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Topic Starter Topic: Best Linux distro?
Postal
Strogger Than You
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:40 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I'm currently working on making my machine a dual-boot WinXP/Linux box.

What would be a good version of linux to use for beginners?
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SOAPboy
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:41 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Fedoras been pretty good to me.. *shrug



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+JuggerNaut+
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:41 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


ubuntu
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Deathshroud
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:41 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Fedora Core 3
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SplishSplash
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:42 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.
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diego
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:42 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Currently I'm using debian and/or one of its derivates (like Ubuntu).

But to be perfectly honest, I started Linux with SuSE...
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SOAPboy
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:44 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..



_________________
I once had a glass of milk.

It curdled, and then I couldn't drink it. So I mixed it with some water, and it was alright again.

I am now sick.

Image
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+JuggerNaut+
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:45 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Postage, try a live cd first, then pick which one you're most comfortable with before doing a dual boot.

try Kubuntu which is a live cd flavored with a KDE Desktop over Ubuntu.
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Postal
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:48 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Thanks juggy, I'll try that out.
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+JuggerNaut+
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:49 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


many more flavours here man.
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Deathshroud
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:52 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


SOAPboy wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..


But what's the point of having an OS strictly for browsing? XP offers more flexability because of the sheer amount of software available for it.

The only thing I've found that Linux is good for is development. If you wanna learn how to code, its a good place to start.
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+JuggerNaut+
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 10:57 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


i failed to mention Suse, which was also very good.
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bork[e]
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 11:08 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Deathshroud wrote:
SOAPboy wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..


But what's the point of having an OS strictly for browsing? XP offers more flexability because of the sheer amount of software available for it.

The only thing I've found that Linux is good for is development. If you wanna learn how to code, its a good place to start.



What's makes linux so great for coding?
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Deathshroud
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 11:12 AM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


bork[e] wrote:
Deathshroud wrote:
SOAPboy wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..


But what's the point of having an OS strictly for browsing? XP offers more flexability because of the sheer amount of software available for it.

The only thing I've found that Linux is good for is development. If you wanna learn how to code, its a good place to start.



What's makes linux so great for coding?


The fact that you have an endless amount of available code to learn from and modify if you wanted to. And there are many projects to participate in.
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SOAPboy
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 11:35 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Deathshroud wrote:
bork[e] wrote:
Deathshroud wrote:
SOAPboy wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..


But what's the point of having an OS strictly for browsing? XP offers more flexability because of the sheer amount of software available for it.

The only thing I've found that Linux is good for is development. If you wanna learn how to code, its a good place to start.



What's makes linux so great for coding?


The fact that you have an endless amount of available code to learn from and modify if you wanted to. And there are many projects to participate in.



and shit tons of free compilers.. (this statement might and might not be totally fact, just grapevine rumors)



_________________
I once had a glass of milk.

It curdled, and then I couldn't drink it. So I mixed it with some water, and it was alright again.

I am now sick.

Image
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DooMer
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 11:53 AM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Ive only used mandrake, and slackware. my linux box is dead, but when it rises again, slackware's going right back on that beotch.
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Postal
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 12:35 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Heh. Posting from the Ubuntu live disc.

So far, from what I can see, it's a lot nicer than XP, though I can't seem to find a way to raise my resolution from 640x480.
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Therac-26
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 12:37 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


The only linux box at home, I use Gentoo on (simply because it had the clearest and most functional instructions for using as a base for a MythTV install).

I used to run Debian religiously, and I use FC3 at work.

I don't use Linux on the desktop at home anymore, as I finally realized, after years of denial, that it really does suck balls for that.
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PhoeniX
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 12:42 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I've used lots, Fedora Core 3 is very nice however.
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Sevensins
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 12:49 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


I had mandrake previously and got tired of it (a fresh install didn't run quite right when I upgraded to nf4 chipset), so I tried the Knoppix live CD and it was a lot nicer.

I ended up going with Ubuntu though and now I run the 64bit Ubuntu Hoary. I rarely get on it anymore; I mainly wanted it to do some Mozilla development.

I used Redhat before at school and didn't think much of it either. I like the Debian based distros better, I think.

Only for development though, so I can't speak for gaming (or even multimedia) purposes.
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Seg
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 01:11 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Postal wrote:
Heh. Posting from the Ubuntu live disc.

So far, from what I can see, it's a lot nicer than XP, though I can't seem to find a way to raise my resolution from 640x480.


Try, hitting ctrl-alt-plus or minus (on the number pad.) If that doesn't do anything then you only have 640x480 set up. I could be that X didn't detect your equipment properly.

Fedora is beta software and probably buggier than other releases. Mandrake is usually the most user-friendly install, but bloated. Slackware, Debian are harder to install, but generally better for users who know their way around *nix. Gentoo is my favorite, but requires a certain amount of *nix and how to compile applications from source including the kernel.

It's all basically the same stuff, just how the applications are packaged and installed that differ. Try them and decide for yourself.
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duffman91
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 02:05 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


SOAPboy wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..


What the fuck are you talking about? Getting games to work on any linux is the same. The BSD's however, are a challenge.
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Deathshroud
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 02:09 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


duffman91 wrote:
SOAPboy wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..


What the fuck are you talking about? Getting games to work on any linux is the same. The BSD's however, are a challenge.


Perhaps he means getting Windows games to run in Linux?
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duffman91
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 02:13 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Deathshroud wrote:
duffman91 wrote:
SOAPboy wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..


What the fuck are you talking about? Getting games to work on any linux is the same. The BSD's however, are a challenge.


Perhaps he means getting Windows games to run in Linux?


Its the same process on all distributions of Linux.
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Deathshroud
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 02:16 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


duffman91 wrote:
Deathshroud wrote:
duffman91 wrote:
SOAPboy wrote:
SplishSplash wrote:
I hear ubuntu is very good.

Personally, I think Linux sucks balls.


For gaming, its terribly limited and a bitch to get things working right.. but beyond that, for a browsing OS its great..


What the fuck are you talking about? Getting games to work on any linux is the same. The BSD's however, are a challenge.


Perhaps he means getting Windows games to run in Linux?


Its the same process on all distributions of Linux.


I don't see that he said it was different for each distribution. Just that its a bitch to get them to run, in general.
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SplishSplash
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 02:17 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


duffman91 wrote:
What the fuck are you talking about? Getting games to work on any linux is the same. The BSD's however, are a challenge.


I think he was talking about Linux in general.
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Postal
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 04:07 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Ok, I'm going to use Ubuntu, but this whole Dual-Boot thing has me confused.

What would be a good partitioning software to use?
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l0g1c
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 06:37 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Using gentoo here. Good docs/support and a great package manager.
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l0g1c
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 06:38 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Postal wrote:
Ok, I'm going to use Ubuntu, but this whole Dual-Boot thing has me confused.

What would be a good partitioning software to use?


fdisk?
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Deathshroud
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 06:41 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


l0g1c wrote:
Using gentoo here. Good docs/support and a great package manager.


I would attempt to get into Gentoo, but I've never compiled a kernel or any of that, so it will take me more time than I have to figure it out atm.

But all of its key features really interest me.
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Postal
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 06:45 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Don't all linux versions involve kernel compiling?
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Seg
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 09:05 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


No, all distros come with at least one precompiled kernel that gets installed. You may need to compile a new one if the precompiled one doesn't support all your hardware or you want a customised kernel.

If you have everything working under the live cd then there's probably no need to compile.
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Postal
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 11:13 PM           Profile   Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Alright, I've gotten everything set up and running, using Ubuntu (even got around a pesky resolution fuckup). The dual-boot thing didn't work out, so I just went and reformatted.

Thanks for all your help.
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l0g1c
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 11:23 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Deathshroud wrote:
l0g1c wrote:
Using gentoo here. Good docs/support and a great package manager.


I would attempt to get into Gentoo, but I've never compiled a kernel or any of that, so it will take me more time than I have to figure it out atm.

But all of its key features really interest me.


If you do try gentoo, start out with a stage 3 install w/ genkernel. After you become more familiar with the distro (and/or linux in general) move to a stage 2. A stage 1 install is for people with lots of time on their hands and lots of patience, but you can pare down a gentoo install to squeeze every ounce of performance out of a machine.

With gentoo, you compile most packages to your own tastes. You can still use binaries, but most packages compile and install in a fairly quick manner to begin with, so it really doesn't bother me.

Gentoo will take longer to get a good base down, but after you've done that, it's easy as pie to maintain and it doesn't have a lot of the glut that some other distros have.

I've tried Debian and Redhat as well, but I've really taken to gentoo. Emerge > apt > rpm in my book.
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+JuggerNaut+
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PostPosted: 06-06-2005 11:27 PM           Profile Send private message  E-mail  Edit post Reply with quote


Postal wrote:
Alright, I've gotten everything set up and running, using Ubuntu (even got around a pesky resolution fuckup). The dual-boot thing didn't work out, so I just went and reformatted.

Thanks for all your help.


i'm curious as to what "didn't work out"?

page two \o/
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