Does anyone know of a good Linux Distro that has:

- Support for many formats
- Good GUI
- A Live CD (So it can be tested)
- Supports Wine (Well, that emulates Windows Programs)
- dosen't take up too much system space
- and is an all around good switch for a computer user



Right now, my computer is DEAD. My hard drive files are still there, but I can't boot up Windows. I'm running SLAX just till I can find a good Distro to switch to. Slax is alright for me, but I'm looking for a more mainstream distro, one that could represent Linux if it had to.

I would go with Ubuntu. It is just a good change.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...searchid=50875

This question, or one like it, has been asked hundreds of times in the Linux - Distributions forum.

My personal preference is Mandriva. It has good all around support for the desktop user. They have a live CD product, called Move, but it is only a minor taste compared to a full install. There is also a tool to make a live cd from a system based on the full install, which can be handy for making a dedicated system, like a server or firewall. Check out the review at http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/index.html


There is also Knoppix Live CD, which closely matches Debian.

The problem with a live cd, is you are limited to what can fit on the cd, whereas a full distribution installation set will give you more options for what you want to run. Pretty much all distributions come with wine, but it is often better to get the latest from winehq.org depending on what you want to run. Also, there is the subscription based Cedega from Transgaiming.com. It is geared specificly at DirectX based games, but also will run some generic Windows applications as well (I use it to work with some math plotting software).

Welcome to the list tahushi.
You'll find there are many people ready to help you here, but I suggest you try to be a little more specific in your questions.
What type of formats? audio, video, document types in general... Any distro will read almost any file type provided you have the right apps / libs installed. I imagine you mean one that can deal with as many 'types' as possible out of the box. Really almost any of the big distros will.
Both Gnome and KDE are really good and very complete guis. Any big distro will have one or both of them as well as a collection of other smaller and lighter desktop environments.

Now you're narrowing it down a bit. I'm afraid my favourite (Fedora) isn't available as live distro (at least not oficially). I have to agree with GrueMaster though that a live cd is fine to get a general idea what linux is about and for system repairs, but there's nothing like a real install!! Anyway, since many live cds use Gnome and/or KDE as desktop environment, the practical working of a live cd is going to be very similar to that of almost any other distro you'd install to your hard drive.

It's not so much a matter of supporting (as any distro will 'support' it), but of a distro specific precompiled package being available. And even so, all big distros have ready prepared wine packages available, either on the install cd or on a repo on the internet.

That'll depend on how much you want to install. The fact that some distro are 'smaller' doesn't mean that other 'bigger' ones need more space. They simply offer many more apps on the install cds that the other distros may offer through repos. Of course there are distros that specialize in being extremely small (Damn Small Linux for example that'll run from a cd with just 64MB!), but any distro is capable of giving ou a good install for under 1Gb.

And what type of computer user are you? Do you do audio or video editing? do you only use it for office tasks or will you want to set up a web-server as well? Are you a gamer?...

to sum it up. Follow jtshaw's link to the existing threads that deal with this topic and have a look at DistroWatch

Good luck!

Oh, sorry. But, i mainly use my computer for music. I spend most of my time either working on the web, or toying with a new program.

By Live CD, I want one of the program to test it out. I dont wanna install a new operating system to find out I dont like it.

By GUI, I ment one that has a good graphicial interface, and dosent require much text control.


But, my main feature I want is compatibility. I want to be able to store files on my windows partion, and then acess them in Linux. Files include: Pictures, Music, Word Documents

PCLinuxOS, Kanotix, Knoppix, and Mepis are fine examples of what you want. Most distros will read/write to most file systems. Most will read ntfs, but writing to ntfs is hit and miss.


I have a partition formatted as fat32 so that I can share data between linux and windows easily.

I would recommend ubuntu or mepis.

Listening to music I suppose ? Creating or encoding/decoding in proprietory formats such as mp3 requires some libraries that not all distros include in their official repos because of copyright issues. They can always be found elsewhere, although downloading them may be illegal where you live...

There ought to be a way to do this legally, some way to buy the mp3 libraries you need online for instance

Knoppix has a large user base. I have found it to be reliable, versatile, and generally excellent.

Configuration and desktop files can be saved to a USB device between boots (point+click menu selection). Boot options allow ISO to be copied to hard drive or RAM and run from there, making for a very responsive "live" OS. Playing with Knoppix for a few days is fun, not a pain.

(Used to be that Ubuntu, SUSE, Mepis, and Xandros did not allow menu-click configuration saves. Haven't looked at latest versions.)

But I don't believe that there is an easy way to install Knoppix to hard drive if you decide you want to.

Kanotix may be better for you.

Kanotix has all the same boot options and configuration saving as Knoppix, plus it has an option to easily be installed to a hard drive.

And it has klik.

klik makes it easy to try out hundreds of other programs. Want a telnet client? klik. Want a BASIC interpreter? How about Real Player or Opera or a host of games. These kliked applications are run from Kanotix without installing to your hard drive. There are dozens of music aps. (I have 75% success rate)

The klik cmg files can be copied to your USB flash pen, so you don't have to be online to run them in the future.

Um, music. Not my main thing, but Kanotix and some others come with StreamTuner and Audacity. I used streamtuner to record some music streams from Shoutcast stations. Used Audacity to edit the mp3 files, but had to download a "lame" mp3 encoder. Later, converted some mp3 files to wav. All on live distro.

Oh yes, it comes with Wine, but I don't use it.

What all this means is that you can have fun experimenting with this live CD for weeks. Then, if you like, you can install.

Also check out PCLinuxOS. It is a chance to try a live Mandriva-based system that works well. It allows a persistent home on USB. There are versions with nVidia drivers on the CD. It can be easily installed if you like it. Easily updated.

PCLinuxOS helps you make your own custom live CD, which is pretty easy, but requires a hard disk install first.

The people who put together these live CDs I've mentioned know how to stretch the limits. What's impossible today is done tomorrow.

ubuntu is for the win really. if your computer has >= 256 mb of ram. fits all of your criteria. it's got a live version as well, and you can order free cd's with free shipping from their site.

would have to say Mepis, having used the others. Just loaded wine along with a few hundred apps from debian sid, and its still working like a charm. And the goal is out of box MS replacement. Really love Kanotix and its fast , but the initial install (almost as easy as mepis) doesnt have synaptic, and a bunch of stuff like Open Office etc...if youre online with a good connection, not a problem. If you arent, or if you dont know all that many gnu/linux packages, mepis gives you more "Windowsy" options and has good HW recognition. Mepis is also live (tho too damn slow on my box, compared to live kanotix)Load up mepis, add a kanotix Poor Mans Install so you can run off a cd image on your hd after booting it and enjoy both. Personally, theyre good intros to Debian Linux, whereas Ubuntu is drifting further and further into its own thing. I would only recommend ubuntu to people who like it enough to do everything ubuntu style, from sudo to gnome. And the latest live cd? Ive had to configure less on slaxm or Planet9 from Bell Labs for Crissakes! The old ubuntu live was simple, this one is - imo - awkward and very slow.