I found just too many Distos out there, doing the same thing. Same bad distro, some good, and some excellent.

If Linux community stop being an S, co-oporate work together on only a few distro with divided into LiveCD, Rescue, Desktop, Palm, Tablet, Server... linux would more likely to take away the Microsoft world by at least 50%.

Unfortunately, most linux communities are like bunch of loose sands, will definitely going nowhere, one step forward 2 step fall backward.

Sad ut fact.

I tested many Live Cd distros, the only one acceptable running without trouble in all PC, old and new, is Berry Linux and Freesbsd.

The rest is either could detect cable modem or dsl modem, or worst it crash when you oeprate in abusively speed. So far, I haven't found one really able to detect existing HDs with ntfs format automatically.

I heard of planB, but it suckx on download.

Will keep you all posted when I finally found one consider better than the 2 I tested.

Tested liveCd:
peanut
damnSmall
pclinux
Helix
Knoppix
Gnoppix
mepix
morphix
puppy
feather
nmm-oppix
systemrescued
liveCD
linuxdefender
freebsd-liveCd
freesBSD*
berry*
ultimate
kanotix
suselive
LinspireLive
pebuilder ( winxp )

Desktop:
mendrake#
elx
redhat#
college
Lycoris#
Suse#
vector%
smoothwall%
gentoo
Lindspire*
Fedora#
Xandros*

* acceptable to close to excellent
# conditional acceptable to good
% don't waste your valuable time at current ver.

You mean you haven't noticed that knoppix (even 3.3) already finds and know how to use the ntfs filesystems .... yes automatically. The thing whith choosing a distro is this. Not testing a billion of different distros and comparing them, because that doesn't get you anywhere and is time consuming. The plan is to take one distro, you should have your favorite by now (testing as many as you did) and sticking with it. Work at it to do all the things you do. No OS does all you can imagine automatically. You need programs, updates, workarounds and stuff to make everything working. Just try to think positively and believe all can be done, and eventually you will make it. It will make you a much happier man :P

If Linux community stop being an S, co-oporate work together on only a few distro with divided into LiveCD, Rescue, Desktop, Palm, Tablet, Server... linux would more likely to take away the Microsoft world by at least 50%.

What makes you think there's no co-operation within the Linux community? Surely you're not suggesting extensive choice is a bad thing?

Unfortunately, most linux communities are like bunch of loose sands, will definitely going nowhere, one step forward 2 step fall backward.

So you've gone through a few distros and this is your conclusion. Just how much time did you actually spend using Linux?

Sad ut fact.

Based on what?

I tested many Live Cd distros, the only one acceptable running without trouble in all PC, old and new, is Berry Linux and Freesbsd.

In the first instance you've listed 2 distros, Secondly if these two give you the desired result, why not use one or both of them?

Will keep you all posted when I finally found one consider better than the 2 I tested.

If the 2 mentioned above are already acceptable, are they not already better? Just what is it that you seek?


smoothwall%

This happens to be a firewall product

Seeing how differnet linux's can use the same kernel, the same gcc, desktop, etc, etc,
I'm not sure what you would expect - but each distro, maybe your not aware of this,
is designed to meet different needs.


Well, out of all of them, I personally like 2 a whole lot for a desktop - So.... if my choice(s)
of distros are put out to pasture as they are not selected as the "chosen".. that leaves me.....
and I'm sure I'm not the only one that would be left sitting on that particular fence.


Since I have no windows machines on my network, I don't care - but.... recompile the kernel to
add the support??? If its ever needed, sure.


For your needs and wants, maybe - but its not at all what I'm looking for.


Conclusion???
Your conclusion of your testing will be the end result for the right distro for you, not me, not the
person that posted before me on this thread, or anyone else, unless THEY come to the same
conclusion as you.
Best regards
-tw

p.s. - just in case you - *BSD's are not linux

Moved to General, all the rest of these types of thread live there.

Incidentally, hardware support is down to the hardware vendors - just the same as with the world of Windows. If you have hardware that doesn't work under Linux, contact the vendor and tell them that this is something you want.

Another overnight expert.

The fact that they didn't even notice that smoothwall was a specialized firewall just shows how much research and/or testing was done...

What ?! You mean to tell me you didn't grasp the entire concept of Linux or the command line overnight?

I aware of that, smoothwall is a scale down mini linux for firewall purpose.
That's why I noted: forget it.

I am not an expert but looking for a distro truely user friendly for dummy. In fact, it's hard to find one in linux until recently, still lotz of improvement required.

Smoothwall turns an old PC into a firewall appliance. You should not forget it, indeed everyone should have one, esp if they are running windows boxes and need to protect them from the net.

And My kids have used mandrake since they were about 5 years old. Installation is also just a matter on inserting the CD and clicking default install - assuming you don't want to keep the windows rot that may be on the PC...

I also put my 52 year old computer total newbie sister on a p150 running mandrake, so the ease of use does not seem to be a problem if you have not been in the windows rut.

You have at least 3 different categories of linuxes there. Three categories whose sole purpose is to be good at what it is designed to do, whether it be for a small legacy system, a firewall, or a desktop solution. You have to test them according to their intended audience, and then you have to test them in depth. If you want to test solely for the dummy factor, why include categories designed for admin types and specialized needs? Your testing criteria is totally useless.... Your conclusions are far too flawed to be of value. Not bashing you, but you need to start with a clear idea of where you want to go with research, and then follow a path to it based on reasonable criteria.

Pro: Linux seldom encouter the experiences of virus attack or spyware intrusion.
Con: Lot of websites are incomptible with Linux though. Especially those require mocrosoft scripts such as activeX etc.

You can run Internet Explorer with Crossover Office.

If that would happen, in the way you mean it, the whole spirit of linux would be lost. Linux is about choice. That's why there are 100+ distro's and that's why it might be difficult at first, but when you are willing to put some time in it and not to give up after five minutes when things are not working out as expected, you can become well-skilled in it in no time. It's thx to all those different distro's that everybody out there can find the OS which perfectly fits his/her needs. If there would only be about 10 distro's, well..., that would just s*ck.

By the way, what you mean does exist less or more, namely the popular distro's most people start with or know about. Distro's like Mandrake and Suse. They are the big leaders if you're talking about user-friendliness and (commercial) support. Those distro's have about everything right after a fresh install. If you use your computer only for text-editing, surfing, music, stuff like that, then Suse linux, for example, is just perfect. You can do it all GUI-based.
For the more 'professional' computer stuff, you need to read some manuals, indeed, but that's sure worth it. It all depends on whether you're serious about using linux. If you're not prepared to invest time in it, and if you can do everything you need to do in Windows, then simply stick to windows. A lot of people use Linux, just because they want to look 'cool', but they don't realize that it takes a lot of time, learning and experience before you can work with the system in a 'cool' way.

Whoow! This is about the biggest post I've ever made!

Pro: Linux seldom encouter the experiences of virus attack or spyware intrusion.
I Agree thats a pro

Con: Lot of websites are incomptible with Linux though. Especially those require mocrosoft scripts such as activeX etc.
I've never seen a webpage that looks bad in linux, guess I'm very lucky

ok I just accidently pressed a button that makes my typing replace instead of insert

hit the insert key again...


Diversity is a strength. If you don't like how one distro does something then pick another one. Survival of the fittest.
Saying there are too many distos out there is nice but that's like walking into an ice cream shop and saying there are too many flavors.

They already have one, it's called Windows.


By the way, just so you know, FreeBSD isn't Linux.

You need to just pick one and learn how to use it. There is no magic distro that will do your learning for you. Linux isn't windoze. It's DIFFERENT. That means you have to learn it, just like you had to learn windoze.

Stop distro hopping and just learn how to use one of them. Until you do your comparisons are meaningless. You are "testing" different types of distros intended for different applications and probably not intended for what you want.

Do a little reading, locate a distro for the type of work you want (probably desktop) and install it already.