iv been fooling around with linux for months, every now and then, but quite frequently past couple weeks... so im still very new to it all, but...

iv downloaded a bunch of distro's (red had 9, suse, ubuntu, fc1, slack10, vectorlinux, dsl, cant remember em all) and tested them all on my machine.
most of them i removed because either:
- it used kde, which i really dislike, although there probably was an option to switch to gnome i just didnt know
- mouse wasnt recognized after first boot [if already having probs after 1st load it would probably not suit me for normal use]
- or nic not recognized [same as previous point]

* suse [9.1 personal] seemed alright, although i used it for just a couple days probably.. but it uses kde and also single click acts as dblclick which is annoying, i tried looking how to chg it but couldnt figure it out :S

* slack, i was most interested in because of its history and popularity. but i think thats one that didnt recognize my mouse. i think i tried using the arrows and stuff to open up a browser and it didnt recognize nic either, so..

* vectorlinux i dont think i even got through the install process

*fc1 [came with a book] didnt recognize nic. i use fc2 at school which is why my interest now is in fc, but preferably the latest and stable.

my main problem is that either mouse worked and nic didnt or viceversa.

ubuntu is probably the only distro i could say iv used.. since iv used it for many weeks for normal use, rather than just for testing my liking about it.
except, it seems to be quite unstable for me, or maybe its the software on it? but...
- xmms seems to freeze [playback current song but no gui chg, ie time position change] when i drag/drop items to the playlist
- sometimes firefox, which came with it will decide to close all X # of instances that are open, when i do something else every now and then [last time i right clicked the 'task bar' at bottom and it closed all firefox windows].
- on, even, first boot, where its showing the console screen with the "OK's", etc, it always has a 'fatal error' about 'hotplug subsystem' which i think/thought was usb? although i have usb mouse and it gets recognized and works fine. the thing is i want usb mem stick to work
- after having my system on for any length of time, say 45min+, if i want to reboot, i type it at terminal or do it thru gui, and it hangs, and either takes couple minutes before xWindows [sry for incorrect terms] shuts down then continues normally, or just hangs, although i can move mouse around but not do anything


the point is... im wondering if anyone is having major issues with, at least, ubuntu, or its quite likely im just too new to it all, but i do think something is up here...

im donwloading the 4 iso's of FC3 right now and will burn them in the morning [ps, are all 4 needed for more-or-less basic install?], because i have noticed that fc3 seems to be very popular, i hope i can use gnome in it.
is fc3 very stable, or more stable than ubuntu seems to be for me?
i keep wanting to give linux 2nd chances so i dont have to live with m$ for rest of my programming life, but we cant get along. hopefully i can get some input by morning [here] and either use 4 cds.. or make 4 coasters

im wondering if i should give up or, if i could get thoughts/input about the above, or recommendations on a good somewhat-newb-friendly gnome interface lnx distro?

thanks for your time,

If you liked suse, when installing it, select [software], then [Detailed Selection]. You can completely remove KDE and check gnome. If you installed both, when the login screen comes up, there is an option to change window managers and you can select Gnome from there.

Just and FYI: I wouldn't try 9.2 yet if your looking for a stable load. Lots of errors are being reported.

I too, have been playing around the last few weeks with various distros of Linux. I tried Mandrake 10.1, both the download and purchased copy, wasn't too impressed. I tried FC3 but for some reason I couldn't get it to work right on my laptop. Now I'm using Ubuntu. This distro is fantastic so far. I love the apt-get command. You can't beat it.

I would suggest reformat and go again with Ubuntu. I love it so far.

ya, ubuntu seems pretty cool, too, i think.

but iv been having so many problems with it.. iv reinstalled it 3 maybe 4 times, last time just last week. does your install seem to be as unstable as mine? as i said, xmms crashes often, firefox rarely, but it still does, and the whole system will lock up when trying to reboot or something, after say 45min+ of operating in 1 session. it makes me literally lol, how my copy of xp pro, which i dual boot, seems so much better and reliable than it..
iv got my install of ubuntu customized and its lookin really cool... installed different login manager, xmms theme, icon/window themes.. so i know how to do that stuff, but it just seems oddly unstable, considering how linux is praised for its stability.

do you use synaptic? is apt-get like that but command line? iv tried installing many apps with syn but it never is the latest version... say, gaim, it synaptic says i have the latest v, but i know i dont because iv checked the website. iv tried adding 'repositiories' to try and fix this problem but cant figure out properly... can u use apt-get to get and properly install [while solving dependancies, etc] software, from anywhere? ie, not just the stuff in the synaptic software list

also... so you think fc3 isnt worth the time [and cds] to try out?

So far the only problem I have is that xmms won't start. It stops about a second after I start it, and I tried reinstalling it but it still doesn't work. And yeah, apt-get is the command line instruction for the Synaptic Package Manager.

How do you install icon sets, by the way?

im, of course, in xp right now.. so i dont remember exactly how, but it actually is quite simple, i figured it out on my own.. its pretty cool though.
go to 'computer' menu at top, then 'desktop preferences' then 'themes', i think it is...
in there, click the 'theme details button', or something, i think its the middle of the 3 buttons on the right side... theres 3 tabs i think, 'icons', 'windows', and 'borders'i dont rememeber... but under the 'icon' tab, click install theme or whatever... and point to a theme.bz2 file youv downlaoded, and it should then show up in the list of icon themes, just select it and ok or whatever.
i must admit though, iv tried afew downloaded icon themes and they dont really make a different and arent really noticeable.. so.. try installing a 'window' or 'borders' theme instead, or also...

download gnome themes here: http://art.gnome.org/
- cool border theme http://art.gnome.org/themes/metacity/769/
- a cool window theme: http://art.gnome.org/themes/gtk2/598/

edit: oh ya, you can mix and match icon/window/border themes to make a single 'theme'. and you can even save it too.

you dont have to extract the compressed files, just select them from the 'installl theme' menu, should work. let me know how it goes.

Sweet! Love Linux, love Ubuntu, yes I do. I've got my desktop looking sort of like I had under OS X. Now I have to find a dock replacement program. Anyone know of an OS X-like dock program for linux?

There is at least kooldock for KDE, and I am sure that there is one for GNOME.... Ah, I remember StarterBar...

Meanwhile check out these two:
http://www.kde-look.org
http://www.gnome-look.org

Greets.
G

musicman_ace:
i tried what you did.. reinstalled suse last night. i unchecked kde, and couldnt remember where to look for gnome, where you said, so i jsut did a search for 'gnome' and checked on every result. the installation went fine. however, on boot, it boots to console.. i typed 'startx', it flashed from console, like how it would just before gnome or kde would load, but it went back to console and gave fatal error.
ill try it again, but leave default installs, or look where you said for gnome, and leave kde on, and see if i can find it on login screen.

nadroj, you were asking why ubuntu is using old software via apt-get. This is because it is debian based and debian is probably the most stable of all the mainstream distros. To ensure that the software is stable it needs to be tested for bugs for decades and hence it is out of date.
You are able to install newer releases of gaim or whatever manually. You may need to compile it yourself tho. There are other distros that use very new and therefor unstable packages if that is what you want.

Also you said you had problems with xmms. You could try this, it is very similar.

* media-sound/beep-media-player
Latest version available: 0.9.7-r2
Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]
Size of downloaded files: 1,928 kB
Homepage: http://www.sosdg.org/~larne/w/BMP_Homepage
Description: Beep Media Player
License: GPL-2

Keep working on it, once you find a distro that suits and become accustomed to it's ways you will never need to fall back to the dark side.

Try this for xmms:

$ sudo apt-get install libmikmod2
$ sudo apt-get install xmms

lol.. yeah john.
its scary over there, too :'(