Okay I'm going to put a Linux Distro on my laptop - the question is, which one? I know this question has been asked many many times before but I wanted an opinion of which distro from the list below: Freespire Mandriva Kubuntu Ubuntu Those are the options I have (Have Kubuntu and Ubuntu discs, ordered Freespire and Mandriva off of tuxdiscs.com as downloading would take far too long) I've used Mandriva before on my desktop computer and I really liked it, was easy to setup and configure so I'm leaning towards that, I chose Freespire too because it seems like a good newbie distro. I have Kubuntu and Ubuntu because of the 'Shipit' thing they do where you can get 'em free I currently have XP and Vista RC1 set up with an 8GB partition for Linux and a 512MB Swap partition. What would you suggest for a Linux n00b? Muchos gracias -Matt
Freespire is by far the easiest Linux distribution to use. You won't have to worry about installing ATi or nVidia drivers, or any proprietory audio and video codecs. Everything is ready to use 'out of the box', even wireless networking which is usually a pain to set up in other distributions (not that I've tried). Mandriva 2007 is probably what you want because the 2006 version is looking quite old now. Mandriva 2007 ships with XGL which is VERY COOL! So you will be able to enjoy 'better then Vista graphics' straigh out of the box. I have very little experience with Mandriva so I am not really in a position to judge it. But I will say that in the short time I used it I wasn't overly excited by it. Kubuntu is my distribution of choice. It's not as easy to use as Freespire, but more so then Debian. Like Freespire you can benefit from a massive amount of software packages taken from the Debian repositories so you will rarely have to compile any software. One huge benefit of ubuntu / kubuntu is the excellent support and wiki. The ubuntu wiki is definately a 'one-stop-shop' for all of your questions. Although Kubuntu does not ship with proprietory audio and video codecs, they are all easily installed in one click of the mouse using 3rd party software such as 'EasyUbuntu' and 'Automatix' Ubuntu - see above. I prefer to use KDE over GNOME so that is why I use Kubuntu more. However I have ubuntu installed on my second machine and it's performance is on a par with Kubuntu. GNOME is far less advanced compared to KDE, but the flip-side is that it's probably easier to learn. Ubuntu is probably better for a complete n00b then Kubuntu. So which distribution do I think you should use? I'll leave you to make that decision PS. You should consider openSUSE as well because it's a n00b friendly distribution. I learned all the ropes whilst using SUSE and then I moved on
Thanks man, that's helped a lot, I think I'll give Mandriva a try - I saw the video of the XGL stuff - was impressive
Yeah, XGL looks good. It's possible to run it in (k)ubuntu and Freespire but you'd have to install it manually. ie a lot of work in the terminal *I think* openSUSE comes with XGL installed. Either way, getting XGL in SUSE is very well documented. Why don't you set up VMware in Windows XP and try out distributions in that before you install them for real?
I would just install distros on a spare partition like a whore. No harm in trying, and you don't get the slowdown you get with VMware.
i'm with kubuntu, and i've only killed 1 in 6 months, if i were using XP 4 or 5 install would have died, in fact it was probably my fault it died, cos i still a newcomer to linux, kubuntu is much better than XP (not difficult) i think you'll probably best with madriva or kubuntu, Xubuntu requires a minimum of 512Mb RAM (i think), i don't know much about freespire
Good point man, I might do that and see how it goes. I definitely want to try the whole XGL thing - I've got Mandriva 2006 on the way so I'll take a look into updating and getting the XGL stuff.
Xubuntu doesn't require 512mb of RAM, since the whole point of it is for low end systems without a lot of RAM. It uses the XFCE environment, not KDE or GNOME.
True. But with Matt555's uber laptop i'd be suprised if he noticed any slowdown at all [ot] I am so obsessed with VMware! It's one of my favourite pieces of software of all time [/ot]
[ot]Hehe - I think I'll change my lil message thing back to 'Uber Geek' just in light of that comment.[/ot]
I think I'll try Freespire because of it's newbie friendliness (or so it seems) I'll go with Mandriva some other time - once 2007 comes out and I get the hang of Linux, I love the XGL stuff and it'd be cool to do that - ATI graphics though *eek*
I was the same when I first starting using Linux - SUSE 9.3 in my case. I think I killed it about 2 or 3 times when I first starting using it Mind you, SUSE does have a reputation for being a little unstable anyway so perhaps it wasn't all my fault! Well it's based on Debian so in a sense I am already familiar with it - being a Kubuntu user. AT uses Debian now so I am sure we can help solve any problems you may have despite the fact we don't use Freespire. That being said, I am thinking about running Freespire in VMware to get a feel for it anyway. Well if Freespire doesn't work out and you really want XGL then 2007 is the way to go. Also Ubuntu has loads of documentation for getting the ATi drivers and XGL working.
Well I've got Freespire running - it took about 10 minutes to set up, I'll sort out my networking later but at least I can say this: The initial setup was so easy a monkey could have understood it, precise easy to understand instructions, each new thing has a new step to help you through. I didn't use Freespire's partition manager as I already had the partition set up. Freespire is a great distro for n00bs.
I've installed Mandriva 2006 (and got id of Freespire) because I wanted to see what Mandriva 2006 was like (and from the 2005LE installation I did on my desktop ages ago I thought the setup would be just as easy) Well the setup was really easy, the only thing is if I boot into Mandriva I'm presented with a CLI saying: login to localhost: And that's it. Anyone know why / care to offer a helping hand to a Linux n00b? -Matt
Sounds like you clicked "next" a bunch of times and never chose/tested your video drivers. Login and try running drakconf and configuring your video settings. If in doubt, use VESA until you can get it all worked out.
I've re-installed Mandriva now, decided to leave the video configuration options alone, once I get the network stuff sorted I'll download drivers and stuff
