Cant find a good distro
 

Iv been trying to use linux for a while but i never find a distro that realy works. First i tryed redhat/feodora but there whas something i didnt like about it. Suse just stopped working all the time. I realy liked gentoo but my computer is konda slow and compiling everything from source took way to long. Last week i tryed Ubuntu but it didnt realy workout good with KDE and much of the software was outdated. Today i tryed debian wich i didnt understand att all. It came with KDE 2.2.0 !?!?!??! and i couldn get XFree86 to get to any higher reolution than 860x480 trying both xf86config and X -configure and editing them manualy. I would like a distro that has kernel 2.6 (2.4 also ok), hotplug, kde 3.2.2 and xorg (not XFree86). Is there ayone like that or do you have any idea of an other good distro. I tried getting slackware. :cry:

Hello

There was something you didn't like about Fedora. What was it? If you are more specific, we might be able to help you.

Some distributions have live cd's. You can use them from your cdrom player without installing. Maybe you should try one of those first. Knoppix was one of the first live distro's. You can find it at http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html. It is also famous for its hardware recognition.

Have a lot of fun

Koen Plessers

If you can use Gentoo then you can certainly run Arch Linux.

you ought to check out arch linux (see sig). it's like gentoo, but no compiling -- the packages are all precomplied binaries for i686. they install in a snap and they're usually bleeding-edge current. it's also very slack-like in its structure (/etc/rc.d, etc.), i.e., simple. everything's very streamlined and efficient. the wiki is excellent, it covers all the major setup issues that most people have, and the forum is great. i've been using arch for about a year probably, and it's easily the best desktop distro i've ever used. :cool:

fedora is definitely not a distro to use with old computers.
I've used suse,redhat,mandrake,fedora and slackware.
I loved slackware from day one, but it's just a matter of taste.
slackware runs faster, than the others, especially in old computers.
Try the unstable version of debian for a desktop pc.

you beat me to it. :p

Thanks il try Arch, I had no direct problem with feodora i just didnt like it, and thats what it whas all about isnt it ;). :S i tryed gobo today il not recomment it to anyone. I had to edit the XFree86 for the bootcd to start. And it has another file hirarchi (excuse the spelling) wich makes it quite incompatible.

Rack another vote for Arch :)

My vote for Arch also, with the clarification it is not for everyone either, because setting it up can take a bit of work. (I just installed a new Arch system and sound doesn't work... why? who knows - it just doesn't. I'll have to spend who knows how long fighting with Alsa, udev and what not... Endless issues with sound in Linux (yes, most distros) give me the SHITS! )
Anyhow. Yes, Arch is very good once you've got it running.

Speaking of Gobo, it is very interesting and advanced in many ways. Their system nonstandard though it might be, makes a lot of sense once you 'get it', and they have a solid and powerful system for building packages. It takes a bit of work to grasp what they are doing and why, and yes there might be hiccups with video or whatever. But if you're interested in something more than yet another rehash of Knoppix or Fedora, Gobo is certainly worth getting to know.

Have you read the Alsa page on the Arch Wiki? I didn't need to but apparently there's some pretty good instructions there. My sound card just worked, magic and I'm not complaining ;)

I read it and used it - no joy. But I just got onto my Arch system now (was posting from another one previously) and lo and behold, sound now works. Magic, but I'm not complaining (actually I think it was running last pacman -Syu that made the difference because it brought new udev version; that could be it...)

Give SimplyMepis a try. Very user friendly and hardware detection is excellent.

Thx,
Today i finished installing and configuring ArchLinux and i love it i had some problems installing it the first times (worked when changing the FTP server i think). Now xorg KDE hotplug alsa all work fine its just java and the nvidia drivers left left!

You're just going to have to try loads of different distros. I'm currently in the same position as you, and am going to try SUSE, Mandrake, Feather and Lycoris. As you seem to be new, these would probably be better to go for as they seem a lot like Windows and a fairly user-friendly. I've heard great things about Xandros too.

Well, Ubuntu is a great distro. Of course it's GNOME not KDE, but you don't really want that bloated piece of eye-candy, do you? ;)
[NOTE: KDE is fine a DE, it's just that GNOME is better :D Dont' flame me...]

If you insist on KDE, Mepis might fit your need. I've never used it, but I've heard it's quite good!