Converting to Linux

Hello all, I am summing up parts to create a new custom computer and have Linux installed on it (Dual Booting...Not for me....Plus I want to play with Linux - Windows networking and cross development......Plus I just need any excuse for a second computer to have that 'lab' feel at my place, lol!).

I heard that some Linux distributions, and Linux in general has problems with some hardware...But I'm really in the dark about all this. Does anybody here care to elaborate on this problem, or dispell any popular myths? It'll be much appreciated.

And by the way, I am thinking about getting the Fedora distribution.

- Twigstar

Ah man - Might as well kill two birds in one stone...I'm a C++ user - I've heard that Eclipse is a good IDE to use with the Linux enviroment (I'm a VS.NET user myself under windows)...I would absolutly love recommendations :)

Cheers again

Fedora is nice for its controls and GUI utilities, but I'd go with slackware once you get a hang of linux. Yes linux has some problems with some hardware but you will usually find fixes for them online, because linux is open source there are a lot of people working on it to make it compatible with most hardware. I know some of my monitors dont work because they are old and one of my internal cd drives doesn't either. You can totally adapt linux to fit your hardware needs, it just takes patience and knowledge of linux (ie remaking the kernel etc...)

The most prominent hardware issue for desktop users, used to be proper DRI support for ATI graphic cards, but that's almost taken care of now that ATI has stepped up their effort with Linux drivers (still not as good as Nvidia drivers though).

ACPI management on Laptops also leaves much to be desired, but I guess you're not going be using one so it doesn't really matter to you. :p

You can use these sites to find out if your hardware is supported:
http://www.linuxhardware.net/
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fhard.php3
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/hwcert/
http://cdb.novell.com/searchForm.php...ple&LANG=en_UK

Yeh, I'm going to have to make the PC set-up a little more expensive with an Nvidia card and a compatable sound card..As I was planning to go with integration on both parts...But I've been told off for thinking that would work - Which makes sense, because it's hard to keep up with all these integrated graphics cards I suppose..Although sound I would of thought would of been able to jump through a loophole.

Thanks for the help guys, and a big thank you for those links - They shall prove VERY useful and hopefully will prevent me from suffering from unsupported hardware woes!

I also decided to go for an AMD Athlon 64 2800+, as I found one that's at a decent price in a computer shop near mine...$80 not bad eh! (I also had to change the motherboard and RAM type round though, which wasn't a costly swap).

Ok, thanks again guys!

One simple word

Gentoo

And if you need help with gentoo
(You will need help in the install process, but its WELL worth it)

Gentoo Forums

And...... Sixty-Four bit!!!!! I'm on it right now!

Oh wow, I've never heard of this distribution! AND 64 bit?! This makes development a load more interesting!

I'm going to do some reading on it first of course.

(Also, I will be buying the new PC the end of this month...My bank decided I owed them money....Bastards.)

I also suggest Gentoo (what I'm using right now) - but I highly recommend you printing off one or more of these handbooks (or at least having them available somewhere - like another computer)

edit: I've heard eclipse is good too, although I've never used it myself. usually I just use Vim+GCC when I'm on linux.

Mandrake is good to start out with.

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Originally Posted by major_small

I also suggest Gentoo (what I'm using right now) - but I highly recommend you printing off one or more of these handbooks (or at least having them available somewhere - like another computer)

edit: I've heard eclipse is good too, although I've never used it myself. usually I just use Vim+GCC when I'm on linux.

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The handbook is available on the LiveCD. Just start up screen, or if that is too difficult for you, login to another virtual console with ctrl+alt+f2.

I'd suggest not trying to be a ricer, and using something other than Gentoo. If you really want to take days or weeks to compile your whole system, do a Linux from scratch. There's nothing special about Gentoo and 64 bit support - that's been in the kernel for a while now, and you can use a 64 bit processor with any recent distribution (or even a fairly old one, if you're willing to update the kernel).

Fedora is user friendly but puts some of the config files in weird places. SuSE pro is also very friendly and powerful, and puts most of the files in more standard places - but it comes with a $99 price tag. (The free personal edition isn't worth using.) There's a new version of Debian out - you could try that, if you want to install from packages. I didn't like Mandrake much, but YMMV. Ubuntu is a Debian based distro that is pretty user friendly and updated more often than Debian. Slackware is about the closest to the standard that you'll find, but it lacks all the wizards that new users seem to love. Go to linuxiso.org for a list of more distros, and use Google to figure out the pros and cons of each.

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Originally Posted by ^xor

The handbook is available on the LiveCD. Just start up screen, or if that is too difficult for you, login to another virtual console with ctrl+alt+f2.

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oh yeah... I forgot it was on the CD :P

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Originally Posted by confuted

I'd suggest not trying to be a ricer, and using something other than Gentoo. If you really want to take days or weeks to compile your whole system, do a Linux from scratch.

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um, the kernel only took a couple of hours to compile... and KDE only took long for me because I installed the entire package... even so, I could have had the whole thing done in a day if I didn't decide to mess around with things along the way... (it took less than 3 days (just a few hours a day) - including compiling the kernel three times and installing KDE twice)

There are very few packages that take long time to compile, and you could just use pre-compiled binaries from the package cd for those. I can actually do a full install including X in a few minutes using pre-compiled binaries. Then when you have a working system, you can just let emerge run during the night to keep you up to date (I sync once every month or whenever there's a GLSA that affects me). I have a modest Athlon XP 1800+ processor, and the compilation time for most packages is barely noticable.

I actually believe that Gentoo is the most newbie friendly distro out there (if you can follow the simple steps in the installation guide). Once installed, package management is a breeze. Want to play MP3s? Just emerge any of the twelve bazillion MP3-players in Portage. Distros like Fedora does not come with official support for MP3 or other patent encumbered formats, so you'll always have to compile it yourself or stick with unoffical packages.

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Originally Posted by Twigstar

Oh wow, I've never heard of this distribution! AND 64 bit?!

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Most, if not all, distributions are going to be 64-bit since the Linux kernel includes that support. All you have to do to get it is to compile the kernel with support for it. ;)

Ah right, lol - But of course. This PC will always be on the go-er, so if I run into any installation problems, I can seek support from here.

Hmmm...My reasons for getting Linux on the PC are:

a) It's Linux! I want to have fun with it!

b) Pure development fun! Shell scripting...Network programming...It sounds like a right laugh!

c) For server purposes (Site/MUD I'm making/And so on and so forth

d) Just general development as well as mucking about with the versatile OS.


So based on those reasons, what do you think the best choice for me distribution wise?

In my head it's a battle between Fedora and Gentoo....

Also, I hear there's problems with wireless network cards? Is this true, and if so, are there any sites to confirm which work...(I know this is a google question - But I like a nice direct answer)

Why not try a bunch of live cds? To see what you like.

Why base stuff on "What I Hear". Try it for yourself, everyone has different tastes.

I was going to do not anyway, heh - But getting to know others experiences is a nice deciding factor as well. ;)

actually, for most "user friendly" ( windows like ) distro, I would have to say Xandros.

( which, in commercial version for sure, comes with crossover office to run your windows apps in linux )

my personal prefference is linux from scratch, but even on thier site, it's not meant for new to linux users.
( if you can follow the instructions, it's not a problem, but it does leave a lot to be desired in the "user friendly" department. )

with it you can have a fully standards compliant version of linux, which for development purposes, is the best idea. standards compliant only means that you are not going to have non standard tools / libraries that may not be on other's systems, making installation of applications easier for others. ( also you can then say it's thier distro's problem that they are not standards compliant if they cannot install software you have developed. ) ;)