Re: Choosing a distro...hm

From: JamesB (sdasd_at_3ssdd.com)
Date: 11/14/04 

Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 16:03:39 GMT

David Wright wrote:
> I started with SuSE and it is a very friendly distro, I haven't used
> Mandrake, but some say it is better and some migrate to SuSE from it...
> Fedora Core 2 is OK, not a friendly as SuSE, but not bad.
>
> Debian are launching a new version RSN, which should be good, although
> they still don't have a graphic installer. Will be interesting to see if
> it works with my hardware now (never managed to get X working for some
> reason). Others like Yoper and Gentoo are fast, but less friendly. If you
> are an experienced Unix user, you shouldn't have problems using them,
> although Gentoo can be hard to install depending on which one you go for.
> Yoper caused a few problems during installation for me, but the
> installation script ignores all errors and carries on without giving the
> user a chance to view the errors or deal with them; I think it needs
> maturing before it is ready for the newbie.
>
> At the end of the day, the core of each distro is Linux (with a few
> customisations here and there) plus an X server (XFree or X.Org - if you
> are using TfT's I would recommend X.Org's server) and a window manager on
> top of that (commonly KDE or Gnome). None of these additional components
> are Linux only, they can be used on most *nix variants. It is the
> additional, distro specific features which make the differences in the end
> and it is a matter of personal taste which one you go for.
>
> All in all, I would say SuSE is a good place to start. It has an easy to
> use graphical installer, it has a very nice configuration tool (YaST2),
> which also includes the online updates.
>
> I've been using Linux on and off for a couple of years and as my main
> desktop since around Easter. In all that time, I've never had to compile a
> driver, kernel module or application. If I wanted to optimise my systems
> performance, I could start compiling my own components, but, at the end of
> the day, SuSE is fast enough on my hardware that I don't see a need to
> spend downtime hand-tuning each module.

Having viewed a few distros i noticed the vast difference in ease of use,
etc. I suppose the point is that if you're over-friendly with microsoft
products you're obvioulsy going to have trouble adapting to linux; it's so
customisable that you actually have to set things first, where-as in ms
things they're defaulted, coz humans are lazy.

The mainbord is MSI (micro-star international) with an onboard soundcard.
The mainboard is 'MSI-8715' i'm pretty sure. I'm using knoppix to view the
different options available on linux at the moment, and although i can find
'sound devices', i can't see the name of the soundcard i have! My fault, of
course, as i'm not intuitive enough to go looking! Microstar do make good
mainboards, so i think it'd be okay, just from what i've heard from other
linux users. The soundcard is a realtek-one. It has such a common name but
i can't remember it... realtek were bought by another group, i can't
remember it, argh!

Anyway, having looking at the mainboard PDF manual from msi.com.tw it seems
i've mentioned just about everything.

By the way, a 1.4ghz centrino performs as the p4 equivelant 2.8 ghz - i
thought it was nonsense at first, but after using it's actually true! Of
course a P4 is more media-capable, but i bought the centrino for the
battery life, it's extremely good! Of course if you're not a
train-traveller, etc then it's prob just as well to go for scolded knees
with a desktop replacement ;)

I've downloaded a few distros and have a similiar spec machine to test them
on so i'll let yous know how it goes...it'll be touch& go i can assure you

James

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