p3 800 MHZ laptop, what OS

cmanns · 02-23-2006, 09:59 PM

Hi, I currently run an windows 2003 Server on this laptop (yes illigal but it was a test) I just wanted to know why XP Server was soo good and trust me it sucks so I decided to listen to my friend who makes linux junk and is involved in projects to make my computers run linux he said to use gentoo but I will only put that on my presario laptop as it has wireless and ethernet so I can use the base CD then get the respitorys through the ethernet

but I was thinking, what OS should I put on my 800MHZ server laptop that I also use for the web browsing. I have a Netgear MA521 pcmica wireless card so what would I be able to install on it with that card. It dosent have eth0 port though

I found that out installing gentoo then I was like ooooOOO crap noo ethernet LOL

justanothersteve · 02-23-2006, 10:12 PM

Slackware installs completely from 2 cd's without requiring net access during installation. I am not familiar with netgear wireless cards, my laptop uses broadcom and required ndiswrapper. I did have to download that, I just used my desktop, downloaded it and burned it to a cd then used the cd to copy to my laptop.

cmanns · 02-23-2006, 10:15 PM

Is slackware good? I'm not concerned about CD's I want one that will be complete though is FC4 any good?

and whats a wraper

justanothersteve · 02-23-2006, 10:19 PM

ndiswrapper is what I had to use to get the window drivers to work for my broadcom wireless.

I can't speak for FC4, I have very little experiance with Fedora. I can't tell you if slackware is good, simply that it was good for me. I enjoyed it for a few months on my laptop and server, I moved on to gentoo out of curiosity.

cmanns · 02-23-2006, 10:20 PM

hmm

should I try out gentoo?
and about the wrapper how hard is it to set up and is it just as fast?

justanothersteve · 02-23-2006, 10:25 PM

Gentoo requires internet access during install. Whether or not you should try it depends on how comfortable you are with linux. Gentoo doesn't hold your hand or anything, you have to install it one command at a time. Whereas the other distro's use an installer program. Look up at the distro reviews on this site to see what others say about the various distros

cmanns · 02-23-2006, 10:33 PM

Yeah, thats what I thought, when I got gentoo all set up onto my p3 with partitions it too 4 hours LOL.

I mean I want the most graphical lol I think I will try FC4

cmanns · 02-23-2006, 10:36 PM

http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/

which do I want

the source or binary FC4?

con · 02-24-2006, 10:32 AM

If it was me I wouldnt install fedora. With those hardware specs I'd go with slackware beats fedora any day. It's got everything you need right out of the box except for libdvdcss and a front end for the firewall, I use guarddog. With fedora you'll sit and bitch about the config tools not working, no mp3, it dont play dvd's, etc....

lestoil · 02-24-2006, 06:08 PM

slackware, debian maybe suse are dandy for server. Linux-on-laptop site is loaded with linux install notes for many lappys. Have fun.
Look for Neatgear MA521 thread in LQ slackware or debian forums. You would need latest winXP Netgear driver and latest ndiswrapper. There is mention of Realtek driver too as alternative.

lodragan · 02-28-2006, 09:59 PM

I've been using Linux for 13 years now, and I keep coming back to Slackware for several reasons:

1. Slackware packages and base kernel as installed is for 386/486 processor - so I can use it with older hardware out of the box.

2. Slackware is the best integrated distro -- I rarely have any problems building apps from scratch that are not part of the distro. I can't count how many times I've pulled my hair out tracking down prerequisite compatability issues under other distros - including commercial unices (Solaris pisses me off sometimes.../opt/sfw - bolloxed - who thought that up? A misapprehension of the unix filesystem standard imho).

3. Configurations are easy cheezy - and use standard tools for the most part where they are automated. I am not a big fan of becoming dependent upon GUI tools for system level configurations (you got to get down on the iron oxide if you want to learn the ins-and-outs of the system).

4. With various installation methods it is easy to hack together a marginal installation using existing tools that would certainly fail under other distros without major development work. I've installed from floppies, hard disk, parallel port zip drive, and cdrom.

5. Best mix of applications that I use (I am a developer - so ymmv). Most cutting edge stuff I want - not present or difficult to come by in other distros.

6. It's got slack. All hail Bob:

Code:

             ///////
             e   e /
            [ _L__ ] 
              \_-/___()
             \___/

7. Package system is based on tar. tar is ubiquitous...so I don't need anything special to install packages - or peer inside packages if I need to - regardless of what system I am on. Claro.

8. It was my first distro way back when...it just fits.

If nothing else, I hope this was entertaining for you.