Linux Noob - Which Distro?

Associate
Joined
11 Jun 2006
Posts
24
I have been using Windows as long as I can remember but after looking at Vista I realised it was time to get out.

I have never used linux before and I am aware that there are a fair few distros out there that emulate the windows GUI pretty well, which is the best to use?

At the moment there is nothing specific I need from it I just want to get used to the way linux works and then mabye move away from the windows like environment.

:confused:
 
thanks for all the advice guys, i have installed ubuntu just because i like the idea of a lot of automated systems for the noob, however i have now installed it about 3 times using the cd version and the dvd version (which was fun downloading on a 512k connection i can assure you). Every time i boot it goes so slow its unbelieveabile. I found the system monitor the cpu status is never below 93% but there are no processes running taking up this power - im running a full system update (which i didn't try before) hoping that its going to be sorted otherwise i think it may be a hardware incompatability and after an hour playing with linux i learnd one thing: install drivers is not an easy and enjoyable process :P - will post again when the updates have been completed
 
ok i have just completed the updates for ubuntu the system is still going at the same speed and during the updates i think the kernal was updated and now on my boot screen (i duel boot to windows 2k) i have two kernals of ubuntu is this normal?

I have done what you said and looked in the system processes again. I made sure that all processes were showing, the only processes that were taking up the cpu were Xorg which I understand is a system process and the system monitor program but the monitor program took around 50% of the cpu and i dont think that its right

I am using a hp compaq nx6125 notebook with 512k of ram (according to resources i have plenty of ram available for use) and a 1.8ghz amd sempron 64 processor

only thing i can think of is that i am using a 64 bit processor with the i386 distro but i wouldn't have thought that would make a difference

please help :(

Additional - I just checked the hardware manager and the processor has not been recognised by the machine could this be why?
 
Last edited:
Ok since yestorday i have had a play with synapitic update manager. Linux was was on the default 386 kernal images, i changed this to one of the k7 images (says that it supports semprons) but i noticed no difference at all in performance, I even spent up to an hour trying all the different images and still no difference.

I know that this is not a hardware problem becuase i did install fedora in between trying to install ubuntu and it looked like it was running at the speed of my win xp amd x2 3800+ system. Only thing with fedora is that it has very little automation systems which makes things very difficult for me and it didn't recognise my wifi device in my laptop whereas ubuntu did - ( i kinda rely on this ) and the reason for asking my original question was becuase i was having a lot of fun trying to find/create/compile drivers for my wireless card.

I have talked to a few of my mates that also use ubuntu and they have no clue as to why it is doing this. Could it just be a bug and it having problems with my hardware setup?

are the automatix and or other autoconfiguration tools available for other distrabutions? If so i might give FC5 another go otherwise which distro?
 
my wireless card is internal to the laptop (mini PCI) wouldn't want to get another one unless I had to especially as its proven that it can work with linux.

Mandriva seems like the next choice then *sigh* - more days of downloading :o
 
Apart from my unlucky experience with Ubuntu not liking my laptop it is fantastic for a noob like me - I tried installing fedora core 5 before ubuntu and had no problem.

However after installing FC5 i then had to install drivers for my graphics (to use hardware acceleration) , Wifi Card etc. seeing as i have never compiled drivers before it was an uphill struggle with my ati drivers, followed the instructions to the letter and all i could do after restarting was access the repair terminal mode. ( Which I know sooo much about :p )

the reason I tried to go for Ubuntu was becuase of the automation systems, it found all of my hardware devices no problem and the synaptic manager program that came with it allows you to install extra packages for your hardware and software and is just really easy to use. - (Shame for me it took about 2 minutes loading time just to open the synaptic window)
 
Back
Top Bottom