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ikiptagai 12-18-2009 10:17 PM

New to Linux
 
Greetings all, I'm fairly new to Linux, I have some experience toying around with XandrOS, Ubuntu, YDL, and way back in the day, BeOS.
Until now I haven't really had a desire to get serious with any of them, as I do better with point and click GUI's, like OSX (my main machine is a Mac) and Windows. Trying to install software in Linux is for me like trying to read Greek. Compile from code? No thanks, I prefer pre-assembled software I can drag to my applications folder (OSX) or double click the install (Windows).

But now I'm looking at getting a cheap netbook off ebay, and the one I have in mind I really don't want to deal with having Windows on it (it's a 300mhz ARM, Samsung, or Via chipset with 256mb ram) and OSX doesn't come in a dedicated mobile format (come on Steve...we want an iTablet or iMinibook...give us one already).
I also currently have an HP iPaq RX3115 pda running Windows Mobile 2003.

What would be a good Linux setup for the netbook? I will be using it primarily for light web browsing, listening to music, writing, and storing photos. I would also like to be able to use some form of GPS with it. Can anyone recommend a good Linux setup, and a way to use GPS? Possibly a USB Bluetooth dongle with a headless GPS module?

Are there any mobile Linux versions I could use to replace WinMo2k3 on my pda? The pda doesn't get much use, mostly surfing the web in bed or sitting on the desk at work playing music, but God help me I can NOT stand WinMo. The RX3115 has Wifi and Bluetooth. If I can install some form of mobile Linux, could I use the built in BT with a headless GPS module? I'd like to be able to use GPS on the pda for in the car or when I'm bicycling.

I thank you in advance for all your help.

lazlow 12-18-2009 11:27 PM

The arm processor is going to throw a real big headache in your plans. Most of your common distros are built for the x86 based architectures. Most of the distros that I do know of for arm are pretty much compile only. If you can find a atom based netbook, they are x86 (atom 330 is 64bit, not sure about the earlier ones..

jdkaye 12-19-2009 02:04 AM

Hi,
You might want to try Debian. It supports the ARM architecture and you have no need to compile your software unless you really want to. I'd say pick a lightweight desktop like fluxbox or xfce and your off to the races.
Have fun.
jdk

ikiptagai 12-19-2009 06:00 AM

I was doing a bit of searching last night for Linux for my iPaq, and I did come across that ARM Linux, but I could not find a recent distro, I kept hitting dead ends. Could someone point me towards an active distro?

brianL 12-19-2009 06:10 AM

Slackware

http://www.armedslack.org/

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=arm...ient=firefox-a

dreamwalking 12-19-2009 06:17 AM

Well, Debian Lenny does support ARM. I don't have any experience with it, but it should work fine, and Lenny's software is not much outdated.

http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.3/arm/iso-cd/

For the cd iso, but maybe you want to look here for other ways of installing:

http://www.debian.org/distrib/

ikiptagai 12-20-2009 06:00 PM

I feel a bit slow today.... My pda uses a Samsung processor, not ARM. Specifically it has a S3C2440 300MHz processor, with 56mb of ram for everything. Is there a mobile Linux that would work for this application?

A friend of mine might sell me his Asus EEEpc just to keep me away from the eBay China netbook I was looking at, so I suppose finding a Linux distro that will do the above posted things will be easier lol.

ikiptagai 12-22-2009 07:04 PM

In the interest of not adding to the clutter of topics on this fine forum, I'll ask my next question here.

What is available for Linux distributions that are more media based? I'm looking to setup one of my towers to stream media to other computers in the house, and would also like to use it as a media player in the living room with the tv.

I was looking at carputers awhile back and saw some great front ends, but obviously for carputers they are geared towards being in a car with features like GPS and touchscreen. Any recommendations for a home based system?

CoderMan 12-23-2009 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikiptagai (Post 3797461)
Greetings all, I'm fairly new to Linux, I have some experience toying around with XandrOS, Ubuntu, YDL, and way back in the day, BeOS.
Until now I haven't really had a desire to get serious with any of them, as I do better with point and click GUI's, like OSX (my main machine is a Mac) and Windows. Trying to install software in Linux is for me like trying to read Greek. Compile from code? No thanks, I prefer pre-assembled software I can drag to my applications folder (OSX) or double click the install (Windows).

But now I'm looking at getting a cheap netbook off ebay, and the one I have in mind I really don't want to deal with having Windows on it (it's a 300mhz ARM, Samsung, or Via chipset with 256mb ram) and OSX doesn't come in a dedicated mobile format (come on Steve...we want an iTablet or iMinibook...give us one already).
I also currently have an HP iPaq RX3115 pda running Windows Mobile 2003.

What would be a good Linux setup for the netbook? I will be using it primarily for light web browsing, listening to music, writing, and storing photos. I would also like to be able to use some form of GPS with it. Can anyone recommend a good Linux setup, and a way to use GPS? Possibly a USB Bluetooth dongle with a headless GPS module?

Are there any mobile Linux versions I could use to replace WinMo2k3 on my pda? The pda doesn't get much use, mostly surfing the web in bed or sitting on the desk at work playing music, but God help me I can NOT stand WinMo. The RX3115 has Wifi and Bluetooth. If I can install some form of mobile Linux, could I use the built in BT with a headless GPS module? I'd like to be able to use GPS on the pda for in the car or when I'm bicycling.

I thank you in advance for all your help.

I've had a good experience buying a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v, only cost me $300. It came with Ubuntu pre-installed, though personally I put Gentoo Linux on it. They let you custom pick which parts you want to put into it, and most of defaults are fine, except you might consider getting the 160 GB mechanical drive instead of the 16 GB SSD, and I would recommending selecting one of the more expensive wireless cards. Runs quiet and has a dual core 32-bit Intel Atom. (1.6 Ghz).

jf.argentino 12-23-2009 01:07 PM

Quote:

Dell Inspiron Mini 10v
+1 for dell, I'm working with this brand for many years and they have a great quality/cost ratio.
I want to precise 2 things:

-Installing software under linux is REALLY easy, but I understand it's disturbing new comers since philosophy is really different from Windows or MacOSX, you have to use your distro's packages manager for that.

-Using a GPS under linux is easy, the problem is more for the maps, not sure you can easily use them...

To end, for media streaming, I think any distro will fit. For video, VLC is quite easy to use both side (server and client), I don't know for music, but AFAIK it's possible too with PulseAudio which is installed by default on many major distros.

ikiptagai 12-23-2009 06:30 PM

I'm getting an Asus EEEpc 701 from a friend of mine. I've been looking around and I think I'm going to go with either EasyPeasy or JoliCloud for choice of distribution. Just need to find a compatible GPS, and software to use it. The touch screen mod should go nicely with the above distro's as well.

I agree on going with Dell (If I was buying new), as a tech I've had nothing but problems with every else.

I wish I could find an active distro to use on my HP iPaq, but what few things I've found are all massively out of date, so I decided to put it up for sale on eBay.

I found a site full of mod's for the EEEpc, from touchscreen to internal usb hubs to bluetooth to etc etc. I can't wait to take posession and start modding mine.

AwesomeMachine 12-23-2009 08:22 PM

I don't believe the OP will have much success with Linux. Linux is for people who require flexibility and power. If you're happy with MacOS and Windoes point and click, you won't be happy with Linux. But I do have to say there was a time when I wasn't very happy with Linux. Sticking with it is the best move I ever made in life. Linux is such a better os it's unbelievable. But it requires time and effort to learn.

ikiptagai 01-01-2010 12:47 PM

I bought an Asus EEEpc from my friend, a 701 (7 inch). I've been testing out JoliCloud on it, and I think I like it. I plan to add touchscreen, bluetooth, and GPS to it.

Does anyone know how I can make the GPS work in Linux? I've done some searching on a couple different forums, plus Google, and most of what I'm finding is stuff that needs doing in terminal, but I don't understand most of it.

javimd786 01-01-2010 12:51 PM

How to add users in group in linux?
here i whan to ask one thing how can we create users who are already there how can we change to the user to group for example

# useradd king

# groupadd IT

HERE i had create one group IT and user king I want to add user king to the group IT how to do this thing

# useradd -G IT king
this is the wrong method here i am asking is that user name king is already created i want to add that user to IT group how to do this thing

ikiptagai 01-01-2010 12:53 PM

Preferably in a new post?


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