Time to move on...
 

...Red Hat is dead isn't it? I am starting to realize that. For me, Red Hat WAS Linux. It was the first Distro I had ever used when I started using Linux four years ago. But I think that it is time to face the music that Fedora Core just does not seem like it is going to match up.

Alright, I can accept that fact. I am ready to try and move to a new Distro. But which one?

Well here are my requirements of the Distro:
1. Has to work - I don't care if that means I have to tinker with it a bit, but I can't program, and the concept of looking at the kernel scares me.

2. My GeForce FX5200 has to be supported in at least 2D mode so that I can download the closed source drivers.

3. The drivers have to work. The problem with Fedora and I think I may have had a similar problem with RH9, the drivers installed, but something told me they weren't really working correctly. I think Neverwinter Nights helped me think this way, as the graphics were...less than good. I always had a large black border that shrank the screen. and when I left the game I always recieved a display error. Plus whenever I booted up X the screen would flicker some wierd colors would pop up, then I got the NVidia logo.

4. What is pretty fast and stable? I was thinking about using Gnome, but it seems that people with Slack and Fluxbox love it.

Ok now my moral del...deli...problem...lol
I have begun to notice that a lot of the distros are asking for money now a days. Some even limit the features of the OS until you pay. That is fine. I have nothing against supporting Linux, even some of the most expensive distros are still far cheaper than Windows XP. The problem is, I am a college student who isn't working right now. I am focusing on school...mostly...I am going to be working for about 2.5 weeks. But that isn't a lot of money. I want to support the Distro I use, but I fear that an up front payment of $150 would break me, and doing something like a monthy subscription like what Mandrake offers me, will be too risky. What can I do? I don't want half an operating system because I can't afford to pay for it until June...a little help?

Mike

What wrong with Fedora?

cheers

Jamie...

I don't think it is working. Especially in the display area. I don't think the driver and the kernel are getting along to well and that is why I am having trouble with running my games. Neverwinter nights has troubled graphics, America's Army doesn't even load.

I get the following error:

Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".

Mike

Well if you know a bit about what your doing, give the gentoo install a go, you'll learn loads about linux doing it and you'll end up with a wicked distro at the end, go and have a read about the benefits of portage on www.gentoo.org ;)

You'll like it. BTW the kernel is nothing to be afraid of dude, you'll have to do a recompile eventually ;)

I always think the best advice is to dual or multi boot and try a few.
Knowing they do or don't work on your hardware and that they do or don't do what you want is better than "advice".

Another vote for Gentoo, you can't go wrong with it.

I vote for Suse9.0. It's very usre friendly and supremely up to date on hardware, especially NVDIA graphics cards. both my ATI 9600p and NVIDIA g4MX440 work flawlessly with all games. For the nvidia card, all you have to do is download the linux driver from the nvidia site, execute it(Xserver can't be running), start Xserver, and then open up the display manager(sax2). Best thing I like about Suse is its media software, especially sound editing. It has Suse9.0 RPMs for everything you need on their ftp site. only problem is that they dont release ISOs.

Fatgod: I'll give it a shot.

2damncommon: That is a really really good idea I hadn't even thought about that until now. I will have to wait for xmas when I get a bigger hard drive.

Demonbane: Thank you

jamil5454: I'll stick that one on here too then. Umm...if they dont have ISO's how do I install it? or is that all explained on the site?

Mike

If you want to install SuSE you can do an FTP install. Either boot the install from floppies or from the CD installer available on the FTP server (filename is boot.iso - just burn as an image and boot from it).

Don't forget about Debian either. :)


Håkan

Debian eh?

Mike

Agreed...

Also as far as your DRI issue, maybe this will help?

tried it...nothing

Mike

Why nobody talked about Slackware? It is a good distro, although I have problems making it speak Japanese, it is a perfect distro if you only need English :)

Eventually.....you'll try slackware (with dropline since you mentioned Gnome) and you'll stop looking ;)

Once you go Slack you never go back, eh?

Mike