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SquireSCA 02-18-2006 09:44 PM

OK, recommend me a distro
 
I have used Linux off and on for a few years now, and so far Suse has seemed the best. My issues with Linux usually revolve around games and having the latest hardware. Some games do not run, which I can usually live with, but then I go and upgrade some hardware and there is no support for it under Linux.

Here is my current hardware:

Coolermaster Centurion5 w/Antec NeoHE 550W
Abit AN8-SLI
Opteron 175 dual-core at 2.5Ghz
1GBx2 Patriot Extreme Performance PC3200 DDR
2x Geforce 7800GTX in SLI
Creative Labs X-Fi
74GB WD Raptor
400GB Hitachi SATA
Samsung 16x Dual-Layer DVDRW
Liteon 16X DVDROM
Dell Ultrasharp 2005FPW 20.1" widescreen flat panel
Logitech Z680 speakers 5.1 THX 500W

OK, right off the bat I know that the X-Fi is out, but the mobo has a SoundMAX 7.1 HD daughter card that Linux does support, so I can use that for now and slap the X-Fi back in when support becomes available.

I prefer KDE over Gnome because I like the eye candy and it is closer to what I am used to; Windows. But Enlightnment dr17 looks amazing.

Based on my liking to game, and the hardware that I have, and taking into consideration that I want 64bit, SLI enabled and I am an "experienced noob" when it comes to Linux, what would you people suggest? I want the most robust system, with lot's of eye candy but it has to be fairly easy to use. Is there a better option that Suse?

Games include Half Life 2, Quake 4, UT2004, and COD2. There are some others, but those are the important ones.

I could give Suse another try, but I am willing to try Mepis, Debian, Gentoo(when they get an installer that a noob can figure out), Mandrake, etc... Tried Linspire and it sucked. Ubuntu, I didn't like either.

What do you guys suggest?

macemoneta 02-18-2006 09:50 PM

Well, if you like leading edge hardware, you might like leading edge software to go with it - Fedora Core 4 (soon to be 5). It's less stable if you keep upgrading to the latest release, but the hardware support is very current. You also get to play with the latest software toys (Xen, SELinux, etc.).

Sargek 02-18-2006 09:51 PM

Personally, I am a die-hard Gentoo user, but of the distros you mentioned, Suse is the most polished, especially for what you want. It's heavy in terms of resources, but if you go through and shut off services you don't need, it's fine. You will probably get a zillion responses to this post, so this is just my two cents. I don't game in GNU/Linux unless there is a native port, but maybe you have better luck than I do with Wine...

neurondev 02-18-2006 11:22 PM

I think SuSE is the best choice at this time.

SuSE - is fast once it boots up. Have used InitNG to speed up boot times successfully. I think right now it is going to be your best choice.

Kubuntu - great but not cutting edge in my opinion.
Ubuntu - Excellent for new people learning the ropes. Gnome based.
Fedora - Cutting edge but GNOME based (KDE is available but there is no eyecandy)
Gentoo - Not for newbs. Great if you like control over your distro or if you want to learn more about Linux.

Sam

SquireSCA 02-19-2006 01:22 PM

I hated Fedora when I tried it, several times in fact. Seemed too much of a pain to do simple things like mounting some drives and installing NVidia 3D drivers.

Suse has been my favorite, but there is so much stuff out there that I thought perhaps I had missed a few. Keep the suggestions coming though!

macemoneta 02-19-2006 01:40 PM

That seems strange; Fedora automounts drives (they auto-magically appear on the desktop when plugged in), and installing the Nvidia drivers is just one command.

In any case, from the sound of it one of the more stable distributions (Mandriva or SuSE) may be more suited to your needs. The trade-off, as mentioned above, is that some of the newer hardware/software functionality may not be supported yet.

SquireSCA 02-19-2006 03:57 PM

I think I am gonna sit tight until Suse 10.1 is released and then give that a try. There are tons of bugs in the current Beta release, and so I am not gonna wrestle with that.

victorh 02-19-2006 05:47 PM

I definitely think that you must stay with SuSE. It's the distro that has all that you want, and is quite easy to use. And 10.1 is coming soon so just be patient for some weeks.

BTW, I think that Fedora Core, Ubuntu/Kubuntu, Mandriva are also good options and with some tweaking can give you what you need.

I suggest you to make room in your harddisk for some partitions where you can have one of these distros. It's only when you start using the system that you realize wich one is the adequate for you.

Sargek 02-20-2006 07:05 AM

Although I don't use it anymore, Suse 10.0 is quite nice, but waiting for 10.1 will be a good idea. 10.0 had some serious bugs in the usb drive mounting and transfer, which caused usb 1.0 devices to transfer at an incredibly slow rate. Other than that, during the brief time I used it, it was very well put together and very nice.

bpalmer 02-20-2006 07:19 AM

Try going through this:

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

Should give you some nice recommendations. :)

Sargek 02-20-2006 07:25 AM

Good suggestion - I forgot about that! That should be a standard response to people asking what distro they should run.


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