I am new to linux and loaded Everyones linux but am not satisfied with it.. it doesnt detect my modem it doesnt play audio cds or vcds.... please can any one suggest me which will be good redhat linux or debian or anything else.. also i am currently trying to learn linux programming travelling towards Rtlinux so please do give me suggestions on the course to follow..........

I've recently started using Linux myself. I'm not sure what I'd recommend, but I definetely don't reccomend Debian. That one's mainly for Linux masters. Suse was pretty good, but it didn't come with many programs. I settled on RedHat myself. It came with a variety of programs, had pretty good driver support, and had a relatively easy install procedure. Also, if you're trying to dual-boot, be careful. I highly recommend backing up data first (I just made that mistake). I got an old version of Mandrake a while ago that was pretty easy too, so you might want to try that if the others don't work out too well. Here's hoping you find the right one for you!

hi
again we ask everyone who asked this questuion here to go to
distrowatch.com

also ,iu cannot play ur audio in linux,since xmms does not have support for that,so get the patch for it or newer xmms from
xmms.org
to play video files u need to get
xine from xinehq.de
or mplayer from mplayerhq.hu

and u ned to post ur problems like what is ur modem what problem u r having and it is always good to tell about ur distro version(rh9.0,rh 8.0 ?)
regards

Oops - I posted my reply right before masand did. Sorry!

Hello thanx regarding the audio files and video files
about the linux i ma using its Elx or everyones linux... i am havuin aSM56 internal modem.. i downloaded a driver from sm56.tk and installed it using makefile and insmod but it didnt work out.. i even tried to change the port on which the code was written for like in the source code the port was ttys14 but my modem in windows is in com4 so i changed it to ttys3 and compiled it and insmod it agin ... but when i try to query th modem or dial up it just closes.. the screen closes... so can u please givwe me some advice for this..... pls masand

Hi there satish427!

If you have a winmodem (those cheap intern ones) are you in for a big fight. However, external modems seems to work fine with Linux. I cannot really help you with that matter, since I never used Linux with a modem. But try getting a good "real" modem from eBay, maybe...

For distributions, it's really difficult to recommend you one. It's just as personal as liking an specific car or a beer... The hole point is, they are all the same and they are all different at the same time. Mandrake, SuSE and Redhat are known as "easier" to use because they provide more config tools then others distributions around. I've been trying all distros around for the past years, and I just love Slackware and SuSE so far...

Linux does, play audio CD's. Problems commonly found are: Missing a little cord that connects the CD/DVD-Rom device to the sound card. Some applications, as xmms has digital audio extraction, so you won't need that cord.

It also plays VCD's with the right application. mplayer besides being a super player (plays DVD's, DivX, mp3, VCD's, mpg, avi, mov and a lot of other neat stuff) does a neat job with VCD's.

About programming, it depends which language you want to play with. Out of the box, Linux can compile java, python, C/C++ and many others... .

Good luck mate!

hi satish
this is the most common available modem i INDIA and the most problamatic also.
i do not know much about ELX ,only this there is some company in Hyderabad,promoting this.
now on what distribution is it basd,i am not aware of that
i too had sm56 modem and it took me a long time configuring this,since the driver i had ,specified that it will work with redhat 7.2 and below,so after a lot of try's i installed RH adv server 2.1 and got it working
after that i got this kernel of redhat adv server installed on REDHAT 9.0 and it is working there

regards