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Linux - Distributions This forum is for Distribution specific questions.
Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, Novell, LFS, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Fedora - the list goes on and on... Note: An (*) indicates there is no official participation from that distribution here at LQ.

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Old 11-18-2005, 12:54 PM   #1
whit2333
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Registered: Jan 2004
Distribution: Xubuntu
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New Laptop needs ideal distribution


I just purchased a new laptop and I want to put linux on it but i don't know what distribution to use.
It is a 64 bit AMD mobile, with ATI graphics and a built in wireless card. 512 MB of memory and 80 Gb HD. I will be dual booting.

I'm currently running FC3 on my desktop which has been OK.

So the question is what is the best distribution out there for my new laptop?

I've heard some buzz about ubuntu..?? any comments?

Thanks
 
Old 11-18-2005, 01:17 PM   #2
GrueMaster
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Registered: Aug 2005
Location: Oregon
Distribution: Kubuntu.
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My personal favorite is Mandriva. And it was recently certified for Intel's mobile Centrino chipset (not that it matters on your system). They started as a branch from Redhat a long time ago, and use rpm as the base package manager, but that's where the similarity ends. It is a very easy distribution to install, especially on laptops. I ran a test a couple of years ago (and it's improved dramatically since then), by giving my mother (fairly computer illiterate, although good in MS Word) an older laptop and installation cd's. She had it up and running on the internet in an hour, and was able to do some decent documents in the earlier version of Kword.

I am currently using an IBM t20 laptop for school, and it has a Broadcom wireless card. All I need to do is insert the card, and Mandriva automatically loads the ndiswrapper, and connects me to the campus network. Initial setup was a little more difficult as I had to download the Windows driver for the ndiswrapper and extract it using wine, but even that wasn't painful.
 
Old 11-18-2005, 06:08 PM   #3
e1000
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Registered: Oct 2003
Location: California
Distribution: Ubuntu
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ubuntu has alot buzz for a reason, its really really easy to install and use! it autodetected and helped configure all my hardware (including intel wireless chipset) the interface is slick, and its apt-get system from debian is second to none.

of course theres a downside, so far ubuntu has been buggier for me than windows 98, and thats alot (although iv heard of people installing and using it w/o a single problem) ... if your experienced with linux the bugs shouldnt be too much a problem to deal with but if your experienced with linux ud prbably rather have slackware debian or fedora.

Im still giving ubuntu the benefit of the doubt. I say give it a try, and if your lucky youll be amaized at how cool ubuntu is, if not you could just go back to whatever distro ur used to.
 
Old 11-18-2005, 06:28 PM   #4
Simon Bridge
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Registered: Oct 2003
Location: Waiheke NZ
Distribution: Ubuntu
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Take the test...
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

guessing detals from your post, the test suggests
Mepis or Mandrivia as first choice, followed by
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Debian, Fedora ... in that order.

The biggest advantage for the uncertain would be anything with a "live" CD version - Ubuntu, Knoppix etc - so you can test it out before you install.

Take the test yourself.
 
Old 11-18-2005, 09:34 PM   #5
jacook
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Registered: Nov 2005
Location: Townsville, Australia
Distribution: PCLinuxOS .93 Junior
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whit2333,

It is hard to reccomend distros to people because you don't know their tastes and what they want out of it. Are you a KDE or Gnome man? are you going to dual boot the system and what is the system going to be used for?

Personally I'd recomend KDE over Gnome, keeping this in mind I'd reccomend the following:

Kubuntu
http://www.kubuntu.org/

Mandriva
http://frontal2.mandriva.com/en/downloads/mirrors

Knoppix

http://iso.linuxquestions.org/distro.php?distro=5

PCLinuxOS

http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/html/download.html


Hope this Helps,

Jake
 
Old 11-22-2005, 05:11 PM   #6
gunnix
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Registered: Apr 2004
Distribution: Arch, Debian and FreeBSD
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I'd recommend you Arch linux. It works like a charm. It's a sort of mix between the best of debain, freebsd, slackware and gentoo. I suggest you try it, you won't regret

grtz
gunnix
 
Old 11-24-2005, 10:17 AM   #7
BinJajer
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Registered: Sep 2005
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Distribution: Slackware 10.2, Caldera OpenLinux 3.1, Corel Linux (Thanks xhi!), Debian GNU/HURD etc...
Posts: 296
Blog Entries: 1

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Ubuntu, FC, DEBIAN...? Nah. No good expierience here. My suggestion is Gentoo. The one and only. Fast, reliable, stable , did I mention fast? And the fab portage system... mmm... you have to try it. If you're sorta n00bish, then try the Kororaa method os the Gentoo Graphical Installer.

You can get gentoo on www.gentoo.org
 
Old 11-25-2005, 07:11 AM   #8
Simon Bridge
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Registered: Oct 2003
Location: Waiheke NZ
Distribution: Ubuntu
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The main trouble I have had with laptop distros has been getting the ACPI to work. Investigating, I discover it seldom works properly under windows either. Is it just me or are the manufacturers getting a tad overconfident of the consumers ignorance?
 
Old 12-03-2005, 05:33 AM   #9
kartheekpn
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Registered: Mar 2005
Location: bangalore
Posts: 100

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Hello All,

I am planning to buy a laptop, I am confused on choosing the right distribution. I have short listed Mandriva,FC4,Suse,Debian. I am presently running FC4 both on my servers and desktops. I dont have any xperiece with other distros except for FC4. I am planning to use bluetooth and wireless lan. What Should I settle for?

Regards
KartheeK
 
Old 12-03-2005, 01:52 PM   #10
b18b
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Registered: Nov 2005
Distribution: PCLinuxOS .92
Posts: 80

Rep: Reputation: 15
All I can say is Suse 10.0.

On my Sony VGN-S360, all hardware installed perfectly right out of the box and very little setup for the Intel 2200BG wireless.

DVD, MP3, AVI and everything working as advertised.
 
  


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