackware. They are not for beginners. Chances are, you will have to configure your sound card and perhaps network card manually. Not what you want right off the bat.

By the way, If you install caldera and the second drive that contains gnome and others, play around with the control center for gnome; you'll see the name of Mandrake all over the place. Pretty sloppy.

[AK_Dude]

Some like Debian and or Slackware. They are not for beginners.

In general, perhaps. But...Slackware 7.1 was pretty much my first exposure to Linux/Unix, and I'm a total Slacker now (8.0 times three machines--I told you I like it!:D)

If you don't need everything working right away, if you're not afraid to read everything you can get your hands on, and if you typically like to get into the guts of things, you'll do fine with Slackware (and I would assume likewise with Debian, but I haven't tried it...yet).

Slackware doesn't come with a fancy graphical installation program, which is why it's got a reputation for being difficult. You also have to edit some configuration files manually to get everything working right. However, there is an EXCELLENT manual on Slackware installation on-line at www.slackware.org . I'd highly recommend reading it before installing Slack, then having it with you while you install, if you're a beginner.

[GaMMa]

Yea SuSe is a great newbie distrobution, it's fast and stable and YaST2 makes updating security and other things easy. Definely give it a try.

I'm on Gentoo now, and really happy with that. It's a really fast system because you build it yourself from the ground up... and it's "fully optimized" for your CPU. Give this and SuSe a try.

Edit: Oh yea big plus of Gentoo is you can get anything application/program/game from their free service. All you have to do is type emerge <program name> and it installs the program as well as all the dependencies.

[Graham Jones]

Once again i need to pick your brains.


I posted a couple of months back with what's attached below.

I don't think i explained quite what i needed correctly, I'm trying to build a single box, with three network cards (to connect each client to), and a PCI internal modem.

I installed Clark Connect, it appeared to find modem, and my net card (only one card installed initially for testing purposes), but i couldn't find a point to enter my username / password info.

I am a newbie, not very experienced with linux. Also I'm not massively knowledgeable on networking. I do however really know my sh*t on the ADSL stuff as i'm a Product Specialist at a certain major british ISP. Probably doesn't mean much when I don't know my a*se from my elbow with linux commands, but hey, I digress


Any help would be gratefully appreciated

Graham









___________________________

Which Distro for DSL router?
Hi All


im getting an aDSL connection shortly and want to set up my old system as a router.

I have a linux compatible PCI DSL modem and 3 network cards (for each machine I wish to share with) just wondering which distribution will be the best for me.

It needs to be as newbie friendly as possible or at least have good help files as I only used a linux machine for the first time a couple of months ago.

cheers guys (&gals)

Graham Jones

[iceydee]

why FreeBSD? what is it that makes that one good?

I have debian up and running now... install was simple... first thing I noticed when I logged in was that pico was missing (have got used to that one), but that was quickly fixed by installing nano (and then I made a symbolic link so that I could just write pico anyways)... :D

the package system is quite confusing in my opinion. difficult to find what I want... but I guess I'll get used to it...

slackware was nice too...

is there any good place where I can read about the different distros, like how the "rc.d" - "init.d" stuff is managed, how packages are managed, and so on - for each distro?

[iceydee]

what is a good place to find out how to make the server as secure as possible?

[Infrastructure]

Check my reply in this thread:

http://linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?postid=306868#post306868

[jumpedintothefire]

Sounds like you took "standard" instead of "pppoe"
when asked about the dsl type with clark connect.
I'm not a fan of "router in a can, just open and pour.." I prefer to roll my own, at least I know where the config files are...

Not to sure on how to configure the internal dsl modem, should be seen as an ethernet card I think...

What ever distro you go with, it most likely will use
http://www.roaringpenguin.com/pppoe

[badler1]

just start downloading Redhat, Openlinux, and Mandrake...

whichever one completes first... wins... for now.....


just a FYI.... there seems to be more RH info out there....... plus there site has a lot of info .. on.. it...

whichever you choose.... it's very cool and lots of fun.....

:D

[Icarus]

**raise undead**

:D

[bwkaz]

Thread necro! :D

Oh wait, I'm sort of making it worse... ;)

[Dun'kalis]

I thought 126 people used SCO...I was wrong.

And mdwatts deleted my vote for Debian! No fair! I demand a recount!

:D

[Icarus]

Well, so much for a viable poll...it WAS educational and nice to know, thanks Watts:mad:

[Farruinn]

This is my very first post to this forum, and I would like to know what people are using on their computers. I'm the oldest kid in the family (high school) and I've started learning C++, but I'm finding that the MacOS isn't the kindest environment for someone who is just getting on their feet. I'm thinking that Linux would be a much more suitable OS for me to learn on, and even if everyone in the world tells me that's not so, I'm still going to install it on my computer just to see what it's like :D.

Anyway, what I would like to know, from anyone that wishes to share, is what distro you use, how long you've used it, why you like it, and wether you run it on an Old World Mac or a New World Mac. (I have an Old World Mac, which is why I'm asking). I'm not really looking for "yeah, go out and get whatever, you'll like it." I'd like to know why it is that you use the distro on your computer.

I'm looking forward to reading what people have to say :)
-Farruinn

[godot]

At least debian still has more than redhat :)

[doogle]

I've just tried to install Mandrake 8.2 on my 8500, and I'm almost there... just waiting for someone to help in my thread in this forum :mad:
the reason im using mandrake is thats whats on my PC.

[Icarus]

Red Hat was up by one before someone fsched with it!

[Syngin]

Originally posted by acid2000
Is it me or has a moderator changed some of the values in the poll to reflect his choice of distro?

(cough)MDWatts(cough)

127 Votes for SCO?
Did all the users in the world vote?

Haha, I thought the exact same thing when I saw those totals :P

[chris_i386]

Hm, nevermind.
I wrote a little 'correction utility!

/*
# correct_mdw.c
#
# version 1.1 stable
#
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>

#define NAMESIZE 128

int name_value(char*);

int main(void){ /* ----------------- MAIN ------------------------- */
char name[NAMESIZE];
int number;
printf("\nPlease enter the name of the moderator who changed the poll: ");
scanf("%s", name);
getchar();
printf("\nPlease enter number of votes for the SCO Group: ");
scanf("%d", &number);
printf("\n\n\tThe corrected number is: %d\n", number / name_value(name));
getchar(); getchar();
return 0;
} /* --------------------------------- MAIN ------------------------- */

int name_value(char * name){
int result=0, index;
for(index=0;name[index];index++)
result += (tolower(name[index])- 'a' + 1); /* a==1, b==2, c==3 ... */
return result;
}

Go and try it out!

[NHaughton]

Assuming you want a desktop system, I'd recommend Mandrake 8.2 (NOT 8.1!). I have tried Redhat 7.2, Suse 7.3 and one or two others but found that Md8.2 is the easiest to install and friendliest to use. Not that it is without its rough edges, mind!

HTH and good luck. You've got a steep learing curve ahead :D

[NHaughton]

Assuming you want a desktop system, I'd recommend Mandrake 8.2 (NOT 8.1!). I have tried Redhat 7.2, Suse 7.3 and one or two others but found that Md8.2 is the easiest to install and friendliest to use. Not that it is without its rough edges, mind!

HTH and good luck. You've got a steep learing curve ahead :D

[Matt9876]

My vote is for Mandrake 9.0 it's still in beta but runs smooth on my 1.4 Ghz system with all the KDE3.0 features turned on it's a real pleasure to use.

If you don't like beta then try Mandrake 8.2

[NHaughton]

Originally posted by UlTiMaTeHH
ok now im confused again where or how do i find out wich is best for me???

You try them out. Buy or download the 'download' versions, install them one at a time and fiddle about until you feel comfortable with one of them. Then stick to it! You will get several window managers with each distro, each with several 'themes' to choose, so you should be able to get a look and feel to suit your tastes with any distro. It then comes down to the tools and general ease of use, and getting it all to work with your combination of plugged-in hardware. On the other hand, if you want to do everything on the command line it probably doesn't matter which up to date version you use.

HTH

[sarah31]

Arch Linux

[disco_andrew]

Hey I am having trouble installing on my new hardware configuration. Can you guys suggest one that will work right off the bat????

I tried Slackware 8.1, and When I d/l Mandrake 8.2 if screwed up and doesn't boot from cd rom or give me the img files to rawwrite.


I have Tyan Trinity 400 MB
w/ Celeron 950 CPU
256MB PC-133
3Com 10/100 905B
Abit GeForce 2 MX 32 MB
SB live 5.1
and I think what is causing the problems is my new Optical Mouse - it has scroll as well as Internet explorer back and forward buttons.

Any suggestions???? :)

[fancypiper]

Why not get all the popular ones and try them?

Discount Linux CDs (http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/)
Linux Central (http://linuxcentral.com/)
Cheapbytes (http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart)

[MaherG]

Since this is my first post,I would like to introduce myself first.

I,Maher Gamal,am a computer engineering student of Ainshams university in Egypt.

I have to say that im on the threshold of leaping to the other side,which is linux.Ive spent the past week researching...which I got alot of info about pre-installation of linux...and choosing the MOST SUITABLE ONE.

I have to say that since you and I are newbies...we'd better not go into the tough distros,likes SLack(I mean the text based installation) so I for myself will stick to Mandrake first,I remember reading Eric Raymond's(a great programmer,you should know him)
words...."Install Linux,Learn it,Use it,Tinker with it,Edit it,Wite it from scratch....etc." So the whole process doesnt take a one night trying to figure out all the icons....

For newbies(like me)we'd better stick with Mandrake as its the most easy to use,install...etc.Then when we gather some noticable knowledge...we try other distros...Check them out....then decide.

So it isnt only one distro you and I are gonna be downloading....alot but give it time,take it step by step...!!

[hsts]

I AM A BRAND NEW CONVERT. JUST INSTALLED MANDRAKES LATEST VERSION. IT WAS SO PAINLESS THAT I THOUGHT I DID SOMETHING WRONG.
IT WORKS GREAT AND ALL I DID WAS PUT IN THE NEXT CD WHEN IT ASKED ME TO.

I SAY GO, MANDRAKE.

I'M CONVINCED.

[medrewsclues]

corel, although i didnt have it for long it seemed to be vry user/newbie friendly. never thouhjt to check the library for a copy but i saw one at a used book store today 'built around the debian 2.2 kernal' i thought it was kinda od they would want $60 for something that really doesnt exist any more, but then i saw a copy of the game black and white for $24 with the original best buy price tag on it for $19.99 !!
i couldnt quite understand it and tried to ask but they said 'we dont hagle here, if you want it thats the price' the only thing i can conclude from this is stupid people shouldnt breed(maybe theres some evidence of evolution in this?)

[Dun'kalis]

I think there was/is a sig around here that said:

The total intelligence of earth is a constant. If the population keeps growing, then !

Maybe thats why its hard to find people who understand philosophy and theoretical physics (though nobody really understands theoretical physics, you know what I mean). I'm privy to stupidity every day.

[tankinan]

I think we should all agree never to ask this question again. Anywhere on this forum. For the sake of all things holy :mad:

[Dun'kalis]

How about stopping all mentions of SCO anything on this board?

[Metalhead01]

Granted, I haven't been posting that long, but I have been lurking for about a year. But still, people, this is more irritating than listening to a Japanese businessman try to sing "Hound Dog" at a kareoke(sp?) bar at an airport.

[tankinan]

Originally posted by Dun'kalis
How about stopping all mentions of SCO anything on this board?

Hmm... those results are more than a little fishy.
But why gag SCO?
Don't shoot the author, shoot the messenger ;)

Second thought: maybe if we whine and nag enough the old results will "magically" reappear?

[Icarus]

Originally posted by tankinan


Hmm... those results are more than a little fishy.
But why gag SCO?
Don't shoot the author, shoot the messenger ;)

Second thought: maybe if we whine and nag enough the old results will "magically" reappear?
They don't seem to of "magically" reappeared...but it looks like it was reset at least.

[hsts]

Don't get so annoyed. If you are, then you ought to find another forum where your blis might be.

My comment was for the linux hungry newbe. Yes Mandrakes server was the easiest installation i've ever done. and i love it.

I am forgetting about mcse cne and all those highly over priced programs. Linux is the way to go and Mandrakes has made my choice much easier.


hsts
Network Specialist, NY

[MaherG]

You also have to put in mind that the first distro you install is supposed to be your first Linux impression...which shouldnt be bad.

But what if you meet alot of conflicts,errors....hang ups...etc.

That would just discourage you to enjoy linux anymore,infact ppl may even discard the whole thing and go back to windows.

Ex:
You learn to walk...then you learn to jog then you learn to run faster....and so on.

So as I said,take it step by step,choose an easy to use distro first,you dont have to choose the most XXX and the best XXX.
Just go for Mandrake first then when you gather noticable experience try others...

[LinuxBox624]

DUDE... RED HAT IS WHERE IT IS!!!!

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by LinuxBox624
DUDE... RED HAT IS WHERE IT IS!!!! Ive tried MDK 8.0-9.0beta4 and I think RH7.3 rocks but thats my newbie opinion . Its all good though so anyone of the distros that "blows your dress in air " is ok in my book .

[MaherG]

Originally posted by CrashTestDummy9
Ive tried MDK 8.0-9.0beta4 and I think RH7.3 rocks but thats my newbie opinion . Its all good though so anyone of the distros that "blows your dress in air " is ok in my book .

Im sure that after I'll get to understand Mandrake good,I'll move on to RedHat then to Suse...etc. till I find my most favourite.

I guess thats the reason for many distros...taste...

[dunbar]

Originally posted by UlTiMaTeHH
ok i desided to throw away my windows cds and step completely over at linux unix based system im a 15 yr old boy and im wondering WICH version of linux is best 4 me and where i can download it because this is my first time and there are so many different linuxes i asked here please give me a tip

Wow.... talk about dropping the security blanket...

I'd suggest, and only until you get a better idea of what a Manly Linux distro really is, I suggest that you try Mandrake 8.1 (make note that I did not reccommend the current version, 8.2 or the next beta version 9.0: 8.2 hates new CDRWs as boot devices, and 9.0 might also have some problems). Then you can get things posted to the internet and get back to getting email, chat, ICQ, AIM, etc without needing Windows - but all this is in a familiar kind of GUI. Then, after using Mandrake a while, you'll possibly see some problems which only a different disto will fix - post here and then CheekyZombie and MDwatts can begin the distro wars all over again, as they tell you that the current 'best' distro is this or that. ( :-P ).

Have you tried Knoppix 3.1? I can surf from Linux which is booted from a CD when I use Knoppix 3.1 on CD. Cheeky likes it when we use Debian based distros, and Knoppix 3.1 is just that. ;-) However..... in behalf of my impartiality, I have to say that Caldera seems to have a good help section, where Mandrake gives nothing away for free (aside from forum help, of course). And Redhat 7.1 seems to always figure out what I'm doing.

They all have strong and weak points, so if you are strong with a command line, you might eventually go Slackware, Gentoo, Arch or Linux from Scratch..... If you are really clueless (EDIT: was sueless) from the command prompt and are like me, a GUI cripple, you may wish to stay with Mandrake or Redhat.

Have fun.

[LinuxBox624]

I hear ya. Talk about a culture shock. Good luck on that one kid. I agree with what was said. If you're weening yourself off the windoze environment than I'd go with either Red Hat 7.3 or Mandrake 8.1 as they are both user friendly and very similar to Windows. Stay away from the more difficult ones for now.

[Minibro]

I have just finished installing Red Hat 7.1 on an IBM eServer iSeries. Works great! So my recommendation is choose the correct platform first! ;)

Minibro

[hsts]

Hay that's great, but don't think it won't be a challeng. Bad habits are hard to break.
I can not tell you which version is best yet, but what I can tell you is that my installation of mandrakes 8.2 was a piece of cake. Yesterday I was installing mandrakes workstation on my laptop and found it just as easy to install as the server.
Just remember that coming to the Linux world means a little patience and some motivation to search for compatible software to go with it.
As for which version of mandrakes to use, well, take the advice of the other converts with some experience and you will save some time and trouble for your self.

I know you will not be disappointed if you keep these things in mind.

hsts
Network Specialist, NY

[GreenLantern]

This is many questions in one. What is best for new. What is best. Then there is what is best for advanced.

I have taken the machine below and installed, red hat 7,7.1,7.2,7.3 suse 7.2,7.3,and 8.0 Personal last MD 8.1 the winner is Suse 8.0 p...
It installed the fast and easy. Only thing not on the disk was the drivers and glx for the geforce 4 card. I would recommend suse to start. Red hat has a little more out there for support and 20 times the book in stores then suse. Suse has not locked up once on me yet.

Money
HDB1
Suse 8 personal $39.99
Star Office 5.2 $0.00
Total $39.99

c:winnt/
Windows 2k pro $289.99
Office 2k pro $649.99
Total $939.98

suse runs better. all my work at home works fine on suse. no need for norton system works or zone alarm on suse. More games on windows 2k.


"When can we have linux installed on our computer dad?" son. 8-25-02

Even my son age 8 loves linux and wants it on there w98se machine in his bedroom. 802.11b here we come with linux.....

[Dawa13]

i need a different distro or i am an idiot or something like that.(going to second choice)

i want something easy to install and very easy to use. if there is explain why it is good as you would to a 7 year old (i am 13 so it is the same brain development stage :) )

[somebitch]

redhat 7.3

[Dawa13]

the guy on the box scairs me, i can't have redhat :D

[fancypiper]

The most recommended to newbies are Mandrake and Redhat.

Discount Linux CDs (http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/)
Linux Central (http://linuxcentral.com/)
Cheapbytes (http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart)

[RonaldRaygun]

I can recommend Red Hat 7.3. If you look around a lot of people have good things to say about it as a beginner distro. Its a real easy install, and its great for getting started and learning to do some basic configurations and such. Give it a try.

[Dawa13]

i like to take things apart and put them back together :D

[Dawa13]

somebody should make a distro and call it "this distro is hard to use and very unstable" and make the best distro ever!

[fancypiper]

Originally posted by zagiboy
No way for a beginner! Not redhat!! (/boot errors would throw them off, and theres no firewall :)).That's incorrect information. Redhat does have a firewall.

[RonaldRaygun]

you want to configure stuff eh? how about this http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ :)

[fancypiper]

Originally posted by Dawa13
i like to take things apart and put them back together :D You may like Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/) then. Check it out.

[do_guh_new]

No way for a beginner! Not redhat!! (/boot errors would throw them off, and there's no firewall

Ya and no other distro has boot errors, c'mon!!! and who told you redhat doesnt have a firewall? have you ever read anything? you know it's kinda good to do that before you flame a distro with false claims and make yourself look silly!!!

[zagiboy]

Redhat doesn't have nice pretty firewall configuration interface out of the box(as far as I know)!

[kam]

I also recommend Red Hat. It was my first distro, and now I'm doing quite well.

[zagiboy]

Sorry, I just have had pretty bad luck with redhat in the past. Yes your right, every distro has a firewall built in(ipchains, ipfw, iptables), just SuSE has a graphical firewall configuration interface thing right there in the control pannel, for others you need to download one... If redhat has one, I certainly stand corrected!! I just have seen newbies who are always asking about this /boot issue thing, and for a complete newbie, it would confuse them.

[sharth]

who needs a pretty interface. Debian Sarge works fine with command line iptables.

I never understood why people needed all these little configuration editors.

[zagiboy]

I like easy and graphical, it's just quicker for me.

[Optiker]

The experts here may poo-poo this at best, but I'm nearly as newbie as you say you are, and something I found helpful was to get into Linux in a demo and get accustomed to the environment in the GUI, have access to some of the documentation and just play with it to get a little bit more comfortable. Even in the GUI mode, it's certainly not Windows!

I happened onto Knoppix - a one CD demo that boots from CD and runs from CD - at http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html and asked around on one of the Gibson Research Center forums (grc.techtalk) where everybody raved about it. Folks felt that of the various demos that are around, this one actually works as advertised. It uncompresses on the fly, so may run a bit slower than an installed distro, but for me, on my 1.2 GHz AMD, it's certainly not what I'd call sluggish.

Now, it's not what you want to use as a working distro, but for newbies wanting to get a feel for Linux, it's great.

Go out to the site, download the ISO, burn it to a CD. Make sure your BIOS is set to boot FIRST from CD, then put the Knoppix CD in and reboot. It boots to the CD and runs off the CD. It doesn't install anything on your hard drive, so is safe. Not only that, it works, first time, right out of the box!

Once you get it up, you can use it a lot like you'd use a normal distro since as a newbie, you probably won't be pushing its capability till you learn a little about Linux. It boots to KDE, so you start off with one of the standard GUIs. It is based on Debian, the 2.4.x kernel and KDE 3.0.3. It contains Open Office, Gimp and many, many other standard apps, so you can try things and get familiar with it.

It's not for experts, but is not a bad backup/emergency OS disk to keep in the desk. It is for newbies like us who want to try Linux, but have trouble wading through a typical distro installation. It's also safe, so we won't screw something up on our computers trying it out.

Go out to the Knoppix site, read about it, download and try it, and check into the forums on the Knoppix site to see what others are saying about it.

Optiker

[GreenLantern]

http://linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=59636&perpage=15&pagenumber=11

Here i post some information. Look for Green Lantern.

New to linux, get a book, get a distro.

Suse 8 = best for new. My opinion. Red hat has books directly to setting up red hat. This is good.

Cost.
Red Hat 7.3 = $49.99-69.99
Suse 8 personal = $39.99

Both are good. I have spent time downloading and purchasing several distros to test install and set up. Suse was the best for new users.

[Dun'kalis]

If you're after true ease of use, the best is SuSE. Its awesome....

until RPM hell descends upon the grasshopper...That will take a while, though. SuSE is a wonderful first distro.

[liquidfx13]

K.......i've used all the major "newbie" distros and have to say that i keep coming back to Mandrake.....i've been using it since 6.x and haven't really looked back.....i do recommend grabbing the Power Pack or the Pro Suite......as your first time installing linux.....in fact i would recommend that you buy linux in a box for any newbie about to install for the first time. they all will come with great documentation that you need to get it installed and running correctly (hopefully, and if not, that's what sites like linuxnewbie.org are for). Either way.......Mandrake is my choice for newbies..........the best suggestion would be to grab a couple different distro's and see what you like the best and stick with that.

[muchmark]

I download all five RH CDs however, only used the first two. I have no idea what is on the other three. Is there a distro that fits on one CD except LFS?

[Takaznik]

slackware is one cd... debian can be if you wanna do a network install

[2damncommon]

One of the Red Hat CD's is probably the documentation CD and is worth checking out.
Whenever you hear of a program you think is interesting, check your CD's first. They probably have a version that is easy to install. That is the advantage to having one of the larger distros. If you can, or think you can, add whatever else you need yourself you are free to do so with any distro.
Personally I would recommend a complete newbie purchase a "basic" box set of their choice. If they enjoy Linux they may wish to either download and try other distros or purchase a "full" set of a prefered distro. With a "full" set they would have fairly current programs they could use for a year or so. (Realizing there could be some significant updates to a program, or not.)

[devurandomguy]

/me looks at his openbsd install floppy

so what if you have to grab the pkg's over the 'net ?

[2damncommon]

so what if you have to grab the pkg's over the 'net ?
As long as you are able to do so, nothing.
If you are a newbie that would prefer not to deal with dependicies you may or may not be able to resolve, or even understand.....

[Metalhead01]

The ISO for Peanut Linux is only ~225 MB.

However, you don't get to choose what to install; if you don't wanto to use Midnight Commander or Krusader or KDE at all, you're stuck. Plus, the .rpms available from the Peanut site don't install sometimes (more RPM dependency hell than w/other .rpm distros).

Check out www.distrowatch.com for more info on various Linux distros.

[sarah31]

OSX --- oh wait linux distro--- whatever you find that works the best for you i guess. i am not you so i don't know what you know about your computer or *nix environments.

try them all i guess. mind you that would take some time.

[fancypiper]

Linux on a floppy - Tom's root and boot (http://www.toms.net/rb/)

Linux that runs from a CD: Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.org/)

Discount Linux CDs (http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/)
Linux Central (http://linuxcentral.com/)
Cheapbytes (http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart)

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by zagiboy
Sorry, I just have had pretty bad luck with redhat in the past. Yes your right, every distro has a firewall built in(ipchains, ipfw, iptables), just SuSE has a graphical firewall configuration interface thing right there in the control pannel, for others you need to download one... If redhat has one, I certainly stand corrected!! I just have seen newbies who are always asking about this /boot issue thing, and for a complete newbie, it would confuse them. During install you pick High , Medium , or none . it cant get much more simple than that . Even I cant get confused configuring a RedHat firewall . LOL . of course you can STILL enter your own configurations anytime you like .

[fancypiper]

Originally posted by CrashTestDummy9
During install you pick High , Medium , or none . it cant get much more simple than that . Even I cant get confused configuring a RedHat firewall . LOL . of course you can STILL enter your own configurations anytime you like . You forgot custom....

There is a gui interface for it too I saw once, but I like hand configuring the configuration files better (because that won't break things like a broken gui tool will).

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by fancypiper
You forgot custom....

There is a gui interface for it too I saw once, but I like hand configuring the configuration files better (because that won't break things like a broken gui tool will). Oh yeah . That too .

[zagiboy]

Wow! I never saw that! Thanks!

[RudeCat7]

I have to agree that Suse will minimize the frustration level for a newbie!

I absolutely mean it and I hope you will take my advice. I tried to get into linux a while ago, and both Mandrake and Redhat would not install properly onto a Compaq Presario 4880 (proprietary stuff, you know, plus the bios is lame!)

Suse however, made the partitioning easier, and it worked!

Fortunately, I sold that Compaq and now Suse is running on an Epox 8kha+ based system, and running great!
This distro has really good usb support, my camera worked right from the start.

Suse has to be the most "newbified" distro.:Dhttp://angelfire.com/anime4/jslang/smallrudecat.ppg

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by zagiboy
Wow! I never saw that! Thanks! Its the mindless button clicking mode that Windblows has us all accustomed to thats at fault . I feel your pain <~~~~~~~~~~~~says in a Bill Clinton voice

[aldisnt]

Greetings,
If your a novice coming from a windows background I suggest finding a Linux distro that will make you feel at home, a starter Linux OS. The easier the better, there probably is no one all great and powerful distro. There may be distros that range in difficulty though, there are very few distros that I know of that would appeal to a windows end user( meaning to use as a simple desktop machine).

Here is my suggestion, goto www.elxlinux.com , read the site and decide for yourself if this might be a good easy place for you to begin. You can also find this distro for download by searching for it at www.linuxiso.org ...

I have used this distro and it is very windows like, I installed it on my little brothers machine so he would be able to learn Linux slow and easy while still being able to function within daily computing.

Kind Regards,

[Dawa13]

gentoo looks "snazzy" but is it safe and easy ?

[Bill_Littlejohn]

Can someone please recommend a newbie friendly, minimal overhead, server oriented distribution?
I have a 200Mhz pentium box with 98MB ram I want to turn into a web server with apache,mysql,php and smtp,pop proxy server (with squid?) and ftp server.
I have installed (with various success) Slackware and Caldera Openlinux 3.1 workstation. These run extremely slow with ALL the desktop stuff running. What I need is a distribution designed to be a minimal server but not completely text based. (I'm not that masochistic yet). Even if I have to get a desktop-linux and install the servers, is there a distro that performs well on low end hardware. Everyone claims low hardware requirements - but performance seems to be a little more relative than I would have thought. : ) Thank in advance.

[Dawa13]

i had suse and that lizard scairs the Shiznit outta me

[mdwatts]

The system specs you posted just meet the minimum requirements for OpenLinux Workstation 3.1.

Besides installing a minimal install of Debian and Slackware, I would suggest you take a look through http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ to find a suitable distro.

[raggensdraddle]

I have a Hong Kong copy of RH2 (You know, $10 and its on CD-R?)
I was too interested in MD8.2 to mess around with it, though from what I hear over at WPI, the teks have gone nuts for RH2 and like RH3 cuz they cn mess with it and make it do stuff. Needs a lot of work. I'm no judge. But, as a newbie and all, I'll pull out the RH manual, boot up and see what kinda stuff I get. Got plenty gigs ta grok over it.
tnx for the vibe.
btw. did ya hear ximian is now being touted the max for the office apps. $59 for the full load OS. I'll buy it and see what happens.
Open Source forever.

[endoalpha]

Originally posted by UlTiMaTeHH
ok i desided to throw away my windows cds and step completely over at linux unix based system im a 15 yr old boy and im wondering WICH version of linux is best 4 me and where i can download it because this is my first time and there are so many different linuxes i asked here please give me a tip


I suggest you spend your time studying spelling, grammar and punctuation.

[Senjuro]

I personaly would recommend redhat or mandrake for him, because both of those distros offer actualy config scripts for pretty much everything, and in order to get it up and running you wont need to do a lot of work in a terminal, which for a new user is heaven, eventualy he/she can move onto better things, like me personaly i like slackware, and latly i've been snooping around with FreeBSD, however even to this day i still go check out every new version of mandrake (mandrake is by far the most user friendly flavor of linux!) i keep on checking it out because there will always be room in my heart for mandrake considering its the first distro i actually got working 100% :p

[dunbar]

Originally posted by endoalpha
I suggest you spend your time studying spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Lighten up, dude/dudette: kiddos use language this for a faster typing method, they rnt jus been plane laze.

[MANOWAR]

I installed RedHat, and even though it's user friendly, I think that for the reaaaallly nebies (like you or me) the best choice is Mandrake, it's really good for newbies.
(by the way, my signature says that, this is my first day on linux, but, I've done spent some off-the record Linux hours before.

[asacan]

I've been trying to get the hang of Linux for the past 3 years or more. I started with RH6.1 (I think), and I liked it. In this time, Linux has become much more user friendly. Just recently, I've worked with three different distributions, Red Hat 7.2, Suse 8.0, and Mandrake 8.2. I still like the feel of Red Hat the best. I guess because I set it up with a much more professional feel. Being in my 30's, I don't want it to look like a toy, and I want the people who see me using Linux to realize that it's a serious machine (that I can play games on and surf the net). Now if I could just do the wizard stuff that I've seen other people do, it'd be awesome!

[starrcannon]

I'm a newb and I thought RH7.2 and RH7.3 were both very easy to install, 7.3 did an easier install than 7.2 as 7.3 even detected and correctly installed the ide-scsi emulator for me on install. I use a TNT2 Pro vid card and it installed flawlessly, don't know about other Nvidia products, I have also tried with ATI Radeon with complete success. I even got Samba partially working, I can look out at the windows network, just havent figured out how to let a windows box look in, I will figure it out. I have been using the Redhat Linux Bible $50 and includes a set of RH Linux CD's, I found it at Barnes and Nobel. Anyway I think RH or Mandrake seem like great get yer feet wet distro's, but I am a newb myself so take that info for what its worth. GL to ya
sincerely, Rob

[m00s3]

hey
heres my dilema.
i have a p100 with a 3gb and 2 gb hd and 32mb of ram.
thing is all the distrobutions i see are 650mb in excess, which i cannot hanndle ony my 56k modem.
all i need is something that can run apache (although a GUI would be nice, it is not necccesary) and act as a webserver. the pc is very old and just has a standard VGA card.
any ideas what i can install? if posible i would like something whcih is less than 100mb or so.
i have tried dragon linux but the installation guide refers to things which just arnt on the downloaded cd (says to run things like install.bat which are non-existant)
i know this may sound like alot to ask but i have only just found linux and i would like to get something going.

Thanks

m00s3

[kam]

You are trying to download Linux? Is that why you need a small distrobution?

Linux From Scratch can be a very small installtion, but you need an existing Linux to get it ready.

Maybe try the netinstall of Debian.

[m00s3]

yes i am trying to download it - 56k being the reason why size is an important issue. i dont mind farting around a bit if it saves download time ( i only need minimal components)

[mdwatts]

Have a look through http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ to see if you can find a distro suitable for your needs and bandwidth.

[Dun'kalis]

Debian and Slackware are your best bets.

For which is better, see my avatar...

[fancypiper]

Discount Linux CDs (http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/)
Linux Central (http://linuxcentral.com/)
Cheapbytes (http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart)

[janet loves bill]

Peanut 9.3 downloads @ 220 mb...:D

[m00s3]

thanks for replies.
i would buy a cd from discount linux cds etc but as im in uk, the postage means i might as well just buy it from somewhere with the retail version.
i am research taht peanut thing and having a look thru that list.

has anyone tried any of these distrobutions?

thanks again

[Gnufsh]

a net install of debian using just the base and apache wouldn't be very large.

[sfnitro230]

Does anyone know of a distro that can run with 16mb of ram?

[sharth]

from linuxiso, the only one that can run like that is debian. and that does not allow you to run a gui. if you were to go out and buy 16mb more (32mb) then you could run a VERY low ram requiring window manager.

[TheHeadRoach]

Originally posted by sharth
from linuxiso, the only one that can run like that is debian. and that does not allow you to run a gui. if you were to go out and buy 16mb more (32mb) then you could run a VERY low ram requiring window manager.

BAH!!! Shut up you.

My oldest slack box runs X on 4 megs of ram.

Pretty much any distro will run on 16 megs of ram, though some will be alot slower than others due to increased swap file usage. If you're going to be running that low of memory I suggest slack or debian, but really it still all comes down to what you like best.

[The Whizzard]

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html#requirements
Comes with about 2Gig of software on a 700MB Live CD. Based on Debian. Can use the HDD for SWAP to make up for missing RAM. Probably not a good idea to run the GUI with only 16MB, though. Supposidly detects and configures hardware automaticaly. I just finished D/Ling it, so I don't know how well the hardware detection/configuring is. Seems pretty cool from what I've read on their web site.

[workingitout]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TheHeadRoach
[B]

BAH!!! Shut up you.

hehe, love that reply!

[sharth]

hehe. I dunno. I just listen to what the websites tell me. If it says I need the 2 gigs of ram for the ulb, then by golly, I'm gonna go out on I-95 and beg people for the money to get it!

[Psykotyx]

Originally posted by Syngin


Hehe. I was a little surprised too. :p

Here's my first and last post on this board;

If you're gonna berate a newbie for being a newbie on a site designed for newbies. I think you should find a better use of your time. I spent ages going round all the distro sites and still couldn't get a consensus on which was easiest for newbies. It turned out that it was all dependant on your spec and requirements (as also mentioned ealier). I personally, found that Mandrake was best for my requirements. But I only found this after making my own post on a site, with my requirements and specs. so give the guy a break. You don't have to read it, do you?

Psyk

[Loki3]

I'm going to build a router out of some hardware I've got sitting around and would like to know if you guys have any ideas for a routing distro. Someone posted a great link with a list of router-centric distros but I lost it sorry. Anyway here's the specs:

P166Mhz (considering overclocking)
32mb of Ram
*nix compatible motherboard
13GB Hard Drive
CD-ROM

The problem I'm having is that most of these router distros either require a floppy drive, which I don't have, or more memory. Also keep in mind I currently only have a 56k connection so smaller distros are nice. Something easy to configure is nice.

The three I've considered but then rejected are:
FreeSCO(no floppy)
ClarkConnect(no broadband)
Devil Linux(needs more memory)

Thanks,
_Loki

[TheHeadRoach]

Any distro will work for a router, so really it all comes down to what you like best.

Though I think you're best off going with something a little more well known and established than those distros. Perhaps slackware, debian or suse.

[monkeyboi]

try www.smoothwall.org
routing and firewall is the main function of this distro..

really small too only 20 mb iso file..

[sarah31]

there are even firewalls out there that you can run from a floppy that are extremely good mind you i don't know exact what you would use to do this. I net search could do the trick or someone here might have their memory jogged by my inane drivel.

[Loki3]

See I don't have a floppy drive to run one of those cool, boot from a floppy, no hard drive, router/firewall distros. Otherwise FreeSCO would be first choice.

[pocar]

Which distro on
Pentium 133Mhz; 48 Mb ram
1,7 Gb disk, noname graphic card 1Mb
to run some word-processor, Dia (want some gnome libs), quanta (want kde) or something similar (bluefish?), maybe it will have a cd-rw?

[michaelk]

Is this what you were looking for?

http://www.routerdesign.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Web_Links&file=index&l_op=viewlink&cid=9

Trustix is a small distro that has a bootable CD installer.

[dennis112]

I saw were you disgarded Freesco. Truth is, you only need a floppy for Freesco just long enough to install on the hard disk. There is no need for a floppy drive after the initial hard drive install. Once there, it works very well as a router. Your system is a perfect candidate with its small amount of ram and slow CPU.

Perhaps you could borrow the floppy out of another computer just long enough to do the installation on the hard driver?

Oh, by the way, the support page for Freesco is very helpful when you have problems or want to use some add-ons.

[iamchilled1]

I use coyote linux. it works great for me. but I have a floppy drive and broadband. floppy drives are cheap these days. I'm not sure if the have a CDROM router solution.

[sharth]

but we have to take out the anger of helping people fix thier sound some how. you know when we get them through 4 kernel recompiles, 2 sound cards, and then someone suggests to turn on the speakers. you know, the ones where you want to slam your head into the wall.

But really, how long does it take to write... uhmm... Well, the only one I use is nvm, which is nevermind... but... not really common....

If you're going to talk in message boards though, Give it a bit more professional look. If you're really consieous of your internet minutes (pay by the second internet!), then write stuff up in vim or notepad before hand, and give it a quick look over.

You're more likely to get a decent reply if it seems like you actually care. This is the only way that we know who you are. How you type. (although language barriers are always a good excuse.)

Editism : I didn't like the whole Why ElxLinux thing. It seems like its going to install what IT wants, and not what you want. It then is able to implant great cooperability between the clients because its only referring to default clients. And whats it talking about not beign able to zip a file and send it through email. It just seems like EVERYTHING has been super simplified. (although the automatic windows nt domain might not be a bad idea to be put in more boradly, samba is annoying as h***:()

[Fryguy8]

I started out with mandrake. Installed it, and threw it out the window after 20 minutes. Utter crap. It's like windows, but with a penguin. they totally blew off the command line like it didn't exist and just assumed I wanted some ultra-bloated desktop.

Yuck.

So I followed my instincts at the time and went with Debian, which was known to be a "hardcore" distribution. I had few problems installing it (2.2 doesn't like my NIC, so I had to compile a 2.4 kernel, which required an upgrade or debian). All not really a problem, within the first week I had a customized kernel, had upgraded the whole distro to testing, had a fully customized X desktop. It all went so much better than mandrake. And apt is amazing. if you use apt and apt alone (not dselect and all that other stuff), it's nearly impossible to break your system.

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by Fryguy8
I started out with mandrake. Installed it, and threw it out the window after 20 minutes. Utter crap. It's like windows, but with a penguin. they totally blew off the command line like it didn't exist and just assumed I wanted some ultra-bloated desktop.

Yuck.

So I followed my instincts at the time and went with Debian, which was known to be a "hardcore" distribution. I had few problems installing it (2.2 doesn't like my NIC, so I had to compile a 2.4 kernel, which required an upgrade or debian). All not really a problem, within the first week I had a customized kernel, had upgraded the whole distro to testing, had a fully customized X desktop. It all went so much better than mandrake. And apt is amazing. if you use apt and apt alone (not dselect and all that other stuff), it's nearly impossible to break your system. LOL....I appreciate where you are coming from but whats with everybody blowing off a distro because it defaults to a usr friendly environment ? Good God , just set it up to enter runlevel 3 and you have all the command line you want . If youre really smart , just hand pick your packages . You dont HAVE to install XFree or KDE or ...blah blah blah . Debian does sound cool and I may try it but not until I do an LFS .<~~~does that sound backwards?:D

[Loki3]

Originally posted by michaelk
Is this what you were looking for?

http://www.routerdesign.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Web_Links&file=index&l_op=viewlink&cid=9

Trustix is a small distro that has a bootable CD installer.

Yep, that's the router link I was talking about, thanks. Trustix seems like it might work pretty well. I might go try to find an old three gig hard
drive instead of fill up my 13 GB with 1GB of data. Anyone got an old working drive? Next
week I'll head down to the state surplus sale maybe I can find something, and a floppy drive too.

[The_Wounded]

Well for true newbies the easiest version to work with is mandrake. it's fast and if u like to play games i'd reccomend mandrake.

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by The_Wounded
Well for true newbies the easiest version to work with is mandrake. it's fast and if u like to play games i'd reccomend mandrake. Mandrake 9.0 final release is going to be awesome . Its fast . Come an git me you Debian Dudes and Dudettes .

[Silent Bob]

...for this situation

I have been using RH 7.1 at home for well over a year now (well it started out as RH 7.1:)). This kind of suited me because we are on dial-up and paying for all the phone calls as well, so I couldn't take advantage of any package managers like apt anyway.

However I am moving into rooms in college where I will have a high-speed connection to the 'net through the LAN and a proxy or two and RedHat's package system is really starting to bug me now with all its <shiver>dependency issues</shiver>.

Which distro would you recommend that has automatic dependency resolution? The http proxy works perfectly but the ftp one is really dodgy (changes file sizes etc.) so any distro I go for would have to be able to get its packages without resorting to ftp (are there any?). Given that I also want to use my computer for actual work is there any point in using Gentoo?

thanks

[galenthurber]

mandrake has [use to have in 8.0, 8.1, 8.2]
mandrake update [although very slow]
and selecting dependencies via ftp or http

no doubt Debian also has something better

plug
but I now use Peanut Linux a medium distro with power, usability and scalability . 250meg download

http://www.flightsimhq.org/peanut/phpBB2

[Timothy L. Miller]

I like Libranet. It's debian with some utilities to make setting up your system quick and simple. The 2.0 essentials disk is free to download, and then use apt to add on.

Libranet (http://www.libranet.comdownload.html)

(What you're looking for is on the bottom, 2.0 essensials cd.

[Hayl]

For sure go to Debian.

Here (http://hackers.progeny.com/pgi) is a link to where you can get a small ISO that has a GUI installer for Debian :)

It autodetects most stuff.

(I recently tried Gentoo - lasted about 3 days. I personally found it to be unstable. I wouldn't recommend it. I also found portage (their package system) to be not so great. For example, I had to mess around just to get The Gimp to install.)

[osmocot404]

Hello everybody,

Here are my
Computer Specs:

48 Megs of RAM
233 Processor Speed
3 gigs of memory

What is a good, newbish, Liunx distro for me? Do I download a OS manager or when I start up, it'll have choices for which OS I can go into? What does Linux look like without a GUI? A spiced-up version of DOS? If it does, how do you open things, get on the internet, or open programs? How do I partiton the hard drive? Should I get rid of Windows 95 and make the computer a "just" Linux computer?

[do_guh_new]

I have a 233mhz box that's running arch linux, however it ran redhat 7.2 with no problems either however if you decide to go with redhat you really should NOT install nautilus. By the way my 233mhz box has 160mb or ram in it also. oh ya and as far as partitioning and dual booting with win95 I wouldnt just cause it's such a small hard drive but that's coming from a guy who never dual booted anything in his life all my computers are linux or bsd and only linux or bsd :)

[littleman]

>newbish
That makes me think maybe Mandrake, the install is very simple.


You don't want to use KDE on such a computer though, the overhead will be very frustrating. Stick with GTK based apps and a light window manager (something liker ICEwm, Fluxbox).

Mandrake comes with a easy to use GUI boot loader.

If you had some experience, I'd recommend Debian. The installs are a lot smaller, and you could just download what you need from there.

[mdwatts]

http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ should find you a suitable distro for those hardware specs.

[osmocot404]

Should I get rid of Windows first and install Linux or install Linux and then get rid of Windows?

[mdwatts]

If you are planning to delete Windows, then do so first since you will then have more space to use for Linux.

[osmocot404]

How do you get rid of Windows? Should I just format it and overwrite it?

[Bokkenka]

How do you get rid of Windows? Should I just format it and overwrite it?

Just do it during install. Whatever distro you choose will have to go through a partitioning phase. First thing to do then is select the FAT partition already on the drive and delete it.

If you format the drive, it will still have the FAT partition on it, and no free space. If you want to delete it before you start the install, hit the F8 key as the computer boots. Select Command Prompt at the menu, and it will boot up to a command prompt, C:\. Run fdisk and delete the partition. Reboot and install Linux.

If there is anything on the hard-drive you want to save, you'll have to find some way to get it off. Once you repartition the drive, everything on it will be gone.

[MANOWAR]

For what i've heard, USB can cause a lot of headaches in Linux, so, what distro, do you think has the best USB support, and, why not, the best (or biggest) hardware support?

[Hayl]

Grrrrr

Linux is Linux - ALL of the distros are the same except for possibly what Kernel they use and what packaging system they use. I.e. RedHat uses rpm, Debian uses apt, Gentoo uses portage.

The USB support in Linux has been fine since kernel 2.4.18.

As long as the distro you are using has at least 2.4.18 then I would say that you won't have any problems.

<Cyybr099 doesn't understand why people think that different distros are wildly different versions of Linux>

Although - when I was testing out Gentoo last week I noticed support for my USB Camera in kernel 2.4.19. SO - maybe you want kernel 2.4.19??

2.4.18 has everything I need - even Wacom driver for my graphics tablet.

[MANOWAR]

Actually, I'm just being curious

[Silent Bob]

Cheers people

Sounds like Debian/Libranet are the choices then. I have just one more question.
What protocol does apt use to download?
I only ask because the LAN that I will be on has a good (read working) http proxy but the ftp proxy is pants to the point that you can only get command line ftp downloads by logging in to the ftp proxy and even then you'll be lucky if the checksums match.

[linkintheory]

anyone know if the new Mandrake 9.0 will automatically support Audigy cards?

[GreenLantern]

Suse already does support audigy cards with the distro from the disk. The only update you should need to do is the video card if you have the newest ati or geforce 4.:p

[ib1z4]

if you are looking for a pretty good distro with great NVIDIA drivers support. Try ASP Linux. www.asp-linux.com

It is basically redhat with nvidia drivers built in and has a very nice layout also. Very easy install....

[Brick Top]

mandrake, nuff' said

[mr orion77]

hmmmm when i build my new comp im gonna have 2 distros. suse and possibly debian or slackware. ie one x driven other command line driven.
:D

[JavaCowboy]

:cool: Slackware :cool:

'nuff said.

[mdwatts]

:cool: Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 3.1.1 :cool:

:cool: Caldera OpenLinux Server 3.1.1 :cool:

and in a couple of months...

:cool: UnitedLinux 1.0 (SCO Linux) :cool:

[sol-dude]

Best way to find out is to go to www.linuxcentral.com and buy a few distros.
Each is about $2,50. Buy a few like redhat, mandrake, caldera, slackware and debian. Start with the easy ones to install (mandrake and caldera ) and then try the others. I personally like
mandrake and suse.

[Metalhead01]

Gentoo.

Why?

...

...

...

Because Larry the Cow is cool. :)

[Beguile]

So far I've tried Redhat 6, 6.2, 7.2 madrake 8.1 and several lesser known brands, but now I'm using Mandrake 9. Mandrake likes to claim that that they are user friendly to the newbie and I have to agree.
They got my vote for best OS.

[rustskull]

The more I see this, the more I just want to point people at linux from scratch. After you do that, everything else demystifies a bit (except why I can't get the virtual desktop to shut off...I think I'm gonna move to testing from unstable..yes..debian alert)...and I bet that after you did it that you would be able to look at the different distros with clearer sight without having to necessarily try every one.

I think the main hindrance to teh linux from scratch installs is that there is a comprehensive, detailed, series of steps that you are given, DOWN TO THE KEYSTROKE, to birth this thing...but it's a ***** to print this huge document and you can't exactly read it online or edoc form while you are loading a system...

My advice might be to pull down the tarball from them (unless you are truly warped and want to go collect all the source yourself) and the associated manual for that tarball and print the pages as you use them. There is no need to look ahead (it's always a good idea, but you can do it blindly it works that well), everything is in total chronological order, with no knowledge necessary of the next step...it's very thorough...and did I mention they give you not only the instructions and source...BUT EVERY KEYSTROKE necessary to build the system....

That's why the LFS stuff doesn't hurl. You're building it (without optomizations, although it is discussed) out of complete opensource, with open source tools, and it has been built many times already. It's pretty easy to guarantee success if you control all the parameters.

I had a hang up in the install (found out what it was plus a couple more facts, and it was something local that I hadn't consisdered which is why I say always make sure your system time is correct) and was resolved within 24 hours from gerard beekmans (sp?) himself (the guy that authors/edits the manual/distro).

if nothing else, you can come away with the knowledge that if you want software xyz and it isn't packaged or even compiled, you can just pull the makefile and the source and blindly get it up with a reasonable expectation of success....

and you also realize how much of what's installed by default on the standard distros is just to cover their bases so its somewhat system generic....and you also realize just how little you need to make everything go...you find out what is absolutely essential on the system in order of improtance, because you build everything else on top of what you already built...

pretty damn cool.

-rust

[EvilFlyingCow]

I am a newb, I have never used Linux but I just installed SuSE 8.0 Professional the other day and had problems right from the start. So I think I am going to try Mandrake now, it seems to be the most popular with everyone.

[Hysteria]

Anyone successfully gotten the card to work under any distro. Are there any drivers even available that will enable 3d acceleration for it? I am dying to try UT2k3 under linux with it and see what kind of performance it gets versus windows.....tia

[bwkaz]

I haven't, but that's because I don't have that card.

But note that even if you can get 3D working, you will not be able to get UT2K3 to load up. The UT2K3 engine requires use of the S3TC texture compression format, which S3 has patented. And at the moment at least, the only OpenGL drivers that support S3TC are the nVidia ones. No open-source projects will put S3TC support into their drivers, because they don't have the money to get a license to use the technology from S3. And I'm not sure if ATI's binary drivers will support S3TC, or support the 9700. It might be worth a shot, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work.

[LowCee]

Hi to everyone!

Just finsihed reading the thread and found it very informative. I made the decision on Thurs. as in 2 days ago, to dump Windows. Talk about being a newbie!

I have ordered Mandrake 9.0 and GNU/Debian (dloading was not an option) and I can hardly wait for the cds.

then the fun begins...

[Elijah]

Originally posted by LowCee
Hi to everyone!

Just finsihed reading the thread and found it very informative. I made the decision on Thurs. as in 2 days ago, to dump Windows. Talk about being a newbie!

I have ordered Mandrake 9.0 and GNU/Debian (dloading was not an option) and I can hardly wait for the cds.

then the fun begins...
Welcome aboard!
have fun :p

[Darkbolt]

Well, I started out with Mandrake8.2, I found it nice and easy to install, and give me a good idea what linux was like, I've recently installed Slackware, and I can see why everyone speaks so well of it...its friggen cool...not so easy to install and configure X, but I think its worth it ;)

[BaVinic]

I have always liked this question. and my answer is always a simple one.

The best distro of Linux, is the one that supports what you have, installs without problems, and lets you do , what you wanted linux to do.

For me right now, it is RH7.3 that however may change soon.

See this was an easy one :-)

BaVinic

[sol-dude]

You'll like mandrake. I use it all the time.
I also have suse in my laptop and never gave me problems. Yast2 is one of the best
tools out there.

[linuxgnubie]

I just installed Mandrake 9 on my Sony Vaio laptop. I am fairly new to linux. Have been going back and forth from RedHat to Mandrake. Red Hat supported everything, but I liked the ease of use in Mandrake. Only thing Mandrake didn't support was my sound card in last version. Now it does and I also am amazed at the fine tuned user friendliness of it.

Only reason I am keeping a windows partition on laptop is because I develop with Macromedia Flash. That is the ONLY reason I keep Windows. Otherwise, with this new version of Mandrake, I'd ditch Bill completely. Maybe one day I can get good enough with this to where I can contribute to the community. Maybe develop a Flash equivalent for Linux!

Here's to one more happy friend of the penguin!:D

[NHaughton]

Originally posted by Darkbolt
Well, I started out with Mandrake8.2, I found it nice and easy to install, and give me a good idea what linux was like, I've recently installed Slackware, and I can see why everyone speaks so well of it...its friggen cool...not so easy to install and configure X, but I think its worth it ;)

I'm an Mdk8.2 user with KDE3.01. In what way is Slackware 'better', would you say?

[Paul Ambrosini]

Ya im a no0bie like all of us here and i just installed mandrake linux 9.0, had a little video problems but i fixed that, now im wondering a few things bout mandrake 9, i tried to run sndconfig in a terminal but it doesn't work, im trying to run this because my sound doesn't work and i did turn up the volume im not that no0b, and one other thing how do you change it so it can detect a USB mouse? because my mouse stopped working on my windows pc because its being gay with USB ports or something but it works fine on all other computer, right now its set as PS/2 mouse port, where can i change that?? other than reinstalling.....

BTY: a list of all mandrake linux 9.0 commands would be very very helpful, (a link don't want u to write that much)

[Darkbolt]

For a newbie, I wouldnt say its better...but once you get it configured and everything, I found it alot easier to get online
What I wouldnt mind having in slackware is RPM's...Those were convienent, but yet horribly agrivating..
also, slackware comes with KDE3.0.1, so you dont gotta go thru the trouble of upgrading it and such :)

[Ardhill]

Hi

My previous attempt trying t run Linux proved an embarrassing failure when I discovered that I couldn't even figure out how to install programmes that didn't come on the original CD package :o

I quickly ran back to my familiar, if a little unstable, Windows system.

I loaded Madrake 7.2 at that time.

OK, so once again I am thinking of trying Linux again. New versions have come out and are supposed to be even easier than before - right?

So, I am looking for some sensible advice - what is the most idiot proof distro for someone who only knows Windows.


Thanks

[Sonuby]

I agree, linux will take a little work no matter what distro you choose but I came from point and click and Im doing ok.
I dont think you can go wrong with SuSE, Mandrake or Red Hat I believe they all have the latest kernals,drivers and Gnome as well as KDE packages.
To help with any distro specific problems they each have user boards

[chelrob]

Several months ago I bought the Red Hat Linux 7.2 Bible, which came with the 3 install CD's.

This was my first Linux install and it went perfectly on two very different PC's.

I have since dowloaded and installed RH 7.3 and 8.0 without purchasing any other books.

[scruff]

I started my Linux experience around 3 weeks ago with Mandrake 8.2, and it was a nice and easy install. It recognized all of my hardware too, except for my pos Winmodem. I got some serious schooling from all these guys on that if that becomes an issue for you.
I haven't tried anything but Mandrake, but I find it to be relatively easy for a noob. The software installer takes care of most of you RPM needs, but you will still have to learn a bit about tar.gz/bz2 installation. I don't think that will change with different distro's though.
There is plenty of helpful info and people here, so look around and have fun!!
It's worth it.

[Elijah]

I would suggest Redhat8.0 or Mandrake 9.0 but I've heard so much about the Lycoris distro you might want to check it out.

[Ardhill]

I just wanted to say that I appreciate you all taking the trouble to answer me.

It does seem like there isn't that much between the latest releases of Red Hat, Mandrake and SuSE.

I guess I will just have to either get cheap cut-down versions and try them all out or just go for a distro and stick with it for a while.

At least I have found this site now, I didn't know about it when I last tried Linux.

Thanks

[markj]

i'm a linux newbie and i tried Lycoris Desktop/LX and found it excellent easy to install and you can even play solitaire as it installs also everything worked straight away

Have a look here for thje website Lycoris (http://www.lycoris.com) there's also a forum here Lycoris Forum (http://www.lycoris.org)

and you can download it from here Iso file (http://http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=26)

[psigourney]

I just installed RH8.0, it seemed pretty idiot-proof. If you weren't sure about an option, there was always a default to select.

[pr0c]

Where to start...

Ok i started using linux quit a while ago.. no idea when really, when Mandrake 7.2 was introduced i guess.

I've since used the following distros and found the following:

Mandrake 7.2/8.0/8.2/9.0 - Great distro, doest too much for you.. you can't get your box customized just how you want easily, where the hell do you find the "cooker" updates for 9.0?

Suse 8.0 - what a joke, some what simiilar to mandrake, easy to customize with YAST yet its worse that what i had to say about mandrake, in addition to that you see SuSE and that damn lizard all over the place, you can't go 2 minutes without seein it 50 times.

Redhat 8, lacks lots of customizing software and lacks beta software too, all i see is register everywhere, your tied in tightly with redhat too.. if i wanted that crap i'd stick with M$ Windows.

Debian - great system, only complaint is to use up to date software you have to use unofficial everything, the only official stuff they have (even in unstable) is way behind all the rest of the distros, hell they are still on KDE2.2.2...

Gentoo - Want to try, install process so long that i just dont' have time for that right now

Maybe sorcerer is what i want.. i really love debian the most, but christ it gets old finding unoffical apt-sources...

Anyone else frusterated with this? Any suggestions?

[sonictooth]

i don't see slackware on that list : )

you can always try slack, and then you'll never go back.

[novafluxx]

I tried Slackware...took forever to install...so said "screw this" and got MDK 9.

[fancypiper]

What's time to a computer? Do it while you sleep, if you don't have the time. Your computer doesn't need to sleep while you do. :D

You can install Gentoo from a running installation if you have the disk space. I installed Gentoo from a running Redhat 7.2.

[cage47]

Hmph, easy for you to say. Try sleeping with a Western Digital 20gig hd going? Ever lie in bed when a fly or a bee buzzes in the window. Drive you nuts. That's what it's like. :D

Anyway. Seriously, Mandrake 7.2 was crappy. I started with 7.0. pleased but 8.0 was a big step forward. But 8.2 was far above that even. Since 9.0 just came out cooker hasn't gotten going yet. give it a couple weeks for the developers to recover from their release party.

Debian is great but still a little short on the desktop arena. I keep it for a good hacking/recovery system on my box tri-booted with Win3.1/Mandy 8.2 and Debian Woody. But for customization Mandrake is good with all the tools and wizards. In general Linux systems are VERY customizable. If you honestly have problems customizing your system do some reading and find the tools. I find this hard to believe.

[pr0c]

What i've found is that when you build packages from the source instead of using the distros package manager it screws things up.. i dont' want that anymore, i wanna go with a source distro i think. I've considered Linux from scratch but its just too much work.... what to do what to do. :/

[jus]

UlTiMaTeHH,

Your situation sounds familiar to mine about 2 years ago. I have accomplished quite a bit so far, but so much is left to be done. I have tried several Distros

Red Hat
Caldera
Mandrake
Gentus
Slackware (probably the worst of all)

Being raised on MS crap, I find the journey over to Linux a difficult one. My biggest wish is that I started LInux at your age (of course at that time I was using a TSR80).

What I found is that a switch to Linux is more than just a plain software switch, it's an entire paradigm shift. As you get older it becomes more difficult to change the WAY you think, you get set in your ways, and stubborn. The following represent what I have found to be the fundamental cannons of my Linux Newbie experience:

1// Microsoft pretends to give you everything you need. Linux will give you exactly what you tell it to.

2// No matter what Distro you select, just concentrate on getting the thing installed. Not a single distro you download and install will give you %100 of the functionality you had in MS.

3// Linux however CAN give you not only what MS gave you, but a whole lot more!! Only diference is, you have to pick up a book and learn how.

4// Once you cross the learning barier, there's no turning back. Once you get it to work in Linux, the feeling of gratification is enormous, it will fuel you desire to learn more, and like a snowball rolling down the hill, it gets bigger and bigger!!


Having said that, here is my recommended course of action:

1// get A distro working. No matter which one you use, get it to boot and give you a terminal window.

2// grab some books on Linux administration, and start learning. Concentrate on the shell commands, and writing scripts (BASH is best although C shell is used by some).

3// When you can move around in Linux with a bit of confidence visit:

http://www.netspace.net.au/~gok/power2bash/

Don't try any of the exercises yet, just read the article and as many of the reference materials as you can. See how Linux works from the ground up.

4// At this point you can go one of two ways:

a) fix your distro install; Get your distro to do all of the wonderful things it used to do in MS. About the first skill you should learn is compiling the kernel. This is a must, LinuxNewbie has tonnes of resources for this one

b) roll your own (I went this way); visit:

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/view/3.3/

Build your own freggen distro. Follow the step by step instructions, and "verum ipsum factum" learn by doing.

I am a registered Linux From Scrach user (ID 6316) got a version 3.3 to work sweetly!! I can compile the kernel in my sleep, and have trimmed the fat on my LFS installation. I load all the modules I need into a monolithic kernel, and its faster than Redhat, WAYYYYY faster than Mandrake, and leaves Microsoft where it belongs

In the dust baby yah!:cool:

I know I have rambled on, but that's how I learned. When you switch to Linux, you are switching more than operating systems, you change paradigms (way of thinking), you learn, you gain knowledge, and break free from the MS shackles of ignorance.
:)

[mr orion77]

hey u must be a programmmer to do all that. what previous computer training did you do?
oooh now that sounds gooooood i'd like to do that. be the fat controller (eyes light up and hands twitch).
now thats the reason why im using linux. then if i can get wine workin nicely too, i'd be a jolly man:D

[jus]

By no means whatsoever am I a:
1// Linux expert or
2// Professional Programmer

What I do for a living falls more along the lines of System Integration. My background is in Engineering, but I do have a little bit of Computer Science education as well (emphasize LITTLE).

That's why Linux is so attractive. I have a basic working knowledge of C++ development, but could not write a driver if my life depended on it. Working with Linux is a classic Integration exercise, as such it makes a great past time that enhances my work skills.

What I have found so far is that most of Linux Configuration is centered around text files. Those freggen things are everywhere! The boot loader finds the kernel, the kernel boots, finds the hardware, and loads init. Init looks for scripts in the /etc/rc.d folder to launch all of the services. You don't actually code anything, but carefully knit together code created by others to achive the desired goal.

The major components that I have discovered thus far are:

Kernel compilation
Compiler config
Daemons and services
Configuration scripts / text files.

Most of my LFS installations thus far are centered on fine tuning the above.

However, there is still much more to load and consider. Some items I believe I will run up against in the near future will include:

Library management,
X11 / Window Manager installation and setup
Custom software installation

Installing software can be a b*$ch. If you are not aware of dependencies (program foo needs libraries from bar), you can get a whole pile of misleading errors such as:

*Invalid use of int
*Segmentation fault
*Memory allocation fault

all of which look like program errors that are systematic of missing software components.

Shew, well, that's enough of a brain dump for now. I need to eat something.
;)

[NHaughton]

You don't need fossil fuels
Your parents didn't either

So, umm... what powers your computer then? :)

[C_Pac]

Originally posted by NHaughton


I'm an Mdk8.2 user with KDE3.01. In what way is Slackware 'better', would you say?

I also started with Mandrake (7, a long time ago, quit because I had a WinModem, and tried again with 8.2 after Bill's invasive EULAs broke the camel's back). I tried MDK 9.0 RC2 and found it sluggish and buggy. Instead of waiting for 9.0 final I tried Slackware. That was it for Mandrake.

I second the raves about Slackware. It's quicker, sleeker and I feel more in control of my computer. It requires patience because you have to learn to do a lot of things that other distros do for you automagically, but the learning was worth it (to me) for speed and stability.

[Penrich]

This post has been going on for nearly two months now, and I was wondering, UlTiMaTeHH, if you've picked your distro yet...:D

[LinuxBox624]

LOL Penrich. Common sense would tell you that a thread like this would get a million replies....

my sentiments exactly bro...

[jus]

At least with Linux....


We have a choice :cool:

[david2450]

:cool: I am currently using a Radeon 9700 in SUSE 8.0 Pro MSI KT3 Athlon XP1900 512mb Ram HD: IBM 30gb. I dual boot with IBM 40gb & Win XP Pro. I initially tried auto install but could only get command line (no GUI) I then reinstalled as TV Tuner under ATI All-in-Wonder and it all went well. So Far I have experienced no problems through Linux but have not attempted to run UT2k3 in Linux. i have attempted to run it in Win XP with severely limited success!

[tuck]

I read all of these posts over the past week because I too am making the switch, albeit slowly. I finally went with SuSe 8.0 and have been very happy. I needed a linux OS that was not going to give a newbie like me troubles doing multiple boot. I know run win98, winxp, and suse 8.0. Installing win98 gave me the most problems--I did it first. xp was relatively painless. Then SuSe. This is where I got nervous. Little did I know there was nothing to be nervous about. The install was flawless. It set up the multiple boot for me (which is where i was crossing my fingers). And it worked great!!!

Now for the learning process. Ughh.... Like I said Im switching slowly.

Anyways just thought Id throw my two cents in. Good Thread.

[tuck]

OMG. I just looked up a few posts and saw that im not the only person with a computer in alabama. Are goats running your computer too?

[Xed32]

I have a problem with my Radeon 9000 and Mandrake linux 8.2. I can't get back into Runlevel 5. I tried to set up the Radeon as the Graphics card, and when I reboot it won't leave runlevel 3. I try init 5, but it reverts to runlevel 3. I need to know how to change back the settings and get into runlevel 5 from the console.

[keifer50]

Within the next 3 weeks look for a new linux os called Xandros. Originally Corel Linux 3.0 redone. I've been beta testing from the beginning. In my opinion it is the best Linux os hands down. Review it at Xandros.com.

[Type-O]

I have an old Toshiba Techra 8100. Can anyone recommend a distro? Do some work better on laptops than others?

-jim

[trekker]

This link may be of help Linux on Laptops (http://www.linux-laptop.net/) :D

[bluesky]

It is not an easy or even well put question. Because:

1. How do you know WHICH is best if you haven't tried at least most of them?

2. And then Best for what purpose, for desktop, for server or for work station? :D

[sonictooth]

really any distro will work on the laptop provided it meets the min requirements (and maybe lower you never know : ).

i run slack on my laptop. my friend runs debian. its all a matter of taste.

there are however specific distro's targeted at laptops. but you should be fine with any old one.

[ihcman]

Like everyone else has said there are many distros. in the past month I have dld'd Lycoris, Mandrake 9.0, & Redhat 8.0

lycoris is by far the easiest to use

Mandrake 9.0 comes next (8.2 is good as well)

Redhat is great too. tho I got frustrated finding my windows files. actually gave up and re-installed mandrake 9.0

hope this helps

[itor66]

I, for one, being a newbie have enjoyed reading all of the post and have looked at several linux versions mentioned here.
So, good post.

Itor66

[itor66]

I, for one, being a newbie have enjoyed reading all of the post and have looked at several linux versions mentioned here.
So, good post.

Itor66

[NHaughton]

Originally posted by ihcman
Like everyone else has said there are many distros. in the past month I have dld'd Lycoris, Mandrake 9.0, & Redhat 8.0

lycoris is by far the easiest to use

Mandrake 9.0 comes next (8.2 is good as well)


hope this helps

I was thinking of trying Lycoris after several months with Mandrake 8.2. I'm not unhappy with Mandrake, but.....

Anybody else had experiences (good and bad) with Lycoris? The website and PR there seems to good to be true!

[Blakhart]

Redmond/Lycoris is outstanding for ease of use/install. It may be a very good beginner's distro. Gentoo after that....
Just some thoughts.

[ihcman]

Lycoris is the easiest linux to install and use. (from what I've done) it comes with all the basics and more.

I've decided to start my dad on this version because of these reasons. it sets all windows partitons up in the My Lycoris folder. the other nice thing about it is for the average user all you need is disc 1. which is great.

there are many distros out there and if you have the spare bandwidth dld them all. the only way to know which one is best is to try them all.

[lnx_nu_b]

I am not going to go through all of the posts...but I have installed Mandrake 7.2, 8.1 and I am now running 9.0. I have nothing to compare it to, but I have read that Mandrake is by far the most user friendly. I took someone else's word for it. I didn't have any problems with it, and am having no more problems than I think the average newbie has. I would like to try RedHat, SuSE and Slackware. I don't know anything about them, but slackware just appeals to me because of the name...redhate and suse seem to be the most popular. Could anyone tell me how these other distros compare to mandrake???

*edit had to fix spelling...ewww!*

[kycz]

I'm starting to use Linux, never been installing yet...
I know the experts know which one is the best on such system.
I have P2 450, 256MB SDRAM, 64MB agp video, PCI tv tuner, with D-Link PCI Wireless adapter and Lite-On cdr drive...
I have downloaded Mandrake 9.0, but havent tried to install it.
I've seen a comment on Librenix saying it wasn't good.. He prefer to use Mandrake 8.1 or Red Hat 8.0

Just like windows... if u dont have the lastest hardwares, still working with the old ones... Its not advisable to use Windows XP..
What I'd like to know is, What distro should I use on my system
--as a newbie

[sgs521]

Well any distribution should work, the only thing I could see that you might have an issue with would be the wireless nic.

[2damncommon]

If you really want to see what Distro advice is worth you want to read some of the 210 posts on the thread "Which Distro is best".
I am not going to advise on your hardware one way or another, but it does seem generally fine.
Mandrake 9.0 should be as good a place to start as any. Read some install and usage documentation and go for it.
Good Luck

P.S. Check here:
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/hardware.php3

[camelrider]

I get pretty reasonable performance with Mandrake 8.2 on:
k6 233
64Mb RAM
ATI All-In-Wonder 4Mb
with various IDE Harddrives. I just use IceWM for Gui and a fairly large swap partition since I don't have a lot (by today's standard) of RAM.
Needless to say, I don't edit a lot of digital video. ;)

[2damncommon]

1st post:
im wondering WICH version of linux is best 4 me and where i can download it because this is my first time and there are so many different linuxes i asked here please give me a tip
???th post:
I am not going to go through all of the posts...Could anyone tell me how these other distros compare to mandrake???

ROFLMAO

[pruebens]

Could anyone tell me how these other distros compare to mandrake

Yes......they are all called something else......

[Fizban64]

Well I got a 9700Pro, All I need to do now is getting it up to speed in Linux SuSE 8.0.

Anyone done this yet ?

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by Xed32
I have a problem with my Radeon 9000 and Mandrake linux 8.2. I can't get back into Runlevel 5. I tried to set up the Radeon as the Graphics card, and when I reboot it won't leave runlevel 3. I try init 5, but it reverts to runlevel 3. I need to know how to change back the settings and get into runlevel 5 from the console. Just saw this. I am assuming that init 5 works until you reboot, right? You need to change your /etc/inittab file (the one you changed to get it to boot to runlevel 3). Change the line that reads :id:3:initdefault to read :id:5:initdefault, save, and reboot.

I don't know enough about the 9700 to tell anyone how to get it running though...

[thread_killer]

I need to set up a few boxes on some very old hardware. They aren't going to *do* anything except hold the firewall logs. Does anyone have a favorite compact distro? The smaller the better.

Thanks.

[irlandes]

Here are some URL's. I have not looked at them in a while, so no guarantees. If they are gone, you might try google for the name of the distro where included.

1. http://www.cotse.com/miniunix.htm

It was at one time a collection of minis.

2. http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/

floppyfw is a micro firewall.

3. http://www.nettwork.com/martin/mlmandrake/

Martin's Linux-Mandrake 6.0 was based on Drake 6.0, two floppies, and I was able to sneak in and delete just enough to insert 'dc', the reverse polish calculator, so I can boot on it on any computer and run dc for 1,000 digit math.

4. http://floppix.ccai.com/index.html

Floppix is another mini.

5. ftp://ftp.santafe.cc.fl.us/Academic/Cat/linux/HAL91/

This is Hal, or hal91.

6. http://loaf.ecks.org/

Loaf.

7. http://cnuce-arch.cnuce.cnr.it/Linux/distributions/

Should also list a bunch of minis if still there.

8. ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pub/opsys/linux/DLX/

DLX

9. http://www.toms.net/rb/home.html

Another summary page if still there. Also called tomsrtbt

10. http://www.dma.unifi.it/doc/HOWTO/other-formats/html/Laptop-HOWTO-14.html

Appendix-A of laptop covers micro linuxes

11. http://www.linuxdoc.org./HOWTO/4mb-Laptops.html

If still there, shows how to put linux i a laptop with only 4 MB ram.

12. Though you don't want anything that big, www.cheapbytes.com still sells Drake 7.02 (not same as 7.2) for 486's. I put it on a 540 MB HD, and it includes KDE and lots of goodies. It's less than $12 w/shipping. Slow but not molasses

Several of the minis mentioned by name here, I downloaded and played with. I would not say I have a favorite, but did boot on them and snoop around. Generally, they are one floppy or two at the most.

brucemcgovern@earthlink.net