Linux users...

[the_lone_wolf]

I'm tempted to give some form of the above a spin on my laptop, but have a couple of questions

1. What version? So many to choose from it's unreal. Laptop is beefy enough to handle anything so system requirements not a problem.

2. General use is for video/web surfing, must easily network back to windows vista on my desktop, firefox must work 100% including extentions and thunderbird would be a plus

3. What about drivers? It's a Dell Inspiron 1545 so has integrated wifi, webcam etc etc, is it going to be a problem finding drivers for these things?

Answers on the back of a pocket protector please...

[TSM]

just get ubuntu will be easiest, has all the stuff that you will need, easiest install and package manager

i dont use gui on my linux boxes, they are all Centos (RHEL)

[skeetly]

ubuntu I've had a a go at.
Stilla ball ache for certain stuff so havent gone over yet.
Games are a pain.
MP3's for 'users with no clue' are another............

[the_lone_wolf]

ubuntu I've had a a go at.
Stilla ball ache for certain stuff so havent gone over yet.
Games are a pain.
MP3's for 'users with no clue' are another............

don't game at all on the laptop, desktop handles that

in what way are mp3s a pain?

[the_lone_wolf]

just get ubuntu will be easiest, has all the stuff that you will need, easiest install and package manager

:thumbsup:

[jamesterror]

I have Fedora 10 on my local server, tis alright.

[kwak zzr]

i got linux on a eee pc note book and a new epson printer which for the life of me i cant get to work with linux OS.

[SoulKiss]

you poor Dead Rat derivative users....

[startrek.steve]

Yup, Ubuntu is the easiest, just install all the restricted extras. Ive tried all the rest and still use Ubuntu on my main machines. Might have probs with wifi, I never have but other peeps do. Also personally I'd stick with the LTS version (8.04) Jaunty has a few issues (Ext4 file system reliability for one)

Steve

[startrek.steve]

don't game at all on the laptop, desktop handles that

in what way are mp3s a pain?
He means you have to install the (technically illegal) codecs to play them.
Steve

[Samurai Penguin]

I tried Ubuntu 7 on an Acer laptop. It installed okay, I was able to set up the machine to dual boot either Ubuntu or Windows, but I discovered Linux was not for me.

I want an OS that will just work, rather than one that requires a lot of ongoing tinkering for me to keep it going. I have not tried the latest Ubuntu release, so some if not all of the issues I had may now have been resolved.

Back with Apple again and have no problems at all :)

[timwilky]

I must be a masochist because I use fedora and RHEL.


My main problem with linux on laptops has been with things like PCMCIA network cards etc where the default install would try to start then network before PCMCIA support had been loaded.


Support for the built in laptop panels is now a lot better and you do not have to manually tweak X11 configs etc.

[ophic]

give Mandriva a go. Great for windows users, graphical tools for everything if you want them, but command-line utilities available too, and mostly RedHat compatible. Seems to be a lot overlooked these days but its a great distro - runs stable as either desktop or server.

[the_lone_wolf]

Well, I spent all day playing with Ubuntu, first impressions are distinctly... well... meh...

Internet browsing is just about tolerable, even if the mousepad is set so sensitive that false positive clicks are a constant occurance, and the better features like circular scrolling aren't within a day's googling to find. Unforgivable however, is the way it's stolen the backspace key's definition as "Back" in the browser. It does gain points for not being laden with IE though;)

Networking is a complete loss, I can make pretty much any windows PC do my bidding, even Macs I can usually muddle through, but linux seems to be like buying a bike and having the salesman wheeling it out from the back on a trailer and saying "now, if you just go a mile up the road that way you can look for some tyres in a field, and if you go a mile in the other direction the handlebars are hidden in a buried safe, the combination of which is the first eighteen prime number values of the fibonacci sequence..."

Oh, and there's a near imperceivable delay in clicking and the action taking place, just enough to cause my brain to register no click and hit it again, **** knows what's causing it??? I never got to try any media playback because all the media is on my desktop and try as i might, linux refused to talk to it like a small child sulking and ignoring the reassuring coos of his mother attempting to offer ice-cream, love and unrestricted file-sharing in way of reconciliation for some terrible past wrongdoing...

Anyway, I should say the interface is nice, ironic for an OS where to be a true fanboy you have to do everything through "the terminal" - a process akin to changing the spark plugs in your car using nothing but a pair of desert spoons... without lifting the bonnet... once you get the hang of it it's pretty intuitive, even if whoever put the "show desktop" button right where the start menu is in windows needs to be killed, shot, then killed again...

So, in short, I'm not seeing what linux is doing that windows doesn't???:confused: Except hack me off with little niggles tha is, as amazing as it sounds, the only thing Vista's done to make me shout at it is tell me I don't have permission to delete certain files, and there's always a way to tw*t it round the processor and make it work

i guess that should garner some ire from the linux user community:smt119 - but in my defence i haven't gone so far as to uninstall it... yet...;)

[Samurai Penguin]

The big selling points for Ubuntu are 1) It is free, and 2) The user gets full control over their machine.

For some people this outweighs the issues of finding and compiling drivers, spending a lot of time on Linux forums asking questions, and generally a lot of tinkering to get things working the way you want.

It didn't suit me. I 'get' why some people become big fans of various Linus distros, and if I had an older laptop that I just wanted for basic non-media stuff i'd put Ubuntu on it.

[lukemillar]

Just use OSX. It's linux without the hassle :p

[ophic]

Just use OSX. It's linux without the hassle :p
except for the hassle of buying and using a mac. Bleurgh :p

[ophic]

So, in short, I'm not seeing what linux is doing that windows doesn't???:confused:
for the desktop? not much, apart from being free, as already pointed out. Windows, for all its faults, is a pretty good desktop OS, and has the advantage of being familiar, and most things are written for it.

Unless you leave your desktop running for several months at a time and really really don't want to reboot it ever, i'd run windows. In fact I do. I can do everything under linux but things like games only run on windows.

[SoulKiss]

for the desktop? not much, apart from being free, as already pointed out. Windows, for all its faults, is a pretty good desktop OS, and has the advantage of being familiar, and most things are written for it.

Unless you leave your desktop running for several months at a time and really really don't want to reboot it ever, i'd run windows. In fact I do. I can do everything under linux but things like games only run on windows.

Actually, in some cases certain older Windows games only run on Linux these days either using Dos Emulators, or WINE, all thanks to MS changing stuff over the years.

[ophic]

Actually, in some cases certain older Windows games only run on Linux these days either using Dos Emulators, or WINE, all thanks to MS changing stuff over the years.
this is the trouble... you can't say anything about linux without a pedant coming along ;)