choosing a distro problems

nightkid · Post by **nightkid** » 02 Jan 2008, 03:57

hey all.
i dabbled with linux for a while...i would just install, browse around, IM and then in a few hours go back to windows when something had to be done that i didnt know how to do on linux (which could be done) i got a old spare laptop i decided i'd make it a linux box but im not sure on a distro because i want pure speed and performance with good support. im not sure on what my processor is right now..but i have 196 (around there) ram. i tried these distros
-phlak
-knoppix
-debian
-ubuntu
-xubuntu* had screen problems
and currently using pcbsd which i plan to take off as its a good desktop replacement but i planned to use this laptop more for cracking and war driving, stuff of that nature.

what are you suggestions? maybe one i havent heard of. what are some pros-cons?
i perfer a distro without kde as it sucks up memory like a hoover.

-about xubuntu, maybe just hte iso i had but i burnt it and booted it , even as live there was a dark line about a inch from the right side of the screen and the entire screen was shaking horrible, i couldnt even make out what the menus said, thinking it was a refresh rate problem, trying to fix it, anyone know what could fix this?

thanks.

n3rd · Post by **n3rd** » 02 Jan 2008, 04:59

Fedora is also one that works good, but its a bit more for the experienced user.

Ubuntu is the friendliest of em all I think.

*WOW, I did not know Firefox had spell check :S*

G-Brain · Post by **G-Brain** » 02 Jan 2008, 06:00

Try Slackware, it's awesome.

Post by **CommonStray** » 02 Jan 2008, 07:09

phlak is on hold, no longer supported if you want a Distro similiar get Backtrack 2 or 3

based off Slax

Post by **bad_brain** » 02 Jan 2008, 09:40

hm, when I first tried Slackware I was a Linux beginner, and the install procedure was pretty complicated for me at that time...but ok, that was Slackware 9, I guess they have improved that in the following versions.

my personal favorite is Debian, it's very stable and easy to install for beginners...you simply need a free partition and pick "install all on one partition" in the install menu. and the Debian repositories are just awesome.

but well, Linux on laptops can be a pain in the rear, so it might be the best to try a couple of distros and simply pick the one that supports the hardware best.....you don't have to worry that you can do some things only with a specific distro...

Post by **CommonStray** » 02 Jan 2008, 10:07

also a good way to try and test out distros is using a live CD, this is simply just a distro installed to a CD that boots from CD, and requires no installation

nightkid · Post by **nightkid** » 03 Jan 2008, 06:20

thanks for all your feedback.
as of now im using debian, i like the support and apt-get, very user friendly and quite light weight for my system (although i would perfer something lighter, hehe)
i have downloaded backtrack after reading some reviews, sounds nice. ill give it a shot.
unfortunetly i've ran out of blank CDs

<counted earlier and i have 19 different linux/unix distro> i'm worried about getting my wireless card working on here (wmpc54g V5)
a site reviewing backtrack mentioned it had the linksys wireless drivers already loaded so i could get my card auto-detected with that.
<sleepy>
just giving a update.
nite.

Post by **Big-E** » 03 Jan 2008, 09:27

Congrats, welcome both to the world of Linux and suck-o. Both are equivalently enjoyable.

The beauty of Linux, is that you don't need the latest system to get the performance that is required when running another OS, such as Vista. You are doing the best thing, installing and testing out various distributions is the best path to find your favorite flavor. I like debian-based distributions myself, while others enjoy another - it's all up to preference and of course, what your system takes a liking too.

Currently installed on my systems are Ubuntu 7.10, Ubuntu Server 7.10 and Backtrack 3. I have some Christmas money left over and I have another 2.4ghz celeron computer sitting behind me, which is lacking RAM - I plan on buying some RAM and setting up another system, perhaps I will test more distributions.

Post by **Stavros** » 03 Jan 2008, 13:29

Something lighter you say?

There's Gentoo and Arch Linux. Slackware has already been mentioned.

Gentoo might not be user friendly, but everything on Gentoo is compiled for your system (meaning you'll have to compile a lot and if you're on old hardware it might take days if you try to compile Open Office).

And then there's Arch Linux. It's supposed to be super light weight. Instead of using KDE or GNOME it uses Xfce. It doesn't use apt-get, but instead uses pacman (PACkage MANager) and I've heard the transition from apt-get to pacman should be painless.

Lyecdevf · Post by **Lyecdevf** » 04 Jan 2008, 12:52

n3rd wrote:Fedora is also one that works good, but its a bit more for the experienced user.

Updating to Fedora 8 was a pain in the rear. Actually I gave up on it back than so yeah you have to be an experienced user to use it.

In general linux is light weight so if windows were working fine on your system linux should do even better. What ever distro you are using though Xfce is the graphics environment that takes up the least of memory. So you may want to go for that one or the other choice is to upgrade your computer.

Post by **bad_brain** » 06 Jan 2008, 09:34

if you want a really lightweight distro Puppy Linux might be a good choice:
http://www.puppylinux.org/
I use it as live distro for disaster recovery on broken MS systems a lot, but you can install it on HDD too....it's very lightweight and runs even on very old hardware without any problems.