I used to use Linux on a semi regular basis but had not used it in a long time. i finally updated my Linux Box Installed Fedora Core 5 on it and have been really dissapointed so far. It seems like a lot of stuff I used to remeber being there are not really available by default and overall I am not very satisfied with the ease of use of it. I could not get my wireless to work and have had a host of other problems. My Software manager didnt seem to work, ndiswrappers were not installed and God nows it seemed like it was a basic completely stripped down version on Linux. Nothing was on it.

So I am giving Linix another shot since I really like it. But what Distro is probably the most user friendly for Desktop users. I can get around linux but I do not feel like having to research and find and troubleshoot programs and installs just to use the darn thing. I dont have time for that anymore. I used to know linux preety well but simply dont feel like going theough all the heartaches Linux seems to offer for users. I used to use Suse and I had really liked it but when I went to the Suse site it seams that they want you to pay for the version that has all the standard modules in it that I want. So what is a easy to use and Install version on linux now? And what has the best support for wireless cards?

it would depend exactly on which card you have but i would give ubuntu a try. easy to start out with. Software manager works fine unless you have a problem with the isntallation. May as well give it a shot.

Installing FC5 and then getting disappointed because Linux does not have what you want is kindof silly if you ask me.

Any linux distro you install is going to have some things you need and others your going to have to install. If it was that easy it would be windows...

I would suggest burning some LiveCD's http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd and finding the one that has the best hardware support for your system then install it.

KC

SimplyMepis or PCLinuxOS.

I know every distro will have some work. I just was disspointed with Fedore Core 5. It just didnt seem to be as friendly or have as many features. I am downloading Ubunto Live cd now and am going to try that. I simply want a distro that I can use for Web Surfing Email and basic Evryday stuff at home. I dont care to do anything with it other than basic PC stuff. But I just wasnt satisfied with the look and feel of FD5.

Since FC uses GNOME by default and Ubuntu also uses GNOME, I can't really see what difference choosing one over the other will make in terms of look and feel. If you didn't like the look and feel of GNOME, you could have switched to KDE, XFCE or something else. What exactly is wrong with the package manager? Also ndiswrapper is not installed by default (or even available) on most distros. If you had added the "livna" FC5 repo, you could installed ndiswrapper using YUM. Suse is free and you are not forced to pay for the full version. If you download Suse 10 Evaluation version, it has all the plugins and commercial software.

you can try Suse linux 9.3 server or v10
I'm running a www server on suse and it seems to run with little hassle. well more hassle than i thought at first but very satisfing after you fix em. I am new to the linux world but seems to me that Suse is pretty user friendly in a way anyways..

I was thinking of doing just switching to KDE but cannot remeber how. KDE was a lot easier to configure and find stuff from what i remember. I dont know why my software manager is error out. I simply cliked on my manger to see what software is loaded and what is not loaded and it gives me a error and crashes. I did some searching for ndiswrapper but and was going to try and use that to install my Wireless Card. A lot of this is the frustration of not being able to get the wireless card to work. And I cannot hard wire this PC into a Ethernet Port. I have to get it to work wirelessly. So its swapping back and forth between 2 PCs.

I am not sure what livna is and wanted to use YUM but I dont have YUM installed or I cannot find it. Thats actually why i started to look at my packagae manager. It juts seems like a lot of stuff I used to use is no longer on the image. I remember when i used to RedHat 9 a long time ago I used YUM but I dont see it here now. Maybe My Core Install got messed even though it seemed to go fine for me. I am downloading some Live CD's to test some other Distros now. I will probably stick with FD5 to see if I can get it to work. But the Package Manager and no YUM/KDE or anything else is really annoying.

Is there a way to right click a folder and open a terminal window? I remember doing that before and also having a split scren window that showed a terminal and your folders.

YUM is installed by default and you can use it from the command line. If you like a nice gui package manager, switch to root in the command line and do "yum install yumex". I think YUMEX is pretty cool for people beginning with Linux or those that don't like to use the command line.

I am not sure if you installed KDE during initial installation. If you did not, search for kdebase in YUMEX and install that, as well as other KDE apps you want. You will then be able to choose between KDE and GNOME from the login manager sessions.

livna are a group of third party packagers for FC5. There are instructions on their site for how to setup YUM to use packages from their software repository.

The option to right click a folder and open it in a terminal is available in KDE. I am not so sure about GNOME since its not as feature rich as KDE.

Question for ndiswrapper. I downlaoded ndiswrapper and unpacked it into /tmp. Then like the Install Files Says I ran make uninstall. This did something. But then when I run make config or make install I always get a error. What am I doing worng with my make commands?

I did a yum install yumex and I get a Cannot find baseurl for repo:Core error.

I am begining to suspect that my installation is not correct as I seem to be missing a lot of components. On Install I preety much choose all the default settings assuming these would be installed. But I dont seem to have a lot of stuff. Thats why I was looking for the package mangager to see what is installed and what is not installed. But I cannot seem to get this to work.

If you have nothing to lose, it may well be worth re-installing. I know that you shouldn't have to, but sometimes it is easier. Spend some time before you do working out what you want, and make sure that you install all those during installation. Manually select all the packages you want, because then you wont miss anything. I found when I install FC5 that some of my favourite programs are located in odd places in the package selector.

As an aside, may I suggest Kubuntu? This is Ubuntu with KDE instead of Gnome, and has only one tool for each task since it only comes on one CD. However, you have access to 15000+ packages through the repositories. It also has good hardware detection, and may well sort your wireless problem. I find that everything just works.

I hope this helps
--Ian

And BTW, I was rather disapointed with Fedora Core 5. It seams to me that alot of work was required to get the thing working how I want it.

I just got ubuntu installed on my lappy and I am pretty happy with it so far. The install was extemely easy (although I don't have any real interesting hardware...) and I do like the look and feel--even though I am using Gnome it is still quite different from Fedora. The default login screen, for example, is quite nice. I'd say go with ubuntu, personally.

Is your FC system connected to the net?