What distro to use?

Vanhishikha

Vanhishikha

Vanhishikha

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Background.

I'm currently on Windows and I'm a gamer mainly, but I'm also in University studying web design and programming, I use my computer which has all the important **** on, Full adobe 5.5 suite, Notepad++ and all the rest of it, this is my main computer that I use while at home, in my flat etc.

Why I'm choosing a linux distro?

Now, I'm picking up a laptop sometime during in the week and I don't really want windows on it, so I was going to put on a Linux distro, I was thinking either Mint or Ubuntu?

It's going to have all my basic programs on, Chrome, Skype, Notepad++ (if it's supported) and I was hoping to find some good programs for web design, image editing and so on.

Help?

So what would you recommend guys out of the two or if you know of a better distro that would be more suitable? then I greatly appreciate that too, but like I said, I'm going to be using it for:

- Mainly uni.
- Needs good access to apps that are equivelant to: Dreamweaver/Photoshop/Fireworks/Notepad++ etc.

Thanks in advance.

Daniel.
 
Mint, of the two you've listed, but that's partly because I don't think Unity is a suitable interface for serious work. :p

As far as I know, Notepad++ doesn't have a Linux version and whilst you could get it to run in Wine, you'd probably be better off with a native app. Gedit does decent syntax highlighting, has plugins and is somewhat configurable, but you might want to try Geany for that kind of thing. It's an IDE, but very lightweight and can be used with pretty much any language (though of course, options to compile/run your code depend on you having the relevant compiler or interpreter installed).

I'm not sure what the Linux alternatives to the other programs are. There is GIMP to replace Photoshop, but a lot of people going from the latter seem not to like GIMP or find that it doesn't quite have all the features they want. You can, however, run the CS5 apps in Wine. Photoshop and Fireworks are rated Gold, Dreamweaver is rated Silver, so they should be quite usable. For previous versions, check the Wine AppDB. :)
 
Why Ubuntu or Mint? why not try a few and see what you get on with best off the top of my head;
OpenSuse
Fedora
CentOS
Arch
Debian
Mandrivia
and of course Ubuntu & Mint.

As for applications try Bluefish, Gimp, Inkscape, LibreOffice, Audacity, Cinelerra, Blender, Scite (what NP++ is based off). That very short list covers a lot of bases.

What sort of course are you doing? you'll get some more specific replys if you can give an idea of what you'll be using it for.

Oh and the last thing, Linux hardware support for laptops has come on in leaps and bounds over that last 3 years or so, but it's still worth asking around for what hardware support is like for the laptop you are looking at.
 
Last edited:
SMN said:
I use "Sublime Text", streets ahead of Notepad++.
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oooh, I like that!

I've been using NP++ in Wine for a while now, as Gedit sucks balls in comparison - but Sublime not only looks like it has all the features, it looks delicious :p
 
Happy to help chaps. Plus is a little sad we all get excited over a text editor? :)

OP I'd try Mint first to see if you like it, then you move onto more hardcore drugs...sorry distros in the future :)
 
I installed Fedora the other day having previously tried openSUSE and various Ubuntu versions and I have to say I have a new favourite distro. Fedora 15 is the first Linux OS I have liked enough for me to want to use it over Windows.
 
escape sanity said:
I installed Fedora the other day having previously tried openSUSE and various Ubuntu versions and I have to say I have a new favourite distro. Fedora 15 is the first Linux OS I have liked enough for me to want to use it over Windows.
Click to expand...

This is why I always tell people to try a few different distro's, you never know what will click with you.
I started with Yggdrasil Linux many many years ago, and have used everything from the *BSD variants to opensolaris via slackware.
 
escape sanity said:
I installed Fedora the other day having previously tried openSUSE and various Ubuntu versions and I have to say I have a new favourite distro. Fedora 15 is the first Linux OS I have liked enough for me to want to use it over Windows.
Click to expand...

If I remember right, that's one of the first distro's to use gnome 3.

How are you finding it?
 
I've tried almost all of them throughout the years - spanning back to the days of SuSE 6.4/Mandrake 7.0 :D

Until recently I was using Ubuntu as my main desktop OS, I've been using it for a couple of years since the release of Windows Vista.
Just recently I've switched to Fedora 15, as a change. I love Gnome 3, it feels so quick and slick. As a day to day desktop OS it suits me down to the ground. I feels so much quicker than Ubuntu with Gnome 2.*

I personally would have a go at all of them, you can test out the differences for yourself and you will find yourself bonding with one.

With regards to applications, Gimp is a great alternative to Photoshop. However, I always find that a Windows VM using Virtual Box will soften the switch to Linux. There are times and places where you may need a Windows box and the VM is a perfect way to have the best of both worlds.
 
Out of those 2 I would choose Mint. Been using it on my laptop for about a year and absolutely no complaints. For writing code I normally use vim although I'm sure gedit or geany is more than suitable if you don't want to learn vim.

That said I use Fedora 15 on my desktop and really do love Gnome 3, such a great interface to use.
 
Do any of you gnome 3 guys not find your workflow slows down using it? I gave it an admittedly short try but I wasn't sure of it. I'm looking forward to how it develops though.

:)
 
Im running gnome 3 in fallback mode with Compiz/Emerald, no "shell", none of this rubbish. It still aint as good as Gnome 2.6 (?) in my opinion but Arch doesnt support it anymore or wont do pretty soon.

And XFCE is bloody awful, KDE sucks and has done for years, and I dont want to run Openbox as i dont see the point (I have a graphics card for a reason!).
 
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