The Utterly Improbably Huge "Which Distro" SuperMegaThread
 

Mod Note: The "welcome to this thread post is here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...58#post2915558


I have an IBM ThinkPad t-21 Intel Pentium III- 800GHz/128M/12Gb Hard Drive, What would be the best Linux distro for this laptop? I would like to use Open Office, Wireless Network and perhaps Gimp and a good DVD player. I searched linux-laptop.net however most of the links are dead and many of the distros listed are leagues behind what is currently available. :confused:

I would guess any modern distro should do okay on the hardware itself. Personally, I like Debian because I can install a base distro (command line only), then only install what I want. I had Debian 4.0 running a slim KDE desktop on an old celeron 400MHz machine w/ 256MB RAM.

You probably want to avoid KDE or Gnome since they're a bit heavy. Try icewm, fluxbox, or similar lightweight windowmanager. OpenOffice will be a pig. You might try Abiword and Gnumeric. The Gimp will probably drag you down too since you only have 128MB.

If you want a distro already catered toward lightweight stuff, try Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, Fluxbuntu, or Xubuntu.

The Utterly Improbably Huge "Which Distro" SuperMegaThread
 

Hello, I am currently deciding on a migration strategy from windows 2000 to linux.

I am a bit schizophrenic regarding how to go about it. On one hand i am a bit impatient and don't want a huge learning curve. I.e. drivers. I also dont want something that slows down my system.

I need something with as much support as possible for flash, mp3, wav, flac, USB interface with mobile phone and voice recorders or ipod, wine for windows compatibility etc..

Ideally i want a distro which provide a systematized teaching/training starting from basics of configuration, software install to shell scripting and network admin.

I have heard Mandriva has the best kernel for hardware support, and since they offer self paced training, it was a path i planned to follow. That was before I read that the latest power pack slows down even dual core systems. My machine is a pentium 3, 650 MHz with 512 MB ram and 60 gig hard drive.

I want to go "cold turkey" so wont be dual booting with windows. I do eventually want to become a pro at linux but with a gentle learning curve.

Someone on this site suggested i go with gentoo and I have just visited their site. They don't seem to offere any support apart from their forums. And there is no official self paced training. Yet some how i want to try it.

The next option seems to be SUSE.

Can any provide better solutions or advice.

Everyone here can provide better advice....;)
You are asking the classic question--everyone is going to have an opinion. My personal solution has been to install several and test-drive them as time permits. The current favorite is PCLinuxOS. However--at least to start--anything in the top 5-10 on the distrowatch "hit list" is going to be fine.

The "getting started" link below might help also.

You could do somewhat like I did and use Live CDs/DVDs for a while before you put out a contract on your Windows. Technically, I started with Slackware 8.1, but still...

SUSE was the next one I tried, too, but for some reason I got tired of it quickly. I'm not saying that you'll do the same, since you're not me (and a good thing too - generates too much confusion) but the only way to know for sure is to try it. Don't try anything out if you have anything mission-critical going on in the short-term and you want Linux to support it. I second the suggestion to distro-hop.

Get some books to read over, too. It's easier to look at printed pages, than a screen all day.

Good luck!

Slackware.

disto hit list
 

Hi all, thanks for the suggestions. When u say distro hit list your talking about the "Distro Reviews" section on this site...? cuz i don't see any scoring system on the review site. Are you talking about thing else. Please send me the link if you are.

You heard about XP Linux?

http://distrowatch.com

XP Linux (Actually Linux XP )is not on my list at all. #67 at Distrowatch

many thanks!!!
 

that link is fantastic. I am going to enjoy reading through it.

I wouldn't go for Linux XP if I were you

Small Distros like Mint or PCLinuxOS will give you the best multimedia support out of the box.

BUT

I would recommend either Ubuntu or openSUSE, due to these factors:

-Both are huge (lots of support available)
-Both have strong long term prospects
-Both give you fairly good multimedia support out of the box
-Both have good configuration tools

Honestly, forget about Gentoo or slackware, unless you really love to go technical.

Linux security
 

When I read about the pros & cons of a distro's security, do I assume that even in a distro that is not highly rated, it still is better than windows...?

I mean, like windows am i going to have to consider firewalls, anti virus etc. I am aware that linux is not immune to attack but it is not targeted as much windows, right.?

I am running win2k currently and worst case i have been plagued with spyware and possibly twice a year with trojans which my avast has detected.

Regardless of the popularity or size of your OS (or even the make), you should always use a firewall. Linux comes with iptables inbuilt - and has done since it was ipchains.

Shields Up is a simple, visual check for your firewall and whether it's working. In general, you won't need a virus guard for Linux, there are too few Linux specific viruses for the OS. However, if you are planning to share files with other OSes you should install one. Just because we don't get infected doesn't mean we can't unwittingly forward an infected document.

And, despite my words above, this is a very common question on LQ - a search would have given you these answers in seconds.

The Utterly Improbably Huge "Which Distro" SuperMegaThread
 

This thread will, by design, become utterly enormous. It is a landing place for anyone wanting to know which distro is the best for them. It is also a place for existing and new "Which Distro" threads to be merged into.

As a result, this post will be pushed down the thread, I will create a link in whatever the firt post is to this post. Should you see a new thread created, please report it and request it be moved to this thread.

Here's a tip: DO NOT just ask the question in a simple form, you will receive hundreds of opinions and will not be able to get anything usable. Instead, TELL US what you want to get out of the distro.

Some Links That Will Be Of Use:

• DistroWatch
• Linux Distro Chooser
• Another Linux Distro Chooser
• Linux Distro Comparison Tool
• Linux Distro Timeline Chart
• Linux Distro Downloads
• Linux Distro Reviews
• LQ Wiki Page - List of Linux Distributions

Which distro
 

Thanks for that. The thing is as i mentioned earlier my long term objective is to become an expert in linux, hence slackware. What I think i will do is to purchase slackware live cd. If it recognises my phone and voice recorder usb interface without too much bother, I will go for it. Otherwise I will opt for Ubuntu.

On the other hand, I guess with all distro one can opt to switch off the gui and work from vi editor and that way learn from the command prompt...right. ?

BTW I cannot find live cd for OpenSUSE. Will the DVD version work with my Dell P 3 650. I have upgraded the cd drive to dvd. The ram is 512 MB. HDD 60 gig.