which linux for me?

M

mnewxcv

[H]F Junkie
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Mar 4, 2007
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for a htpc just to play videos on the network?


system specs:

p4 socket 423 1.5ghz
256mb sdram
80gig hdd
yada yada yada
 
Any distro that don't have GNOME and KDE as a desktop manager should be fine with 256megs of ram. Enlightment, XFCE, Fluxbox, Blackbox, Openbox, ICEWM, Afterstep, FVWM95, WM2 and many more should run very comfortable with 256megs of ram. You got tons to choose from. Check out distrowatch.com.

good luck.
 
requiemnoise hit the nail on the head. If you have never used linux before then I recommend Xubuntu. If you have used linux or want a challenge then I recommend Archlinux with Fluxbox or XFCE. Another option is a headless server if it will be used only play videos over a network.
 
I just realized there is an easier way to your objective. If your goal is run xbmc (one of the best open source htpc player), try Xubuntu 8.04 (LTS), because xbmc is a repository away by copying and pasting a text file.
 
HTPC is a pretty app, but not quite ready for prime time. It's a little glitchy. When ever I try to use on screen remote to fast forward or pause, it locks up the entire system and I have to reboot. It might be my hardware config, but I doubt it. And it's media navigation leaves something to be desired,
 
Ramp8g said:
HTPC is a pretty app, but not quite ready for prime time. It's a little glitchy. When ever I try to use on screen remote to fast forward or pause, it locks up the entire system and I have to reboot. It might be my hardware config, but I doubt it. And it's media navigation leaves something to be desired,
Click to expand...

I think he meant Home Theater PC.
Basically movie and audio player front end that can use a PC remote. If you are talking XBMC. It has been around longer than Windows Media Center and has a bigger market share than WMC. XBMC is available for XBOX, Windows, Linux, OSX, and LivedCD/USB. It is pretty darn popular. Also, there are three other XBMC spinoffs. Boxee is one of them.
 
I meant XBMC sorry. Don't get me wrong. I really want to like this app. But every time I play a video it crashes one me. I dunno, maybe it has to do with pulse audio. Hopefully one day Linux will come up with an audio standard. I may try it on XP on Virtual Box to see if I have any better luck.
 
I agree. It is Pulse Audio. Pulse Audio is only ready if all your apps are Pulse Audio ready. Your best bet is switch back to Alsa. I even removed it off the drive. I'm not going to Pulse Audio until every Linux audio and video apps have Pulse Audio options. If you run Alsa and Pulse at the same time, the same problem will rise. It is never good to be bleeding edge in Linux unless you are a developer.
 
dont worry, if you are just watching videos (im assuming not HD videos, as that CPU wouldnt be enough anyway...), gnome or KDE would do you just fine on 256mb of ram.....

vanilla debian slightly stripped down post-install would be my suggestion
 
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