So I'm getting sick of all the new apps that are coming out for win xp and are just really hampering my pc's performance. I'm a college student so this laptop that I have will have to last me for a much longer time. There is no getting around it. I want a distro that is beginner friendly and can replace my windows xp system. I don't use it for anything other than word, excel, podcasting, and the internet. What can you guys recomend for me?
Ubuntu. You can download a free copy and burn it to a CD and boot from the CD. That way you a try it. It's a pretty good distro from what I have heard. http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
Download and try a distro that runs from a disk. Then see if you like it, are comfortable, etc. One good one to try is Knoppix. Other than that, any of the major distros are probably going to be your best bet, I hear the new REd Hat is pretty solid
I liked Ubuntu's live CD, but my laptop didn't have enough RAM to run it Live. I've been upgrading our old Red Hat 8 boxes here at work to SuSE 9.3, which is totally awesome when it comes to easy box configuration. YaST rocks my world.
Take your pick here: www.distrowatch.com I would personally recommend either Suse or Ubuntu.. with Knoppix if you dont want to install anything.
Some noobie distros: Bootables (try them out without installing): Knoppix & Damn Small (especially for older machines) - both work well Installed: Mepis - very easy to get going, can get it for free Ubuntu - nice distro, the latest hot distro Linspire - will practically wipe your ass for you, their motto is "We want to be the AOL of linux". Geared towards people who really don't want to learn the nuts & bolts of the OS. Bootable is free, install version costs $50 Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) - easy install and configuration
Hmmm...Linux on laptops? Check all you're hardware is compatible. I don't want to scare you off but it's a pretty big step switching to Linux on your only computer if you're new to it. You might be better selling it and picking up a used Mac. What model is it?
I got v3.9 of Knopixx and it is running great so far on my system. This is what I have been looking for. Is there a way to get Knopixx on my pc for a stand alone system? Cause this thing really cuts the cake. I do not have to do anything else for it has everything I need and more. What distro is most similar to this one?
The "official" knoppix distro is Debian based with KDE window manager and other bells and whistles. Linux distributions are heavilly customizable and Knoppix has been tweaked by its creator(s) You can install Knoppix to a HD but see this thread first for a bunch of caveats. http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Hd_Install_HowTo If you like Knoppix and want to make the switch I would highly reccomend SuSE. Configuration is so simple even Windows users can do it.
Thats too bad for you... I'm running Suse 9.2 Pro on my HP laptop without a problem. Everything ran great at install, except for the WiFi, where I had to do a little configuring, but now works great.
My latest favorite is SimplyMepis - SimplyMepis boots live from CD, has an easy graphical hard drive installer that takes about 10 minutes, supports Java, MP3, Flash, and other stuff out of the box, has a generous amount of software installed (office, games, multimedia, programming, internet, etc), it's Debian based and easy to use Synaptic to install new software from the Debian repositories (15,000+ packages), it's efficient and stable, it looks great (very nicely configured KDE desktop), it has a great GUI config tool (OSCENTER), and it's very very very easy to use. I also like Fedora Core and Ubuntu, although both of these support less codecs (and Java, Flash, etc) out of the box and require a little bit of downloading and tweaking (although not bad). Mandriva/Mandrake is a great newbie friendly desktop oriented distro - lot's of stuff supported out of the box, great gui config tools. Knoppix is great as a Linux demo and as rescue CD, but slightly lacking in hd install polish. Kanotix is another Debian/Knoppix based distro that is essentially Knoppix, but with extra polish - works very nicely. Linspire, while more expensive than the others, is very very very easy and polished - fantastic for newbies. Even my 71 year old mom is using it with ease. Linspire's Clicn-n-run warehouse is awesome - it's probably the easiest package management system in the history of computing - literally a single click installs new software. But overall, you couldn't go wrong with SimplyMepis, particularily the latest version 3.3.1. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
For something really simple, check out Terra Soft Solutions. They ship Apple computers w/ a port of Fedora already installed, a distro called Yellow Dog Linux. And Foos, YaST has nothing on FreeBSD sysinstall.
Yes. First, boot Knoppix live from CD (obviously). Open a terminal session (Konsole). At the command line, type "su" (without the quotes) Next at the command line, type "knoppix-installer" (again, without the quotes ). Follow the prompts. Once you've provided the requested info, the knoppix-installer will install Knoppix to hd. When it's done, reboot, removing the disc from the CD drive, and boot into your new Knoppix hd installation. However, I must point out that Knoppix is not the most polished or full-featured hard drive installation distro. You would do better with SimplyMepis or Kanotix for an hd installation. Also, both SimplyMepis and Kanotix can be downloaded for free over at distrowatch.com, although if you decide to go with SimplyMepis, I would encourage you to pay the $14.95 for a CD shipment at the Mepis store, at Mepis.com, in order to help support that fantastic distro. In any case, whether you go with Knoppix, SimplyMepis, or Kanotix (or some other distro), enjoy! They're all great in various ways, and you'll get a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction out of them.
I've been looking to install Linux on my laptop and get rid of XP, but the fact that Wi-Fi is not yet supported is keeping me away, I've downloaded the Knoppix live-CD, pop it in the laptop and the Wi-Fi didn't work....on the desktop that's hardwired to the rounter it worked fine....is there a distro that takes care of the Wi-Fi set-up by itself? I know theres a work around this, but this little fact is keeping me from taking the final plunge and switching.....
The wifi manufacturers are constantly changing chipsets. This means that the linux people have to backwards engineer the driver again. What kind of wifi card are you using? You need to find out the specific card and version. Once you have this you need to find out if there's a compatible linux driver (there probably is): http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wireless.html http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/ http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php?cat=10 http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/ Most modern distros should have the driver installed. Things have gotten a lot better mind you but you should definitely check the compatability lists. Check out to see if others have the same chipset as you: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=41 Worse case scenario you can always pickup a usb wireless dongle pretty cheap.
I have the Atheros Super G Total 802.11 g/b......i checked the linux on laptops and there was a guy who got fedora on his toshiba (i have a toshiba) and his gives the whole procedure.....but again that's the one thing that's keeping me away from the total switch....but I will eventually get around to it, because I really want to stop using XP. thanks for all the links.
Is Linux really worth switching too? Like the initial poster, I'm using my only machine (laptop). I'm going to be a CIS student in the fall, and I want to get a feel of everything. Isn't there a way so that when you start up, you can pick between Windows and Linux? Would you need a slave hard drive for that and more memory?
If you're going to be a CIS major then yes you definitely need to learn linux. Most of the existing web infrastructure is based on the LAMP (linux, apache, mysql, perl/php) suite. You can install both OS's on one drive. If you're going to dual boot you'll need to shrink down your windows partition and install linux on the free space. As part of the linux install a bootloader (grub or lilo) will be installed. When booting up you can select which OS to boot into. Here are some guides to help you get started: http://phoenix.csc.calpoly.edu/~kvoelker/cgi-bin/counter/cis122/dual-boot.cgi http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html For desktops I usually have a hot swap bay that I can switch hard drives. It's a little easier then having to resize partitions and dual boot. As far as which distro to install, that's a whole other arguement. As a developer I would go with one of the following: Debian Slackware Gentoo Yes, you can go with a noobie distro but you will not learn enough.
Thanks man. I downloaded Knoppix 3.9 over the weekend and ran it through the Live CD method so that I could get a feel of it. What kind of things do you need to "learn" when using Linux? I've only seen basic things such as codes for mouse use and stuff like that. What do you think of using the Virtual PC method?
Knoppix is a great distro for getting your feet wet. You can see how some stuff works, get used to the KDE desktop environment, use it as a rescue CD, save settings to Hard drive, and tons of other useful things. As for what to learn in linux - well, there's lot's of stuff. Linux/Unix is built differently than windows, and you need to get used to how things work. You'll need to learn the command line, the shells, commands, and shell scripting. You'll need to learn the file system, how it's structured, and where things are. You'll need to learn how to configure stuff, and how to set up/run services. You'll need to learn the major desktop environments, Gnome and KDE, the differences between the two, and the pluses and minuses of both. As for a learning distro - Patrick suggested Debian, Slackware, and Gentoo. These will most certainly be good learning distros. They will force you to jump in feet first, get under the hood, and get your hands dirty (sorry for the cliche festival). These distros will not be easy. Perhaps a slightly more gentle introduction, between the total easiness of Knoppix and the feet first under the hood experience of Slackware, would be a middle ground from distros like Fedora Core and Ubuntu. These distros invite you to get under the hood, but also make installing and getting things running pretty easy - a nice middle ground. Check out this link to help you make your decision: http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major
It depends on what you want to do. If you get a distro that boots you into KDE and logs you on as a DHCP client, chances are you won't be learning much you don't already know until you get to class. If you want to learn all the command line goodness, I would recommend FreeBSD. I like it because it dumps you on the command line by default, but it has excellent on-line documentation and a good mix of tools like the ports collection that you can get into without a lot of knowledge. I think it comes down to personal preference, really. I started with Yellow Dog, but that was too slick and easy - it was like MacOS 10 but not as good, and I wasn't going to learn anything. Same with Mandrake. Next, Debian's install annoyed me so much that by the time I booted, I had no desire to use the system. Finally I hit on FreeBSD, which seems to be a good middle ground and maybe a bit better organized than some linux distros. It has good default settings and you can get into the nuts and bolts at your own pace. But I'm an Arsenal fan, if you like a team like Tottenham or Chelsea, you might want something a little sexier. Once you get to school you will probably be using Solaris anyway, you might want to look at OpenSolaris as well.