Thread: Linux recommendations?

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    890

    Linux recommendations?

    I'd like to install a Linux distribution on my IBM Thinkpad T43p and be able to dual boot with my current XP Home edition. I don't have a lot of application requirements - just want something in which to re-familiarize myself with UNIX development that I haven't done in years.

    So I'd like something free -- though I wouldn't be opposed to paying a nominal price -- and easy to install.

    What say you?

  2. #2
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Ireland
    Posts
    8,446
    My preference is SUSE and it integrates very well with Windows (both ways), from console management to specialized virtualization. It is also very friendly to beginners like myself who only a few months ago regained an interest on Linux (after a >5 year hiatus and in consequence of Vista shipping). I have it on both my laptop and desktop. The former, a licensed Enterprise OEM version that I bundled with the ThinkPad when I personalized it before ordering, the latter a download unsupported version.

    Like many other distros, you can get it for free at the expense of support.

    Ubuntu is also a very popular choice as you probably have noticed already.
    Last edited by Mario F.; 06-26-2008 at 12:34 PM.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  3. #3
    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Plano, Texas, United States
    Posts
    2,743
    I have used Ubuntu and love it. I have also heard lots of people recommend SUSE as well, although I haven't used it.

    http://distrowatch.com/

    http://www.ubuntu.com/
    My Website

    "Circular logic is good because it is."

  4. #4
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Ireland
    Posts
    8,446
    Speaking of Ubuntu... I'm partial towards KDE. Having the same distro on both machines doesn't suit my fancy very much. There's no reason to not install a different distro just to broden my horizons. The laptop is my main machine. Which begs the question...

    Thinking of getting Kubuntu for the desktop machine, or is the gnome version better?.. or it doesn't matter?
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  5. #5
    Super unModrator
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    321
    SUSE 11 was kinda buggy for me. Or maybe its KDE 4 that's buggy making a lot of things crash and break

    Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, but fixes many of its bugs and has multimedia support out of the box (That's my main OS). I'm also working with PC BSD, like its one click install PBI packages. PC BSD too has multimedia codecs pre-installed.

  6. #6
    Registered User
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    18
    Quote Originally Posted by Mario F. View Post
    Speaking of Ubuntu... I'm partial towards KDE. Meanwhile, having the same distro on both machines doesn't suit my fancy very much. There's no reason to not install a different distro just to broden my horizons. The laptop is my main machine. Which begs the question...

    Thinking of getting Kubuntu for the desktop machine, or is the gnome version better?.. or it doesn't matter?
    It depends on whichever suits your taste more. Generally, KDE is more customizable and featureful while GNOME emphasizes on being easy to use and is more basic (although it gets better and better on recent versions). Some people think KDE is bloated, other think GNOME is too basic, etc.

    If GNOME vs. KDE weren't what you were looking for and that you have already settled on it, then it doesn't matter.

    As a side note, there are two versions of the latest Kubuntu, one with KDE 3, and one with KDE 4.


    @OP: Beside Ubuntu and SUSE, I hear that the latest Fedora is pretty good, too.

  7. #7
    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    8,057
    I really like Debian, but don't place too much emphasis on this recommendation because I've never really used any other distros. My hard drive isn't big enough.
    dwk

    Seek and ye shall find. quaere et invenies.

    "Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it." -- Alan Perlis
    "Testing can only prove the presence of bugs, not their absence." -- Edsger Dijkstra
    "The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." -- John Powell


    Other boards: DaniWeb, TPS
    Unofficial Wiki FAQ: cpwiki.sf.net

    My website: http://dwks.theprogrammingsite.com/
    Projects: codeform, xuni, atlantis, nort, etc.

  8. #8
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    3,459
    I'd say go with Arch or Slackware. SuSE and Ubuntu are not for me (used SuSE for ages!).

    Arch is especially good if you don't have a good internet connection (but like to stay upto date). Since there are really no "versions". You could use an install CD from 2002 (be it a net-install ) and have the latest build

  9. #9
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    3,195
    Slackware sucks IMO, really painful to install and if you dont get just the right version it wont run properly. Which version is the right version? Your guess is as good as mine. I think it realyl depends on your system, btu there is neither rhyme nor reason.

    Im gettign ready to try Ubuntu, have heard enough good things about it that it gets to be the once every 6 months test distro.

  10. #10
    Ethernal Noob
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    1,901
    I like the KDE interface much better than Gnome. Gnome reminds me of a smoother version of swing.

  11. #11
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    3,195
    I like the looks of KDE, but ive so far not been able to get a distro that included it to install right. I dont have the time to de-........ a distro for just one system, so if it doesnt run out of the box, I usually uninstall it after a day or two of messing around. Honestly, I coudl get the distro runnign eventually im sure, but I cant recommend somethign to customers that they cant get up and runnign in half an hour with no serious problems on whatever El Cheapo hardware they have. And if our customers arent running it, i have no incentive to develop for it.
    Last edited by abachler; 07-02-2008 at 09:58 AM.

  12. #12
    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    8,057
    KDE has worked out of the box under Debian on my AMD64 system. I think it even worked under Debian 3.1, which wasn't officially supported under AMD64.

    Of course, you'll have to download quite a few CDs to get to KDE; the first CD includes Gnome, but KDE's too big for it. Unless, of course, you go the easy route and download just one CD, installing any other packages you need from the internet.

    You should be able to install KDE from the internet by issuing the following command as root:
    Code:
    apt-get install kde-core
    You'll probably want to add KDevelop or other programming tools as well.
    dwk

    Seek and ye shall find. quaere et invenies.

    "Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it." -- Alan Perlis
    "Testing can only prove the presence of bugs, not their absence." -- Edsger Dijkstra
    "The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." -- John Powell


    Other boards: DaniWeb, TPS
    Unofficial Wiki FAQ: cpwiki.sf.net

    My website: http://dwks.theprogrammingsite.com/
    Projects: codeform, xuni, atlantis, nort, etc.

  13. #13
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    890
    I guess I'll wait for a new computer to experiment with. I downloaded Ubuntu and tried the full install, but for some reason it said it couldn't add a partition for Linux next to XP, and offered the only option as wiping out XP and creating a single Linux partition.

  14. #14
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    28,413
    I downloaded Ubuntu and tried the full install, but for some reason it said it couldn't add a partition for Linux next to XP, and offered the only option as wiping out XP and creating a single Linux partition.
    Did you defragment your Windows file system?

    Oh, I once referred to Psychocat's Ubuntu Linux Resources when starting out with Ubuntu (though admittedly I had already tried out other distros before that).
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  15. #15
    ---
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Posts
    1,379
    Arch + Openbox user here.
    Arch is great because it doesn't put useless junk on your system. After installation you have the bare necesaties for a Linux system. You then use Arch's package manager (pacman) to install your apps from the repos.
    Plus there is no need to install an upgrade every so often. All you need to do is run
    pacman -Syu
    That will update the package list on the repos and then download and install all upgrades to the packages only installed on your system.

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Thinking of upgrading to linux...
    By Yarin in forum General Discussions
    Replies: 37
    Last Post: 07-24-2009, 11:40 AM
  2. Wireless Network Linux & C Testbed
    By james457 in forum Networking/Device Communication
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 06-11-2009, 11:03 AM
  3. Linux software installer recommendations
    By BobS0327 in forum Tech Board
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 09-24-2006, 01:19 AM
  4. installing linux for the first time
    By Micko in forum Tech Board
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 12-06-2004, 05:15 AM