Searching for the right distro

Hello,

I tried about 20 distro's but I still have not found one I like

*I am looking for a desktop distro for home use;
*It should have good hardware support;
*I want to listen to music;
*play some games (like UT2k4 and Quake3) and also windows games through Wine;
*play movies (DVD's);
*It would be nice if it had some innovative graphical experience (something like MacOS) allthough not nescessary. I like both KDE and Gnome;
*Security is not a really big issue allthough security at a Linspire level is not good enough;
*I want to browse the internet. Opera would be really nice if included;
*OpenOffice is required;
*I preffer a Root account instead of sudo or both;
*Being somewhat newbie friendly wouldn't hurt.

My hardware:
Amd Athlon XP 2800+ (x86)
Ati Radeon 9800pro
Creative 5.1 SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit value (the linux compatible one)
ASUS A7V8X motherboard
us keyboard
Dell optical mouse

I am willing to pay for it, if that's what it takes to find a good OS.

Maybe Novell Linux after all? I really don't know where to look anymore... MyahOS was the best distro for me so far... I was really impressed by the SLED video from Novell.

http://www.freespire.org/ You can always `upgrade' to Linspire.

Have you Tried Zenwalk?

The security of Linspire is worthless.

I tried Zenwalk before.

You may need to do your own tailoring to get it "just so". Take a look at Arch Linux. It is optimized for the 686 family (that's you) and gives you lots of control---and you learn a lot in the process.

Note that many of your requirements can easily be met by any distro--it's all in how you set it up. eg any distro can have a "root" account. And any distro can have any level of security you want.

OpenOffice, Opera, etc. works on all
All can use KDE, Gnome, etc. For something different, look into one of the
lightweight window managers---eg XFCE, Fluxbox, etc.

I'd recommend Ubuntu or Knoppix, which are both newbie friendly and free.
I think Ubuntu also includes an option to install Opera.

Of the points you named the most problematic are probably the Windoze games.
Since you're willing to pay for your system, you may want to try Cedega, a commercial wine branch geared towards gaming.
I haven't tested it though, so I can't recommend it.

The other points you named shouldn't be an issue with any recent Distro.

Installing Arch would be a perfect solution but my problem is that I don't have enough knowledge for this yet. I can't even compile something from source or even apt-get anything yet. Starting with a distro that has everything I need installed would be usefull. This would mean I can dual boot that with XP for whenever I might ever need that again and use Linux as my primary OS.

I tried Ubuntu and I must say I was very pleased untill I discoverred there was no root account so every single command needed to be sudo'ed. That's actually the only (stupid?) reason I am not using that. Unless there is a way to make a root account on Ubuntu?

EDIT: So right now I am looking for a out-of-the-box distribution that does all I want. Later on I can focus on Arch, Gentoo, LFS and all that.

If you don't know how then use google. Most linux distro's don't work completly out of the box. You are going to have to do some leg work. As far as not knowing how to compile sources or use apt-get, do some research. If you are still lost that is the whole point in this forum. To lend a helping and open hand to those interested in getting started.

absolutely SuSE ( http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org )

I used SuSE before switching to debian and, IMHO, it is very user friendly, easy to use, has good hw support... a good distro for those who are used to Windows.
Security is ok, Open Office is available, you can log in as root....

you should at least give it a try

Suse wont do what you want out of the box.

My suggestion would be to try PCLinuxOS. That meets everyting you want out of the box with the exception of security, I have no idea about this part with PCLinuxOS. It uses root,and all the other stuff you want.

It has a nice simple gui for installing software, nice control centre for changing the system settings etc.

Michael.

Originally Posted by V!NCENT I tried Ubuntu and I must say I was very pleased untill I discoverred there was no root account so every single command needed to be sudo'ed. That's actually the only (stupid?) reason I am not using that. Unless there is a way to make a root account on Ubuntu?

Of course there is a root account.

• type "sudo sh" and you have a root shell
• if that's not enaugh:
  in that root shell, type "passwd", followed by some uncrackable 100-char-password (twice)
  and you can henceforth login as root

Have you tried Mandriva? Its easy to use and comes with mp3 support. Good security and comes with KDE & GNOME. Playing dvd's however takes some work with any distro, but just use google for that.

Actually Ubuntu has a root account. You first have to activate it sort of.

sudo passwd root
enter password

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Dapper#H...gin_into_GNOME

That link will let you login root into Gnome.

Ok thanks for all your posts. Having a root account on Ubuntu changes it all I think I'll install Ubuntu again.

Originally Posted by Manny1337 Playing dvd's however takes some work with any distro, but just use google for that.

Well Knoppix can run any dvd I tried so far right out of the box...