[SOLVED] New, user-friendly, but not derived from Ubuntu distro for a laptop
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Give Arch a try if you want to. Good software repository, good docs, good package manager. http://www.archlinux.org/
It's a little more BSD like.
You'll have to figure out what you want to do with the machine. How heavy or not a GUI you want... etc.
That was a silly question, wasn't it?
Basically, I'm just looking for something that's different. All I use the machine for is primarily to write when I'm not at home, and streaming live.twit.tv when I am.
I'm new to Linux but I want to expand my horizons beyond the Ubuntu family.
I would suggest making Live CDs of several that you are considering and taking them for test runs. Then pick one that feels right.
Off the top of my head, based on your first post, I would recommend Fedora (I don't particularly like yum, but that's just me and no I don't want to discuss it [grin]).
The functional leader of my LUG (we don't have any official leaders) likes Mandriva.
My two favorites are Slackware (but a USB install might be problematic) and Debian. The Debian web install works just fine as long as you have internet and can be done from a USB key. Here's the Debian wiki article:
Thank you. This is why I like the Linux community. So many answers.
Basically, I use my laptop now to write and chat with friends and stream media at the library via wireless, stream media at home.
I have a desktop, so having a stable machine isn't a big deal.
Like I said, I just want to move away from the -untu family, and branch out but I don't want to try anything that'll make me want to take a sledgehammer to the laptop. heh.
For what it's worth, I'm another newbie to linux, and just last week I went ahead and put debian squeeze on my 'ol thinkpad x41 tablet. The browser is screaming fast, it streams video flawlessly (it could NEVER do this w/ the stock xp tablet OS), and the only hiccup came from having to set up the wireless, which when I actually took the time to sit down and configure it properly, was pretty darn easy.
A couple things to note - you can keep the install pretty light, I only went w/ the first two iso files from http://www.debian.org/CD/ - any less than that and you're running pretty bare bones. With disks 1 and 2 you get open office, a slew of browsers, terminal and root terminal, a synaptic package manager, GIMP, and a pretty full harem of preference menu items for you to configure. I mention all of these because if you only use the first iso, you're limited to one browser, the terminal, and that's about it. Granted, I'm pretty hopeless at this point w/o google, but if easy is what you're looking for, Debian is a nice way to go in my book.
A couple things to note - you can keep the install pretty light, I only went w/ the first two iso files from http://www.debian.org/CD/ - any less than that and you're running pretty bare bones. With disks 1 and 2 you get open office, a slew of browsers, terminal and root terminal, a synaptic package manager, GIMP, and a pretty full harem of preference menu items for you to configure. I mention all of these because if you only use the first iso, you're limited to one browser, the terminal, and that's about it. Granted, I'm pretty hopeless at this point w/o google, but if easy is what you're looking for, Debian is a nice way to go in my book.
Hmm...seems that you dont know quite how the debian system works, or you have left out some important information.
As long as you have internet access, you dont need to get anything more than CD#1. (well, to be honest, in a lot of cases you wont need more than the 40MB 'business card' .iso). Getting more than CD#1 just gives you more of the debian repos on CD. All the same files are avaible from the repos, via apt-get, aptitude, synaptic or even software center.
Something Red Hat-based? How about Fusion Linux? It's to Fedora what Ubuntu/Mint is to Debian, although personally I've not tried it. I like Fedora the way it is
Let's have a look:
Slackware
Slackware
Slackware. Anyways, are there distros that are hard to download?
Slackware
Slackware is totally friendly to me as user.
I tried Fedora last night, don't like it. The software center didn't like me.
I tried PCLinuxOS as well, it wasn't bad. I'll definitely give it another look.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.