My dad needs a distro that meets this for this computer:

Dell
256 ram
20gig HD
2.4 ghtz

Uses:
- MSN Messenger
- Surfing the net
- MS word

Questions:
1. Will kde or gnome run fine on this or will it be too slow?

2. any dvd ripping/burning program out, like dvdshrink for windows?

3. Im thinking mandrake is prolly the best for this, im assuming these user friendly type OSs come with all the stuff liek Openoffice and gnome and kde...

Thanks!

Sorry, there REALLY is no need for another one of these
threads in newbie ... just search or browse the distro forum.
On average there's about 4 of these a day, it really doesn't
make sense to answer each and every one individually.



Cheers,
Tink

I don't see why not Tinkster.

True, there are a lot of these threads... however, the only thread about how to choose a distribution for yourself is somewhat dated, and the majority of links no-longer work... meaning it's pretty useless.

There needs to be an actual article/document made up on this topic, and have people referred to it. How about someone making an interactive program?
Or... you could just kindly respond to each topic here.

If you'd prefer not to respond to the topics... maybe work at a solution rather than try to stop people? It'll be a lot better in the long run and if there is a solution available, there won't be a need for more threads like this.

Just a thought.

In regards to your question sandboy6184,

1) I used Knoppix with KDE on my laptop, and it's slower than your fathers (Mine is Intel PIII 500mhz with 256mb ram). People say Knoppix is slower because it runs from the CD, however I found no problem with speed using KDE. Maybe if he used a less graphical intense window manager, it would speed things up.

2) In regards to this, I'm afraid I don't know. Maybe someone else can help you out there.

3) Yes, the various Linux distributions do come with software.
http://www.distrowatch.com/mandrake - For more info on what programs come with Mandrake (but depends on which version you get: Discovery, PowerPack, PowerPack+)

I have been told though by some, that Mandrake 10 isn't the best - and that it's best either to go with SuSE 9.1 Pro or Mandrake 9.2 PowerPack; that being said, I've never used Mandrake 9.2 nor 10 - however this is what I've been told. Some good ones for newbies are SuSE and Mandrake; however there are others out there which are trying to be aimed at the newbie.

Hope this helps.

You may want to look at Libranet for your dad. Uses Icewm for windows-ish look and menus that look somewhat familiar. Link to free 2.8.1 Download You can google and find many reviews of this distro on various Linux sites.

If you change your apt sources in Libranet, you could download dvd::rip, (and all dependencies) which is a fairly nice subsitute for DVDShrink. dvd::rip The beauty of Libranet is that it is debian and you can install any of the 10,000+ apps in their repositories with a simple command using apt-get.

Even if you weren't contradicting yourself ... if distro-watch, the LQ-search and
google don't provide the info you think should be provided feel free to make a
new thread, and ask Jeremy to make it sticky.

That aside, one of the supposed benefits of this forum is the ability to search.
However, if you have incoherent and inconsistent threads of this kind (which
is bound to happen since not the same well informed people will reply to each
one of them, you're ruining the search) .... you'll get 300 equally pointless
hits ...

The latter is certainly not going to happen, I love Linux, I'm happy to be a mod
here, but I love my wife more than the forum, and I need to work for a living.

And this is where I have to strongly disagree ... I don't think that a whole lot
of similar topics with posts of varied levels are helpful.



Cheers,
Tink