Spec me a Linux Distro =D

Steve Watford

Steve Watford

Steve Watford

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258
Price range - £0 to ~ £0

So I recently tried to install to install Ubuntu (liked it, but it just kept messing up my desktop and the drivers wouldn't work properly) So i tried Gentoo which I liked but it was waaay to complicated to install and kept just erroring out on me. What I want is a good balance between performance, hardware support and general support (packages and such). As long as its pritty well supported and easy to install, I'll like it.
 
I'd suggest maybe Suse Linux: http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/

Or maybe keep an eye out for the offerings that come with various Linux magazines (to save download time) and get a better feel for what you'd prefer? Other people might recommend distros like Fedora, Mandriva etc, so I suppose it comes down to the default system setup and package management system you prefer, since they're all Linux underneath :)
 
Steve Watford said:
Price range - £0 to ~ £0

So I recently tried to install to install Ubuntu (liked it, but it just kept messing up my desktop and the drivers wouldn't work properly) So i tried Gentoo which I liked but it was waaay to complicated to install and kept just erroring out on me. What I want is a good balance between performance, hardware support and general support (packages and such). As long as its pritty well supported and easy to install, I'll like it.
Click to expand...

Need... more... info...

What drivers? How did it mess up? What's your hardware? Laptop/Desktop etc etc... Ubuntu and Gentoo are almost diametrically opposite in the 'distro spectrum'... Sounds like you need to check out distrowatch.org download a bunch and try them out.
 
My graphics card just didn't work on it, everything else works fine but i'm at wide screen with a terrible resolution :mad: Its an X1600PRO and the fglrx or whatever you spell it like drivers just don't like my system much. I'm downloading SUSE atm and will try it out soon.
 
Ok change of plan, my internet reset so I had to restart the download of SUSE, so forget that. I'm going to take another stab at Ubuntu. I'm not going to go at this half-hearteningly so I'm going to try a stage1 install. As the officials don't support stage1 anymore I was wondering if anyone knew of a good guide to installing the 2006.1 release using stage1, when I do it I usually end up spending 30 minutes selecting the packages I want then 30 minutes installer to find an error in something i don't understand.

Any help wanted.
 
Its an X1600PRO - ATI cards don't seem to have nearly as good support for Linux as Nvidia cards do. Good luck on the install - I find a non-gui install of Gentoo at stage 3 to be easiest, then you could just recompile with either of:

Code: 
emerge --newuse world
emerge -e world

if you think you need to :)

Gentoo forum support seems pretty decent too.
 
Ah yes, cb, I missed that. :o

I just installed Ubuntu on a widescreen laptop with an ATI X300. I could coach you through the install process if you give up on Gentoo, Mr. Watford.
 
If you want Gentoo without having to jump through hoops to install it, just go for SabayonLinux instead. It comes with ATI and Nvidia drivers installed and configured.
 
GarethDW said:
If you want Gentoo without having to jump through hoops to install it, just go for SabayonLinux instead. It comes with ATI and Nvidia drivers installed and configured.
Click to expand...
How, that would be a GPL violation à la Kororaa? Does it download the appropriate driver automatically upon installation, SuSE-style?
 
if you are having problems still with gentoo post driver installs etc, run the following:
Code: 
emerge -av gentoolkit
revdep-rebuild -X
obviously the emerge is just to install the revdep-rebuild package (plus other handy tools)
 
cb_linus said:
That's quite an odd reason for someone to give for not using a particular distro :p
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well the reason i say that, is i read a review that said when it comes to configuring some things in depth - which in linux is inevitable - you can't do it as the gui won't let you get to the actual files.

something like that anyway.

didn't like it when i tried it either. but whatever you do MAKE YOU SURE GOOGLE PROBLEMS, and also check forums for answers to problems. i found both the fedora forums and the ubuntu ones to be very useful. had a little stint on the gentoo ones and they were helpful.

keep at it too, it is so easy just to go back to windows when you get one problem, but i am really starting to like fedora at the moment - never liked linux before.

daven
 
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