Best Multimedia Linux?
 

I am currently running a slower computer (500Mhz CPU with 512MB of RAM and a 12GB hard drive) with Windows XP. I am looking to convert to Linux because of the great amount of Lag that Windows often has on my system. The main thing I use my computer for however, is Multimedia. I love the Windows Media Player 10 interface, and ALL of my music is in the .WMA file format. I was wondering, what would be the best Linux version for me, because I am so used to Windows XP. Thank you so much.

maybe try ubuntu?? mandriva?? suse??

PCLinuxOS multimedia works without any need for tweaking.

www.pclinuxos.com

You can also try a live cd multimedia distribution if you are not too confident about moving to linux.

You can try MoviX, GeexBox and plenty of others. I find geexbox amazing for multimedia use.
http://geexbox.org/en/index.html

http://sourceforge.net/projects/movix/

Have fun!

Hello theutherwhitemeat,

I think you can try any available distro. What you need is Multimedia applications! Just like windows, there are several package available for multimedia purpose on linux platform. So you can try them. In short, you can go with any distro and just selecting the good application suites on that.


Thanks, Kirtimaan

This is why I suggested a multimedia distribution. They gurantee that you have no trouble with multimedia codecs or deciding on the right software and applications.

Most linux distributions like Fedora/Ubuntu and others require you to download from the internet and install multimedia codecs for playing mp3/dvds/ and other such formats as they are restricted under the US law.

I therefore always suggest a live cd for new users to aquaint them with the environment and the tools.

Cheers!

PCLinuxOS is perfect for multimedia and as it comes as a LiveCD you can test it without installing it on your harddisk.

PS: There is also an installer includes that allows you to install it on your harddisk.

Another vote for GeexBox here.

It is amazingly small and can be run as live CD or installed to hard disk or USB flash drive. It turns the PC into a dedicated media player - a linux appliance if you like.

There is no X or fancy desktop. Just a (configurable) menu system running in the framebuffer. Also it finds and mounts any Samba or uPnP shares it finds on the net and incorporates them into the menu system.

Essentially it is just a linux kernel running MPlayer. Main downside I have found is lack of support for creating playlists.

It comes with tools for creating custom versions and has a helpful user forum.

This one seems promising both for media hobbyists as well as pros.

http://www.agnula.org/

http://demudi.agnula.org/