Which Linux to start with?

hj2k_x said:
Yellow/red/orange abomination still present as the default for Ubuntu 7.10.
Can't say anything about the others as I am yet to try them...
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Mmm, interesting that they would keep that. It's definitely not the first thing I'd want to see after installing an OS! :sick:

Oh well, guess it's like the default Windows XP sounds, you can simply change it if you don't like it. :p
 
Try it in the late dark hours, those servers get pounded I reckon, and and they're always culling distros because of lack of disk space, and they don't keep extremely up-to-date with releases. That being said, they rock..
 
Beta said:
Try it in the late dark hours, those servers get pounded I reckon, and and they're always culling distros because of lack of disk space, and they don't keep extremely up-to-date with releases. That being said, they rock..
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I se. Ok.Just wanted to use the rest of my cap on it but I can just as easily grab it tomorrow or something...It's really crawling along.
 
TiredOfWaiting said:
Have they changed the default colour scheme since that ugly yellow/red/orange abomination yet?
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One of the reasons why I switched to Kubuntu. Looking at that brown thing for hours is just nasty. Other things too, but I don't see how anybody can like that nasty brown.
 
PClinuxOS

Personally i would go with PcLinuxOS - checkout www.distrowatch.com
its taking over from Ubuntu.

Depends though if You want to learn commandline i would go Gentoo :p
thats if you are a real diehard !!!!
 
okay... Didnt want to open a new thread, i'll just type my problems in this one : )

w1z4rd - I've installed Kubuntu 7.10

Again, Back at the Monitor issue. I went to the monitor's settings tab, configured the monitors. coulnt get a resolution bigger than 1024x768 which is strange because i can run 1920x1440 on Vista. Anyway, after i set them up, to log out and reset something called X server (not in kde now, back in Vista so can't remember exactly). After i did this it went to some plain dos text... and froze there. tried several things waited a little nothing... SO i pressed CTRL alt DEL. system responded, kubuntu flash screen popped up, shuts down. After i rebooted the system went back to a command line and from there nothing. cannot get back into the system.

So here again - a simple thing about setting up monitors you have to shut down to get the thing to configure and then kubuntu breaks - bad first, second and now third impression...

Tell me what i'm doing wrong! ;)
 
sounds to me like you are running the open source drivers and not the nvidia ones. seeing as i haven't used ()ubuntu in a long time I cannot help you out in a precise way. But if memory serves me right, it involves opening synaptic and searching for restricted drivers.

In any event, if you search nvidia in www.ubuntuforums.org, you are bound to find the answer.

Also if you go to the nvidia site and download and run the nvidia linux installer for your particular card you should be set. Again I would suggest you visit ubuntuforums in case there are any specific things you need to do.
 
Just to add my general thoughts. I have now come to the viewpoint I do not like any of the ()ubuntu distros. One of the main reasons being the sudo issue. Infact I will not use any distro that believes in this. And given the general problems I had over 3 versions in trying to have a separate root user, I have written off ()ubuntu in the meanwhile.

I also have SuSE issues. Which is sad given that is where all the way back on 8.2 LiveCD (or maybe 9) I cut my teeth with linux. I now run debian, sidux and fedora. I think these are not recommended for those who want an easy intro to linux. Though I found the respective forums very helpful.
 
to be quite honest - i HATE linux. I'm a Windows user. I'm merely installing and trying to get it to work to prove a point that linux really is user unfriendly!

I am completely locked out of Kubuntu at this point I would have to re-install!. I Realise that i need drivers for my videocard - fair enough. So once again i'll have to re-install kubuntu, waste more time to find the answer on ubuntuforums & get the drivers that wouldnt install from the ATI website.

With Vista, i don't have to download anything! EVERYTHING works. Monitors, Bluetooth, Printers, Sound card - EVERYTHING works without much effort - but still kubuntu can't get it right.

Thank you for the help tho. : )
 
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Hate to say it but from what I have seen ATI cards seem to be difficult with Linux due to ATI (iirc) not providing a linux driver. Or some such.

tbf with that type of attitude you should leave linux alone as you will find it not user friendly. mainly because you seem to have a strong preconceived idea against it. i install all sorts of linux distros and they always pick up my hardware without issue. i'm sure you could find many a forum littered with people complaining about how vista is not picking up their hardware.
 
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It was once an issue, but this is not the case anymore. From my experience with a few laptops that have Radeon Mobility cards, if you upgrade the kernel then you're much more likely to have to upgrade the Radeon driver as well. With nVidia you simply run the installer with "-K" to recompile the kernel module, and your chances are better that it'll compile fine. What I like about the ATI drivers, is that the installer also has an option to generate two packages, one with the fglrx kernel module and one with the userspace stuff for X (fglgears etc.). But all that is really only relevant to people like me who install stuff manually.

@LabAnimal: I'd have to say that in your case Ubuntu was not broken out of the box. It broke when you changed the resolution, and there is readily available info out there for installing Ubuntu with the proprietry ATI driver. Tell me that Windows users never have issues with drivers for their display cards?
You're not really "locked out" in any case. You just don't have a familiar "Windows" way of fixing the problem. I could argue that graphics driver issues are more of a problem in Windows because if the graphical shell doesn't come up, you have to reboot in "safe mode" and pray. I just edit my xorg.conf and add a custom mode line or remove an unsafe resolution with tools provided by the OS and restart X.

In any case, the documentation is out there:
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Gutsy_Installation_Guide

I see there are some notes regarding the activation (or not) of the proprietary drivers:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AcceleratedX
Official ATI representatives state the ATI proprietary doesn't support Composite, and thus this driver will only be enabled by default for users whose video boards are not supported by the open source 'ati' video driver. For these users, 3D acceleration will be supported, but Composite will be explicitly disabled in the X.Org configuration file
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http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/710

Other known bugs
Blank screen with some ATI hardware

People with ATI display adapters may get a blank screen when loading X due to the driver being unable to initialize certain hardware. Upstream is working on it, and hopefully we'll be able to release an update for 7.10 soon after the release. In the meantime, add 'Option "LVDSBiosNativeMode" "false"' to the driver section of xorg.conf. Bug #132716
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P.S. I'm not an Ubuntu user, and it took me <5 minutes of googling to find those. It took me much longer to find the correct driver for an onboard ATI Radeon X1150 Windows driver.
 
I have used Linux for a few years now, mainly as a toy. I got bored with Windows and was looking for something different. Currently using Ubuntu for all my emailing and browsing. There are still some things that Windows does well that Linux cannot do, mainly driving the latest gadgets like GPS units, cellphones, etc. MP3 players are being supported out of the box more and more.

Linux is totally imune to Windows viruses, unless of course you install 'wine' (personally never had much success with it tho).

If you are a person who doesn't enjoy experimenting with stuff or doesn't have the patience or interest to learn how to do something differently then Linux may not be the way to go.

PS. Linux and Nvidia work far better together than Linux and most other graphics cards, although ATI is improving.
 
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labanimal, backup your xorg.conf file before making video changes, so if it breaks, you can copy right back to the original settings. also, if it crashes, no need to reboot. go to terminal (push alt f3 or something when kde doesnt start)....

copy the xorg.conf file somewhere, fiddle, then : sudo etc/initd/kdm start (or something like that), no need to reboot to test, just restart kdm :P

If you wanna do something funky with your graphics, learn about xorg.conf :P
 
I've tried most Linux distributions and always seem to come back to Ubuntu, mainly, I suppose, because all my emailing over the past year or two is downloaded and archived via the 'Evolution' emailing client. Going to be really difficult to convert them all to some other format to make them readable. Ubuntu does most things pretty well.
 
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