kyro Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 try all distros, its not fun not knowing the other distros, and hey its free, so only effort you need to take is download and burn (or click for free-shipping in one case). Soon you will settle with the one which you really like :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foub Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 try all distros, its not fun not knowing the other distros, and hey its free, so only effort you need to take is download and burn (or click for free-shipping in one case). Soon you will settle with the one which you really like :) That's what I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wst50 Posted November 10, 2007 Author Share Posted November 10, 2007 Last but not least I add PCLinuxOS to your list of distro's to try. I saw that and thought - that looks good, I want it, when my friend showed me a screeny. I'm easy to sway with appearance, but that's just me being hmm... But I'll add that to my list- will d/l a load of livecd's and try them all before saying 'Defo this one' Kubuntu Fedora PCLinuxOS I'll look more into thos distros. Thanks for the advice many of the other people who I haven't acknowledged. It's like shoving a stick into a hornets nest with you guys! (And girls) (Helpful hornets) I'll take it on board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foub Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Here is a good place to get programs and games packaged in the .deb format. http://www.getdeb.net/browse.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wst50 Posted November 11, 2007 Author Share Posted November 11, 2007 Nice site Foub- is there a tool that lets you use .deb files on non-debian systems? Those programs there look good but I don't know which distro I'll go with yet, so I'm not sure on compatability with them yet. Ty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foub Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 Nice site Foub- is there a tool that lets you use .deb files on non-debian systems? Those programs there look good but I don't know which distro I'll go with yet, so I'm not sure on compatability with them yet. Ty. I'm not sure since I really only have used Debian systems, but I think that this maybe what you're looking for. http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Inst...tall-1641.shtml I think that any non-debian system you choose would have utils that would allow you to install .deb based files at the repositories as well.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xithium Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 Nice site Foub- is there a tool that lets you use .deb files on non-debian systems? Those programs there look good but I don't know which distro I'll go with yet, so I'm not sure on compatability with them yet. Ty. If you need to convert a deb, the 'alien' package will convert between deb and rpm, and it might even spit out a slackware tgz too. Bu you shouldn't need to do any conversion for the vast majority of packages. The packages you want 'ought to be available in the distro's repos, or a compatible format. You should also be a little careful about mixing debs and rpms made for different systems. Installing a Debian etch deb on Ubuntu 7.10, or a SuSE rpm on Fedora is an easy way to cause problems. If you're new to Linux and don't want to get too technially involved, then perhaps it's best to stick with one of the major distros which a large amount of packages and a big community for support. In that area, there's no doubt (U/Ku/Xu/Edu/Go)buntu, OpenSuSE, PCLinuxOS and Fedora rank highest. Remember a lot of these distros are closely related and real world differences are small. For example, Mint Linux and MEPIS are modified versions of Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS owes its lineage to Mandriva (which if you're old like me, you still remember as Mandrake - a modified bleeing edge version of Red Hat. and then of course there's Ubuntu's roots in Debian and if you really go back, SuSE roots in Slackware - but I digress :D ! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wst50 Posted November 11, 2007 Author Share Posted November 11, 2007 Well, you learn something new every day here! That's quite interesting actually. Thanks for the deb/rpm/tgz info, etc. I'll try getting comparable software that's right for each distro as far as possible, not keen on breaking my installs 0.o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foub Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 nc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Lacey Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 Go with Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wst50 Posted November 12, 2007 Author Share Posted November 12, 2007 jiSh, any particular reasons? I looked at those but Fedora is winning my free HDD space at the moment. I'll give Fedora a go, if nothing, and if it doesn't install right I'll grab Ubuntu from a friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted November 12, 2007 Share Posted November 12, 2007 I use Ubuntu, so that's my recommendation. Here's a nice site which might help you make a decision- http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foub Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 I use Ubuntu, so that's my recommendation. Here's a nice site which might help you make a decision-http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/ Guess what? It picked Ubuntu for me. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KC Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 (edited) LFS It will cure your fears of the command line. :p I just set up Ubuntu 7.10 on my wifes computer and for the most part everything went smooth. I picked it because, well I had the disk laying around and I just wanted to get her machine back up and running. She mostly just browses the web and emails. She already uses firefox so that was no big deal; she'll have to learn thunderbird but I have a feeling that she will like it better then Outlook. Last but not least I am sure pidgin will be exotic to her for a while but she'll learn. I would just suggest to you that you just start with Ubuntu and then move on from there once you get comfortable. Edited November 13, 2007 by KC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cork1958 Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Zenwalk 4.8 (see signature), because EVERYTHING just works out of the box, unlike Ubuntu, where you have to find media codecs, flashplayer, unrar and other things, not in the regular repositories. Not to mention Zenwalk is WAY easier and better than Ubuntu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digitalx Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 heh i hate command line and DOS the whole lot of them but i don't have any problem with linux especially ubuntu since it's so easy to use simple commands and stuff when really have no other choice but synaptic and stuff all do perfectly fine lol. imho ubuntu + automatix + synaptic and you're away with flying colours. next thing i need/want to learn with linux is customizing and themes etc still haven't got my head around it all lol just waiting for wubi 7.10 to roll around then i'll carry on :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted November 13, 2007 Veteran Share Posted November 13, 2007 ...I just set up Ubuntu 7.10 on my wifes computer and for the most part everything went smooth. I picked it because, well I had the disk laying around and I just wanted to get her machine back up and running. She mostly just browses the web and emails. She already uses firefox so that was no big deal; she'll have to learn thunderbird but I have a feeling that she will like it better then Outlook. Last but not least I am sure pidgin will be exotic to her for a while but she'll learn. ... Off-topic here a bit, but if you could let us know how that goes, I would appreciate it. My wife just tried Xubuntu, and found that little things (like wallpaper and icons that can be set) were too different. She felt it was "slower", but no benchmarks I could ever perform would convince her it was not. :ermm: In the end, she knew it wasn't "Windows". Maybe I should have told her this was Vista. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wst50 Posted November 13, 2007 Author Share Posted November 13, 2007 I'll say how my dad copes with Linux... I'll just put WINE on it to let him use Outlook and sometimes to give me office use (v. rarely). And also for running some windows games (Firefight, Creatures 3/Docking Station). Apart from that, I'll go with Fedora. Seems the nicest one out and it has a good 6 months before I will (want to, or will actually) update, instead of the others which are releasing new versions sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonathanVP Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Ubuntu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foub Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 Off-topic here a bit, but if you could let us know how that goes, I would appreciate it. My wife just tried Xubuntu, and found that little things (like wallpaper and icons that can be set) were too different. She felt it was "slower", but no benchmarks I could ever perform would convince her it was not. :ermm: In the end, she knew it wasn't "Windows". Maybe I should have told her this was Vista. :p Isn't Xubuntu kind of stripped down when it comes to the GUI? If she is finding it slower than maybe you should use the accelerated video drivers instead of the default ones? Ubuntu 7.10 now really kicks Vista. This is a comparison of Vista and Ubuntu and their desktop effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted November 14, 2007 Veteran Share Posted November 14, 2007 I did. I installed the nVidia drivers. https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=597545 <== Mein Kampf It isn't slower. It just isn't Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foub Posted November 14, 2007 Share Posted November 14, 2007 I did. I installed the nVidia drivers.https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=597545 <== Mein Kampf It isn't slower. It just isn't Windows. Ok. I use the ATI drivers myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wst50 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Share Posted November 16, 2007 Just installed Fedora 8. It went well, first time disc was dirty so I had to wipe the partition it made and start again. Second time worked great. Just got to get Java going now :D And simply- wow. Only snag is Compiz Fusion- it doesn't display all of my workspaces when zoomed out and the cube looks a bit like it's tiled a 1024*768 image to fit 1280*1024, therefore having weird effects on the right edge and the bottom edge of the screen. Apart from that, great. Not lagging much at all! :D Loving it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowRanger13 Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 Just used that Distro chooser website told me a list of distros I would probably like Debain, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Mandriva I've only ever used Ubuntu and Fedora. I'll have to try out the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wst50 Posted November 16, 2007 Author Share Posted November 16, 2007 (edited) Blech, trust my first impressions to lie a bit. 1) I think Compiz is making it freeze, froze twice on me already, once moving a window across workspaces, so going to deactivate that. 2) It does think that fullscreen is 1024*768, even though it's setup to be 1280*1024. Any fixes? 3) I can't get sudo to work properly... maybe because root pass is the same as my normal pass? Can I change the superuser pass? Apart from that, once I get VLC and Java Plugins going I'll be going good, ty. 2 is sorted- it's compiz. I think that it also made it freeze, as it froze when I let windos use the space outside of the 'maximised' area. Edited November 16, 2007 by wst50 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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