Where the hell do I start?

Doran

Doran

Doran

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For years, I've been tempted to do a Linux System.

I originally moved to mac because I hated windows. But now, as much as I like the mac, it is still proprietary and expensive and full of a load of things I do not want.

I never use the PC for anything more than watching films and browsing the internet. As such, my current project is to build a silent PC, constructing the case myself as well, that runs Linux.

Where do I start on the Linux front? I have no idea.

Thanks
 
Hi there,

I have been using linux on and off for ages :) I started with Fedora Core 4 and now use Ubuntu 8.10, you can can download 'Live CD' versions of both which allows you to play about with out installing anything.

There is also a wealth of information about either on the Internet that's great as I am clueless :)

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Intrepid

Plus the guys in here are quite helpful most of the time :)

Kevin.
 
Presumably you mean try the live CD if you already have windows installed?

or do you mean from nothing?
 
Either; you run the CD as a boot disk-it's pretty slow as it all runs from the RAM, but it gives you a feel of the OS.
 
Cool - thanks guys.

I am building the system very cheap - what are the lowest specs I can get away with on a linux machine just used for internet browsing and movies?
 
If you've got the hardware sorted, then just grab a copy of whichever distro you like the look of - if you're not sure which one you'd like, I'd suggest trying Ubuntu first, cause it's easy to use and has a great community behind it - and then just download the .iso from their website.

Burn that to a CD on your Mac or whatever other machines you have, and then just install it. If you've got nothing on the drive that you want to keep then just let it use the entire drive. Make a cup of coffee, read the paper for 20 mins and jobs a good 'un.

Once it's installed, there are some additional things you'll want to install - this is just a simple case of enabling the multiverse repository and downloading the additional software that you need, e.g. win32codecs. Here's a guide explaining how to do that... http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Intrepid#Add_Extra_Ubuntu_Repositories

Then, once your machine is able to play whatever file format you're gonna throw at it, have a look at Xbox Media Centre - http://xbmc.org - and see if that does what you're looking for. If so, install it.

Depending upon how advanced you want to go this could be all you need to do to get started, e.g. are you going to use a remote control to do everything or are you just using a wireless keyboard, do you want a PVR or just to play back media you've already got, etc...
 
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Doran said:
Cool - thanks guys.

I am building the system very cheap - what are the lowest specs I can get away with on a linux machine just used for internet browsing and movies?
Click to expand...

Doran said:
Preferably also very low power usage, as I plan to run the whole thing fanless.
Click to expand...

I use a Mac Mini, which is only a 1.6GHz with 2GB RAM. It's virtually silent in use and can play videos up to 720p with no worries.
 
512 MiB RAM and a 1 GHz processor is plenty for just browsing the web.

Are you building a rig from scratch, or are you putting bits together? Maybe we can help. :)
 
Building it from scratch.

So: that tiny 125w Piso CPU, LE-1640 AMD on something like a 780 Chipset? Could go cheaper and get 690..
 
EEE box would be a pretty cool solution (more than powerfull enough to run a few films and go on the net, i had a p2 system with 128meg ram doing that nicely before).

Best really to start with some well documented and easy to use distros, so ubuntu, freedora and suse all fit that sort of bill.

Personally id throw you in the deepend with something like Arch or Gentoo to get a faster system (and learn a bit more about how it all works) but thats probably not the best place to start if your on your own
 
How cheap can you get a Dell Studio Hybrid? They have 3.5" hard disks from what I can tell so you could easily put a 1 or 1.5 TB disk in one. They're also tiny, easy on power, and look pretty unique.
 
Ooh, those look nice, Billy. Definitely scores high on the Wife Acceptance Factor.


...not quite as nice as my Mac Mini though ;)
 
I kinda wanted to avoid anything remotely proprietery - a philosophical position! :)

And while they look pretty, I like the idea of a simple, standard case, that I can do anything with, which is comparitively cheap...
 
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