What Linux Distro?

8

86DRIFTER

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 3, 2006
Messages
355
Hi, I am new to Linux. I am finding problems with XP that I just don't want to deal with. So I think I will make a fresh start with some Linux distro.

I have tried out Ubuntu before and played around with it. But I have tried no other distro. I don't know what is available to me.

Problem is, I am a gamer. I am willing to dual boot XP to play games every once and a while but I do not want to do most desktop work on XP anymore. If there good tricks to get games like COD2, BF2, CIV4 and other games to work properly with Wine or Cedega, I would be glad to know that they'll work. I would also like to use Adobe programs like Dreamweaver and Photoshop.

I would like the Beryl interface because I think it is kinda cool and is more fun than the XP GUI. How about dual monitors with Beryl?

Partitioning the hard drive is no problem for me. I want to save at least 50 gigs for media and general files, and split the rest for the two OSes to fight over. I would expect any distro of Linux to take up less space. Any recommendations on how I should partition my 160 gig drive are welcome.

Please help me decide.

EDIT: btw don't suggest Vista crap.
 
My gaming PC is mainly Ubuntu with a 35%-40% HDD partition for Windows XP. Ubuntu is the easiest and best Linux distro IMO so I wouldn't go looking for anything else, especially since you are new at it. Just use Windows for gaming and Ubuntu for everything else.

If you want Beryl, there are plenty of Wikis and HOWTOs over at Ubuntu Forums. It's very easy to install, just remember that ATI and Linux don't mix well compared to NVIDIA. Google is your friend!
 
We have a Linux subforum, that's where this question belongs. With any luck a Mod will move it there at some point.
 
six_storm said:
My gaming PC is mainly Ubuntu with a 35%-40% HDD partition for Windows XP. Ubuntu is the easiest and best Linux distro IMO so I wouldn't go looking for anything else, especially since you are new at it. Just use Windows for gaming and Ubuntu for everything else.

If you want Beryl, there are plenty of Wikis and HOWTOs over at Ubuntu Forums. It's very easy to install, just remember that ATI and Linux don't mix well compared to NVIDIA. Google is your friend!
Click to expand...

Sounds good. I guess I am lucky I switched from ATI to Nvidia just a while ago. Now to back up what I want and start fresh.

bbz_Ghost said:
We have a Linux subforum, that's where this question belongs. With any luck a Mod will move it there at some point.
Click to expand...

Sorry didn't notice that. I was wondering why there weren't any linux threads in this section.
 
I can't help you with Wine or Cedega, but I can tell you if you really want to learn Linux, try Gentoo. An install will take a while, and it'll be longer before you have everything configured to your liking, but you'll learn a lot.

On the other hand, if you just want to hit the ground running, try Ubuntu again. Its userbase is big enough that if you have a problem, or you have an app/game you want to try, someone else has already tried it, and shared their results on their forum or wiki.
 
86DRIFTER, I dont think topics like this will make you any good.
To be honest it depends on a lot of factors and obviously every person has his/her own taste.
For instance I love Slackware and Gentoo, but I hate Ubuntu. However there are ten billion Ubuntu fans out there.

Something Ive found accurate enough (always picks up my fav distros) is the Linux Distribution Chooser. Give it a try ;)
 
86DRIFTER said:
I have tried out Ubuntu before and played around with it. But I have tried no other distro. I don't know what is available to me.
Click to expand...

Best thing is too look around and try. I myself ultimately choose ubuntu, because I like the debian apt package manager, I like ubuntu quicker development cycle over debians.

I would like the Beryl interface because I think it is kinda cool and is more fun than the XP GUI. How about dual monitors with Beryl?
Click to expand...

Just use compiz fusion which is beryl and compiz re-merged. Beryl is more or less outdated now. As per dual monitors I have no problems with it, using nvidias twinview.

Partitioning the hard drive is no problem for me. I want to save at least 50 gigs for media and general files, and split the rest for the two OSes to fight over. I would expect any distro of Linux to take up less space. Any recommendations on how I should partition my 160 gig drive are welcome.
Click to expand...

With my setups I like doing this, for linux creating a '/', swap partition, and a '/home' partition, seriously the /home partition is the best thing ever..... unless you accidentally delete it but its great way to save files, and settings, and migrating between, distros, or even architectures.
 
Personally, I use vanilla debian. Ubuntu is based on debian so you can have virtually all of the same stuff working but it is easier to install it without incurring alot of bloat.
 
As I Lay Dying said:
Just use compiz fusion which is beryl and compiz re-merged. Beryl is more or less outdated now. As per dual monitors I have no problems with it, using nvidias twinview.
Click to expand...

Compiz Fusion is really cool, but it does not like newer ATI cards... at all.. and dual monitors are a bit of a bitch with ATI as well.... it can be done, but C/F has to run in XGL and I have yet to figure out how to get both working together on an X1950pro...

Just thought I should mention that...
 
So good, I have a 7600gs. Good enough as I have read in many articles.

But about the dual monitor. I don't have mine set up as a continuous screen. They are two completely different monitors. One is CRT and one is LCD. The CRT is my main because it is better, bigger, and brighter and it is right in front of me. The LCD is down to the left. I put all my contact lists like Trillian, Xfire, Vent and TS down there and have winamp run there every now and then.

Does it necessarily have to act as one continuous desktop, or can my LCD be a static desktop while running Compiz Fusion?

It is like this but I have an LCD now in place of that tiny CRT. Stupid, I know, but I don't really need a continuous desktop. Just something that I can run contacts on.
 
I would suggest PCLinuxOS 2007.

Based on Mandriva, uses KDE which is a bit more Windows-like than GNOME (lower learning curve) and definitely more robust.

Hardware detection is superior to any other distribution I've ever used. For example it is the only distro that properly configures a 7-button mouse with Back/Forward/etc out of the box.

Uses Synaptic and aptitude which are the same very popular and easy to use package management tools that Ubuntu/Debian use. At the same time Mandriva is RPM-based so you'll find a lot more easy to install binary packages outside of the repositories as well.

It also includes both Beryl and Compiz and they are more stable (although still buggy) in KDE than I have seen in any other distro, and the control center GUI for enabling it is very simple. They are fun to play with but you have to understand they (now Compiz Fusion) are still in the ALPHA stages of development.

Overall I think it's a great distro and apparently I'm not alone, as according to distrowatch.com it has surpassed Ubuntu downloads by almost 150k in the past 3 months.
 
you should tire pclinuxos if you just want to put cd in install it and run and not have to update drivers and stuff.and it fast and only uses like 200 mb of ram. it has a good windows type of control panel type thing to
 
Welcome to Linux. :)

If you want something that's user-friendly, go with Ubuntu or Fedora. They both come with lots of software, and there's tons of support to be found in their respective forums. Both are overall very solid, very awesome, and very widely used distros. :) Ubuntu is probably the most popular distribution overall (pretty much dominates the home user space), but last I checked Fedora still had a lead in the server/workstation space. You can't really go wrong with either of these.

For something built for speed, go with ArchLinux.

If you want something that's insanely customizable and cutting-edge by nature, try Gentoo. A lot of people claim it's more of a headache than it's worth, but everyone agrees: we all learn a lot from our Gentoo experiences. :D It's definitely not for the faint of heart though, and might be best left until you have a couple of free days off for you to really study the online documentation (which is fantastic, by the way ;) ).

I feel obligated to mention LFS as well. :D It's like Gentoo... except more :eek: :confused: :eek: If the Gentoo learning curve is steep, the LFS learning curve is something like vertical. :D I don't know many people who use LFS on their day-to-day machine...

PS -- I haven't tried Debian, but I hear it's a really solid distribution as well. Well... Ubuntu is Debian-based, so there you go. :)
 
Last year I tried Suse, that was fine. This time I've actually switched from Windows to Linux on my MAIN system, not even dual boot, and I'm not looking back. Happy with the switch, happy with Linux.

I'm using Fedora 7. I tried Kubuntu (KDE flavor of Ubuntu), it has a lot of things going for it, but after having used it and Fedora both, Fedora somehow just seems more solid. One time my Kubuntu install got so screwed up just by running the initial update. I don't think that's comon, or it wouldn't be so popular. For now, I'll stick w/Fedora, though I might switch around a few more times just out of curiosity.

Here's the great thing: they're all (well, mostly at least) FREE so it doesn't cost any money to try them, just the time to install, configure, etc.

I tried Beryl recently ~ SO much cooler than Vista :p

Don't forget to DL the free game Urban Terror 4.0, one of the best FPS of all time!

At this rate, I think it'll only be another year or two before I would suggest pretty much anyone go with Linux instead of Windows.

Hasta la vista, Vista!

Oh, and to those who said "yeah right" when I said "I'll just switch to Linux" back when I heard how overpriced Vista "Ultimate" was going to be, well :p to you 'cause I DID IT!

edit: on second thought, I agree with the previous poster: Try Ubuntu with Compiz Fusion - if you have problems w/it for some reason, then maybe try something else.
 
I disagree with the poster who recommended Gentoo. Here's my short story of it:
I wanted Linux for the geek/cool factor. It didn't work out. I had a long history with the most popular distros with no satisfaction from either.
My first one was Fedora a couple of years back. I was a complete noob at Linux and couldn't remember most things, and copy/pasting all the time wasn't my thing, so I gave up for a while.
Tried Ubuntu later, it's the same damn thing as Fedora, not much different. I tried three versions of Ubutnu to date, 3 or 4 of Fedora, FreeBSD, and I'm positive one more.

My last attempt with Linux was Gentoo, since I was really into customization and installing and modifing WHAT I WANT, and if you ask questions about customizations/removal of things on Ubutnu IRC, you'd get a nice form of GTFO and go to Gentoo. Well after a while, I did. Getting it up and running like you would get a standard setup of Ubuntu would take you about a WEEK if you're on the computer about 4-6 hours a day, and you'll spend 90 percent of your time in the Gentoo IRC on your secondary computer asking questions because nothing will work out for you. After I got it setup the way I wanted to, I always wanted more and more things. Well, unless you have the patience of being in their IRC chatroom for a year before you can install your own stuff without problems, leave Linux alone

Moral of long/lame story: If Linux didn't work for you the first couple of times, it never will.
 
Tylerdurdened said:
Moral of long/lame story: If Linux didn't work for you the first couple of times, it never will.
Click to expand...

That's a ridiculous argument - I've been using Windows since 3.1; it didn't do what I wanted the first few times I tried it. Should I have given up on Windows entirely? No, because it became a lot more usable and useful in later iterations.

Same for Linux. I've been "trying" Linux on and off since Red Hat 4, and not once did it give me what I wanted....until the current generation, when enough usability enhancements had been made to make it a relatively transparent OS for the reasonably-adept user.


Moral of story: If Linux didn't work for you the first couple of times, either look for a distro more suited to your requirements or wait until the next generation (probably around another 6 months).
 
:LJ: said:
That's a ridiculous argument - I've been using Windows since 3.1; it didn't do what I wanted the first few times I tried it. Should I have given up on Windows entirely? No, because it became a lot more usable and useful in later iterations.

Same for Linux. I've been "trying" Linux on and off since Red Hat 4, and not once did it give me what I wanted....until the current generation, when enough usability enhancements had been made to make it a relatively transparent OS for the reasonably-adept user.


Moral of story: If Linux didn't work for you the first couple of times, either look for a distro more suited to your requirements or wait until the next generation (probably around another 6 months).
Click to expand...

Thing is, Win 95 came out just a few years after DOS (no clue actually how many, but can't be more than 5), yet Linux is even older than Win (pretty sure), yet it's so user unfriendly... Windows make everything simple, and "just works". Linux=customization, but tons of errors, problems, and fraustrations along the way, unless, again, you spend at least a year asking questions in an IRC chat and try to remember things impossible to remember unless you did the same things at least 5 times till you get the hang of it (such as knowing which packages to add, remove, all that nonsense)
 
Tylerdurdened said:
Thing is, Win 95 came out just a few years after DOS (no clue actually how many, but can't be more than 5), yet Linux is even older than Win (pretty sure)

<snipped nonsensical garbage>
Click to expand...

MS-DOS released in 1981, Linux in 1991 or 92.

Does it necessarily have to act as one continuous desktop, or can my LCD be a static desktop while running Compiz Fusion?
Click to expand...

If you want a 3D accelerated desktop with your 7600, you will need to use nVidia's TwinView. I don't think there is any way around this requirement.
 
Thing is, Win 95 came out just a few years after DOS (no clue actually how many, but can't be more than 5), yet Linux is even older than Win (pretty sure), yet it's so user unfriendly...
Click to expand...

Dude...no. Time for a history lesson. MS-DOS was released in 1981. Windows 1.0 was released in 1985, 2.0 in 1987, 3.0 in 1990 and 3.1 in 1992. I'm sure you can guess that Win95 was released in....1995.

By comparison, the Linux kernel was released in 1991, and the KDE and GNOME projects didn't really get going until 1996/1997 respectively. So, on that scale, it's been going 10 years....so it should be roughly up to 1991-standard in the Microsoft timeline, right? Funny that it's way beyond Windows 95, 98 and NT.

All this information was available from 3 searches on Wikipedia. Don't go spouting bullshit just to make your point, eh?

My point was that the latest crop of Linux distros is far, far friendlier. The fact that you couldn't get Gentoo working in less than a week doesn't mean that other people can't get, say, Ubuntu working almost immediately. Several of my non-geek friends have tried to reinstall Windows XP (and one of them Vista), and it's all gone horribly wrong for them, because they didn't know what drivers or software to install to solve various performance and functionality problems. I pointed them in the direction of the Ubuntu family, and they're happier than they've ever been - they all say that the experience was so much less painful than installing Windows, because they had to worry about far less stuff.

(such as knowing which packages to add, remove, all that nonsense)
Click to expand...

Like I said....you mean that in Windows, you don't have to know which drivers to install? In which order, in case there are conflicts? And which software you need to protect you from viruses? And which other software you need to protect yourself from spyware? What about a software firewall - which one's the best to use? At least most variants of Linux come configured as usable from first boot.
 
Not enough people use Gentoo, but I guess the 30 hours to compile your kernel from source is a bit long to see if you screwed up as a nub. I'd recommend openSuse but after Novell's deal, I might just say go with ubuntu. Unless you actually want to learn something, then try Gentoo. The guy above said he spent most of his time in IRC, but hey theres no way he didn't learn something about the OS. Which is why most people use it...
 
I always like learning new things, yet I want this to work without too much fuss. I bet I could figure out how to install stuff pretty easily. I have a few sources at hand. I may ditch my dual monitor setup. It is really odd, and my CRT doesn't work on the liveCD version of Edgy Eft for some weird reason. Some setting is too high for it to run, idk. The LCD is ok, and I will use it as my main. It's just got a red stuck pixel that is my only con. It probably has a slow response time as it is an older cheap one. Maybe put this huge CRT on the side for now for use of Windows and xfire/vent/TS during games and such.

I am also thinking of getting a new hard drive. Right now, I have an IDE 160 Samsung drive converted to fit SATA right now. I don't really quite trust this as I am not getting the available speed with the SATA as I would with a genuine SATA drive. I am thinking 200 to 500GB depending on my budget when I lurk around Best Buy. I don't feel like shopping online right now. I will partition it with at least 80GB for XP, maybe 80GB for Ubuntu, maybe 1GB for Swap, and the rest is just for media and crap so I can look at it between the two OS's. I am trying to leave room for programs and such. Games can be pretty bulky you know.

I'll try out Compiz Fusion. I could find good instructions somewhere. I know the Ubuntu forums have great support for this sort of thing. One reason to stick with Ubuntu for now. I am sure I will like it.

Using Linux for me will probably be an experiment. If I can get it to work for me, that's great. I will use it as my main. I should try to get my games to work on it also. But being quite the hardcore COD2 multiplayer gamer, this will be interesting. Maybe sometime there will be enough support for Linux so no one will have to worry about Wine or taking drastic steps to get a game to work on their machine... in a perfect world.
 
Gentoo fan here. Easy way to force you to learn linux. Now that I've done it a few times, (with a little help from gentoo.org docs and gentoo wiki) a fresh install from the cli only takes an hour or so to a basic system. As for 30 hour compile times on the kernel?? Never here, takes me 15 minutes using genkernel.

All that said, I had many frustrations learning it, but it was well worth it. The gentoo community and documentation makes it worth it alone. But as always, your milage may vary.

And yes, waiting on compiles will take a while in the beginning. Usually about a day for me, and I use it strictly as a server, no X.

Oh, and don't even bother with the installers on the live cd...do it the chroot way.
 
I started with Gentoo (I disregard my time spent with Mandrake and Red Hat). It's a great newbie distro if the newbie wants to learn how the system works. If the newbie is looking for a quick install to a GUI, then perhaps it's not so good. Having the freedom of choice is great, isn't it?
 
Vetsin said:
Not enough people use Gentoo, but I guess the 30 hours to compile your kernel from source is a bit long to see if you screwed up as a nub. I'd recommend openSuse but after Novell's deal, I might just say go with ubuntu. Unless you actually want to learn something, then try Gentoo. The guy above said he spent most of his time in IRC, but hey theres no way he didn't learn something about the OS. Which is why most people use it...
Click to expand...

30h to compile yr kernel from source! WTF are you one!
don't spread FUD!
you can compile a kernel on any distro (use to alway do it on mandrake back in the day)
and it takes... 3min on my present system (nice streamlined kernel)

Had you said building the entire system... sure you may have a point BUT YOU DIDNT!!!!



yes gentoo takes a bit to get the initial system to a usable point, but after that it really doesn't take much to keep it maintained. I have less issues with my gentoo system then I do my Fedora Virtual-Image (or the 3 fedora systems at work).
 
Try Ubuntu first. It is undeniably the most user friendly. Once you get used to linux in general take a look at moving to something else that will give you more hands on. Here is a list from easy to hard imho...everyone feel free to comment...

(hardest) Slackware->Gento->Mandrake->Debian->Ubuntu

This is just in terms of what the distro will do for you. Gentoo can be easy, but most people that go that route want to compile everything from source (for their install), which can be intimidating for a first timer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top