Which Distro?

[thread_killer]

Thank you.

You have certainly given me one heck of a place to start.

[2damncommon]

If it were me I would be thinking base Debian or Slack install. Add or remove what you want.
What speed of processor and what size hard drive are you talking?
386/486 should be okay. Hard drives under 120MB are more difficult. Above 250MB should be reasonably workable. This is in terms of just the Linux install. If you know what you think you need you can make a lot of changes to a stock minimum install.

[LinuxBox624]

Originally posted by thread_killer
Thank you.

You have certainly given me one heck of a place to start.

That's the thing about Linux Newbie... all its members rock!

We help each other out.

[LinuxBox624]

Originally posted by thread_killer
Thank you.

You have certainly given me one heck of a place to start.

That's the thing about Linux Newbie... all it's members rock!

We help each other out.

[thread_killer]

These are going to be P75's with 16mbs of RAM and 1.2 GB HD. Essentially I'm looking for a fast, clean (and easy would be nice)install without all the extraneous stuff to bog it down. I don't want dev kits, don't need 3 gui environments and 5 windows managers.....blah. I just need something that will log the firewalls activities 24/7.

I'll look into some of the numerous suggestions here.

Danke

[rpcyan]

Hey all,
A couple days ago I asked about small linux distros that will fit on a 200mb hard drive. Instead of studying for my chemistry test, I installed LRP onto a hard drive using my celeron 366 laptop (has floppy and cd drives). Once everything was all configured and functional, I put the hard driev in my 486sx laptop (subnotebook without any drives whatsoever). After the kernel is loaded it checks for a math coprocessor or math emulation. After finding the SX chip has neither, it displays "Giving up." and stop there.

My question is - why? Do I have to recompile the LRP kernel to allow for the SX chip? Do I have to use an older kernel version or older version of LRP? Is there a distro that somebody knows from expereince will work with a 486SX?

At any rate, this is definately a good learning experience. You learn so much more working with these small distros than you do with Red Hat :).

[2damncommon]

The 1.2GB drives are plenty of room for what you want to do. As long as you do not try to run Xwindows they should work great.

[N0RKX]

The last distro I ran on something like that was RH 5.0 and it was a PITA to tinstall on my proprietary as hell Packard Hell.

I suspect at the very least you will have to re-compile the kernel.

[WES187]

I started out with slackware and I still use slackware... I think it is the best but it is all opinions.. slack is more advance then rh and mdk etc.. but has much better structure of everything and in my opinion easy to work with.. it also has a nice package management system (: ok.. seeyas

[Skul-X]

Although I dont see how your age would matter what disto of Nix you would use, but anyways, if you are completely new I would remomend using Mandrake 8.2 or 9.0 and run either the KDE or GNOME GUI.

Hope this helps

[jglen490]

Please make this thread go away :mad: .

[rpcyan]

Just for reference here's what I get when I try to boot the thing:


SYSLINUX 1.47 1999-09-26 Copyright (C) 1994-1999 H. Peter Anvin

Linux Router Project
Embedding the bird for the sake of all humanity

http://www.linuxrouter.org/ ftp://ftp.linuxrouter.org/

Loading root.lrp..............
loading linux............
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.2.13 (root@zion) (gcc version 2.7.2.3) #1 Sun Nov 21 00:42:15 NZDT 1999
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 16.59 BogoMIPS
Memory: 5688k/8192k available (868k kernel code, 412k reserved, 408k data, 48k init)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
CPU: Intel 486 SX stepping 0b
No coprocessor found and no math emulation present.
Giving up.

[Tjoh311]

Hello all,
I was just curious as to what people thought was the best linux distribution to game on. I have been using Redhat 7.3 but I'm trying to figure out if its the best one for the job.(probably not)
If anyone know of anything that they have been successful with I'd like to give it a try.:)
Thanks for your input in advance

[z0mbix]

I don't really think it matters. I've played RTCW, Q3A, Tribes2, UT, UT2003, Counter-Strike, Half-Life and Opposing Force on Slackware, RedHat, Gentoo and Debian.

[BOOM]

Before I even knew what I was doing, windows was formatted out and redhat was installed and I was fooling around with it, I like redhat 7.3, good for a stupid n00b like me

[irlandes]

Originally posted by 2damncommon
The 1.2GB drives are plenty of room for what you want to do. As long as you do not try to run Xwindows they should work great.

Having run Drake 7.02 (Air) in 540 MB, 1.2 GB seems incredibly large. The 486 was 50MHZ, so his should be a little faster.

[irlandes]

Originally posted by LinuxBox624
That's the thing about Linux Newbie... all it's members rock!

We help each other out.

Yep, especially when we're not rolling around on the floor trying to gouge each other's eyes out, in a distro war. :-)

[emil_dk]

Mandrake have a specific "gaming edition" of their 8.1 distro.

Look here (http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/81/gaming-edition) for more info.

Emil :cool:

[Dun'kalis]

Gentoo, since its compiled directly for your hardware, and it now has GCC 3.2, which is blazing fast.

[2damncommon]

Please make this thread go away
This is the thread that never ends,
It just goes on and on my friend.
One day I started reading it not knowing what it was,
And now I go on reading it forever just because....
This is the thread that never ends....

(Apoligies to Sherry Lewis)

[blackscorpion]

I have used several different vision of Redhat starting with 6.0. Redhat is ok, but my pick for someone who is starting to learn linux is Mandrake 8.2 or the new 9.0. Mandrake's install is very simple on very straightforward. I also found that the wizards really helped in learning the inner working of the OS.


www.mandrake-linux.com

[iseeu_3]

what's good for me is Mandrake 8.2, that's a great os for beginners. just don't get corel, ohhhh jesus, that's a headache just thinking about what i went through! i'm getting redhat and i heard that's the easitest (from a friend so i have no idea). or just look here, this might help:

http://www.linux.org/dist/

[iseeu_3]

no more time is needed, it's time to decide grasshopper

[LrngTheHardWay]

Originally posted by mdwatts
Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 3.1.1

Even the name is impressive.

:)

MD....
Uh, hot coffee has a nasty side effect of burning nostrils.

Just thought I'd share that with you.

[mdwatts]

There could be a option you can pass to the kernel at the beginning of the boot process to stop it from checking for a math coprocessor.

Check the distros documentation/website or search around the web. 'lilo boot options' etc.

[jbm]

You need to compile a kernel with math emulation.

[2damncommon]

Don't know about LRP, but install programs often make choices depending on the hardware it is being installed on. If LRP is supposed to be able to run from a 486 it probably needs to either be installed on it to begin with or tweaked as mdwatts or jbm suggest.
A floppy drive on that would make your life a lot easier. Such is life.

[Fizban64]

It works but only in VESA mode, as linux hasn't a clue about the card. Got 1024x768 16Bit. If you have problems, then run sax2 from the command line, It will autodetect the best settings for you (SuSE 8.0 anyhow).

This will keep me going until ATI or the opensource team writes a xServer for the card.

[applejax]

I have used all these and more. I have to give Mandrake the nudge.

next windows xp repair/upgrade # ?
9
as in mandrake 9

[Haiku]

Originally posted by MagicalMagician
ftp://sunsite.dk/mirrors/lycoris

looks GOOD !!!!! :eek:

1. Based in Redmond, Washington.

2. Hardware vendors can now have their products Desktop/LX Certified.

3. To join the Lycoris Partner Program, fill out the Channel Partner Application

Redmond, certification, channels, lots of great press, and it looks like Xp...

Hmmm.

[ihcman]

Well I've got an update on my Distro of choice.

ELX linux. this is one of the nicest distros I've used.well setup for beginers. Along the same lines as Lycoris but not as confining as it either. with the full install "everything" its a mere 3250mb (2cd dld)

I highly reccomend this for the true newbie. next would be Lycoris. then MDK or RH

So far this month I've tried in this order:
Lycoris
MDK 9.0
RH 8.0
Slackware
Debian
Alt linux
ELX linux
Thank-god I've found one that fits me. Ran out of CD-R's tongiht.
:D

[Haiku]

Pulled the SuSE 8.1 trial distro, running everything from the cdrom is slow, but I'm happy to report that it recognized everything but my LT modem (os specific hardware sucks).
I think I've discovered a new love and will be installing to the HD tomorrow morning. Any tips or tweaks for SuSE? A user forum?

Thanks,

[sol-dude]

My top 5:

1. Suse 8.1
2. Mandrake 9.0
3. Red Hat 8.0
4. Caldera 3.1.1
5. Libranet 2.0

[Haiku]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ihcman
[B]Well I've got an update on my Distro of choice.

ELX linux. this is one of the nicest distros I've used.well setup for beginers. Along the same lines as Lycoris but not as confining as it either. with the full install "everything" its a mere 3250mb (2cd dld)

I highly reccomend this for the true newbie. next would be Lycoris. then MDK or RH
[QUOTE]

I'm a little leary of a distro that has errors on the webpage...

"Warning: Access denied for user: 'elxlinux@202.71.***.***' (Using password: YES) in /webcorp/www/corpusers/e/l/elxlinux.com/misc/includes.php on line 2"

Know what I mean?

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by ihcman
Well I've got an update on my Distro of choice.

ELX linux........ with the full install "everything" its a mere 3250mb (2cd dld)

Correct me if im wrong but isnt that 3.2gb . Thats ungodly!

[ShadowMaster]

Sorry about the topic just had to do that, well anywas im new to linux (1 and a half months) 14 yrs old and mah parents own a computer store i did the grafics on front page (www.steintech.com) well ive only used Red Hat 7.2 and Mandrake 8.2. Personally i like mandrake better. but i have yet to try more (Caldera) Laff. well yai think mandrake is purdy good.:confused: :confused: :mad: :D



And i forgot sorry sorry AMD SUCKS AMD CAN GO BLEEP ITSELF..... there all better amd is evil EVIL!!!!!!!

[CrashTestDummy9]

And i forgot sorry sorry AMD SUCKS AMD CAN GO BLEEP ITSELF..... there all better amd is evil EVIL!!!!!!! Why is AMD evil ? Because it gives better performance at less than half the cost(usually) of a Pentium equivalent?



Give me more evil!:p

[bskahan]

disclaimer: I didn't bother to read the first 224 posts in this thread.

best intro too linux, for people switching from windows to linux or for your grandma who doesn't know you put linux on her computer or for people who want a desktop that "just works":
Mandrake

if Mandrake doesn't satisfy your geeky desires, though the new apt-rpm may reduce debians standing:
debian

if you want to run a server, the downside of debian is that bleeding edge packages are slow to come out, for a server this is probably a good thing:
debian, or maybe redhat

if you want the best distro there is:
Gentoo

[daledorman]

I guess I'll put in 2 cents worth here too... I am using 2 machines both have Windows XP Pro on hda, one has Red Hat 7.3 on hdb and the other has Mandrake 8.2 on hdb ... so far it is definitely a learning experience ... I am not really jazzed with all the work that is required to download/install programs/software from the web ... Windows is much easier ... however so far I have not experienced any problems with crashes ... the Red Hat edition, however will not allow me to connect to the web, why I have no idea, somewhere in the NIC/DSL Modem maybe am more inclined to think it is in the OS itself as the Mandrake edition using same DSL modem works fine .... which flavor do I like best ..... good question Mandrake does not seem to be as picky as the Red Hat .. but I enjoy both ... by the way both my machines are running AMD processors one is xp1800+ and the other is xp2100+ ... good luck on whichever flavor you decide to use .....
Dale

[gritseater]

The distribution you don't have and the other guy is talking about.

[Antellamon]

Hi!
I just gor a 486:a Compaq from a friend and i decided to install Linux on it. Now i am a complete Linux Noob but i have brother that's pretty good at it. But what he didn't know was which version/how to install it on my new comp. It's a:
486:a (Don't know how much Mhz)
116 Mb Harddrive.
8.2 Mb RAM
Diskstation (No CD)
No Networkcard

So what version should i get? How do i install it? I would really apriciate if someone here could help me out :)

Thx in advance / Anders Johansson

[slapNUT]

I don't know.

Even VectorLinux (http://freshmeat.net/releases/101106/) requires 16M memory and 350M disk space.

[Antellamon]

Ok, Thx anyway... Anyone else?

[bskahan]

what are you hoping to do with this computer?

116 M hardrive is going to be tough, I've used similar computers to that as firewalls, (with some of the floppy distros). But if you plan to run any kind of desktop sytem, graphic interface etc. your going to be in tight quarters.

look for more ram and a bigger hardrive, if you want to use it as a desktop.

[Antellamon]

My brother told me that there were several good small linux systems that should run on that comp, but ok, maybe i'll try just DOS then.
Thx all.

[JP83]

This could run
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/intro.shtml

But it needs another Linux distro before install but maybe your brother can help you (HD to another computer?)

[bskahan]

now why would you go use DOS?

linux will run on that computer, and it will do pretty much whatever DOS will, do if you tell us what you want to use it for we can point you in the right direction.

[Antellamon]

So what i had in mind was the following:
Word Processing
VEry simple games (tetris)

I don't know if this can be done but i think Linux would be the right thing. I would really like to use Linux anyways instead of DOS.

Any help apriciated.

[swangods]

peanut?

[JP83]

Originally posted by Antellamon
So what i had in mind was the following:
Word Processing
VEry simple games (tetris)

I don't know if this can be done but i think Linux would be the right thing. I would really like to use Linux anyways instead of DOS.

Any help apriciated.

Word Processing: You can do this (only simple) like dos editor
VEry simple games (tetris): Sorry graphical games needs x (gui) and that is impossible when you have i486 and only 8MB ram.

[bskahan]

don't know about games, but you could very happily use LateX and VIM to do word proccessing. This would require both, VIM is a very powerful text editor and LaTeX is a very powerful typesetting markup language. Its a little daunting to start out but they are 2 of of the most versatile tools you will ever learn for a computer. Using latex and VIM will be much harder to start out than a DOS wordproccessor, but if you take the time to learn them they will let you do much more, and create much nicer documents.

now, about installing. I'm not sure about the best distro, I've had trouble installing redhat on small hard drives, maybe take a look at slackware.

[swangods]

actually, can't debian fit into tight spaces if you don't add much of anything? by default it installs mostly just kernel and a couple small things

[Antellamon]

The wordprocessing sounds prommesing. Now i will do a little research on Debian if it will fin on my system. Can someone give me a link to those Wordprocessing programs?

Really tthx all! Didn't expect this muc response in so short time. Feels really good.

[bskahan]

a intro to latex:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf

vim includes a tutorial when its installed.

latex will come in a package called tetex.

focus on getting the machine up and running first, then you will have a better idea of what you need.

[mocnicom]

I've tried everything to get my dsl working with mandrake but I give up so I'm going to try a different distro now. What I need to know is which distro that I might have better luck with connectionwise. I've already tried redhat and it didn't connect either and freebsd is too hard to install, so right now i'm thinking about trying Gentoo(would it be too hard for a relative n00b?). Anyone here have connection problems and then changed distro's to one that worked?

[bosox79]

Originally posted by mocnicom
I've tried everything to get my dsl working with mandrake but I give up so I'm going to try a different distro now. What I need to know is which distro that I might have better luck with connectionwise. I've already tried redhat and it didn't connect either and freebsd is too hard to install, so right now i'm thinking about trying Gentoo(would it be too hard for a relative n00b?). Anyone here have connection problems and then changed distro's to one that worked?

First of all what kind of connection problems are you having? do you get any errors? what happend when you tried to setup your connection of MD or RH? did either of them auto detect your Nic card? I am gussing they did'nt what kind of errors did you recive when you used auto dectect? what type of nic card & modem do you have? did you do a search woth www.google.com/linux? I would search for things like DSL connection problems with redhat or mandrake have you tried the mandrake forums? or the redhat site for any help?

asfar as using gentoo it is going to be very hard to setup a working system without a working net connection this is one of the first things that gentoo has you setup, becuse this is how you bulid your system if you can get gentoo to see your nic you might be in luck I would check out the gentoo site www.gentoo.org & http://forums.gentoo.org/ to see if gentoo is right for you. I myself have found gentoo diffcult to setuo becuse I do'nt know enough about linux yet. But I would recomend that you try gentoo for yourself and forum your own opnion? good luck:) post back if you have more questions & try to be as spefic as possible list error messeges & things like that the more information you can provide about your problem the eaiser it will be to help. be sure to use the search resource on this forum & search the net as will, using linux requires a lot of seaching for anwsers but the good news is you can usaley find an anwser! seach tools are your friends :D

hope this helps, post back if further help is needed

[mocnicom]

Here is a post I made earlier that should give more specific information: http://linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66156

And There were never any problems with the NIC, It's either with the modem(speedtouch home) or my ISP's settings. I've already spent many hours trying to resolve this problem and have finally decided to abandon mandrake. Even windows(with net) is better than an internet free mandrake. Basically I'm just wondering which Distro's might do things differently in any subtle or major ways that may make my connection work. I will still try any good ideas people have for resolving my mandrake problems(I have nothing against mandrake, and I'm already used to it) so feel free to suggest some.

[mocnicom]

OMG I can finally use the net in linux! I got it working in mandrake no probs, it was only one stupid mistake that prevented me from leaving windows for months. Thanks for your help everybody.

[LinuxSC]

Thought mandrake 9.0 will finally sort my problems out but still i download limewire struggle to install it cus this or that missing...cant install kde themes cus something else is missing..... i download and install the newer version of the component and still nothing works!!!!!!!!!! thinking of going back to windows but really dont want to!!!!:(

[jglen490]

If the errors are due to rpm dependencies and the specific rpm packages are missing, then all you can do to ensure a stable and reliable system is to satisfy those dependencies.

There is no way for a given software package to know in advance what your specific system configuration is, therefore each package identifies what files and libraries are required. No software package can, nor should, include all files and libraries in the package, because that could have a negative impact on current, newer files and libraries that you already have.

Therefore, we need to deal with dependencies.

In many cases, all you need to do to satisfy a dependency is to grab a package from your own install CDs. In other cases, you may need to search. That's where sites like http://rpmfind.net come in handy.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by LinuxSC
Thought mandrake 9.0 will finally sort my problems out but still i download limewire struggle to install it cus this or that missing...cant install kde themes cus something else is missing..... i download and install the newer version of the component and still nothing works!!!!!!!!!! thinking of going back to windows but really dont want to!!!!:(

These applications are written by people with no thought, usually of what distro your running. Normally they are written with the thought in mind to simplify things with smaller source. Have you never done an install in Windows when it asked for run-time files? Or complained about missing .dll's? Not much difference. How can an application writer know what libraries you have installed? Resolving dependencies is part and parcel of running Linux if you insist on running third-party apps.

[LinuxSC]

understand all that..... but why when i goto to install something ... for example:

I needed to install AutoConf 2.54.. so downloaded it. It then required Automake 1.7.1 so downloaded that and installed it the way it said but still Auto conf complains that it needs Autoconf.

Dowloaded limewire. Says it needs jre 1.3.1 so got that and installd it but still limewire will not install and run???? any ideas

[jglen490]

Not sure unless your rpm database got screwed up somewhere along the line. I've done that, and usually doing an rpm --rebuilddb fixes it. You may also need to enter:

ldconfig

occasionally, to update library configurations. That, sometimes, fixes install errors, in my experience.

[LinuxSC]

Limewire wasnt a rpm file... it was .bin did the command ./LimeWireLinux.bin and sh LimeWireLinux.bin but just got a jvm error message

[Dracnor]

You need to make sure that you set your PATH for the j2re (java 2 run time environment). I had the same problem trying to install LimeWire :) That fixed it right up for me. BTW, I would recommend using gtk-gnutella instead. It searches the LimeWire/Gnutella network too.

[LinuxSC]

how do i set the path???

[Dracnor]

Basically you "Add j2re1.3.1/bin to PATH, e.g. if you installed into /usr/local

% export PATH=/usr/local/j2re1.3.1/bin:$PATH "


here (http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/java2-status/INSTALL-1.3-j2re) is a link that may help

[LinuxSC]

i know this is asking a lot but is there any chance, you could type out a step by step. based on the folder that everything was extracted to was in the fllowing path /home/d/Desktop/jre1.3.1_06

So if you can write out the commands that need to be written in the shell from step 1...

so 1) (might be): cd /home/d/Desktop/jre1.3.1_06


Many many thanks!

[NuclearKitten]

The limewire install is no easy one. Especially for noobs like us. It can be done though. Get on the limewire support forum and look around. You will find all of the answers there. After you install JRE you need to modify your environment variable by using the command "export PATH=$PATH:/path to jre/bin". I took some notes on this when I set it up on my home PC. I'll post them tonight if you are still having problems.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by jglen490
Not sure unless your rpm database got screwed up somewhere along the line. I've done that, and usually doing an rpm --rebuilddb fixes it. You may also need to enter:

ldconfig

occasionally, to update library configurations. That, sometimes, fixes install errors, in my experience.


Also, I've found

updatedb -u

updating the database after a new software install.

[Molecule Man]

urpmi

It is like apt-get.

RPMDrake is a gui front end to urpmi, which is a set of perl scripts on top of rpm.

It will resolve most dependancies for you and autoinstall what needs to be installed.

[mtbottleofwine]

I have been playing with Linux for a few months now and i have been using RH7.2
As the question to answer the question has laready been stated....which linux is best for you??
I came across an article in one of the AUssie PC Mags and RH and Mandrake are best for beginers to get you up and running. Very easy to install with the Install Wizard, RH docs are easy to follow. Download the Official Redhat Customisation and Reference Guides available in HTML and PDF be warned though there is a lot of printing if you choose but makes for easy access when you fiddle with the system.

Debain and other distros are said to be more for the advanced geek and other versions aimed at specific markets such as commercial servers. While SuSe is a European desktop distribution I think Calders is too. Redmond Linux recently changed their distros name and it is said to mimick that other operating system and even looks a lot like (ie XP)

If I can find the article in my backlog of mags i'll give you the URL to refernce it.

About RH 8.0 if have read a few reviews where the changes are not popular and yet others welcome it. But one of the major changes appaers to be the choice of desktop. Pre 8.0 and you can chosse whether to instal GNOME or KDE or both and then decide on the prefered desktop to load. so try 7.2 or 7.3 first to get a comparison.

A web site worth metioning and taking into account your age let your folks know its a legitamate site and its called source.http://****microsoft.com/
It has a lot of useful information not only on Windows (refer to section on hidden files and why) but lots of info on open source. If you would like a coppy of the article email (terryslab@optushome.com.au) me amd i'll try to get back to you asoon as possible with a scanned copy.

There is a lot to learn but its worth it. Why pay in over $1500 Aussie dollars for an operating system and Office application when you get get it for free and is more reliable. The other great advantage is there is a lot of FREE and willing support for this reliable operating system.

[Hitchhiker]

I have just started using YDL, which is Red Hat 7.3 based.
Loving it so far!:D

[adler187]

I say SuSE! It has been the best I have used, though I have only used it and Mandrake. It installs easier than Windows and has everything I need.

[BaudBandit]

Ok here is my problem, I've been using Mandrake 8.2 for awhile and it was giving me problems plus its so much like windows with all the wizards, So I went to REDhat 8.0 and it was almost exactly like MDK 8.2. I like ALOT of control over my os and I'm a customizing nut case. I've been looking at Slack 8.1 and Gentoo 1.4 but im not sure about if my hardware is supported. I'll list my hardware at the bottom. So if anyone has any suggestions about a distro please reply. Thanks.

Processor: Intel Celeron 900MHz
MotherBoard: Intel D810E2CB 128 of RAM
Vid Card: Intel 82810E (aka I810) intergrated 36MB
Sound Card: Intel intergrated audio
HDD: Quantum Fireball 20GB

[kemical]

either distro should work, ive been using gentoo and i would recommend that over anything else.

of course others would have a different opinion, but the fact that you start from basically scratch to installing whatever you want is the way to go, have full control over your system and your applications, customize it until your fingers fall off if you wanted to :D

ive been running gentoo for about 5 months now and i still find new things to do with it.

[BaudBandit]

Thanks

[GaryJones32]

hi,

I've been sort of interested in a new easier to install debian distro called libranet.

Another point of view i like to take is that what you are running now is just giving you the illusion of being locked into redhat style.

figure out what innitiation files are loading what -- figure out the order and locations the init files are being looked for and simply take controll of the thing.

there is no customizing or going out on the edge you can't do with what you got already.

[CrashTestDummy9]

I know , I know ...There is no "best" .

The "best" is what works for you .

1) Learn how to set up your hard drive

2)Learn how to install an operating system

3)Learn how to install software on that operating system

4)Try em all .

[monmarc]

After using SuSE 8.0 for about a month and a half I bought SuSE 8.1 and I have to say it's the best for me. I've tried the latest versions of Red Hat and Mandrake and to me they seem to be lacking in some areas. I won't go into detail though since it really is of little consequence. Just personal preferances. I do agree with the people that say there really is no best version of Linux. One does really need to try at least a few to get to know generally what is out there. Being a newbie that has just gone though the proccess of trying more than 5 differant versions between Red Hat, Mandrake, and SuSE, you just don't know which one will work out better for you unless you try them out for yourself. I'm going to be sticking with the one I have for the time being though since I would like to enjoy using my computer a little bit before I start experimenting again because really there should really be more to do on the computer than just messing with the os.

[BaudBandit]

I've decided to get a couple of distro: Peanut Linux 9.3 gentoo 1.2 Slack 8.1 and Linux From Scratch. Hopfully I will like these better than MDK or RH.

[otbibb]

I have been using Slackware for about 2 years, though I used MDK a bit early on and built a LFS system once (it actually worked, but didn't do much since I couldn't get X to compile). Now, I am considering trying out something new.

About my setup:

I have two computers to work with. My office computer is a PIII 700 with a 6GB hd, and my laptop is a Celeron 366 Dell with a 4 GB hd. Right now, both computers are partitioned into about 1/2 FAT32 with Win 98 and 1/2 Slackware 8.1.

Most things are working well right now, though I have never been able to get ALSA to work. I can use the OSS drivers for sound, but I haven't ponied up the cash to register them yet. Also, I haven't gotten my USB Epson 1250 scanner to work. I played with a Sane hack that was supposed to work, with no success.

About the Win98... my wife uses MS, though I think I could switch her if I found a cheap dial-up ISP that would work under Linux. Right now we are on the $10/month Netzero plan. And at work, I could perhaps nuke the Win98 partition, though I occasionally boot over there to scan things. I would seriously have to fix my scanner config without the Win98. And without replacing Win98, I don't have room to try a new distro without replacing my old one.

About my usage:

I don't run any servers, and most of my work is desktop related - writing articles and books, email, web page creation (for uploading to the university server). I am running KDE at work and Fluxbox on my laptop (only 64MB of RAM).

My main love for Slackware is in being able install a small, lean distro and have control over the config files. (I know that you can do this with GUI-friendly distros, but Slackware *made* me learn about /etc/printcap, /etc/rc.d/rc.S, and ~/.bashrc.) With this lean system, though, I often run into dependency troubles, especially on the laptop, whenever I install new software.


About my choices:

Right now I am wavering between Debian and Gentoo, both of which seem to allow for trim installs with well-managed dependencies. I don't know if I have the time for Gentoo, but I could make the time if the end results were worth it.

Should I change on one/both of my machines? To what? Stay with Slack? Now's your chance to convince me!

BB

[z0mbix]

Originally posted by otbibb
I have been using Slackware for about 2 years, though I used MDK a bit early on and built a LFS system once (it actually worked, but didn't do much since I couldn't get X to compile). Now, I am considering trying out something new.

About my setup:

I have two computers to work with. My office computer is a PIII 700 with a 6GB hd, and my laptop is a Celeron 366 Dell with a 4 GB hd. Right now, both computers are partitioned into about 1/2 FAT32 with Win 98 and 1/2 Slackware 8.1.

Most things are working well right now, though I have never been able to get ALSA to work. I can use the OSS drivers for sound, but I haven't ponied up the cash to register them yet. Also, I haven't gotten my USB Epson 1250 scanner to work. I played with a Sane hack that was supposed to work, with no success.

About the Win98... my wife uses MS, though I think I could switch her if I found a cheap dial-up ISP that would work under Linux. Right now we are on the $10/month Netzero plan. And at work, I could perhaps nuke the Win98 partition, though I occasionally boot over there to scan things. I would seriously have to fix my scanner config without the Win98. And without replacing Win98, I don't have room to try a new distro without replacing my old one.

About my usage:

I don't run any servers, and most of my work is desktop related - writing articles and books, email, web page creation (for uploading to the university server). I am running KDE at work and Fluxbox on my laptop (only 64MB of RAM).

My main love for Slackware is in being able install a small, lean distro and have control over the config files. (I know that you can do this with GUI-friendly distros, but Slackware *made* me learn about /etc/printcap, /etc/rc.d/rc.S, and ~/.bashrc.) With this lean system, though, I often run into dependency troubles, especially on the laptop, whenever I install new software.


About my choices:

Right now I am wavering between Debian and Gentoo, both of which seem to allow for trim installs with well-managed dependencies. I don't know if I have the time for Gentoo, but I could make the time if the end results were worth it.

Should I change on one/both of my machines? To what? Stay with Slack? Now's your chance to convince me!

BB

Try them both I love Gentoo, just not enough to replace my Debian. I can't wait hours for things to compile even if it does give me a marginal speed advantage.

[Hayl]

im not going to say which way you should go but - for pros ad cons - both distros some of each:

debian: mature product/packaging system, precompiled binary packages = faster when installing new packages - but possibly slower code, less bleeding edge software packages, more stable

gentoo: newer product/less mature packaging system, source code installs = slower when installing new packages - but possibly faster code, more bleeding edge software packages, less stable

[NuclearKitten]

Don't ditch SLACK! I haven't tried Gentoo yet and I probably never will. I don't like debian though. I just can't get into the whole apt-get thing...

[jaygee432]

Suggestions for cheap dial-up ISPs that should work with linux:
Allvantage.com and Highstream.net. The first has brief instructions for linux including the dns numbers, and you can get them in the second in the instructions for mac users.

[think_penguin]

I might recommend gentoo since you can set up anything you want with it.
I think though if you ahve the time and patience then you should just try them both and see which you like more.

[bskahan]

i might not have read carefully enough, but if your only connection to the net is dial-up stick with slackware. The benefits of debian and gentoo over slackware are in package managment, which requires alot of network transfer.

If the slow connection doesn't bother you then I suggest gentoo, the packages are updated more often than debian, and I've experienced more stability with gentoo 1.4 beta than with debian 2.x (obviopusly this is not the case for most people, just my personal experience)

[ferreter]

If you have the nack for slack I'd stick with that. I use Gentoo because I have a cable modem and dl times are minimal. I've tried Debian but the install for it is a pain. If you have done lfs then Gentoo may be more up your ally.

[kozart]

I myself use Slack *shrugs* I feel like nobody loves it... :)

[drfox]

I have a small business network and would like to use Linux as a file server. What's the best distro to use?

I would prefer being able to administer it through another computer from the network, and I want something stable and (hopefully) reasonably easy to install and administer.

Thanks for any and all advice.

[bskahan]

any major distro will work quite nicely. I'd check out debian (for stability and ease of updating) and redhat (for comercial support).

[monmarc]

I've heard SuSE is slackware based. And if alot of people like SuSE then they like slackware right? In an indirect sort of way anyway. Well, if you like it then who cares right?

[kozart]

I do all command line with it myself.. It has grown on me :) Kinda makes my windows box boring.

[monmarc]

Actually to me it seems I am mostly in Linux and then when I reboot from Linux into windows xp to play a game or something it seems like I'm actually going from winxp to win3.1. Especially since I set up kde 3.1b2 Wierd huh? To me the usability of windoze seems much less than it did before. As soon as Wine is able to run my games I'm done with windoze completely.



For my future refferance, does anyone know the urls to download the differant distros out there. I mean besides the basic 3.(mdk, rh, SuSE)

[coldy]

I am RedHat 7.2 user from a few months (newbie). I have been amazed from him flexability. These one is my own choice. My advice is to try more isos and chooce your own, it must work for you (friendly) ... not to prevent you.

[otbibb]

For my future refferance, does anyone know the urls to download the differant distros out there. I mean besides the basic 3.(mdk, rh, SuSE)

www.ibiblio.org

[rtr]

Originally posted by monmarc
Actually to me it seems I am mostly in Linux and then when I reboot from Linux into windows xp to play a game or something it seems like I'm actually going from winxp to win3.1. Especially since I set up kde 3.1b2 Wierd huh? To me the usability of windoze seems much less than it did before. As soon as Wine is able to run my games I'm done with windoze completely.



For my future refferance, does anyone know the urls to download the differant distros out there. I mean besides the basic 3.(mdk, rh, SuSE)

distrowatch.com (http://www.distrowatch.com) is a good one

[Gwydyon]

Thats the same for me, I just use Windows now for Unreal Tournament, in the process of trying to get it to work on Linux.

[theloneaiel]

What is the best distro to install on a P90 with only 24 megs RAM? I got one for free a couple days ago and want to play around tcl and perl with it.

[slapNUT]

Try something like Peanut Linux or VectorLinux.

[theloneaiel]

does peanut linux ect. have a desktop enviro or is it just plain text?

[cbolton1]

Personally, I like Mandrake and SuSe. They are both easy for a first timer to install and configure even on new hardware. The latest Mandrake 9.0 recognized everything during installation on very new hardware and SuSe 8.0 did just as good. Spend the time and it will pay off! The best distro really is all of them! You can try all of them out on an older machine and judge for yourself. That is part of the beauty of linux. Cheapbytes.com has low price CDR's of all distro's (about $6.99 max) so you can afford to try them all.

[heron26]

I really like Vector Linux. It will give you a good window system on only 16 meg memory and much slower processor than you have.
It uses IceWindow Manager as its standard one., but you can use anything you like that will run on your memory.

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by monmarc

For my future refferance, does anyone know the urls to download the differant distros out there. I mean besides the basic 3.(mdk, rh, SuSE) http://www.linuxiso.org/

[b_usa]

Any of those distros that you can install entirely from floppy?:)

[heron26]

If you can connect to Internet with the Laptop in any DOS / Windows operating system.
Vector Linux has a couple largish files you download to a directory on your DOS partition, also 2 floppy images which can be downloaded on the DOS partition and copied using RAWRITE all of which are on their download site. This is for their latest version 3.0 which has a 2.4.?? kernel . The older versions like 1.8 and 2.0 are also available on their site. These can be installed to a llinux partition directly from DOS using a ram.bat file...

Check out their webpages.
vectorlinux.org (http://)

If you can get the machine to boot in its original operating system and connect to the internet from there, it is an easy way to go.

Another way would be to download it in a tiny partition on your Linux machine, create the disks needed by isntallation by splitting it with a file-splitter tool and do the install from floppies entirely. It would take a while.

[lindowsOS]

I use LindowsOS, and I think thats the best for ME. Everyone has different likings, and these are the list of Linux distros that you might want (in no particular order):
RedHat
Mandrake
LindowsOS
Xandros
Lycoris
Elx
Gentoo
SuSE
Some are easier to use, some are cheaper, some are more customizable.
For more information on LindowsOS, visit my site.

[b_usa]

Unfortunately I have no modem...:(

[Elijah]

Checked out the Lindows site ... ouch! I have to pay $99 to $299 to have Lindows??!! no thanks man, I'm happy with my free linuxes ... the click and run feature looks fun though.

Slackware to me is getting better and so is redhat, I'm trying out debian soon since I now have the cd's.

I can't really say what's the best distro out there, depends on your preference I guess ....

I like mine to be 'small' , easy to configure, I could learn from it, and have a good package manager.

[lindowsOS]

If you are happy with the Linux distro you have, stick with it!
Obviously, LindowsOS is for Linux newbies (like me):D
$99 isn't too bad if you think about the convinience and the commericial software in Click and RUn :rolleyes:

[Rickdog]

Redhat 7.3 and 8.0 are quite good...but, if you want to be able to easily set up internet connection sharing and still have a comparable workstation, multimedia station, internet and networking, Mandrake 9.0 is probably going to be hard to beat.

Just install everything, set up your internet connection, then having you network all set up, use the built in wizards for connection sharing and you can serve internet to a whole network. Other machines running MDK 9.0 will be able to use a printer on the host machine automatically. It's as easy as Windows and probably even easier if you use DHCP for all the devices. I run one MDK 9.0 box to feed internet to 4 other machines. It works great. The only problem I had was it wouldn't configure my old SB 16 ISA sound card, no big deal, I just put in a pci card, ran the sound config wizard, and it works.

[2damncommon]

Slackware to me is getting better
LOL
Just be careful what bar you say that in....

[bulp]

Well I've played around with RH8 and I must say it is very nice but it does have a lot of bugs (to be expected I know).

But there is 1 bug that is causing me to try another Distro ( Can no longer install/remove any packages, pretty huge bug imo - oh, and rebuilding database doesn't cure it).

So I'm thinking of trying Mandake 9 (downloading now, will take about a day hopefully) but this is where my quesiton lays.

Does Mandrake use a different way of installing/removing programs than RH does seeing as both use KDE etc desktops. After a lot of searching on the net it looks like it's a RH8 only bug but I would be interested to hear if anyone has had the same thing on Mandrake.

Any feedback appreciated.

Simon.

[mrBen]

Mandrake uses the RPM system of installing software, although I think they have their own frontend, but the CLI is the same.

[GonzoJohn]

Just a thought:

Red Hat is more Gnome-centric, where as Mandrake is more KDE-centric.

Just my opinion, but I never really liked the way Mandrake does things compared to Red Hat. Even though they use the same packaging system.

Libranet 2.7 is awfully good, and it is Debian based. I've switched to it from Red Hat on my home computer and am VERY pleased.

Oh and I'm not trying to start a flame war. All the ditributions have their pluses and minuses, it's all a matter of what you're willing to deal with.

[bulp]

Heh, I don't mean to start a flame war ;)

I choose Mandrake simply because it was the 2nd most popular. When I get to add another hard drive I'll be adding a 3rd and maybe 4th Distro.

Having only just converted to Linux I'm still dipping my feet in the water and trying out various bits and pieces. I had wanted to mess about with RH8 for at least a month before trying another but now seems like a good time :)

Simon.

[Dutch_64]

in mandrake u can use the " urpmi " command which takes care of the dependencies when installing a program .. i believe red hat does that with " apt get " but correct me if i'm wrong ..

[heron26]

Ok this is specifically to the last two issues presented by B_USA, essentially, an old computer with no modem and no CDROM (at least I am assuming no CD capabilities at all since he is looking for a floppy only install).

1. Try the floppy based minimalist sorts on the Linux Online distribution list.

2. Try to find one of the early distros on floppies. Slackware 3.75 or 4.0 i think were available that way and still remain available on some Slackware mirrors.

Check do some research on what is there, and what will fit your needs.

There are many mini-distros available.
You wiould have to download on a machine with internet access.

[bulp]

Just an update really.

Got Mandrake installed now and it's all running really well.

Stand by for more questions soon hehe ;)

Simon.

[sharth]

for a whole new idea, try debian, it uses a different system altogeather, dpkg and apt and dselect, worth a try atleast imho :)

[bulp]

Debian will be my next venture.

Anyhow, Debian sounds Waaaaaay too much like Debie who was my ex. She gave me hell so I expect the same thing from the similar sounding software (cue Twilight Zone theme tune) so I'll avoid it for a bit longer ;)

Seriously though I'm saving up for another HD and installing another 1 or 2 Distro's and over the coming months trying as many as I can to get my brain cells working even harder.

Simon.

[Hayl]

if you want an easy GUI installer for debian go to hackers.progeny.com/pgi - i always use this because i am lazy :)

then after the install change your /etc/apt/sources.list to debian servers.

[linuxabuser]

What is a good distro for a pentium I 233 MHz laptop with 32 MB RAM and 2mb integrated vid? Any good free distro's?

[mike_the_pengui]

:rolleyes: You have a nice machine from
stats you supplied, you'll have to go to
the websites to check out whats supported
(fully supported or you'll have to do some
configs yourself). You're fifteen so you'll
have lots of time for learning. I started out
with redhat 5.2 and 6.0 and that was a
learning curve but I learned lots from having
to read the man pages (manuals for each
program) (type man locate for the manual
on the locate program, etc).
Now the distros are much better at doing the
configurations for you. The latest I've tried is
Mandrake 8.2 and it is nice but leaves you
thirsting for more sometimes (still doing some
configurations myself). Sometimes you learn
more when it isn't all handed to you by the
distros. You have lots of time so try out
many different distros. Debian is gettting
easier to setup and is free but still has some
way before it will be as easy as redhat or
mandrake or etc. !!REMEMBER!! Linux is not
always as user friendly as slumdoze but it is
more stable and robust. Take the time to
learn it and you shall be rewarded. TIME is
your friend... use it wisely! There's lots of
people out there willing to help. Use all
references, man pages, docs, etc. Read,
learn, be patient. Soon you'll never turn back.
:D :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

Take your time.

[slapNUT]

What is a good distro for a pentium I 233 MHz laptop with 32 MB RAM and 2mb integrated vid? Any good free distro's?
I think any listed here (http://www.linuxlookup.com/iso.php) will work. And yes they are available for free, as a download.

[Icarus]

I have Debian 3.0 running IceWM on my Acer Laptop P100 w/42MB memory and it runs just great (at 300x240 resolution :()
I also have a Gateway 2200 Laptop running Red Hat 7.2 w/32MB of memory running Gnome at 800x600 (slow, it needs more memory...)

Debian has a floppy only install method (20 floppys) but if you can get an internet connection for a day with it you can install from the internet using only 4 floppys (1 boot, 1 root and 2 driver)

[CODAX]

I found that Slackware is far the best distro out there. Its a pain to install, but when everything is working it is kick ***.

[one_eyed_king]

I'm currently running Mandrake but at the moment I think
Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org) looks very cool. The word is that this is a very very fast distro (mainly because you compile it yourself).:)

[anubis]

So far, my favorite distro is Slackware, as ithas been said before, it is a pain to set up, but it works great once it's all done. I tried RedHat 8.0 and Mandrake 9.0.
RedHat was OK, I just didn't like how I had very little control over how it installed. The install process kept me wishing I could get rid of a lot of extra stuff.
Mandrake was the slowest thing I've ever seen. The kernel has everything insyalled and it takes 3-4 times as long to boot as RH. But then again, every peripheral on my system worked first shot.
Slackware took ~4hrs to install (I wandered off a couple of times to do other things), but it is really fast and EXACTLY set up how I want it. I still have a bit of configuration to do, but that's OK.
I still will try Debian and Gentoo, sometime...

[Leap2Linux]

Firstly... Hello! My first post here.

After reading through the thread on which distro is best, I am still undecided. I am torn between three: Redhat Pro 8, SuSE Pro 8.1 and Mandrake 9.

My only other experience of Linux was a while ago, I installed Redhat 7.1, and gave up because it wouldn't accept (well not easily anyway) my Alcatel ADSL modem. I have now got rid of that, and want to do away with MS.

People seem to be raving about Mandrake most. SuSE rarely gets commented on, and Redhat has the pretty Bluecurve graphical interface.

One thing to bear in mind is that all I know about Linux is that I know nothing!!

Oh, the burden of choice!!

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Daniel

(I posted this message on two threads, so apologies if you've seen it twice!)

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by anubis
Mandrake was the slowest thing I've ever seen. The kernel has everything insyalled and it takes 3-4 times as long to boot as RH. Thats funny because Mandrake 9.0 is the fastest of the 2 on my machine .

My RH kernel is about 250 kb bigger than my Mandrake kernel too .

vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 stock RH8 kernel 1114kb

vmlinuz-2.4.19-16mdk stock Mandrake 9.0 kernel 859.7kb

vmlinuz-2.4.18-bf2.4 stock Debian 3.0r0 kernel 1263kb

[silentblade234]

Which distro werks the best with wine or WineX?

[ch3wy]

i´m also new to linux, hell i have not even tried linux, its because i was looking for a 1-iso distro, i was dling RH8.0, but i realized i could not get that thru a 56k modem, but 1 iso is doable, so, which one? is there a distro for which i only have to dl 1 iso? its just for trying anyway, a friend will copy RH and SUSE, but i still have to wait a few months for that.
Thanks

[dcfxq]

I've tried (w/o success) to download several "one"disc Linux ISO's. I haven't been able to get any to run yet. Order some (really cheap actually from several sources) so it the easier that way, especially w/ a 56k download (I'm on DSL @ 784 mbps and it still is a loooong procedure).

[lindowsOS]

Originally posted by ch3wy
i´m also new to linux, hell i have not even tried linux, its because i was looking for a 1-iso distro, i was dling RH8.0, but i realized i could not get that thru a 56k modem, but 1 iso is doable, so, which one? is there a distro for which i only have to dl 1 iso? its just for trying anyway, a friend will copy RH and SUSE, but i still have to wait a few months for that.
Thanks
I know 2. Lindows and Lycoris.
RH and Mandrake needs 3, SUSE needs the whole directory (to make sure). United Linux Beta needs 2.

[yhotg]

And what happend with suse?
is a good, easy, first time friendly distro?

yhotg

[H()()KT]

alright,
the basics of each distro are the same! IF you are a super newb pick redhat or mandrake, they are the easist to start out with. Caldera or suse might be a little tough and slackware is for vetrans. Ive been using linux for a year and still run mandrake cause thats what fits my needs. but for my server i run openBSD (woot to all the bsd fans). Pick redhat or mandrake to start with then go from there.

[LaDjA]

I run - on my home PC - win 98 and Lindows OS.
Soon I want to format my hard-disk, and reinstall everything.

I need help choosing a Linux Distribution to install on my computer. Here are some details:

1 ) Pentium III 450 MHz - 256 MB RAM.
2 ) 10 GB hard-disk.
3 ) The main OS should be win 98 - my mom & sis are completely clueless - ads far as computers go.
4 ) I can't use more than 3 GB for Linux ( including all aplications ).
5 ) I need something which won't be too difficult to install and use.
6 ) I need to have the option of finding help on line relatively easy.
7 ) I would use Linux especialy for web surfing.
8 ) It would also be nice to have a nice word-proccesor, etc. ( Are there any which could read & edit MS office files? )
9 ) I also need to have the option of reading and editting in Hebrew.

Which distribution would you say best meets those requirements?

Thanks,
Tal Orbach.

[markjs]

I would say Redhat 8, but 3GB is really not enough. I suggest buting a small hardd rive for just linux. You can do so for less than $50.

[Penrich]

In no particular order:

a) Delete Lindows :D that'll save you some space, and is Linux anyway. (either that, or just use that and don't get another Linux??? I'm gonna get flamed for that :) )

b) If possible, get a new hard drive. 10 GB is not very big anymore, although you should be able to fit most Linux installs on a 3 GB partition.

c) Make sure when you reinstall, you put Win back on first. Then the linux - you can set the boot order later

d) OpenOffice (free) is at least 95% compatible with MS Office

e) Don't know about Hebrew

f) Do the Linux install in expert mode - that way you can specify how much junk to leave off.

g) The distros that tend to be easiest also tend to have most junk errr fluff on them. Having said that I like SuSE, but Dedian or Knopix will get lots of votes in this type of question too

h) CPU and RAM fine. I have a PII266 with 192 MB

i) Teach you Mum and Sis Linux, then take over the whole drive... ;)

j) Have fun.

[yhotg]

i need something like that too. :D

only i haven't problems of space.
and i need a really really friendly one to configurate the adsl connection, and all the thing in general.

i have now red hat 7.2 (bught it in "bug" with a book about linux in hebrew that doesn't help) and can't connect to internet.
and please!!! if u need an IPS don't think about bezeqint. (lo tomchim belinux)
netvision is better.

yhotg

pd: if u know about one distribucion more userfriendly and more beginers friendly, tell me ok?

[LaDjA]

First, let me say thanks to all of you.

then:
Dear Markjs, How much would you say I need for RedHat 8?

Dear Dr. SuSE,
First of all, I don't plan on saving my Lindows, That's why I need you to recomend on a new distro.
Second, Why SuSE? why Debian? Why not RedHat?

If you can please say to which of my needs do you refer when recomensing on a distro., I would appretiate it plenty.

Thanks.
Tal

[Penrich]

Its been a while since I dipped into this thread, but I notice that Suse needs a little bit of sticking up for! I run 8.0 personal, which just happened to load up smoothly on my system, and detected all my hardware. Personally, I had various other problems with RH, MDK and 3.1.1. Debian was another story - don't go there if you are as newbie as I was a couple of months ago... at least, don't go there yet.

The main problem with SuSE as I see it is that they don't make their distro easy to get. You either have to buy it, get the live-eval, which only works off the CD, and doesn't actually install to your PC, or go for the FTP download. I haven't tried the d/l, but people say that it works well. You d/l the installer, burn to a bootable CD, then slap it in. It detects your basic hardware such as ethernet or modem, then off you go. People tell of doing ftp installs like this overnight on a 56 kbps - answer the basic questions, and then let it run... (note - I think you get to ftp the personal, not pro, but hey it is free).

Also - you may want to check
ebay for SuSE 8.1 Pro (http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=suse+8.1+pro&cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&ht=1&from=R10&currdisp=2&itemtimedisp=1&st=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&BasicSearch=)

Note: You might not get tech support if you do ebay and certainly not if you d/l - if that is important to you, just shell out the $80 (for the Pro) or $30 (for personal) and buy it properly. Otherwise, come here :)

I like SuSE - the YaST (Yet another setup tool) is nice for newbies. Their front end for the rpm package manager (the bit that makes d/loading and installing easy). And YOU (YaST Online Update) is easy too. (Kinda like windows update). Of course, once you get below the installer and a few minor differences, each distro is esssentailly the same. All can be customized to look and feel just how you like, for windows-esque, to Imac, to techno-spartan to....

Try one - try 'em all! What works for me or anybody else here may not work for you. That's the beauty of Linux!

[markjs]

I would say to run Redhat, and have room for some programs, ideally you'd want at least 4 probably 5 megabytes.

As far as noob friendly distros I thing Rehat 8 takes the prize, and I myself am fairly new to Linux, though Mandrake and SuSE are also very good. Debian is not noob friendly at all and I do not reccomend it until you get a feel for Linux with an easier distro.

yhotg: Download Redhat 8, it is much easier and very easy to get online with, or else try Mandrake 9 or SuSE 8.1.

[Penrich]

Why SUSE - I like it. That is what most of these discussions boil down to. I posted a slightly longer answer over in the which linux is best (http://www.linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=59636) thread. Why NOT RH - I tried 7.3 and it did not install on my PC. I have no experience with 8.0. I'm not recommending against it, just not for it.

Why Debian - It is harder to install, but more more customizable. With SuSE, RH or MDK, you tend to get a standard install, which will dump almost evrything on your HD. If you only have 3 gig to use, you don't want that. I think a standard Linux install needs about 1 gig for the kernel, plus as much as you like for the associated gubbins. More software = more space. You should be able to get a pared down install in 2 gig, leaving 1 free for data. IMHO, it is easy to get a pared down setup without doing the standard "easy" install. Knopix is basically a graphical installer for Debian that makes set up easier, and I think does a good job, though I've not tried it.

I figured you did want to take Lindows off, but Lindows is Debian based, and there was a thread a while back about turning it into a more "Linux"-like distro (installing apt-get, a compiler etc) and so getting you away from point and click. Click and Run. Whatever they call it. You could try that?

Hey --- Maybe someone needs to do a NHF on a Lindows to Debian retro-conversion??? Any takers??

OK - now what was the question...

Which of your needs. OK. Basically, you want to run Linux on a PC with a small hard drive. That is your major limiting factor. (Other than the Hebrew, which, as I said, I know nothing about). Most distro will come with Open Office and a browser, if not, they can be d/l free. So you are set there. Dual boot with 98 is no problem. Ease of install - not Debian. Ease of use - all distros about the same (some diffs in package managers - learn to install from tarball). Online help --- HERE!!! You found that already. If you want "real" help - you have to pay for it/buy the distro (but it may not be worth it).

So - go buy a new hard drive (my recommendation) and then you are free to try whatever you want! There really is no best, just the best for you... and I can't tell you that.

Pick one - any one, and jump in...

(PS - back up your data on Windows if you want your Mum and Sister to love you on the off chance something goes wrong.)

[yhotg]

Originally posted by markjs


yhotg: Download Redhat 8, it is much easier and very easy to get online with, or else try Mandrake 9 or SuSE 8.1.

from where?
:confused:
i can't find it

[Penrich]

P.S. What kind of internet connection do you have? If Lindows detected it then you are probably OK. BUT Linux does have a "problem" with some internal modems, specifically winmodems. It may be worth checking your hardware compatability at the distros site first, or doing a search here or on www.google.com/linux if you think there may be a problem.

[vbp6us]

YA...it's all about SuSE baby. Just get SuSE 8.1 personal and your fine.

[Penrich]

Originally posted by yhotg
from where?
:confused:
i can't find it
http://www.linuxiso.org/

[Phil Hyde]

This is about as 'noob' friendly as a Debian install gets:

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=2016

The instructions land you a fairly bare bones Debian install. I followed them and it was fairly thorough.

[LaDjA]

I read all about winmodems.
I have both a winmodem ( 56K - Conexant ) - which I found Linux drivers for, on the Conexant site, but haven't been able to install them, as I haven't RPM, or any RPM compatible package installer, and an ISDN, with which I have NO idea what to do.

Now let me see if I got everything straight:
1) RedHat - easiest to use and install - but takes ****-loads of space.
2) Mendrake & SuSE - almost as easy - but more customizable - and therfore less space consuming.
3) Debian - hardest to install, but most customizable - least spacious. Has a graphical installer called "Knopix" for easier installation.

Right?

[bones996]

I have been using Red Hat linux for nearly a year & also have a conexant winmodem. The conexant currently has several source progs tat you could possibly use rather than the rpms.
Also with Red Hat you can opt to customize which packages to install using the customized install or the regular install & then the select packages option which could save a lot of disk space iif you check through the install list, although this will take a little time to do. I am running Red Hat 7.3 & my install was only 1.2 gigs.
Hope this helps :)

[lindowsOS]

Since you couldn't figure out to do "apt-get install something" in LindowsOS, you probably will have to buy a packaged version of either RedHat, Mandrake, Xandros, or LindowsOS (with Click and Run).
The option of editing Hebrew will probably only be possible with a big-name distro like RedHat and Mandrake if any.

[Penrich]

Originally posted by LaDjA
I read all about winmodems.
I have both a winmodem ( 56K - Conexant ) - which I found Linux drivers for, on the Conexant site, but haven't been able to install them, as I haven't RPM, or any RPM compatible package installer, and an ISDN, with which I have NO idea what to do.

Now let me see if I got everything straight:
1) RedHat - easiest to use and install - but takes ****-loads of space.
2) Mendrake & SuSE - almost as easy - but more customizable - and therfore less space consuming.
3) Debian - hardest to install, but most customizable - least spacious. Has a graphical installer called "Knopix" for easier installation.

Right?
Something like that.... not really sure if SuSE/RH/MDK that different though... just get one and go for it! (if you don't like it, just get another...) :)

[rustskull]

Originally posted by LaDjA
9 ) I also need to have the option of reading and editting in Hebrew.


Debian has the best multi-cultural support of any distribution. There are many packages in stable to work in many languages. Unfortunately, many applications can't work with different languages, but you can set up your keyboard for hebrew, load in hebrew fonts...I know that mozilla and some others will support it.

http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-il@debian.org.il/msg00006.html
There are explicit instructions on how to set up your debian system to support hebrew for your keyboard and console, also X. It's a tad dated, it's for 2.2, but 3.0 should be fairly similar. There's probably a list out there somewhere, with more current info...

I think as long as the application is compatible with standard hebrew fonts, you should be able to use it...I would think most linux apps (abi word, gnotepad, whatever) will adhere to standards well enough for you to use whatever fonts you find.

That should get you started.

Translating will be manually done, though, unless you're using latex. I think there's a hebrew translator for it, I seem to remember seeing acouple packages somewhere in the distro referring to it. You can always check the il18n guys too (the internationalization lists). They'll ikely have better leads than me. Pop 'em an email...I'm sure they'd be happy to hear from someone who wants to run in a different language, they're always seeking to expand.

-rust

[LinuxLuke]

Alright, I've been wanting to try Linux for a few years now, and in light of recent info on what MS does, I decided to switch. I was out in this bookstore and I noticed a book about Linux. I picked it up and noticed it came with a distro, so of course I bought it ($10 CDN) the distro was Caldera OpenLinux 1.3, and from what I've used of it, it's not too bad, I had SOME dificulty during setup (likely due to the fact that I've never used it before) but I would suggest trying Caldera, it seems to have a lot of hardware support, and the package I got wasn't too stingy with apps.

Also, could anyone give me some details as to just how dated my version is, I know it's old, but is it still compatible with stuff. anyway, that's my opinion.

[2damncommon]

Hello ch3wy,
is there a distro for which i only have to dl 1 iso?
Or less?
http://www.peanutlinux.org/
http://www.vectorlinux.org/
Both Peanut and Vector have small minium installs.
They would not be my first recommendation for someone new but some people start with them.

[LaDjA]

OK.

What's Latex?
Who are the il18n guys?

Is it true that SuSE isn't freeware?

Is there any way ( emulation or something ) I can run win apps ( espacially games ) on Linux?

Is Star-Office ( or any other Linux app ) capable of reading and editing MS-Office files ( .doc, .xls, .ppt, etc )?

I've found that my ISDN ( AVM's FRITZ! ) is fully supported by SuSE. But I haven't been able to find it on Mendrake's list, and haven't been able to find RH's list at all. If any of you knows anything about it's compatibility with other distros?

Thanks

[Penrich]

Originally posted by LaDjA
OK.

1. What's Latex?
2. Who are the il18n guys?

3. Is it true that SuSE isn't freeware?

4. Is there any way ( emulation or something ) I can run win apps ( espacially games ) on Linux?

5. Is Star-Office ( or any other Linux app ) capable of reading and editing MS-Office files ( .doc, .xls, .ppt, etc )?

6. I've found that my ISDN ( AVM's FRITZ! ) is fully supported by SuSE. But I haven't been able to find it on Mendrake's list, and haven't been able to find RH's list at all. If any of you knows anything about it's compatibility with other distros?

Thanks
1. I'll leave that to someone else...
2. Dunno
3. SuSE make it hard to get their stuff, but not impossible. They do not allow d/l of their most current iso, but you can do an ftp install
4. WINE or WINEX - do a search here or www.google.com/linux for LOTS of info
5. Yes - Star Office (commercial with 6.0) or OpenOffice (open source version, essentially identical). ABout 98% compatible with everything except Access as far as I can tell
6. So go with SUSE ( ;) )
7. Why did no-one correct me? Knopix is a CD-based Linux, not a Debian based graphic loader... Did I mean Libranet? :confused:
8. Hebrew support seems to be built into, or at least addable to KDE 3.0.4... (a desktop environment available to all distros) check into "internationalization"

[LaDjA]

So, these questions remain:


1. What's Latex?
2. Who are the il18n guys?

3. What's an "ftp install"?

4. Where can I get some information ( not LOTS ) on WINEor WINEX?
Do they come with any distro?

5. Does Star-Office ( or Open-Office ) come built-in with any distro?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by LaDjA
So, these questions remain:


1. What's Latex?
2. Who are the il18n guys?

3. What's an "ftp install"?

4. Where can I get some information ( not LOTS ) on WINEor WINEX?
Do they come with any distro?

5. Does Star-Office ( or Open-Office ) come built-in with any distro?

With a bit of searching yourself (distro websites and Google for Linux) you should be able to find the answers to ALL your questions.

[fancypiper]

Open source programs should be available for install, but there are websites you can check to see if it is packaged with the install/

A bunch of links to start you off and great ones are in my sig as well.

Linux Distribution sites:
Distrowatch (http://www.distrowatch.com/)
LWN distro list (http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/)
elinux Linux Distributions (http://www.elinux.com/articles/distros/index.jsp)

Mandrake links:
Mandrake Users (http://www.mandrakeuser.org/) website
Easy software management: Red Carpet (http://www.ximian.com/products/ximian_red_carpet/)

Redhat links:
Easy software management: Red Carpet (http://www.ximian.com/products/ximian_red_carpet/)
rpmfind (http://rpmfind.net/)
Red Hat Linux Manuals (http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/)
Maximum RPM (http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/)

CDs:
How To Check MD5sums On A Linux Iso Image (http://linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html)
Discount Linux CDs (http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/)
Linux Central (http://linuxcentral.com/)
Cheapbytes (http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart)

Linux Gaming
Linux Gamers FAQ (http://icculus.org/lgfaq/)
Transgaming Technologies (http://www.transgaming.com/)
Linux kernel preemption project (http://kpreempt.sourceforge.net/)

Welcome to the learning curve, just relax and do one step at a time. :D

[lindowsOS]

Originally posted by LaDjA
So, these questions remain:


1. What's Latex?
2. Who are the il18n guys?

3. What's an "ftp install"?

4. Where can I get some information ( not LOTS ) on WINEor WINEX?
Do they come with any distro?

5. Does Star-Office ( or Open-Office ) come built-in with any distro?
Answers:
3. FTP install is where you download the necessary packages from SUSE FTP server while installing.
4. Official site is http://transgaming.com There are some info at http://frankscorner.org as well
5. Star-Office not be built-in free distros, since it is a commercial software. OpenOffice is included at least in RedHat and Mandrake.

[fancypiper]

Originally posted by LaDjA
What's Latex?LaTeX: A document preparation system (http://www.latex-project.org/)I've found that my ISDN ( AVM's FRITZ! ) is fully supported by SuSE. But I haven't been able to find it on Mendrake's list, and haven't been able to find RH's list at all. If any of you knows anything about it's compatibility with other distros?
Google hits (http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+AVM+FRITZ)

[danrees]

Originally posted by Penrich
Its been a while since I dipped into this thread, but I notice that Suse needs a little bit of sticking up for! I run 8.0 personal, which just happened to load up smoothly on my system, and detected all my hardware. Personally, I had various other problems with RH, MDK and 3.1.1. Debian was another story - don't go there if you are as newbie as I was a couple of months ago... at least, don't go there yet.

The main problem with SuSE as I see it is that they don't make their distro easy to get. You either have to buy it, get the live-eval, which only works off the CD, and doesn't actually install to your PC, or go for the FTP download. I haven't tried the d/l, but people say that it works well. You d/l the installer, burn to a bootable CD, then slap it in. It detects your basic hardware such as ethernet or modem, then off you go. People tell of doing ftp installs like this overnight on a 56 kbps - answer the basic questions, and then let it run... (note - I think you get to ftp the personal, not pro, but hey it is free).

Also - you may want to check
ebay for SuSE 8.1 Pro (http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=suse+8.1+pro&cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&ht=1&from=R10&currdisp=2&itemtimedisp=1&st=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&BasicSearch=)

Note: You might not get tech support if you do ebay and certainly not if you d/l - if that is important to you, just shell out the $80 (for the Pro) or $30 (for personal) and buy it properly. Otherwise, come here :)

I like SuSE - the YaST (Yet another setup tool) is nice for newbies. Their front end for the rpm package manager (the bit that makes d/loading and installing easy). And YOU (YaST Online Update) is easy too. (Kinda like windows update). Of course, once you get below the installer and a few minor differences, each distro is esssentailly the same. All can be customized to look and feel just how you like, for windows-esque, to Imac, to techno-spartan to....

Try one - try 'em all! What works for me or anybody else here may not work for you. That's the beauty of Linux!

Agreed. I try different Linux distributions all the time, mainly because the development is so fast that it's great to check out all of the new features. I've used SuSE on and off in this way since 5.1, and recently installed 8.1 using the net install (I'm a student, and I can't afford to buy something that I might not stick with - although I have bought the 7.2 boxset in the past).

From what I can tell, it's impressive. The net install is great, and YaST have been improved greatly since the last time I used it (bye-bye rc.config! :p). The only problem I have experienced is that some custom-installed KDE software doesn't work - I think this is a problem with that particular version of QT, but until SuSE updates this themselves, you're pretty much stuck without. Luckily, SuSE have a vast number of apps included so it hasn't been a major problem so far.

You'll find that SuSE also helps you to install Nvidia drivers when you run Sax2 after installation.

But yeah, I could stick with this, Mandrake, Debian, Red Hat - it really doesn't make much difference because the software I use most is available whatever distro I use.

[LaDjA]

How is the "ftp install" possible? I mean, how can I download the packages, when I don't have an OS installed? I mean, When installing a new OS, I have no OS, and therefore cannot connect to the internet, so how can I download things while installing an OS?

Can I run any win game on WINE\WINEX?

[JP83]

I have both a winmodem ( 56K - Conexant ) - which I found Linux drivers for, on the Conexant site, but haven't been able to install them, as I haven't RPM, or any RPM compatible package installer.

Use tar packages those will work and install is easy.

[Penrich]

For the ftp install, you first download and burn a bootable disc that contain a minimal set of drivers (CD-rom, ethernet/modem etc). This contains just enough info to get you connected to the ftp site and start d/l the rest.

Wine? (http://www.linuxnewbie.org/forum/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=211173&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending) OK - saw you wanted SOME, not LOTS - but you have to weed thru it and find what you need. Bottom line: lots of games = no. Some = yes. Keep Win for now if you are a hardcore gamer. But don't worry about this for now. One step at a time. Get you a distro YOU like up and running first

Now take a deep breath and JUMP :D

[chronosifter]

If you like me grew up since windows 3.1 on windows, i would suggest Lycoris can get at Lycoris.org -> dl section -> mirrors and the closest mirror to you. It's looks a lot like windows, some of your old programs will still work, and i got my 12 year old cousin to use it for a week and he grew out of windows already, but if your looking for a crash coarse in linux i would suggest mandrake since it is more true to the linux style, but lycoris is good for the migration until your used to the command prompt.

[CyPHer_138]

Well I pre-ordered Mandrake 9.0 and have yet to get my copy to date. I got FreeBSD in the meantime and am learning so much about *nix in the mean time. It's FAR from easy, yet rewarding. I'm a total newbie and I lost my "fear of cli" when I was greeted by the kernel config screeen right off the bat. So far I like *sd alot. one of the ports on the disc is Plan9. I went from waiting for Mandrake to buying a CDR to burn Slack,Debian and Gentoo.
I say go with FreeBSD, it'll prepare you for the most diffacult and teach you alot about *nix along the way.:D

P.S Thanx for the delay Mandrake.

[carrja99]

What's the best Linux? Why, ThizLinux of course!!

[guitargeek]

Ease of use, Mandrake, hands down.

I tried Red Hat as well, but it just wasn't as easy to use, and took forever to load, plus didn't run as fast as I expected on my hardware.

Mandrake, however, runs even faster than I thought it would, and is easier to use to boot. Hardcore Mandrake fan here:D . My girlfriend's even using, no problem!

Haven't tried any other distros yet, since I'm a newbie, but that's my experience so far.

I think I'm going to buy a computer just to guinea pig with, and then I'm going to try every distro I can get my hands on!

[CrashTestDummy9]

The best Linux(distro) IS and always HAS been ....."The one that works for YOU.":D

[Penrich]

Just gotta say - Linux has it all!!! I just made my system a dual boot with SuSE 8.0 (see a few posts above) and Evil Entity linux (http://www.undeadlinux.com) and i gotta say - EvilE rocks :D Of course, what is really neat about it is it has Enlightenment as the standard environment -- very different to *anything* MS/Windows :D (although i did have to delete one of the wallpaper images - too graphic for me...). No KDE or Gnome - no menus, icons or any of that familiar feel here. I think enlightenment is going on SuSE tomorrow... its soooooooo much faster :D

PS - No sound, ethernet or anything like that in EvilE for me right now - Its not a newbie distro! Gonna have to configure all that manually.

Man, Linux is pretty neat ;)

If you are still on the fence about installing Linux, get one, get twenty, but stop procastinating and JUST DO IT!

[lindowsOS]

The best thing about Linux is you can totally customize it to fit you... You can start with a distro you like and fine-tune it even more!

[DeathByGerbil]

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...

dude, your in sacramento

email me and we will talk shop :)

my name here @hotmail.com

[bbooska]

Lindows Rocks!! and gettin better every Day.

Installed and on the net in 15 minutes,with sound.

Even made me a cup a joe while i was in the john ;-)

[aw.nightmare]

I prefer RedHat

[RyRy]

I have almost the exact same hardware as yours, i am 13 and i have been using linux for the past 2 days. I bought SuSE LINUX 8.1 PERSONAL and i am very happy with how it came out, you should use it. It costs $40 usd and ships with plenty of software (3 cd's)
GOOD LUCK!:)

[CRM]

The best Linux(distro) IS and always HAS been ....."The one that works for YOU."

true that!! up to personal perference. Slackware is a bit harder to setup but its just a lot more simpler!

[n0dez]

Hi!
If you wanna learn linux don't use lindows or mandrake, instead use one of the following distroes:

Red Hat Linux: great for both newbies and experts. It was the second and better commercial linux distro. You can download it for free. They have great docs at their Website.
http://www.redhat.com

Debian: less easier than Red Hat Linux. Non-commercial distro.
http://www.debian.org

Slackware: difficult to install for newbies but still great. It was the first linux distro. Commercial distro but it can be downloaded for free.
http://www.slackware.com

I hope this was helpful for you. ;)


n0dez
==
http://www.n0dez.com/

[lindowsOS]

Originally posted by n0dez
If you wanna learn linux don't use lindows or mandrake, instead use one of the following distroes:
Why? I think those are great way to learn Linux. You have a functional, easy-to-use system, and then you can pick up from there.
This is just an opinion, but I think it is much harder to just try and learn from a distro that is not intended for newbies?

[2damncommon]

Slackware: difficult to install for newbies but still great. It was the first linux distro.
Not exactly first, according to Slackware:
http://www.slackware.com/book/index.php?source=x63.html

[walters55]

Hop on google.

[rh0win]

Well in my opinion redhat would be the better choice for a newbie but it is still up to you the user and what distro you feel comfortable with.

Slackware and Debian are expert users distro because the install is not as easy as that of mandrake or redhat it requires you to know your hardware it's IRQs etc. And to me that is not good for a newbie to linux.

Redhat all the way

[Wolface]

Im a newbie tooo... I have been using linux for 5 days and I have installed it 14 times :P . everytime I install I learn something and I crash something its soooo much fun... (sarcastic)

ok.. Ive used the redhat linux, and mandrake linux and winxp on the same pc at the same time its better if you are new to linux to remain in windows for a couple of days... until u make the internet connection to work on linux after that ... forget about linux.

and... I like mandrake, even though I used redhat much more, after a couple of hours on mandrake I felt in total control of the system. It just took me 2 hours to install the NVIDIA drivers.

Mandrake 9.0 or Redhat 8.0

[NetGEEK]

I have been dabbling with Linux for 6 years... I must say that I do like Debian the best for LEARNING GNU/Linux. But for USING GNU/Linux, I prefer MANDRAKE 9.0. It is the slickest distro alive. There is NOTHING wrong with having a Linux system that is usable at the same time your learning - now is there?

Not everyone wants to be a damned programmer :P

NG
Where do you want to go today? MANDRAKE!!!

[CyPHer_138]

Now that I finaly got Drake9 I have to agree it is more than I imagined it to be.
Great for newbies like me.

[chrisnu]

I've tried the following so far

Red Hat 7.3/8.0
Mandrake 8.2/9.0
SuSE 8.1
Gentoo 1.4 (yep, i got that bastard to work :p)

So far Red Hat has been my favorite. When installing Gentoo I learned a lot about the sytem, but for now I like the distro to configures things for me, for the most part. (Amazing how many things you take for granted. With Gentoo, I was wondering.. why isn't that configured? Oh yeah, I've got to do it.) I also like the instant gratification of apt-get on RH. Apt-get install package.. boom. Done. What can I say, I'm impatient.

I'm thinking of trying out these too:

Caldera OpenLinux Workstation
ASPLinux
Debian
Slackware

Mdwatts, I know you're the Caldera guru, so a couple questions? Does Caldera use apt-get to install RPMs? Does it have an up2date-like tool? If not, fine by me. Also, screenshots of United Linux I've seen like almost exactly like SuSE.. does it compare? I know you've had experience with United Linux.

[Shuja]

Well, for my friends I usually give them a copy of redhat 8.0 simply because I'm a RHCE so helping them is easier when they encounter problems. I recommend mandrake to those I don't have much contact with simply because it is one of the easier to use. On my personal system I use Gentoo because I like the control it gives me over my system. You can't beat a custom compiled system which is faster and more responsive than precompiled ones on the same hardware. I would never recommend Gentoo, slackware, or Debian to a newbie though... thats just cruel since I've seen people get to near panic when installing an easy distro like mandrake. :p

[digimax98]

Im planning to setup an Linux internet sharing box and dont know what Linux distro to use. Could anyone recommend any distro that will meet the following requirements?

- Pentium 100Mhz with 16MB RAM
- Linux to be installed on hard disk
- will be using 3 NICs (1 NIC for PPOE ADSL+ 2 NICs for internal network)
- must use kernels 2.2 or 2.4 since one of the NIC only support those kernels. (Kernel 2.4 is prefered since it has bandwidth throttling)
- No need for GUI since hardware has limited resources


I have already checked out some distro (ex. coyote floppyfw,etc) but they dont meet some of the above requirements. Any advise will be highly appreciated.

[tonimontanna]

Redhat
Suse
Mandrake
and many others

[darren7659]

smoothwall http://smoothwall.org/
gentoo http://www.gentoo.org/index.xml

[Dutch Mafia-boy.]

Please don't start another thread debating which linux to use....you'll just start another flame war.....read this....and if you still can't decide, JUST PICK ONE !!! I'm sure the more popular distros will suit your situation just fine......RedHat, Mandrake, Suse

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=59636

[Choozo]

Based on what you will be using this box for, I'll second darren7659's suggestion for SmoothWall.

[MUSTANGPC]

I have a question based on something I read. Is it worth paying $99 for a Zandros distros just because it can also read Office?

[Hayl]

any distro can read ms office files.

just install openoffice.org

or for greater compatability use crossover office and run ms office directly in linux.

[UsHeR_564]

That's a tossup at best. May I make a suggestion. Buy yourself a spare hard drive. Nothing fancy mind you, just something in the 6 to 10 GB range, maybe even a used one from a local shop. Install whatever you decide to use on that one first! May save you a bunch of headaches down the road, if you decide not to continue with Linux.

My Linux computer specs are as follows:

ECS K7S5A v3.1a board
Athlon XP1900 processor
256Meg, DDR 2400
IBM Deskstar ATA100 7200RPM Hard Drive
Intel i740 8Meg Video
Onboard A97 Codec sound (Cmedia)
SiS 900 onboard LAN
Conexant 56k softmodem
Standard Floppy and CDROM
PS2 wheel mouse

I installed Red Hat 7.3 on this machine first. Was hands off! I thought Windowz XP was easy, this distro was a breez as it found ALL drivers needed, even for the softmodem and sound! Blanked the hard drive and installed Red Hat 8.0, same deal. Both these were hands off installs. The only things I had to do were point and click for some stuff concerning time/date etc, Change CDs and root password. After I installed 8.0, it updated itself via Red Hat online to the latest kernal and did updates to all the packages, again, point and click! I just don't see how it could get much easier! DHCP is supported so it found my router (Cisco 804 ISDN) and automatically made a connection to the internet. I also have it printing through my Windowz machine on my network. If I can get it to run Quake2 online now, I'll be on my way to getting off Windowz.

UsHeR_564

PS, Here is one of my other machines. It's a Windowz computer but check out the case I have it installed in, or the lack thereof!

http://www.ftrdesign.com/nocase

[frank754]

Isnt' there a good free debian distro somewhere out there.?
I've tried a few things & failed. Libranet free version is too old, Debian itself uses kernel configs too old, and can't install
newer modules properly. Looking for something more up-to-date,
whether it's bare bones or not, but has a kernel supporting
USB etc.

[matt95z]

I am use Debian Woody and have USB working just fine. You have to add it as a module for it to work.

Anything else in particular that you need?

[Hayl]

debian IS free. libranet is based on debian but it isn't debian.

debian woody with kernel 2.4.18 supports usb.

just recompile the kernel with usb support.

use the PGI (http://hackers.progeny.com/pgi) installer then right after it is done change your sources (/etc/apt/sources.list) to debian ones then
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install kernel-package libncurses5-dev kernel-source-2.4.18
cd /usr/src
bunzip2 kernel-source-2.4.18.tar.bz2
tar -xvf kernel-source-2.4.18
cd kernel-source-2.4.18
make menuconfig <add in your usb stuff>
make-kpkg --revision=yourhostsname.1.0 kernel_image
make-kpkg --revision=yourhostname.1.0 modules_image
cd ..
dpkg -i *.deb
shutdown -r now

PS: when i do this i compile all my modules into the kernel so i don't make a modules_image - i HATE loading modules but that is a personal preference

PPS: if you don't know the debian sources then here they are (just remove the PGI ones):

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free

deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

[ShieldWolf]

Try Knoppix. It's a Debian-based, run-on-cd distribution that will automagically detect your hardware for you. I use it at work to be able to run Linux on our Win2K machines without reformatting the drives and upsetting the SysAdmin. :D

Check out this article (http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2002/1104.barr.html) by Joe Barr for all the details on using Knoppix to setup a permanent Debian install.

[frank754]

I had debian installed, then recompiled the kernel with all
the correct support etc.
I was using the woody disk 1 with 3.0
I made the modules and modules_install and
there was a problem with installing the modules.
Somehow there is already a /lib/modules/(old kernel version)
file there, that prevents a new module install. It says
it cant find module "x" when I do insmod or modprobe.
There is a new tree there though, with the new kernel
version, I tried to copy those modules into the old one but
still get errors. It's just the modules that I have a problem with.
How to wipe out all references to the old paths when you
reboot, as it will not look in the new module directory.
Maybe another debian CD has a newer version as well?
I tried PGI, and it gave an error about a network card.
All I have is a standalone system with a dialup modem

[hkctr]

Try using isoCD #5 to boot your Debian installation. This has the 2.4.18-bf2.4 kernal that has the modules you are looking for. During the installation, just make sure that you enable the modules. Don't just hit the enter key and hope that it will pick them up automatically. Read the menus carefully. It took me several installs to get this part right as it is not intuitively obvious.

For example, you can go down the module list and select emu10k1 for SB Live cards. You highlight and hit enter. On the next screen you see the module you selected (emu10k1) and the cursor defaulted to "Return to previous menu". I thought that meant it found the module and now I can go back to the menu and select the next module. WRONG. You have to move the cursor down and select emu10k1 again, hit enter, and then it will probe and install the module.

Libranet 2.0 is another alternative. Install and change the sources to what the previous post suggests and apt-get update, apt-get upgrade. This will get you a fully up to date Woody install. If it is not real Debian, it sure fools me. The only difference that I can detect is that Libranet includes their own admin menu. IMHO, this is a blessing, not a curse. Why will this help you? It has a kernal configuration applet that will guide you through upgrading your kernal, and then it will install it for you. Painless and nearly fool-proof. Even I was able to use it successfully.

[Joe_Atlanta]

Another noob here with some Libra 2.0 impressions.

Libranet is Debian (you can call it based if you like), with some nice install and gui administration tools that make it easy for us newcomers to do things like enabling scsi emulation for cdrws or recompiling a kernal (click, click, click, done). If you have the time to learn the commands, a straight install of Debian would be a better learning experience. Since this is my only computer, it's important to me to remain productive while I learn the new system. So, the gui tools might slow down my learning curve, but on the other hand I was installed and doing on the fly burns in one evening.

As far as the free version (2.0) being outdated, it does come with a boatload of software that needs upgrading. The trick is to do a mininmal install with your favorite xwin manager, then apt-get install synaptic. At that stage you can get the latest and greatest, limited only by how adventurous your sources list is.

One added point, although Drake 9 and RH 8 are newer releases than Libra 2.0. only Libra reconized and supported the usb controller in the relatively new chipset of my mobo (SIS 745, less than a year old now). In general, I like it so much I'm gonna pay for the new (2.7) version to get the updated admin tool and debugged versions of the latest kde and gnome.

All that being said, Knoppix looks pretty cool and it has a good rep for hardware recognition and configuration. From what I understand, installing to your hardrive is not quite as easy as just running off the cd. Certainly worth a try. Good luck!

[2damncommon]

I also found the kernel configuration choices for Debian 3.0 excellent. I have a USB flash drive and a n IBM webcam working. As another project I got an intellegent 8 port serial card (that required a compiled kernel module) working.
You can use 'modconf' to configure the kernel just like you did at install.
You did not say what module you were having trouble with. (Are kernel headers installed?)

[frank754]

I installed Knoppix on the hard drive, and am having
exactly the same problems I had with Debian.
For some reason it is looking for the modules in the old place.
I do a depmod -a and get
can't open /lib/modules/2.2.20-idepci/modules.dep for writing
even though in /lib/modules there is a 2.4.19 directory, and
no 2.2.20 at all under knoppix. In debian there was such
a directory, but I couldn't put the modules there as they
were incompatible (too new). I went into modules.conf
and tried to add a new path, as well as add a path in the
modutils path file to no avail. I think something is messed up
with debian: see this thread (all I could find that was pertinent):
http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/2002/debian-cd-200204/msg00098.html
If you can follow what they say here, how can I use the
shell script?

[jsicuran]

I am interested in running one of those "mini distros" on top of Win2k. I was wondering what experinece any of you have had using such a distro. Does the networking etc. work across windows and linux window boxes?. I queried linux.org and got a list of such distros like the following:

DragonLinux
Lindows
LoopLinux
Monkey Linux
muLinux
Phat Linux
PKLinux
Tomukas
Xteam Linux

This forum is very helpful so before I start downloading all of these I was hoping someone can narrow down my choice based on their experience.

Thanks...

/JS

[deja-vu]

Hi there.. I would first like to say that i am utterly fed up with windows. I have wanted for a long time to try out linux, and learn how to use it.. What would be the best distro to install for someone who is just starting out with linux. Thank you.

[AnonyPuss]

Originally posted by deja-vu
Hi there.. I would first like to say that i am utterly fed up with windows. I have wanted for a long time to try out linux, and learn how to use it.. What would be the best distro to install for someone who is just starting out with linux. Thank you.


Easiest to use, in this order:

SuSE
Red Hat
Mandrake

[Dun'kalis]

SuSE is the easiest to install, no doubt about it. It also comes with more packages than you'll ever need, which is good.

Lately, there have been three new distros that are trying to make desktop oriented distros: Lycoris, Xandros, and Lindows. I've tried Lycoris (admittedly a long while ago), and it was okay. I've never tried Xandros or Lindows, mainly because they cost $99 apiece. Xandros has CrossOver, which is an excellent product, integrated in to it. CrossOver allows you to run MS Office and Windows plugins in Linux. Lindows is a rip-off, stay away.

[lindowsOS]

Originally posted by Dun'kalis
Lindows is a rip-off, stay away.
All you can do is bash and not state any reasons??? You never used it anyway...

[sharth]

supposedly lindows isin't too bad, but they did mangle the spirit of linux imo. auto root login, and click-and-run when there is apt-get. Imo, it would have made more sense to do their own debian mirror.

[Dun'kalis]

Its a rip-off because it costs $129 for a license and a subscription to this "click-and-run" thingy that has an equivalent in all other modern distros.

I call that a rip-off. If it were either cheaper or free, I wouldn't be as harsh. I'm leery of Xandros, since they do charge a lot, but they offer quite a bit of immediate value (CrossOver), and have their source code available freely. The GPL requires distributors to distribute source code for free or a *minimal* distribution fee. I'd say that the FSF should hound them, but its a point of ambiguity in the GPL. I'm going to hope that the GPL v3 will have some clauses protecting against such abuses...

[digimax98]

Thank you darren7659 & Choozo for your advice about using smoothwall. It is working great (used version 0.9.9SE). It has a very nice browser based configuration & it was very easy to install.

At the moment, I have installed two ethernet NIC (1 for PPPOE aDSL (red zone) & 1 for internal network (green zone)). Im planning to add another NIC for the orange zone (DMZ). I'll be using a Linksys HPN-200 Home Phoneline Network card. I have its kernel 2.2.x & 2.4.x drivers but dont know how to install it to Smoothwall. It seem that smoothwall doesnt have the required compiler.

Can I used another distro to compile the driver? I have dragon linux with kernel 2.2.16 but Smoothwall uses kernel 2.2.20. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[bosox79]

Originally posted by deja-vu
Hi there.. I would first like to say that i am utterly fed up with windows. I have wanted for a long time to try out linux, and learn how to use it.. What would be the best distro to install for someone who is just starting out with linux. Thank you.

If you want free easy to use/install distro's I would start with either

1. Mandrake 9.0
2. Redhat 8.0
3. Libranet 2.0

in that order. IMHO Mandrake & Redhat are easier to install then windows Redhat takes a little bit more work to setup out of the box then MD 9.0 if you need things like access to windows 200/XP hardrives.

I would also check out these sites
www.linuxiso.org
http://www.distrowatch.com/ check out the top 10 lists (this list is of the most popular linux distro's at the moment)
http://www.desktoplinux.com/

also check to make sure that each distro you want to install supports your hardware out of the box, at least the majority of it. This will make your linux experience much more enjoyable & fun:D :cool:

The only reason I wouldn't recommend Suse is because they don't have any ISO's available for download.

[Allen614]

Suse,Mandrake and RH are all good. Buy a boxed set. The manuals are well worth the price. Forget everything you know about computers and start over. Give yourself the same time frame it took to become proficient with Windows and you'll be pleasantly surprised at your progress.

[sharth]

Don't forget everything! Just read, and remember that not everything works the same way! but don't just give up on the previous knowledge.

the only distro i have ever used is debian, (except a week of red hat) so, its not that bad, give it a whirl if you want a challenge :)

[jlmb]

Originally posted by sharth
....the only distro i have ever used is debian, (except a week of red hat) so, its not that bad, give it a whirl if you want a challenge :)

What were your linux/computer knowledge when you started up with Debian? you had prior experience with unix, etc? I've seen posted everywhere that Debian isn't for newbies bla bla bla but im gonna try it as soon as i get off school. (dec 15) It must be cool, by users for users.

[nextbillgates]

Hi there.. I would first like to say that i am utterly fed up with windows. I have wanted for a long time to try out linux, and learn how to use it.. What would be the best distro to install for someone who is just starting out with linux. Thank you.

First off, take it slow. If you want to learn Linux hands-on, try out Knoppix or Floppix. They'll allow you to learn a little Linux without you having to actually install anything. Floppix also comes with labs that will guide you through the command line, making your transition to Linux that much easier.

Once you through playing around those distros, ask yourself if you really want to switch to Linux. Linux has a lot of advantages (flexibility, stability, software availability), but it also has it's drawbacks (gaming, learning curve, lack of popular Windows proprietary software).

If there is anything that you need Windows for (or Windows simply does better), go for a dual boot. Don't go straight Linux unless you're sure Linux will meet your needs. You may not think you need Windows, but you'll encounter numerous situations where you'll be wishing Windows was still on your drive.

Have fun with Linux, and don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions :)

[nextbillgates]

I use IPCop. I'm not really that happy with it, but I'm too lazy to change it. Their sites somes to be gone. Oh well.

I've been looking at Devil Linux (http://www.devil-linux.org). I'm not sure if your computer would meet the minimum requirements, though.

There's also LEAF (http://leaf.sourceforge.net/). LEAF is an offshoot of the Linux Router Project, and has several forks available. Again, I'm not really sure if it would meet your needs.

Gentoo has many cutting edge security options, and it's almost gauranteed to do what you want. The base install is about 500MB, though, and you may not want a compiler on the machine.

If you can't find a suitable stripped down distro, there's always Slackware.

[Choozo]

digimax98:
Yes, you can compile the needed modules on another box, but it will need the same kernel version as Smoothie is running.
But before doing that, I would suggest that you try the 2.0 Beta version which has 2.4.19 kernel, and support for more NICs. (I'm running 2.0 Beta, and have no problems.)

The reason for not having a compiler on a firewall may be obvious to some; a firewall should be kept to a minimum to avoid compromising security.

Cheers :)

[digimax98]

Choozo:

.... it will need the same kernel version as Smoothie is running.....

If Smoothwall has kernel 2.2.20. Does the same kernel mean I can compile from any distro that is 2.2.x? Or the compiler should be kernel 2.2.20?

Thanks again for your help. :-)

Regards

[Geezer]

I have a laptop running Red Hat 8 which is very sluggish runninf this distro, which would be the most suitable disto for my spec:

400 mhz Celeron
64 meg Ram
6 Gig Drive

Thanks

[nextbillgates]

I haven't done any tests or anything, but theoretically, Mandrake should be faster than Red Hat by a small margin due to the fact that it's compiled for i586 and not i386 like Red Hat.

Your issue is probably a lack of RAM. Niether KDE nor Gnome will give you good performance with that little memory. Look at some lighter WM's, like Evolution, Waimea, or Fluxbox.

[UnderDog138]

That nocase looks awesome. I want to do that. How did you do it?

[deja-vu]

Thanks for the quick responses. I decided to go with a dual boot setup, so i could still have my XP as a backup.. I went with the RedHat 8.0 distro... I installed with no problems, and am now typing this though mozzila. Now i am trying to figure out how to get WINE working. This seems like this will be a fun/long journey. Thanks agian.

[kmfan]

I downloaded Red Hat 8.0 and installed it with next to no problems at all. Prior to this, I had never installed or worked with Linux before. I didn't buy any books. All my information came from the internet. Going on this I would have to say the Red Hat is very easy to install. However I have never installed a different version.

Considering this, it goes to show how far Linux has come in the past few years. I can remember hearing horror stories of people trying to install and it was quite a turnoff. I am enjoying it very much now and hope developers keep up what they are trying to accomplish. :cool:

[viperlin]

i have mandrake 9 @ the mo, but i started with redhat 7.2 and it was a pain as i knew nout, so i got mandrake 8.2 and i learn't tons of stuff, so mandrake is the best for n00b's and even experts who like ease of use and quickness!

[2damncommon]

You sorta get on your own when you attempt an "onto Windows" install. Even though it sounds like a great idea, it is apparently not real popular.
My first distro was a "Linux for Windows" Mandrake distro that didn't support my video chipset. So I know this can be an intro to Linux. Using Windows 98 I found I needed to boot in safe mode to be able to boot into Linux.
I thought these Windows install distros booted from loadlin VIA DOS. Does Win Y2K even work for this? I don't know. Are you using NTFS. I would guess this does not work.
Choose a current distro if you are really wanting to try Linux. For instance Monkey Linux is really old, will probably have problems with your hardware, and really doesn't have much to offer for programs. Don't choose something like this unless you just want to play.
If you are interested in trying Linux without messing with your Windows partition you might consider a bootable Linux distro on CD like Knoppix. If your Y2K is FAT32 you could mount and save files to it. If it is NTFS, you should not.
Good Luck

[jsicuran]

Thanks for the reply. I have some experience with linux, been working with RH since 6.0. I thought that these mini distros were a scaled down version that can be run in a Windows Window. I am looking for something to jump back and forth for the security tools for audits without having to go the dual boot or VMware route...

Thanks....

/JS

[2damncommon]

I went with the RedHat 8.0 distro... I installed with no problems, and am now typing this though mozzila.
OMG, deciding on a distro and installing in one day? Now I feel like a numbskull.
:D

[Choozo]

The same version means if Smoothie runs kernel version 2.2.20, your other box with a compiler must also run kernel version 2.2.20.

[2damncommon]

Would Cigwin give you the apps you want to use?
http://www.cygwin.com/
It is possible to run a basic Linux on windows with Bochs, but probably not with system interaction functions you want.
http://bochs.sourceforge.net/

[sharth]

no, the neat part would be downloading (or buying), installing, and asking which one to use in one day. and even seeing it work correctly :) But just wait, he will be back for a printer or camera or something. just you watch! bwahahhaha :) yeah im done.

[jlmb]

Hey Sharth, could you please tell me how was it when you began with Debian? Read the my previous post pls.
thanks

[deja-vu]

Thanks for the faith guys.. heh.. Accatually i just had to re-install the distro.. Some how i did somthing and it would no longer display anything.. I think it was a setting for the resolution or somthing.. All i could get was the text interface, and i have no idea the command to edit, so i could not edit the conf file.. heh Oh well.. BTW what do u type in to edit in the text interface?

[2damncommon]

The easiest file browser/editor is the Midnight Commander.
If it is installed just type 'mc' at the prompt.
You need to be root to edit config files. If you are already logged in as another user type 'su' and enter the root password on any terminal.
There are lots of other text editors you can fool with. It is a good idea to get a basic working knowledge of the 'vi' editor. Sooner or later it will be your only choice one day.

[sharth]

Yorsh, sorry for missing that post. :)

I posted this somewhere else, but I forget where, so here we go for the repost. I started with windows with 3.1 so i knew some dos, and how to get around with that. What I did was tried to download debian, never found the cd images and got really confused. So I then tried red hat. red hat crashed on me after about 10 minutes of playing tux racer (probably could have done a crtl + alt + backspace, but i didn't know that existed then.) I was annoyed because I though linux would be more stable. So, I trashed red hat, and installed debian instead. Started off with a command line (didn't want tasksel). At this point, I had gone up to massachusets (8 hour drive) and had no internet, but i had computer becuase of my mom working on her masters. So, my only internet was the library. After about 1 week of reading stuff and what not, I figured out what to do and how to get the gui working. Started with... enlightenment i think, and then switched to blackbox. tried kde like once. I basically knew the cli from dos experiance, and reading stuff online. So, I was quite able to get it working. I basically just "knew" what to do to get around the cli. mostly dos commands. I eventually (2 months? later) read unix unbounded and that made it a bit easier (cli that is). I never did like xfm or rox filter, and I didn't want to install gnome or kde, so I stayed with cli (xterm) and like it. It took me about a month to get debian working, but that was with the old X servers, now It probably would be a bit easier, since the names in the list (although confusing) do give some indication of what I would want. back then, it would have been tdfx. now nv. I'll be happy to help you through an install if you have a seperate computer hooked up to the net. Mostly, the install is not too intuitive. Just read the install guide and debian faq (print out if you really want to, I never did.) and you should be good.

[edit]

now, after reading your post, I see that really has nothing to do with it. Once I got X working, everything was fairly smooth. Most of the config files had comments explaining stuff. I dealt with cli only for a good while, so I got to understand the file structure. Dual boot it till you get it working correctly, you are bound to have problems on your first install that other distros would fix automatically (accidentily putting in a wrong value that other distros automatically pick for you). Also, I belive you have to do a kernel rebuild if you use a usb mouse, As far as I know, debian's default cd 1 kernel does not support them. But then again, cd 5 might have support, and a kernel rebuild isin't that bad :)

[jlmb]

I just finished watching Meet Joe Black (3 hours...damn that's long...)
It was nice reading sharth's linux history :D
Yes, i got 2 pcs hooked up to the internet so any problems i might encounter can be asked/posted from the other one.
One thing i've learn in this short time trying linux is: if you dont like reading, then linux is not for you....luckly i love reading.
Im getting Running linux 4th edition by dec17 (it comes out 15). I should be trying to install debian by those days.

Thanks for all your comments an i appreciate your help offer im sure i'll need.

[sk8bloke87]

i am a linux newbie too, currently dualbooting xp pro with mandrake 9.0

ive used SuSE 7.3, Red Hat 7.3, and am now using Mandrake 9.0. All the using of those other distros didnt last long tho, none of them was able to boot up properly without a boot disk. Red hat 7.3 was pretty nice and i liked it a lot if not for the 2 minute GRUB loading time(dont know what i coulda done wrong as i formatted and reinstalled like 20 times, changing settings everytime.) Mandrake 9.0 was the 1st distro i had come across to configure everything automatically, and do a flawless job too. I say go with Mandrake 9.0. It's a great distro for linux newbies too.

my current setup:

1.0ghz Celeron(dont even ask about my sig:D )
Kingston 512SdRAM(2x256) PC133
64mb GeForce2 MX400
Western Digital 40GB ATA-100 7200rpm
Voyetra Turtle Beach DSP Sound Card
Linksys LNE100TX NIC
XP Pro/Mandrake 9.0

[junopr]

is there something like "chroot" in windows (dos I guess)? then you could just chroot into your linux partition from a dos terminal.

Maybe if you installed bash or zsh onto the windows you would be able to do it.

[sharth]

the only debian book that I ahve seen is the debian gnu/linux bible. but it was 70 bucks so i didn't get it :) no books for me. all ubb and man / web pages.

[boygenius]

If you can't find a suitable stripped down distro, there's always Slackware.

Well since those moronic moderators took off the thread in which you were all flaming me, it would be at least polite on your part to repost why Slackware did not compare so that I can respond in full. If I remember correctly from my drunken haze, your response amounted to Slackware being outdated in some areas, and the fact that Slack does not hold your hand (and hide your config files) while you are using it. Typical responses from script kiddies, but you need to be corrected anyway. So I will be waiting, and if the idiotic moderators don't ban me or pull the thread maybe I will be able to get some sense in that dense head of yours. You have a good day.

[BoomerADF]

Originally posted by digimax98
Thank you darren7659 & Choozo for your advice about using smoothwall. It is working great (used version 0.9.9SE). It has a very nice browser based configuration & it was very easy to install.

At the moment, I have installed two ethernet NIC (1 for PPPOE aDSL (red zone) & 1 for internal network (green zone)). Im planning to add another NIC for the orange zone (DMZ). I'll be using a Linksys HPN-200 Home Phoneline Network card. I have its kernel 2.2.x & 2.4.x drivers but dont know how to install it to Smoothwall. It seem that smoothwall doesnt have the required compiler.

Can I used another distro to compile the driver? I have dragon linux with kernel 2.2.16 but Smoothwall uses kernel 2.2.20. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Read: http://www.samrowe.com/slb/article/76


As for a distro Slack

[Odin]

Originally posted by digimax98
Im planning to setup an Linux internet sharing box and dont know what Linux distro to use. Could anyone recommend any distro that will meet the following requirements?

- Pentium 100Mhz with 16MB RAM
- Linux to be installed on hard disk
- will be using 3 NICs (1 NIC for PPOE ADSL+ 2 NICs for internal network)
- must use kernels 2.2 or 2.4 since one of the NIC only support those kernels. (Kernel 2.4 is prefered since it has bandwidth throttling)
- No need for GUI since hardware has limited resources


I have already checked out some distro (ex. coyote floppyfw,etc) but they dont meet some of the above requirements. Any advise will be highly appreciated.

Slackware should have no problems on this machine AFAIK. Slackware 8.1 comes with kernel 2.4.18. Check here (http://www.slackware.org) for all the specs and whatnot. Check through the links and see what you think. If you don't need a GUI, then you'll probably like Slackware. Check it out.

[nextbillgates]

Originally posted by boygenius
If you can't find a suitable stripped down distro, there's always Slackware.

Well since those moronic moderators took off the thread in which you were all flaming me, it would be at least polite on your part to repost why Slackware did not compare so that I can respond in full. If I remember correctly from my drunken haze, your response amounted to Slackware being outdated in some areas, and the fact that Slack does not hold your hand (and hide your config files) while you are using it. Typical responses from script kiddies, but you need to be corrected anyway. So I will be waiting, and if the idiotic moderators don't ban me or pull the thread maybe I will be able to get some sense in that dense head of yours. You have a good day.

Okay. My final response, since I'm basically repeating myself.

Slackware is difficult to use without giving you extra flexibility like Debian or Gentoo, it has a very limited selection of packages, unlike every major distro, it has no commercial support, unlike Red Hat, and even though it's more UNIX-like than other distros, the BSDs have that covered.

So what's Slackware good at? Because Slackware doesn't have dependancy checking, a bare-bones system can be installed onto as little as 100MB. While this allows Slackware to be used on very old hardware that other general purpose distros have left behind, small single-purpose distros are quickly gobbling up that niche.

That leaves Slackware with nothing. Nada. Zip. There is no advantage to running Slackware other than learning how to run Linux through the CLI.

[atif]

Greetings young Padawan leaner(i.e. to original mail poster),
Linux can be different since the core part of any operating system is the kernel. Some distributions use different kernels. The debian distribution (although a distinguished contender in the 'best' distribution' stakes) tends to be a little behind the other distributions like RedHat,SUSE and Mandrake both in terms of accompanyinig software and kernel release (e.g. might use a Gnome version behind othre), but it lends superior stability and is a 'live' distribution' (Hence, there is a tradeoff of features between distributions).

For a first install I recommend to stay away from Debian as it is relative to other distributions difficult to install. Last time I used it had a text interface (not very pretty huh?) and less forgiving of mistakes during installation.

DO NOT GET ME WRONG! I think Debian is a fantastic distribution especially with it's much vaunted apt utility. I just think it is for more seasoned linux users. Perhaps one must evolve to "Senior Grasshopper" or greater to use it effectively and without headaches. Behold! I am only a lowly junior grasshopper so keep that in mind.

I am currently using RedHat 8.0 (latest release as of writing) and have found no over the top problems. Installing rpms is a breeze if not as elegant as the debian way of doing things vis.using apt-get XXXXX et al

I think if you are thinking of a future in linux in the corporate world then getting used to RedHat is the way to go (as it holds approx. 50% of the North American enterprise market and has a significant presence in other parts of the world too).

On a final note, OTOH If you just wanna learn the linux paradigm and wanna no fuss install, go Mandrake 9.x

Welcome! To a brighter future filled with the mixture of elegance and power that is Linux.

All the Best,

regards,

Atif

My Current Setup
Pentium II 500Mhz (I can hear the mice running inside it)
GeForceIIMX xxx
DualBoot RedHat 8.0 and Windows XP
networked to other windows xp computers via samba (finally works! :) )
Cable modem shared via windows xp box (internet connection sharing).

Not awe inspiring you think, huh? I agree!

[carrja99]

I must say... after using Red Hate, WomanDrake, SUSE (Shoulda Used Something Else), Dreadian, Genteww, and Suckware... I finally found the distro I was looking for in FreeBSD. Of course, it's not LINUX, but believe me... try it and you'll never go back.