Brand new to Mandrake 10.1, and here! (inspiron 8600)
 

Hello everyone. I'm Newbie J Sabott:p Good to be a member finally.

After reading some posts here and there, I've decided to make the move to first a dual boot setup on my box, and then, when I'm more comfortable, the total plunge.

My hardware specs are as follows:

~Dell Inspiron 8600
~Nvidia Go5200 32mb integrated video
~40gb HDD
~383mb ram (I really have ta get a stand alone video card:eek: )
~Intel Mobile Centrino

Pretty much the standard, run of the mill, default inspiron.

I'd like to get Mandrake on here, but will go with what is best for the system I currently own. Figured I'd ask for some help so that I know what I'm doing when it comes time to assign a partition to linux and noticed a couple of our peers here also have the same system.

I am definately looking for ease of installation and decent documentation in a distro, and also the ability to configure my hardware without too much hassle.

So, before I drag this post a million miles, I leave it where it is thus far and soak up some of your opinions out there. Thanks!

Hi, and welcome to LQ! You really have to go with the distro that suits you the best. SUSE and Mandriva (formerly known as Mandrake) are both very nice and easy-to-use/install distros, especially for the complete Linux newbie. There are a few Mandrake 10.1 screenshots on their website, which is not the latest version of Mandrake/Mandriva but still looks nice. There are also loads of SUSE screenshots on Google. Hope you make up your mind which one you like the most! If still in doubt, check out DistroWatch, which is a very good site and has a "Top 10" distro list. Ubuntu is also a very pretty distro, but text installation may be slightly offputting. AVOID FEDORA CORE :D.

J_K9

Awesome. Another question tho, J_K9...

I have knoppix std (im told thats that's best left as a live distro, but to me its pointless, there's a LOT to use on there than to just leave it on a cd...)

I have Suse 9.3 Live (does suse install from this? do I need to find a new iso?

I have mandrake 10.1 DLing now via torrent, and it is the newest I see on their site...

I do lie Suse... I think it's very nice. This is the distro I want, yet my boot splash has only boot options, not install option. I cannot find the informtion I need. Perhaps it is the stirngs I am useing "inspiron 8600 suse live hd install" many varies as well...

I'm gonna throw you a thank me click soon;)
Edit: PS: Thank u for the welcome!

unlike knoppix, suse live isn't installable. you can download suse from distrowatch, or from the suse site itself tho...

I really like knoppix... I think it's my fave so far... Any topics around here cover the proocedure here that any of you know of? Knoppix is the only live distro that made my sound work automatically, i think only phlak configured the net, but i no longer have this... tho I know knoppix wont be too hard since it has all those tools.

Newbsabott, I think you'd like SUSE as it's easy to use and is a very "pretty" distro, but you would need to download the .iso from the SUSE download page and burn it onto a CD using a program like Nero (there are also some freeware iso burners if you don't have Nero). If you just put the SUSE CD into your drive on startup it should automatically bring up the installer window, and from there it's pretty easy. Either choose the "Automatically partition" option if you want to wipe your whole hard drive and let SUSE format the partitions for you, or just please post back if you want more info on manually partitioning.

Also, you can easily install your favourite tools/programs from Knoppix Std onto SUSE, but ultimately it depends on which distro you like the most.

[EDIT]
You can probably find the distro you're looking for at LinuxQuestions' iso subsite, LQ ISO.

From there you can download SUSE and Mandrake. I would also recommend Kubuntu, and a quick Google would show you that it's a very nice distro indeed, and has a very easy-to-use package download/update system! Kubuntu also has absolutely amazing hardware recognition, and it automatically mounts and unmounts anything you plug in (unlike Fedora Core)! Kubuntu also works out of the box, if it's like Ubuntu. The reason I recommend Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu is that Kubuntu runs KDE unlike Ubuntu (which runs GNOME), and KDE is much better if you've just moved to Linux as it's more welcoming. :D

Best of luck!

J_K9

Sorry for double-posting, but I was wondering if you'd seen the thread which Linux which is having a kinda heated discussion at the moment about which distro to choose for a newbie. You may find it interesting, and after you've read it think "ahh...I know what distro I now want!" or you may come out of it thinking "crap, now I'm really confused". There are posts in that thread which have far better reasoning for getting a particular distro than I could ever display, so I suggest you go there and take a look! They seem to be recommending Mandriva 2005 LE, SUSE and Debian-based (Kubuntu/Ubuntu) for a reduced learning curve, or the full Debian, Gentoo and Slackware for a steeper learning curve.

For the reduced learning curve, but easier move from windows, I recommend Kubuntu/Ubuntu. For a steeper learning curve, I recommend Debian. Just my 2 cents...

I moved to Linux in January and played around with FC 3, Red Hat and now Suse 9.3 Pro. I guess, I am kind of settled with Suse 9.3. It is pretty and much like windows. There are few things that you REALLY need to configure. AND one can also learn a lot. my any means DO NOT use FC 3. I had hard time configuring and simple things like ejecting a disk is a pain. Red Hat is good but it has less drivers for my laptop, so I moved to Suse. Suse is the best I have seen...but that is only my viewpoint. I would recommend you to use live DVDs of each of the OS and decide for yourself.

Good Luck!

Aki

J_K9, I installed mandrake 10.1 (its still called mandrake on this one) which was 2 gigs larger in size as an iso than the one i found at the offcial mandriva site. any real reason for this? I think I'm going to check out suse's installable version next, as i like this very much as well on liveDVD. The main reason I like knoppix is the fact that it goes "inititializing start up sequence" and shut down sequence when you start it lol. I know that's weak.

But the mandrake installation went off without a hitch. a couple of butto presses, that was it. For some reason though, when I set it to my native display for my lcd, being 1680 by 1050, i can scroll left and right, as in it's too wide and auto scrolls as if it's set to like 2000something or higher... This is not the distro for me when I compare it to suse or knoppix, and I am indeed looking for a not so steep learning curve so i can take it slow. Kubuntu? I'll check that out. Never heard of that one.

Aki, are you running a dell?

EDIT: I have a dell inspiron 8600. What is an x86 and all of that? I'm really not sure which of any of these distros to get, except that I'm looking for the biggest one to fit on a DVD, as I am out of CDr at the moment and figure that the bigger the file the more that is included. I'm very much into gaming and am looking into learning to program C++. I really want to move away from windows tho.

I'm downloading suse 9.2 am i missing out on 9.3? also, am I missing a 9.3 iso somewhere does anyone know? I cant mess with this ftp stuff...

If you're still using Mandrake, you could try resetting it back to the original display that Mandrake proposed for your screen, or if not I think you can change a file like xorg.conf to fix this issue if you really want your native screen resolution, but I advise against it because it's slightly complicated and I've forgotten how to do it! :p

From a Google search:
"x86: A series of microprocessor chips manufactured by Intel. They range from the older, less powerful 286 and 386 chip øhe the more recent and more powerful Pentium and Pentium Pro."

AFAIK SUSE is only releasing full downloads of older versions of its distro, and is keeping the bleeding-edge version (except for the live CD) under a price tag!

To tell you the truth, I think you should go with whatever distro suits you most. Try them all (i.e Mandriva, SUSE, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, etc...) and then come to a conclusion which one you think is best. Try plugging things in; do they mount automatically? Do you get any errors when you unmount them? Does your sound work? Does your native screen resolution cause any problems? Take all these things and more into consideration and you'll be on your way!

Cheers,

J_K9