A Neowin Guide to Linux Distributions


Recommended Posts

I tried to get Ubuntu and LinuxMINT to install via dvd-r.  I have no thumbdrives.  I am familiar with burning bootable drive disks, my drive boots just fine if I put my Windows disc in, yet on Linux nothing, I opted to permit Ubuntu to setup a boot option from within the Ubuntu disc menu.  This ends with an error, that the log opens as gibberish. 

It's maddening!

I tried to get Ubuntu and LinuxMINT to install via dvd-r.  I have no thumbdrives.  I am familiar with burning bootable drive disks, my drive boots just fine if I put my Windows disc in, yet on Linux nothing, I opted to permit Ubuntu to setup a boot option from within the Ubuntu disc menu.  This ends with an error, that the log opens as gibberish. 

It's maddening!

Try to burn the ISO with ImgBurn, for me it was the only one that could burn the image the right way.

Try to burn the ISO with ImgBurn, for me it was the only one that could burn the image the right way.

I've used deepburner for so many things, are the Linux .iso that fragile? I even burned at x4 speed.

It seems Linux is geared to people having thumbdrives hanging around all over place, in chat rooms, and forums it seems the key way people are installing, even running.  Linux should spread out and get into more types of media.  I prefer to carry media on portable harddrives, I've two 2TB drives that contain all my stuff, and a few external desktop drives for backups.  I have absolutely zero requirement for tiny flash drives!

 

 

I've used deepburner for so many things, are the Linux .iso that fragile? I even burned at x4 speed.

It seems Linux is geared to people having thumbdrives hanging around all over place, in chat rooms, and forums it seems the key way people are installing, even running.  Linux should spread out and get into more types of media.  I prefer to carry media on portable harddrives, I've two 2TB drives that contain all my stuff, and a few external desktop drives for backups.  I have absolutely zero requirement for tiny flash drives!

USB pen drives are so much more convenient than optical disks. I love being able to do:

$ dd if=linux.iso of=/dev/sdd bs=1M

And that's it for me, a single command later and I have a bootable live environment and an optional installer. No messing around with burning disks or anything. Just a fast bootable image.

If you're having problems with the iso you downloaded, I'd suggest you confirm its checksum to make sure it wasn't corrupted.

 

I've downloaded so many things over so many years, and have never run into the odds of two .iso images failing on the same day, when burned at super slow speeds on a tested and reliable burner, the simple odds of such a thing must be staggering?

 

I've downloaded so many things over so many years, and have never run into the odds of two .iso images failing on the same day, when burned at super slow speeds on a tested and reliable burner, the simple odds of such a thing must be staggering?

 

What error are you getting precisely? Are you saying that you successfully installed Ubuntu, but it fails when you try and reboot? It could be secureboot/UEFI related I suppose. Microsoft loves its monopoly lockin after all lol.

What error are you getting precisely? Are you saying that you successfully installed Ubuntu, but it fails when you try and reboot? It could be secureboot/UEFI related I suppose. Microsoft loves its monopoly lockin after all lol.

Downloaded Linux Ubuntu, the .iso burns at x4 speed, autoruns and I reboot, disc fails to boot. 

Downloaded LInux Mint, exactly same issue, disc also refuses to autorun.  Both downloaded via the .torrent protocol.

 

 

Downloaded Linux Ubuntu, the .iso burns at x4 speed, autoruns and I reboot, disc fails to boot. 

Downloaded LInux Mint, exactly same issue, disc also refuses to autorun.  Both downloaded via the .torrent protocol.

Have you tried manually selecting the optical drive as the default boot device? Usually, you can press F8 or another key during boot and the bios will prompt to select device. Either that or go into the bios and manually select the optical drive as the first boot device.

If that doesn't work then it's either 1) Something wrong with how you burnt the iso image to the cd/dvd. You did burn the image right? Don't copy the actual iso file to the disc (I've seen that happen a few times xD). Or 2) Some Secureboot/UEFI Voodoo is happening. In which case double check your bios settings.

I've given up, going to focus on getting my EMC 2429 iMac 27inch i7 a new PSU, and hand this Windoze rig to my gf to upgrade her tired Q6660.  I've used this burner for years, I have the bios configured for dvd drive/hard drive boot.  All I can imagine is some weird Windows voodoo is going on to stop the boot option, or bugger the burning of the .iso.

 

I've given up, going to focus on getting my EMC 2429 iMac 27inch i7 a new PSU, and hand this Windoze rig to my gf to upgrade her tired Q6660.  I've used this burner for years, I have the bios configured for dvd drive/hard drive boot.  All I can imagine is some weird Windows voodoo is going on to stop the boot option, or bugger the burning of the .iso.

There's one way to eliminate the media/iso as the problem. Install virtualbox and try and boot from the cd/dvd in it. Vbox and other virtual machines aren't subject to any secureboot nonsense ;)

I've downloaded so many things over so many years, and have never run into the odds of two .iso images failing on the same day, when burned at super slow speeds on a tested and reliable burner, the simple odds of such a thing must be staggering?

 

I did. Many years ago I used to burn ISOs with Nero and many of them simply wouldn't boot, I really have no idea why. ImgBurn however seems to do the right job. Just try it once, maybe this is what you need :) 

I did. Many years ago I used to burn ISOs with Nero and many of them simply wouldn't boot, I really have no idea why. ImgBurn however seems to do the right job. Just try it once, maybe this is what you need :) 

Yeah it's a bad idea using the same burning program if it keeps failing. As I said, if it won't boot in a VM like virtualbox, then the problem lies with the media/iso/burning software/method.

  • 10 months later...
  • 4 years later...

> "Here are two big lists of these CD-based distros:
> "http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php
> "http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd

 

Need serious re-writing & updating now.  Generally I sometimes update Wikipedia entries.  Perhaps I'll try this one day?

I think that I must be one of the very few people who have tried to run every Windows & every Linux operating system that exists, on a microcomputer.  Most Linux systems have great trouble with generalist microcomputers.  So trialling these were very easy.  Most of them could not work.

That is one of my "luxuries", being so severely crippled (Traumatic Brain Injury, so very spastic now, 1984 to the present).

Edited by Greg Zeng
  • 6 months later...

This guy has some pretty cool Linux instructional videos as well as various reviews of some of the most popular Linux distros. He is an old nerd but he is quite cool and his videos are awesome. His latest video shows how to install Mac OS on a Linux virtual machine!!!. Quite impressive.

 

Jack Keifer Linux Trainings

 

 

  • 3 months later...

I recently started using Zorin OS 16, which is still in Beta. It is a slick and easy to use distro, based on Ubuntu, but you can configure in such a way that you would barely notice it.  Because it uses the Gnome shell, you can install the Gnome Tweaks tool and Gnome Extensions. 

 

It is a great distribution to use for folks just coming over to Linux from Windows. 

 

https://zorinos.com/

11 hours ago, devHead said:

I recently started using Zorin OS 16, which is still in Beta. It is a slick and easy to use distro, based on Ubuntu, but you can configure in such a way that you would barely notice it.  Because it uses the Gnome shell, you can install the Gnome Tweaks tool and Gnome Extensions. 

 

It is a great distribution to use for folks just coming over to Linux from Windows. 

 

https://zorinos.com/

A few years back a friend had an old netbook that was knackered on the software front, bogged down beyond belief. I offered to clean it up for him, but even with a clean install of Windows it still chugged. Looking around I decided to install Zorin for him - it seemed the closest alternative to Windows for someone who wasn't technically proficient. The last time I checked he was still very happy with it.

12 hours ago, devHead said:

I recently started using Zorin OS 16, which is still in Beta. It is a slick and easy to use distro, based on Ubuntu, but you can configure in such a way that you would barely notice it.  Because it uses the Gnome shell, you can install the Gnome Tweaks tool and Gnome Extensions. 

 

It is a great distribution to use for folks just coming over to Linux from Windows. 

 

https://zorinos.com/

 

1 hour ago, Nick H. said:

A few years back a friend had an old netbook that was knackered on the software front, bogged down beyond belief. I offered to clean it up for him, but even with a clean install of Windows it still chugged. Looking around I decided to install Zorin for him - it seemed the closest alternative to Windows for someone who wasn't technically proficient. The last time I checked he was still very happy with it.

I never really understood twisting Gnome to be something it's not. I usually suggest Kubuntu for people coming from Windows. If it really must be Gnome I have liked Linux Mint (Cinnamon edition)  in the past.

  • Like 1
  • 2 years later...

Which system I prefer depends very much on how often I will use the system and what the specific hardware is.

Easy and for AMD/Intel/Nvidia users: mageia, Nobara Project, Mint, ROSA Fresh, Neptune, openKylin, siduction, ALT Sisyphus, EndeavourOS


Average and for AMD/Intel users: Devuan, Void Linux, Clear Linux, openSUSE, Alpine Linux


Average and for Nvidia users: Void Linux, openSUSE, Artix Linux

  • Like 1
On 18/08/2023 at 06:43, FateTrap said:

Which system I prefer depends very much on how often I will use the system and what the specific hardware is.

Easy and for AMD/Intel/Nvidia users: mageia, Nobara Project, Mint, ROSA Fresh, Neptune, openKylin, siduction, ALT Sisyphus, EndeavourOS


Average and for AMD/Intel users: Devuan, Void Linux, Clear Linux, openSUSE, Alpine Linux


Average and for Nvidia users: Void Linux, openSUSE, Artix Linux

Actually, you can use any distro for any hardware. It depends what software you need, too..

And also the DE you want, as well. As some distros don't fully support certain DE/WMs

  • Like 1
On 30/07/2015 at 14:20, Kierax2016 said:

Hi all, I'm a total rookie to Linux, I'm also a bit of a gamer, quite into Elder Scrolls Online, and TF2.  Quite fancy the move to a more privacy focused open sourced environment.  What distro is the best for me? for just out of the box go, and gaming capabilities?

Pc is in my signature.

I would go Debian, is much more stable and runs out of the box with your signature pc.

  • Like 1
On 18/08/2023 at 17:34, Arceles said:

I would go Debian, is much more stable and runs out of the box with your signature pc.

Im sure this poster is still debating which distros to use 8 years after posting, just waiting for the perfect reply on Neowin. 

On 18/08/2023 at 18:41, adrynalyne said:

Im sure this poster is still debating which distros to use 8 years after posting, just waiting for the perfect reply on Neowin. 

Heh... well, either way I'm sure he has his answer now indeed.

  • Mindovermaster unpinned and locked this topic
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Apple is expanding Private Cloud Compute beyond its own data centers by Pradeep Viswanathan At WWDC 2026, as part of the improved Apple Intelligence capabilities, Apple today announced that it is expanding Private Cloud Compute (PCC), its privacy-focused cloud infrastructure for Apple Intelligence, beyond its own data centers for the first time. Private Cloud Compute was designed to handle Apple Intelligence requests that are too complex to run fully on-device. The PCC system does not store user data and does not allow Apple or anyone else to access user requests. Last year, Apple also expanded its Security Bounty program with rewards of up to $1 million for researchers who could find serious vulnerabilities in PCC. Until now, Apple's PCC data centers were using Apple's own silicon. As part of the expansion, Apple is working with Google and NVIDIA to run new Apple Intelligence workloads on Google Cloud systems powered by NVIDIA GPUs. Apple will be using this new infrastructure to execute more demanding AI tasks while maintaining the same privacy and security guarantees of PCC. The new implementation uses NVIDIA Confidential Computing with NVIDIA GPUs, Intel CPUs with TDX, and Google’s Titan chip. Apple says it has worked with Google to build additional protections beyond a traditional confidential computing deployment. Despite the expansion to third-party data centers, Apple claims that its core PCC requirements remain unchanged, including stateless computation, no privileged runtime access, non-targetability, and verifiable transparency. The company highlighted that it will continue to control the PCC software stack, and Apple devices will only trust PCC software that has been cryptographically approved by Apple. To take security to the next level, Apple mentioned that it is maintaining an append-only ledger of Google Cloud hardware that is part of the PCC fleet. The company claims this will help reduce the risk of supply chain attacks. In addition to AI infrastructure, Apple also worked with Google to use technologies behind the Gemini family of models to build the next generation of Apple Foundation Models to power Apple Intelligence features across on-device and cloud workloads. As expected, for more demanding AI tasks like agentic tool use and complex reasoning, Apple will rely on the expanded PCC infrastructure running on Google Cloud. The expansion of PCC on Google Cloud will gradually ramp toward the full set of protections during the summer preview period. As before, Apple will also publish binaries for public inspection, provide research tooling, and give researchers access to live PCC nodes in research mode through the Apple Security Bounty Program.
    • my problem with outlook (new) is that it connects only to outlook.com. all connections to external providers goes through there. Got your mail server and want to use imap directly? no way... it adds a connector on outlook.com. last bug; if your email on an external provider if the same as principal email of your microsoft account, it doesn't work...
    • It's the only reason I finally have an iPhone (for work) and enjoy using it so much that I'm tempted to move from android next time I need to replace my own device
    • So is Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, just to mention a few. What's your point? Everyone is a threat from their enemies' perspective. I'd say that Israel is only a threat to their immediate enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime, not to anyone else.
    • The government is not the good guy either. You propose 99% of people require that the government overreach and govern their freedom of information and privacy, while ignoring the government is made up 100% of people, of which 99% are (as you described) brain dead. You can't have both. The reality is Signal is absolutely right and the government is doing what it has always done. Ignoring that we are their boss and grabbing all the power they possibly can to make sure we aren't. Your (societies) ###### parenting is not reason enough as to why I can't have a safe platform for my data/information. Thinking the government is helping is precisely what they are targeting psychologically to take suckers like you for a ride. "Think of the children" was, has, is, and will always be a mechanism of control. In the rare occasion it's actually essential the mass consensus has always been there and it doesn't become a debate.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Very Popular
      Captain_Eric earned a badge
      Very Popular
    • One Month Later
      amusc earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      DJC50PLUS earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      509
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      222
    3. 3
      ATLien_0
      92
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      86
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      81
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!