Best Linux Distribution for Laptop?
 

1. Fedora 11?

2. CentOS?

3. Ubuntu?

4. Debian?

5. Mandriva?

6. Suse?

7. others you prefer?

Who is the ideal Linux distribution for laptop?

Tinycore-2.0 and Microcore-2.0

Ubuntu, since most people using a Laptop need the distro to work "out of the box".

Slackware, naturally.

especially low end machines.

It is personal preference really, use whatever you are comfortable with. Laptops aren't anything magical, as long as the kernel included is recent enough to support all of your hardware, it should be fairly smooth sailing.

All of mine run Arch, but there isn't anything in Arch that makes it more suitable for a laptop than most any other distribution out there.

I just recently installed Mandriva 2009.1 on my AAO after using Debian Squeeze and I must say, Mdv done a heck of a job, everything seems to be working out the box more than Debian. Of course with debian, it doesn't include alot of non free stuff as mdv. But as elliott678 said, its more of a personal preference...

Any machines.

Why Debian of course..

This is another vote for your favorite Distro right ?

Actually out of the Distros in the poll the only one I would NOT recommend for a laptop is CentOS or RHEL. It is designed with Servers in mind, uses an older kernel than most of the other distros, which means hardware support won't be quite as good. Typically when installing on a Laptop hardware support is is a pretty important factor. you want your distro to support a wide variety of hardware due to some of the weird components used in laptops. just my 2 cents.

Best Linux Distribution for Laptop?
 

well... Ubuntu is Best for Laptops..it works on most of the laptops..I have seen many people are facing problems with other distributions..thats why we are here to discuss about that..

Actually, this poll should've been seperated for older lappy's and new lappy's

Ubuntu, of almost any variety, would not be best choice running on any "old" laptop with under 256mb RAM and slow processor.

Slack can run either new or old
same with Deb.

But, many new Gnome, KDE types are not for older lappy's.

My vote for both is unchanged at Tinycore/Microcore_2.0+

slackware, the only one that works without a hitch on my vaio laptop.

Have people ever heard of icewm (which works great with gnome apps), fluxbox, lxde, or a number of other lightwieght desktops. Why is it that if you are not running the over bloated ghome or kde4 a computer is worthless or too old and too slow. I can remember when people begged to have a pentium one. I think linux developers need to take a reality check especially with a restricted economy. The best way I have of converting people to linux is the support for older systems linux traditionally has had. Pentium I laptops make great portable thin clients for ltsp. For what most people do a Pentium I computer will fit the bill. I still use my old compaq p1 computer with 96 megs of memory and 10 gig hard drive. Works great.

With a plethora of cloud computing, there is always a more more powerful machine to do the heavy lifting when necessary via web applications. In our business we are going towards the web based applications. That means less software to install on a system and more centralized management of data. In addition terminal servers make older machines more valuable. Need to do cad or some other heavy duty application, just remote into the ltsp or other terminal server. with vnc to connect oa an apple server, rdp to connect to a windows server, and a vnc/web browswer to connect to an ltsp server,


There are actually quite a few apps that are text oriented (aka command line based) that are quite good programs. It is ashame that people have become addicted to the mouse jockey world of (ms or x)windows. I have become addicted to bash file programming. Computers work so much faster when not running a gui. I only use gui for the web access as necessary. There is so much more performance available by not using the gui. We did an experiment with some of the following programs in our small school and we found that more was done in a non-gui environment.

alsa sound modules – music and to support speech programs (and voice recording)
Twidge – twitter client
links2 – internet browser
ps2ascii – convert postscript files to text files.
bashpodder – audio podcast collector
alpine sendEmail – email client tools
irssi – interrelay chat
centerim – instant messaging client
vim can be used as and editor or word processor, there are many others.
antiword – for dealing with proprietary word procesing formats.
screen – allows you to easily switch remote sessions
ledger – accounting program
curl wget – web page and file extracting tools
bash – the built in programming language that can be used with awk, sed, sort tr figlet (make your own database or game programs as well as other tools).
ImageMagick suite – manipulate graphics
cadubi tetradraw – ascii drawing programs
opensched – schedule formater.
hnb – notetaking and outlining
moc mplayer aplay ffmpeg – audio tools and players.
nget – newsreader
pal – calendar/planner program
cdrecord – burn cd’s and back up computer.
ssh and other tools. – network administration/file amangement
espeak festival – voice synthesis (great for having your computer read outloud documents) Who needs a kindle?

Guess my point is that if you want to do a poll, there is more to it than just the distro. How is the distro used? Why do you have to use the default system? Why not perform a net install and have a leaner system? Lots of questions that need to be considered.

One last conderation is that a lot of computing is done on embedded systems. which makes for even more plethora of linux variations. We still use i486 and i586 for electronics control. A lot cheaper than purchasing all the new sbc's and the development costs associated with them.

Thalt shall repurpose. Time to reconsider Slackware again.

Fedora of course! :) and as it has already been said you can use different desktop environments and window managers to suit your taste.

Fedora's LXDE LiveCD will give you a feel of how snappy it can be when it's installed. I currently have laptops running Acer CentOS 5.3, Acer Aspire One Fedora 10 and 11. Have an XO laptop that runs Fedora 10 from a SD card but it is quite slow running the Gnome desktop but much quicker running Sugar.

I'm happy with my AAO's running Fedora but Fedora isn't for newbs but if you don't try different distros and fiddle with settings and such you will always be a newb. Don't be afraid grasshopper, with knowledge comes understanding. :)

It used to be gentoo, then debian, but Kubuntu did it for me. Easy install, easy maintenance.

I installed Ubuntu-8.04.2 on a Sony Vaio FS-742/w a couple of days ago, and with the exception of the FN+Function key thing, all seems to working quite nicely.

Slackware, it works perfectly on my Toshiba Satellite, it supports all my hardware, and with my own kernel it works better than first, I enabled some Toshiba features during the compilation of this kernel(2.6.30), it boots really faster. :)

Hmm.
 

Another one for Slackware and one more for Gentoo.

Any distro will, or can be made to, work on any laptop or desktop. Whichever you prefer is the best for you.

Slackware. I do use Fedora from time to time, but definatly Slackware - especially when you want the laptop to be up, running, and fully functional quickly.

Desktop environments - KDE is great if you have at least a P4 and 384MB RAM. I use AfterStep for lighter machines.

The Slackware Linux Project

There is absolutely NO NEED for another Linux distribution ... period.

i was a slackware homer for a long time. i moved on to arch for x64. i'm pretty pleased with it. pacman is cool, but i still prefer to build from source. slackware ran better than anything on my laptop up until i installed arch. i'll probably end up going back to slack when they fully release a 64 bit iso.

It really surprised me how much more responsive Slackware for x86_64 was than
Slackware-12.2 on the same hardware.

64bit really makes a huge difference.

Who is the ideal Linux distribution for laptop?
Now i am working in fedora 11 . so i am interested to work and i have gain differnet knowledge in that area. so now i am confident to write exam also.

Re: Best Linux Distribution for Laptop?
 

Slackware. It ran flawlessly on my Dell Inspiron 6000 for four years and three versions and let me do everything I wanted to.

That laptop just died (display gone--not worth a repair, but it still works with an external monitor) and I'm running Ubuntu on my new one, only because it came with Ubuntu. If it ain't broke etc.

Ubuntu automates alot of the stuff you'll hate doing in other distributions.

Function keys work
OpenGL works
Sound works
Open Office is there
Evolution is there
Firefox is there.


These days I can't be bothered worrying about configurations and fdisking partitions.

I don't care just so I have a compiler and a word processor.

The computer is a tool. I get paid to use that tool.
I don't have time to make my own tools so I use what is at hand.

Canonical will even send you a free CD.

Come on guys, let's stop being the old Priests in the temple belching sacrilege every time somebody tumps our coffers over and makes our lives easier.

You can still pay Ceaser using a VirtualBox. :)

Hmm....

</humor>

Actually, I've had a high success rate with Fedora and Slackware then Ubuntu on laptops for getting everything working. Thunderbird, 3D, compilers, keyboards (well, I have to select my keyboard in Slackware). Ubuntu doesn't even include system tools with the system install!

I will admit though, CD sending is convenient. But, so is netbooting =)

I started on slackware. but now I use a variety of distros just to keep my finger in it. I like to do pxe boot into a net install from a ubuntu drbl/clonezilla server when I do not use the minimal cd. I have not used arch or gentoo though. I like suse before it became opensuse.

I personally prefer Fedora, I am used to the RED HAT architecture .

And i think its more over the users choice , If you like Debian , You can go with it , if you like Ubuntu go with it . As long as you are comfortable its fine .

No offense meant to any distros ...

another vote for slackware
I just installed slackware64-current on my toshiba and every thing worked out of the box I didn't have to configure any of the hardware at all
it even connected up to my AP on first boot

Linux Mint

Ubuntu? Nope - Vector
 

yes, I love my Vector 6.0, icewm is great.

IMHO the best laptop distro depends on the users needs and the hardware you are going to be running. If it is speed you are after you need something slackware like with a tiny kernel. I have used XUBUNTU 9.04 on the same laptop as Vector lite and the former runs much slower than the latter. But! XUBUNTU is easier to set up with ... Truecrypt for example. As for me as long as it has Perl, Pyton and Ruby I am after speed.

If you are prepared to put in the time you can make any distro run as fast as you want on almost any laptop limited only by your skill and patience.

and LINUX to that!
 

AMEN

Slackware 12.2 works well on both my laptops. HP DV9999US and Acer Aspire 5050.

I run Mint 7. It worked right out of the box on a Acer Aspire 5515-5879, a laptop sold by Walmart back a few months ago.
No Command Line work necessary. My Way.
I used Synaptic to download a few applications.
Fastest install I have ever done.
Great for newbies who do not like command line work and just want a safe, secure OS.

Rich

ubuntu

Mepis antix has started using icewm as per the notes. I have used icewm with debian on my old p1-166 laptop for a long time.

Yeah, guys, this topic has not sense if we don't write why the distribution we're using works well in out laptops, and what laptop we're using, these infos are useful for those who have problems with their laptops(talking about settings obviously) :) So please do not post only the name of the distribution :)

A good source wold be:
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/

Yes I know that source, but a personal comment would be better :)

i think ubuntu...

For laptops, you have to keep in mind the purpose of a laptop.

Personally, I think Puppy Linux is kind of cool for laptops. It can be used on older laptops with decent speed. If you're a noob, then it will force you to learn some things about programming. I'm not sure if Puppy Linux is perfected yet, but Puppy's toys make you appreciate GNU/Linux.

However, I think Debian is awesome, too. You can generate your own Live-distro with Debian now.

In general, my belief remains with laptops that include a live-os and encryption. I can't remember, but I think someone from the Puppy OS community was working on encrypting the Live-CD along with the OS for intermittent Live-OS usage. That would greatly differ from the variety of GNU/Linux OSs out there. Furthermore, Live-OSs can allow you to prevent using the HDD and other devices, which would allow you to reduce power consumption.

I agree with peonuser in learning non-gui commands. However, I am not a slackware fan. Albeit, Puppy has tried to combine slackware and Debian ideas into its OS.

I don't think Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. are too appropriate for a laptop. After understanding the corporate reasonings behind Fedora, I don't believe in using it; and I don't like the package manager, security philosophy, and a lot of other things. I originally moved to Ubuntu, because it offered me drivers. Ubuntu is nice, but people who evolve will move to Debian. And those who dislike Debian will move to FreeBSD or some DIY compile OS.

In the beginning, it's about getting things to work.
In the end, however, the smart guy will build his own GNU/Linux OS or compile a custom kernel.

Debian or Linux Mint, if the laptop is low end Linux Mint XFCE CE

Edit: Please delete this post... I got here from search, so I didn't notice the thread was old.

Obviously, you want to use Fedora, because that's what I use :p.

Seriously, picking a distro is like picking the best ice cream flavor. Even if you pick a bad one, you're still eating ice cream.

Forrest

This is based on my experiences with the hp2133 mininote - notoriously cranky with via C7, chrome graphics and broadcom

I have found SliTaz quite incredibly easy to make work on netbooks, very light and easy to create packages for. It deserves a lot more attention. It was certainly the slickest of the lightweight distributions I tried. If you never looked at it, give it a whirl (the 'cooking' development version might be a better choice as it has more recent kernel and that makes a difference for several types of wireless)

Slackware - always solid although openchrome that ships with it is broken (same as many other distros from arch to ubuntu), but at least since slackware has text based complete install you can install the distro then compile the driver manually. Works out of the box with no config after that

Mint, if you choose a light desktop, has worked where debian and ubuntu would not even get their installation gui started. I find it a bit too monolithic for a netbook though, it is hard to remove certain apps since Mint seems to have some rather greedy dependency lists. On my hp2133 the wireless drivers are quite iffy - they work once straight after boot, but lose the connection or start it without a network to connect to, and it wont work again until you reboot

Other good netbook distributions that didnt work on mine but which seemed well crafted:
pclinuxos (the light desktop version)
vector linux
suse (with light desktop choice)

My distro of choice for OLDER laptops is VectorLinux Light 6.0. Speedy (IceWM & Slackware derivate) and newbie-friendly at the same time. Plus a great community (perhaps the most important thing for a newbie).

The smoothest experience I had with Linux on a laptop was Ubuntu on an ultraportable Sony Viao. That was Ubuntu 8.04. Fully functional and gorgeous. Then 9.04 came along and the display driver got flaky. I "returned" to Slackware, that is, I had used Slackware for years on a desktop and thought to give it a try. Bottom line: too much fussing to get everything working. I mean I could tell from what I did get working (adjustable cpu throttling) that Slackware could be absolute tops, more stable and reliable than any generally available OS I know. On the desktop (also, when I had more time for tweaking and compiling), nothing compared. On a laptop, on that one at least, I saw that it would take too much work. (And Slackware could use a live CD with a fully functional desktop to help test machines.)

I would suggest a more detailed variation on this pole, one that is based on features. All the following are really important for me:
1. basic hardware, of course (display, WiFi, other networking, usb/ieee1394, memorycard readers, optical drives, etc.)
2. battery life
3. suspend to RAM
4. suspend to disk
5. breadth of support for various Fn+ key combos and non-standard buttons
6. fine-grained control of hardware: selective activation/deactivation of wifi/bluetooth/etc. and other hardware components; CPU throttling;
7. SSD optimizations! (truth is, I am writing this on an X200 thinkpad with a nice big - and fast! - SSD while working out a proper strategy / optimal setup for it under Linux, and shopping for a distro that will make it easy and worthwhile).
8. (and finally) speed and general feel (but this gets into wm and feature choices)

In my experience each laptop is a unique situation. The three problem areas are usually wireless, sound and software dial-up modems. The last two versions of Slackware Linux (12.2 and 13) have improved support for laptop hardware. Although Slackware requires a little more work to install and configure it now supports laptops as well as most other distros.

Perhaps the best distro for a laptop is the one that is familiar. I find that I'm better off to focus on one distro and use it for most computers unless there is a good reason to use something else.

I knew Ubuntu was going to be it ......
 

I really do not understand the hype behind Ububtu. Honestly whenever I installed it I was fed up. By the way I have Debian on my laptop and I swear it is going to be there as long as I have the laptop.

To be honest a perfect computer would be the one that has Debian and Vector installed on a dual boot.