i have had simply mepis and linspire as i waz told that they r for newbies but there is something about debian based distro that doesnt fit me and that is that i cant update them .......(behind an ISA SERVER )

so i have thought( not decided) that i will shift to open suse but there r questions in my mind that can alter the decession and that is
1. does it play all multimedia ( mp3s --DVDS ) out of the box ----if not which distro does and is not debian.
2.how much space does it take to install on hard drive.
3.does it easily sets up dual boot with windows.


which is the distro that qualifies for theze points and is NOT DEBIAN....???????

1. No it does not, you could try pclinuxos, it is based on mandriva
2.Suse takes about 3GB or more and pclinuxos takes under 1GB i'm sure.
3. This I am a little unsure of because my previous bootm manager was the same and I'm not sure if it only updated my old one.

waqaskool i would also recoommend you pclinuxos homepage :- pclinuxos.com
but it takes more than 4.5 gb and it does play DVDs etc RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX along with support for other music format support

While I am all for trying different distributions I would really suggest checking into solving the problem rather than using a problem as a reason to hop about distros. Not only is it possible you will face the same problem with the way the network is set up (and the solution may be the same with any distro), but you will need to learn the nuance differences besides.
Since I did not know what an ISA server was I went to Google to find this.
I looked at your 2 previous threads and see the ISA server touched on but not followed through on.
Do you administer the ISA server that your home computer is connected to or does someone else?
Can you post the output of the "ipconfig" command in Windows and the "ifconfig" command in Linux?

EDIT: "ipconfig /all" in Windows might be better.

If you can't update/upgrade Debian due to your firewall, you most likely won't be able to do likewise with any other distro either. You need to solve the firewall issues before thinking about changing distros just to discover you have the same problem.

NO i dont have administrator rights on the ISA server
and when i type ipconfig/all in windows the out put is

windows ip configuration

host name..............: SCALEEN
primary Dns suffix.....:
node type..............: unknown
ip routing Enabled.....: No
WINS proxy enabled.....: No
DNS suffix search list.: SPEEDNET>COM

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
connection-specific DNS Suffix..: SPEEDNET>COM
description.....................: 3com etherlink XL 10/100
Physical Address................: 00-04-76-DC-B1-46
DHCP Enabled....................: yes
autoconfiguration Enabled.......: yes
IP Address......................: 172.16.48.111
subnet Mask.....................: 255.255.240.0
Default Gateway.................: 172.16.48.7
DHCP Server.....................: 172.16.48.7
DNS Servers.....................: 172.16.48.7
172.16.48.11
lease obtained..................: sunday, august 06, 2006
lease Expires...................: tuesday, august 08, 2006

In the Linux "ifconfig" you want to confirm networking is configured and running, DHCP is enabled and compare gateways, and DNS servers to the Windows output.

the EXACT MESSAGE FROM MEPIS's apt-get command waz like
(http://apt.mepis.org/3.4/dists/etch/...86/packages.gz was filtered by http filter. Contact your ISA SERVER.)
and MY ISA administrator iz aN illetrate ASShole he wouldnt listen to me.
usually on windows HE blockS something i bypass THE proxy server by HTTP_TUNNEL(www.http-tunnel) very easily but in linux there is no solution for BYPASSING THE PROXY as there is no tunnel program with GUI in lINUX........
when i google search HTTP TUNNEL FOR LINUX i get results but when i download the stuff all they r is just a tgz FILE and i dont know what to do with it .....


SO FAR MY LINUX EXPERIENCE IS GOING QUITE BAD COMPARED TO WINDOWS OR MAC.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please cleanup your post. Namecalling is not necessary and not wanted here at LQ.


in linux there is no solution for BYPASSING THE PROXY as there is no tunnel program with GUI in lINUX
If this is an indication of your attitude and/or mindset then indeed switching distributions will not change one thing. What you need is some basic GNU/Linux knowledge. LQ can help but you with specific problems but you must go and read some general Linux stuff yourself.

I have used SUSE 10.1 for a while now (OpenSuse), but not PCLinuxOS. The reason that most (all?) downloadable Linux distributions do not play mp3's and decode commercial DVD's is because the software for decoding these is copywrighted, and it may be illegal to distribute it.
If you buy Suse 10.1 in a box, a part of the cost goes to the nice people who own the copyright to the DVDand mp3 codecs, so Suse can give you the software to decode DVD's and mp3's. This is not to say that you can't get the codecs: a college kid in Finland spent a weekend writing the software for decoding DVD's, and that is available from many places (like the Penguin Liberation Front). Google is your friend.

C

It sounds like you know what you need already, waqaskool.
To install Linux software easily you first want to see if your distribution already has a premade package you can use. Sometimes a 3rd party may provide a premade version for the distribution. If none of these are available you can compile the source code. That involves having the development software installed on your computer, unpacking the source code file and following the readme file. Sometimes it is simple othertimes it is not.
If you have choices of the software to use use the one that seems to have the best tutoral.

explain the process of compiling source code ......
1. what do i need for it ( i have python)
2. what to do with so many files in the TGZ folder
3 explain briefly the proces of compiling from source code.

i have never got stuck on a pc prob for that long i am just loosing hopes with linux .......even though i like it better than windows....
and i am ready to leave windows even if i have to face thousands of probs.....!!!

Perhaps read this if you have not already.
And so long as you wish to continue...
1. The GNU C compiler and basic development libraries. Type "which gcc" in a terminal and if it returns the full path to gcc you have the compiler installed.
2-3. First, what program have you decided to install.

EDIT: Better yet, try the post below first.

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/353

this may help with your isa problem