Hey guys,

I've google'd and distro watched this to death but im trying to figure out a distro to run on my laptop. I've been using slackware for a while now and i'm comfortable with it on my home desktops. However i would prefer something a bit more easier to maintain, kind of like a apt-get udpate or such. I'm not really into the whole arch thing though.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas (or more importantly experiences) with other distros which allowed complete control of the system but with a simple update procedure (not frugalware though) .... god im picky :P

Any help, ideas, suggestions would be great guys.

Cheers.

My brother runs Mandriva on his Acer Aspire One netbook since '09 and keeps upgrading it thru 2010.2...He doesn't have any problems with it, afaik. Using the urpmi command to install and update is a breeze! He does have the Gnome version.

Also, you may want to check out the new Mandriva fork, Mageia Linux, I'm using it on my desktop and so far its running very nicely.

Go for Debian.

I'd second this. Debian has a lot to recommend it. I'd suggest Martin F. Krafft's book The Debian System: Concepts and Techniques if you really want to get into the system.

Hi all

I have a laptop (Packard Bell, but i don't really know if that matters... anyways) I have windows 7 installed on my laptop, but i want to make a dualboot... so when i turn on my laptop that i can choose which OS i want to use.

Is that possible? If yes, how do i do that and which OS should i use (i geuss Debian -> is Debian a lot different from RHEL?)

Kind regards

Brownie

Linux Mint or Peppermint because you like apt-get.

Yes, that is possible. Just use th Windows partition manager to shrink one of your partitions to make free space for Debian (or any other distro), then boot from the install-CD and install it to the free space. The bootloader that comes with Linux will in most cases be automatically set up to but Linux and Windows.

And yes, Debian is different from RHEL, ir uses a different package format and different tools for administrating the system. if you want somthing like RHEL try CentOS, Scientific Linux or Fedora.

okay, so first i need to shrink my HD into 2 partitions (one for windows and one for Debian (or another distro))
but then i need to boot from an install-CD, where can i find that? is there a website where i can find them?
So if i have such an install-CD and i installed everything, then i can choose which distro i want to use when i boot my laptop?

I've read something here on LQ, that there are 'specific' distro's you can better use on a laptop, is Fedora one of them?

You shrink your Windows partition, but don't make a new partition just for Debain, you will want more than one partition for a Linux system. Other than Windows Linux for example uses a partition for swap-space. Just let there be free space, most installers have an option to set the free space up automatically for Linux.
That is rather obvious. You will get it from the website of the distribution you choose.
You can not choose which distribution you want to start. You only have the choice to start Windows or the distribution you have installed. of course you can install more than one Linux distribution if you like.
With Debian or Fedora you will be fine. RHEL and CentOS are more aimed at the serever segment.

okay thx for the info ! when i've got more time, i'll sure try it ^^

they say openSUSE is best for laptops...!