Whats a good linux distro?

Post by **inphlict** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:47 pm

I'm sort of bored and I want to try my hand with linux again.

I'm looking for something that looks good, easy to install and doesn't take up much space. Any ideas?

Post by **Fender** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:48 pm

redhat fedora
I haven't used it in a while, but several people here at work are using it @ home.

Post by **4days** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:51 pm

mandrake's a doddle to install.

gentoo's worth a look.

Post by **Nightshade** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:05 pm

I've heard many a nerd sing Slackware's praises.

Post by **diego** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:08 pm

Slackware!!! :icon14: .. errr...

Post by **diego** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:09 pm

I mainly use debian. Seriously now.

Post by **inphlict** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:10 pm

Rather not bother with slackware, last time I tried it I had to learn to code just to get my mouse wheel to work.

Downloading Fedora now.

Post by **diego** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:14 pm

Ubuntu has got a funny name. And a good layout and hardware support. Seriously.

Post by **inphlict** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:21 pm

When I get the Ubuntu free cd, I'll try it out.

Post by **inphlict** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:46 pm

Bah, fedora is too big and will take me 6 hours to download so I'm going to get Ubuntu for now. It' based on Debian right?

Post by **rgoer** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 2:49 pm

get gentoo

emerge kde 3.4

call it a day

Post by **inphlict** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:00 pm

Ubunutu may sound odd but it runs really well. It also detected my sound and everything works good.

Post by **diego** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:02 pm

inphlict wrote:Ubunutu may sound odd but it runs really well. It also detected my sound and everything works good.

As I said - it just plainly owns. Congrats, brother - btw, did you install it or run it from a Live-CD?

Post by **inphlict** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:06 pm

No I downloaded the ISO, burned it and booted to install it.

Post by **diego** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:10 pm

I just think Ubuntu (despite its funny name) "feels" great. I love the layout and the apps its coming with.
So, good decision

Post by **PhoeniX** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:10 pm

Fedora Core 3 is great; very fast and very easy to install. Debian is also good.

Post by **inphlict** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:15 pm

Yeah, I really didn't want anything bloated. Btw is there anyway to listen to my mp3s on the ntsf system? Can I import them some how?

Post by **duffman91** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:22 pm

You only have 2 options:

Some form of Debian(Knoppix, Debian, Ubuntu) clone or a *BSD clone(FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD). A good package management system is crucial. If you want to compile everything from scratch down to the T, then go gentoo.

I love Debian for personal use. I use FreeBSD for strickly servers.

Post by **duffman91** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:23 pm

inphlict wrote:Yeah, I really didn't want anything bloated. Btw is there anyway to listen to my mp3s on the ntsf system? Can I import them some how?

Your distribution should be able to mount the ntfs drive and allow you to READ your mp3 files just fine. It is still very buggy to write.

Post by **bitWISE** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:13 am

I had Ubuntu on my dual Celeron box before I switched over to 2003. I even had the chips overclocked and it ran great. Played a few games of Quake3 on it then got bored.

Post by **inphlict** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:50 am

I'm learning quite a lot and the linux community is very friendly

I figured out about the mounting and I'm now able to enjoy the content on my xp drives.

I ran into a few problems but so far I'm finding solutions quite quickly. One problem is that most programs don't support mp3s and other formats popular on windows and I'm just finding ways to make certain programs run these files.

Found a good tutorial and I'm compiling mplayer now, should be able to enjoy all codecs after this.

I noticed everything can be done from the terminal, I'm not even using the auto synaptic thing.

Post by **duffman91** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:08 am

Getting a desktop or server *nix system up and running is actually preety easy once you pass the learning curve. They're actually quite functional and useful. The simple fact that they generally include gcc and other compilers makes a hoby in programming trivial to start.

Post by **inphlict** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:05 am

Run into a problem with mplayer and trying to fix it now, basicly all codecs run but I have no sound with mplayer.

I'm enjoying the multiple desktop switch keeps it clean and I can leave crap running in the back with out intervering with my surfing.

Post by **Arkleseizure** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:31 am

Mac OS X. If you wish to argue, Mac OS X uses the UNIX core which is at the heart of the GNU/Linux Kernel.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:35 am

Arkleseizure wrote:Mac OS X. If you wish to argue, Mac OS X uses the UNIX core which is at the heart of the GNU/Linux Kernel.

but will OSX run on x86 architeture? I do not believe so, so what good will your post do him?