Suggest a distro 4 newbie programmer.
 

I want a compact(really small)distro (for HD install) with following stuff i want 2 learn:-
1. a good c/c++ compiler.
2. Python
3. Emacs and/or vim
4. Pdf viewer.
5. Internet browser (possibly firefox. I luv it on XP)
6. Dual boot with WinXP.(v.important)
Above r absolute requirements. A music player wouldnt hurt if it is small.

I have a Compaq Presario 2105US notebook running WinXP.Wish 2 dual boot.Specs:-
mobile AMD Athlon XP1800+
1.52 GHz
480Mb RAM

video card: ATI radeon 320 (not sure about this. it is the driver i installed 4m HP website)

Try Zenwalk.

...or this one. http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/01/10/1529228

There are at least a dozen light distros that are widely used. None is any better than the next for what you want to do.

Try:
Vector Linux, its a little outdated, but a great place to start or
Ubuntu Linux, which has up to date packages and very beginner friendly.

A bit more help, if u dont mind:-

Can u tell me wat chipset my notebook has?
I m confused bout the "i386" type of thingie.

These are some options which confuse me:-
[alpha] [arm] [hppa] [i386] [ia64] [m68k] [mips] [mipsel] [powerpc] [sparc]

Debian has a "netinst" ISO which installs a base system and add-ons over the internet. Looks attractive. Would you suggest that for me?

Following is wat i found on debian.org. I have DSL broadband connection.

Quote:

What types of network connections are supported during installation? The network install assumes that you have a connection to the Internet either using analogue PPP dial-up or using an ethernet connection. This may be through a PCMCIA adapter on laptops. Internal (PCI) ISDN cards and WLAN cards are not supported — sorry!

I think your notebook is an AMD64, but you can install i386 on it as well, and you should for the first install.

If you are going to try installing Debian, you'll have to be careful about getting too much stuff. As long as you have an ethernet cable plugged in from the DSL modem, not wireless, you'll be OK.

I assume you have free space on your drive where Debian will be installed. I would suggest a minimum of 10 - 12 GB. 20 GB would be better.

Make sure you are installing Etch, not Sarge. When the initial installation is done, you'll be presented with a screen of "Tasks" which you could install. Each task is toggled by the space bar. Select only "Standard System" and "Notebook." When you reboot, you will have to log in as root at a system prompt. When you get the # sign, type...

#aptitude install gdm gnome-core xorg

That will give you a somewhat light desktop system. Check it out and make sure the responsiveness is satisfactory. If it seems OK, you can carry on from there. Otherwise, you'll have to start over with a lighter distro.

I have already downloaded sarge. But i will download Etch next month since I have exceeded my bandwidth for this month already.

I tried googling my processor AMD Athlon XP-M 1800+,
but couldnt make out conclusively whether is AMD64 or i386.
Could you please confirm and tell?
I tried installing sarge but everything freezes at the language selection menu (1st menu) that comes up after booting.
I could however install it successfully on my Pentium Celeron PC.
Is that coz my notebook maybe 64 bit?

How about FreeBSD?

No, that has nothing to do with it. It's more likely related to the fact that Sarge is now obsolete for any hardware less than a year or so old. You need Etch.

installing packages in debian
 

I downloaded *.deb files from debians site and wrote them to cd.
How to install the packages from cd using aptitude?

http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/ap...n.html#s-cdrom

After you do that, just type:
# aptitude install <program-name>

One step more..
 

Thanks 4 ur help.
I managed 2 install debian netinst (sarge) on my laptop with followint parameters.

boot:linux26 noapic nolapic<return>

tried installing kubuntu 5.xx
but no success. I guess thats because of older kernel.

I will be installing etch in feb.(since I got some idea now :study: )
Again, I would like 2 install packages downloaded separately burned on cd.

I would be requiring the following:
X11
Any desktop
emacs
python2.5
openoffice

Is there any way I can get each of these aplications in a single package instead of installing each component one by one?
that is: i install x11 pack to get a fully running x-server.

is it possible?

OR are there any customized package cd images available?

Give Gentoo a try.

rickh, ciden's notebook is not AMD64. It is still i686. Turion64 and Athlon64 is AMD64.

I have decided on Debian Etch. Downloading RC1 netinst iso.
Since I will b dual booting with Windoze XP, I want to make a partition to store my data (PDFs, Photos, Songs etc) which is accesible by both OSs . Are FAT32 and VFAT the same thing?
I believe VFAT can be mounted easily on linux.
Since the partition containing my data is FAT32, I want to know whether it is OK, or I select some other format so that I can reach a compromise between the 2 OSs performance.:Pengy: :scratch:

Note: I have 3 partitions on same HDD. 1 for WIndoze + 1 for Linux + 1 for Data

Thanx Electro, but Gentoo is for experts, i believe.
I m a NOOB.

VFAT in Linux is the same as FAT32. It just a different name in Linux. You will have to use either Windows 98 or use Linux mkdosfs utility to format a partition larger than 32 GB.

Debian is for experts too, but it is not setup for compiling. Gentoo is setup for compiling because it compiles every program. There are plenty of directions on how to install Gentoo. Gentoo's utilities are written in Python, so you can get an example of a Python program.

http://grml.org/ is meant as a live cd for people that work with text/programming.
It can install to harddisk and is based on knoppix, although it is not alike, imo.
It does autocompletion of command parameters. I never saw that before, only file completion by tabbing. For instance you do: grml-x<tab> and it will list the various windowmanagers you can start. Brilliant :D
I boot the live-cd under windows using microsoft virtual server, although i guess vmware might be a better way to go.

east or west SuSE is the best...
give it a try, you can always re-install...

all the best

www.pclinuxos.com
www.sabayonlinux.org
www.ubuntu.com

Debian is the way to go 4 me guys.
Just a bit of trouble getting teenie-weenie bits of info off the net and voila' a custom desktop.
Don't recommend for the faint-hearted noob.
I had a lot of fun installing.

Now though, I have a question.
I did a net install, got gnome,kde,gimp,iceweasel,xine etc.
Can I now make a debian installation boot CD with the downloaded packages i got?
I want a clone of my current custom debian on another box.
Luv
K.

P.S- My first post on this thread from a Linux OS.