Ubuntu on a Laptop
 

http://www.mininova.org/tor/2518080

Ok i have a laptop and i want to install linux on it. It seems that every time i start my laptop i end up using a live cd for Knoppix anyway so it seemed about time. I thought i'd go with ubuntu and came across the version in the link.

It says it's for a desktop.. should i worry about that?

My laptop has a pentium 3 with about 600 megs of ram, should i go for an older version?

Get Xubuntu (latest) for i386..or i686
Kubuntu or Ubuntu too should be fine, but they may be a little slower on your system

for you swap= 1.2 GB

Go to www.linuxtracker.org

Will Xubuntu allow me to write programs in Assembly?

EDIT: nvm i can try it with a live cd and check for myself.

Check out CrunchBang 8.04/8.10 ubuntu based-made for laptops small screens
can install anything ubuntu can
Linux can do probably any language-

Sure, about anything you can do with a different desktop environment you can do with XFCE (the Xubuntu DE). XFCE is more light-weight than the Gnome or KDE DEs that ship with Ubuntu and Kubuntu respectively. As you are using a P3, the lighter the better; you may even end up installing something like Fluxbox if you want things to be as elementary as possible - it is even lighter.

600 megs 0f ram is not that bad either and I have used the live cd on old lappy that has 512 meg ram and it was acceptable performance. I bet Ubuntu would not be that bad but Xubuntu can save you a some memory that you can use it for yourself and be happy. I would recommend you to go through Dream Linux 3.5 which is also a desktop edition and based on Debian with XFCE. It is small and can be installed as easily as Ubuntu and works out of the box. I tested it on the same laptop on which I tested Ubuntu and Intrepid could not recognize or activate wifi card but Dream Linux did. It looks good and works great. Something you should not miss when looking for a small distribution.

hmm.. i tested out a live cd of Xubuntu but when i'm in Vim it doesn't color my code.. it makes me sad >_> Vim colored my code in the live cd of Knoppix.. how come it doesn't do it anymore? Does it not like me or something?

No problem, you can always edit the vim configuration file (/etc/vim/vimrc - remove the semi-colon from the line ";syntax on") or write your own $HOME/.vimrc

ok i couldn't do it because it was a live cd but i see it working when i install it.. so that's what i'm going to do THANKS! One more thing and this is definitely my last question, is there a way to put the terminal on my taskbar or the desktop?

Hmm, it's been a while since I last used XFCE but I believe you can simply drag and drop from the menu.

Hmm, it's been a while since I last used XFCE but I believe you can simply drag and drop from the menu.

Edit: here is a manual: http://mocha.xfce.org/documentation/4.2/

This thing is kinda annoying.. maybe i should have installed Knoppix..

I haven't really looked at the link yet but i think it mentioned something.. i'm a little tired to run through it at the moment but. There was no semi colon after i installed Xubuntu in the vimrc file.

And it wouldn't let me edit it when i tried to take out the " .. well it wouldn't let me open it for writing or something. So i couldn't save any changes even if there was a semi colon.. if there's no semi colon then how am i supposed to make it color my syntax? considering i'm pretty much only using linux for making assembly programs with vim it is a little annoying..

Well maybe open office to.. and the interwebz not that i need it but it'd be convenient..

One thing i do like about Ubuntu is that it came with Firefox.

Uhm, are you aware of permissions? Any non-user directory is protected from users so its files have to be opened with administrator permissions. In short, RW on vimrc is granted only if opened from the terminal with sudo editor /etc/vim/vimrc (where "editor" is the name of the editor you are using). Well, no, you do not really have to use the terminal; some file managers have extensions to open the file from a context menu. Also, as suggested already, you can create a .vimrc in your home directory, which always takes precedence over the system-wide .vimrc and which can be written just fine considering you are free to do whatever you like inside your own home directory.Anyway, all of this is a security measure, you don't want others to mess with your system files.
As for Knoppix being different, I imagine that is only because you were using the livecd. If you were to install it, you would get the same effect. After all, Knoppix and Xubuntu have the same parent (Debian) so they can't be too different from each other.

Hmm i see, really i'm new to linux so a lot of this is news to me. I've heard you can mess with system files while your computer is using them so that's why i was confused.

i'm not exactly sure what a .vimrc file would be, is that the name? it starts with a .? do i copy all the stuff in vimrc and uncomment stuff to have it take over or something?

Most of my problems aren't a big deal if i can just get vim to indent and color syntax i'd be good. I guess it would help if this wasn't my first time editing system files in linux..

So how do i access the editor? do i have to be in root or something? Is my account a guest account?

EDIT: i copied vimrc over to home and i put a . in front of it. I took out the ' " ' symbol in front of syntax on. now it's complaining that it won't work or something.. still working on it. I checked google it looks like other people could take the " symbol straight out of the file.. So apparently i'm a little linux illiterate. But hopefully this should work to.

Why it isn't i'm not so sure. I must be doing something wrong..

Edit #2: ok it wasn't that bad i just had to write sudo before my instruction to do things as root.

Edit #3: hmm i read the error message this time.. guess i should do that more often. It says the command syntax on isn't available in this version. Guess i'm going to be installing another version of linux..

It looks like i was using version 8.04.1 so i'm going to install version 9.etc.. hopefully that version will have highlighting.