Spec me a Distro

juno_first · 26 Jan 2013 at 11:22

I've been using linux on & off for a year now on my laptop & prefer it for everything except gaming of course

so my gaming rig still has Windows.
I'm kind of ok in the terminal as long as I can copy what needs doing & have been thinking about Arch Linux.

Laptop spec: Toshiba C660 1LD i3 using on-chip GPU. With 8gb RAM & 120gb SSD.

The basics of what I need it to do:
Be able increase touchpad sensitivity as its difficult install a touchpad config GUI on eg. Mint.
Install Compiz & get at least wobbly windows work.
Access a Windows network easily with write capability.

thanks

I've already tried a few Distro's inc.
Ubuntu 12.10, a few bugs esp losing network after suspend, dont like unity esp. start menu, too orange & a bit child like in its appearance.

Kubuntu 12.04, the Plazma desktop has some nice effects but I find it a bit unprofessional as the widgets etc. are not very clean looking. Bugs.

Mint 14, Nice & clean, struggling get Compiz work on non KDE, struggle get Samba shares working as 3 other computers on the network are Windows.

This is what I think of Windows 8 & where it belongs...

juno_first · 26 Jan 2013 at 11:47

Going give Fedora18 a try, a new KDE 4.9 is nice with Dolphin 2.1 so may now play video files over network.
Nice it has the latest kernal 3.6 with 3.7 soon.

moss · 26 Jan 2013 at 12:50

Although I've not tried it myself, all of the reviews I've seen of Fedora 18 have been VERY negative.

bertles86 · 26 Jan 2013 at 13:23

Try Mageia

juno_first · 26 Jan 2013 at 16:43

Well, trying install Fedora 18 & it asked for a username/password to logon as a live user, KDE accepted root with no password but LXDE did not & I cant find anywhere online with help on this. This & bad reviews as said above & I wave goodbye to Fedora.

Currently tryin Mint Mate & trying install any touchpad config to increase the DPI.

Yeah Mageia I heard that was good, I may give it a go thx.

craptakular · 27 Jan 2013 at 10:34

I say opensuse

juno_first · 27 Jan 2013 at 13:46

Phew, just installed Mageia from DVD.
It took hours to get the wifi rtl 8188ce working as Mageia did not see it as a netwroking device. After hours of trawling through websites (by LAN) I found this site:
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6439
Although Mageia does not recognise the command 'make' or most else on that page except adding the driver to the repo which worked

They say Mageia is for biginners but WTF, think I need learn more about Linux lol.

I'm really likeing Mageia KDE so far, it has a lot more that other KDE distro's.
Obviously the effects are nice too.

I'm going try get my head around this distro & dabble with the terminal then maybe make the jump to something like Arch.

I've tried OpenSuse before, reviews say its slower than others but the good thing about Linux is the choice

Essexraptor · 30 Jan 2013 at 12:36

Just recommended it elsewhere but have a look at Manjaro as well if your thinking of drifting towards Arch

Been running it off a live CD on and off for the past few days and it's not bad at all.

http://manjaro.org/

juno_first · 31 Jan 2013 at 18:46

Hmm yeah Manjaro looks good.

I have just a few basic requirements of an OS which every distro ive tried so far has failed:

*Increase touch pad dpi & also save settings after a reset.
*Access a network Windows smb & not ask for the login details everytime, even after clicking remember.
*After sleeping (laptop lid closed) the WiFi does not reconnect at a much lower speed or not at all, only a reset fixes this (not the router as Windows ok), then you have to set the touch pad dpi again lol.

moss · 31 Jan 2013 at 18:56

juno_first said:
*Access a network Windows smb & not ask for the login details everytime, even after clicking remember.

I'm far from a Linux expert, but wont adding the mount in the /etc/fstab file stop this from happening?

something like:

Code:

//server/share  /mnt/mount      cifs    username=USERNAME,password=PASSWORD,_netdev 0 0

Essexraptor · 2 Feb 2013 at 20:31

juno_first said:
Hmm yeah Manjaro looks good.

I have just a few basic requirements of an OS which every distro ive tried so far has failed:

*Increase touch pad dpi & also save settings after a reset.
*Access a network Windows smb & not ask for the login details everytime, even after clicking remember.
*After sleeping (laptop lid closed) the WiFi does not reconnect at a much lower speed or not at all, only a reset fixes this (not the router as Windows ok), then you have to set the touch pad dpi again lol.

I'm using Gigolo on my current Mint install for the Windows smb access. Once setup it works every time (added to your start up)

Touchpads .... meh.... go with a wireless usb mouse.. logitech MX ones are the dogs Bo,,,,,,,,,

Sleep ... don't know.

Subliminal Aura · 3 Feb 2013 at 00:31

not happy with the current state of play with desktop linux so am sitting on the fench for a good couple of years.

Windows 8 is doing me just fine - it's not that bad seriously... my servers and htpc remain linux as they have done for the past 15 years

juno_first · 3 Feb 2013 at 10:05

As im running Linux on a laptop atm then a touchpad is sometimes a necessary evil.
I heard Mint 14 was hindered by being based on Ubuntu 12.10 which has kernal upgrade issues.
Gigolo, i'll have a look for that if I still get issues with the latest distro im trying which is Bodhi.
Got to admint im really impressed with the speed of Bodhi & GTK theming so far.
I first tried it in virtualbox where im sure it ran faster than the host OS lol.

bertles86 · 4 Feb 2013 at 21:52

I've put lubuntu on an old Dell notebook. It run's very fast. Nothing amazing graphically as it's "light" ubuntu aka lubuntu. But surfing is lightning.