What flavor of Linux do you use?

[freebird73717]

I've added package managers and many other apps to Freespire 2, and plan to upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10 (if it is worth it) without re-installing. I may not get far but to me it makes more sense to take this approach than re-starting. It seems like so many of these Ubuntu distros are for the most part the same. Am I wrong here?

Check out disturbed1's responses to this thread for some good info on various distro testing. He is pretty much our resident goto linux guy here so you can give his statements good credit.

[disturbed1]

I've added package managers and many other apps to Freespire 2, and plan to upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10 (if it is worth it) without re-installing. I may not get far but to me it makes more sense to take this approach than re-starting. It seems like so many of these Ubuntu distros are for the most part the same. Am I wrong here?

Check out disturbed1's responses to this thread for some good info on various distro testing. He is pretty much our resident goto linux guy here so you can give his statements good credit.

Thanks for the kind words. I don't think I'm any more of a guru than the next guy . Most of what I've learned is from other people.

Most of the *.buntu's are pretty much the same. Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu, Fluxbuntu are all exactly the same, just one uses KDE, XFCE, GNOME, Fluxbox. You can install Ubuntu then add KDE to it, or any mix and match. They all share the same Ubuntu software sources. Distro's like Mint and Freespire take Ubuntu's base system, and add their own spins to some software, like Mint's menu and MintInstall.

I've wondered the same thing about so many different distros. What eases my mind is to think about Linux Distros like Music. Linux is an expression of creativity much in the way of music. Great bands of today take inspiration from yesterdays artist. Linux shares, or at least has the option to share, all of it's code base with everyone. Some people like pure Debian, while others like the extra spin that Mepis puts on it. Underneath, they are exactly the same. But do we really need 300+ distros? Wouldn't it be better to join forces and make something great? Maybe, maybe not. It seems to work pretty well the way it is now. Keep in mind, some ditros are more or less time wasters or hobbies for some people, while other are a way to pay the bills. It doesn't mean one is better than the other.

Ubuntu also gets it's roots from Debian, but adds quite a few spins on it. So much so, that it is becoming it's own Distro, rather than a based on Debian distro. Much in the way Madrake (Mandriva) evolved from Redhat, and Suse from Slackware.

I like and use Ubuntu because it works for me, so of course I'd say give it a shot. But don't stop there. There are far too many other distros out there to limit it to a select few. I'd start with some of the "big" name distros, Suse, Fedora, Ubuntu, Mandriva, to get a feel of how things work. Don't forget the smaller Slackware distros like Zenwalk, and even Slax. Most distros are based off of, or operate similarly to one of those. Steer clear of the "advanced" distros, unless your not afraid to RTFM, and except a challenge (for the new(ish) to linux). Slackware, Gentoo, Arch, and of course LFS are great teaching distros. Slackware and maybe Arch are notably easier than LFS or Gentoo. Spend some time at www.distorwatch.com.




Community is very important for when, not if , you run into problems. Be sure to stroll through distro's forums to check the friendliness, and amount of activity. There are also generic forums like Linuxforums.com. And just because you use distro X doesn't when you won't receive help from a distro Y forum. Gentoo's forums are most likely the most helpfull for advanced, tough and niche questions, Ubuntut's are most likely the best for new people, and average stuff. They'll attempt to help you no matter what distro you're using. Plus there's always IRC.

Linux is all about choice, which can be a bad thing when there isn't one set clear winner, instead we have many, many great choices.

If you're having issues with FFMPEG, post a new thread, GMaq could most likely answer it.

As for Dr. Divx, if you're just looking to load up a video file and output a Xvid, look at Avidemux as well. www.getdeb.net - works with Ubuntu and it's clones (Freespire, LinuxMint......)

[FulciLives]

The thing I like about Linux Mint 4.0 is that it takes Ubuntu 7.10 and adds some stuff to it to make it even better and easier to use.

For instance with Linux Mint 4.0 they have tweaked things like installing a nvidia or ATI driver. They have also tweaked the fonts (most Linux distros have horrible fonts by default) and you also get all your multimedia codecs pre-installed etc.

Also don't forget that most distros have a LiveCD version that allows you to test the distro without installing it. This is a great way to try out different distros. Granted a LiveCD is much slower than a true install and you are limited to what you can do (to an extent) but it allows you to very quickly try out a bunch of different distros.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[mats.hogberg]

don't forget that most distros have a LiveCD version that allows you to test the distro without installing it.

If you want the full experience, try VirtualPC (for Windows) or VirtualBox (if you're already on Linux). Both works extremely well, and are free.

/Mats

[FulciLives]

I've used VirtualBox under Linux Mint 4.0 so that I could run Windows XP Pro and I also used it once to test an install of PC-BSD which I thought was kinda neato but limited in the package listing dept.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[GMaq]

Great info guys!

Sorry to post again but this week I picked up a cheap AMD 5400+ 64x2 Mobo bundle (My first AMD!). Although on my older Linux test "Frankenbox" I was quite happy with AntiX I thought I'd see what this 64 bit stuff was all about.

I installed Ubuntu 7.10 AMD64, of course there are many distros offering 64 bit, but Ubuntu (and derivatives) seem to have it fully realized and ready to go.

With 2 gig of RAM I can effortlessly run Ubuntu with Compiz and XP in Virtualbox with 512Mb of RAM. I really applaud Ubuntu for having the whole package together. I agree with John that Mint is tops too, but I'm really digging how well the 64 bit architecture is supported. I cheaped out and bought last years technology but I can only guess how fast Gnome and the smaller desktops will run on Quad Core machines with 2Gig+ of RAM.

[oldcpu]

I left Win95 for Red Hat Linux in 1998. I used Red Hat from 1998 to 2001. Then I switched to SUSE-7.3 in 2001 and have been with SUSE since. Currently using openSUSE-10.3.

[16mmJunkie]

I'm a "New" convert to Linux. I'm using Ubuntu at this stage and loving it. I have a hobby of film collecting and I find it fits perfect for me. I can surf forums, websites I like and work on my film projects. Still getting wet with this OS, but I'm here to stay. Just got plain tired of driving the "Gatesmobile"....it was always getting repaired !

[Nitemare]

Lately I've been hearing a LOT about Ubuntu and I decided to try it. Doesn't work so good on Virtual PC.. gets to loading the GUI on the LiveCD and shows me nothing. (It's a virtual PC issue) Now, (a week ago) my kid decided to use his PS3 for his internet full time so he gave me back his computer. I tried Ubuntu on it... it gets to the GUI and dies. This annoys me because I used to do command line linux but it was so many years ago that I forget EVERYTHING. So I tried Kubuntu... hits the GUI and dies. I heard good things about OpenSuse and wanted to download the LiveCD ISO. Every mirror I tried took FOREVER so I abandoned it. I had good results with Mandrake once upon a time so I decided to try Mandriva (formerly mandrake) ... it hits the GUI and dies.

Not a quitter, I had good results with RedHat back in the day but it annoys me to pay for linux. Then I heard about Fedora so I downloaded version 8. It's installed and running flawlessly. I was amazed/pleased/annoyed that everything was autodetected and working from the install. I used to spend hours configuring, testing, optimizing, and praying that my network crap would all work. Now I install it and BOOM! I'm on the internet and I can even see my windows network. Cha-ching!

Now is the time for Linux. I agree with others that the appearance of Vista has changed everything. Microsoft released it. It had the unnerving effect of boosting Windows XP sales. People hated Vista. Shortly afterwards, Microsoft announced that they will stop supporting XP soon, essentially telling their customers to get with the Vista program or else. This leaves us windows users with only a few choices.

1) Comply with Microsoft's Vista push
2) Stick with XP and have no support
3) Try something else.

Linux and Mac are poised to kick the sh!t out of Microsoft right now. If they play everything right, all they need to do is give MS enough rope and they'll hang themselves with it.

Seriously. Most people use their PC for internet and that's it. They could easily use Linux for that. Apparently the old days of configuring your connection for hours are over. Like others, I think I'm going to linux for good this time. For years it was "Close, but no cigar!" with linux. Now it's pretty much there. All it needs is serious vendor support, which they'll get if they suddenly rule the market.

[edit] I am downloading MINT now using the link that fulcilives provided... no reason to get complacent. That's one of the cool things about Linux... you can try them all!

[ronnylov]

I just installed ubuntu 64-bit on my new intel quad core xeon X3350 machine and it feels very fast and solid. Still dual booting with XP and also Vista x64. Video apps still seems to be mainly for windows, like I am an avisynth user so I will miss that in Linux (if I can't make it work there).

Many years ago I tried mandrake but did not understand a thing what to do. A few years later (like in 2003) I tried Red Hat and used it a little bit but did still not understand how to install software and the support suddenly just stopped from redhat so I stopped using that too. But now with ubuntu they promise free support and everything feels good so I may continue use it.

By the way do you have a link to the mentioned 12 page Linux thread?
I think I have missed that...

[freebird73717]

like I am an avisynth user so I will miss that in Linux (if I can't make it work there).

You will be pleased to know that avisynth works perfectly well in with wine. There is also a native linux avisynth 3 in the works but so far not the most stable. Avisynth 2.56 works just as well for me in linux as it did in windows!

By the way do you have a link to the mentioned 12 page Linux thread?
I think I have missed that...

Here ya go!
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic322913.html?highlight=thinking%20installing%20linux

[Nitemare]

Hey, FulciLives (and the rest of the gang),

Mint kicks butt. I am totally crushing on it. I now have a dual-boot Mint/XP machine and a fedora8 machine on my network. Thanks for the tip on Mint.

I'll try other distros from time to time, but I think I may officially be a Mint user now. Most of the software I needed was right there from the install. I had to donwload very little to be fully functional.

Now if only linux had something as robust as DVDFabHDdecrypter...

[freebird73717]

Now if only linux had something as robust as DVDFabHDdecrypter...

That also works well with wine!

[FulciLives]

DVDFabHDdecrypter works in Linux Mint thanks to WINE. So does AviSynth. So does HCenc. I've also used FitCD and DGIndex. I can't get CCE SP to work but seriously HCenc is really just as good most of the times ... only annoying thing is a lack of a true CBR video encode mode. Sure I mostly do multi-pass VBR but there are times I do and want CBR. Another "essential" for me that I can't get to work is TMPGEnc DVD Author although I've been told that DVD-Lab works. I haven't tried VideoReDo nor MPEG-VCR but would be nice if they work.

I suppose the "easy" way to get around this is to run WinXP in a virtual window. VirtualBox works pretty good with Linux Mint as the host and WinXP as the guest except I can get my CD/DVD ROM to work but can't get my DVD Burner to work. Also I can't seem to get any USB stuff working (although supposedly it is possible). Basically I do my authoring in WinXP and create an ISO file then copy it over to Linux (using a "shared folder") to do the burning. As for burning in Linux I use ImgBurn which works fine thanks to WINE.

In fact I got a PAL 2 NTSC project I need to do now ...

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[mats.hogberg]

I can't seem to get any USB stuff working (although supposedly it is possible).

IIRC, VirtualBox OSE (The version available at least thru the official Ubuntu repos) does not support USB. The non free (but still free as in beer) has USB support. https://cds.sun.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/CDS-CDS_SMI-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewPro...-F@CDS-CDS_SMI

/Mats

[Nitemare]

Everything I seem to run in WINE is either extremely slow or it crashes. I'm assuming it's a configuration thing, but I don't know.

[freebird73717]

You might try running your wine programs from terminal. That way you can see any error messagaes if any that might pop up.

Like this in terminal

wine "/path/to/your/wine/program/program.exe"

[buzzqw]

for me Sidux, a great Debian Sid based distro

BHH

[Number Six]

I got adventurous yesterday and installed Ubuntu 8.04 on a spare computer. It went very smoothly and everything works properly. I used a 13GB hard drive formatted with NTFS, but since I told Ubuntu that it can use the whole drive without sharing, it reformatted the drive to it's own file system - I'm assuming some sort of UNIX file system. The drive properties shows the physical 12GB size, but the disk usage analysis shows 24GB available - so I am assuming that it is using compression.

The system has a Celeron 3.06ghz CPU, 256MB DDR Memory, CDRW Drive, DVD ROM Drive, and the 13GB Hard Drive. It is not connected to the Internet - but it can be if necessary.

The GUI looks good, and it has some very nice programs installed. Now I'm not trying to be cute - but I live in a WINDOWS world - so for all practical purposes, what can I do with Ubuntu? Is it better than Windows for certain applications? Are documents and files that I might create under Linux compatible with programs under Windows?

Thanks for any help that you can provide!

[freebird73717]

I live in a WINDOWS world - so for all practical purposes, what can I do with Ubuntu?

For an average user...yes you can do most stuff the same as in windows.

Is it better than Windows for certain applications?

Can't really say it's better or worse for certain applications than windows so no... it's just different ... but it is more secure due to the fact that most virus are targeted towards windows. That doesn't mean there aren't any linux virus out there...but the percentages are much lower.

Are documents and files that I might create under Linux compatible with programs under Windows?

Yes there are programs that exist for both linux and windows (like open office = linux version of microsoft office) that can produce files that can be read by either platform. If you have some windows software that you can't live without or are more used to running it is very possible that you can run it with the help of wine.

Please understand that linux is not windows. It will be different look and feel. But if you give it some time you might just come to like it. If you have any questions regarding linux you can post them here or at www.ubuntuforums.org

[Number Six]

Thanks for the response Freebird. I have been playing around with the Ubuntu system - it is quite different! I also found a very good guide on the internet that really explains Linux and Unix. I have to move this computer so that I can connect to the internet and install Wine - I tried downloading it, but I guess that it is not possible to get without a live install. It is not convenient for me to leave this computer near my internet connection, so I think that I will have a better experience getting to know Linux if I can have it installed on a laptop so that it is readily available to connect to the internet. I have an old Pentium 3 650mhz laptop currently with 96MB SDRAM - upgradeable to a total of 196MB - and a spare 6GB Hard Drive that I would like to use for this purpose. Can you suggest a flavor of Linux that will work on this computer?

[freebird73717]

While I'm sure that others will chime in on various other distros I think that xubuntu would work well for that hardware.

here are the system requirements

Minimum system requirements

To run the Desktop CD (LiveCD + Install CD), you need 128 MB RAM to run or 192 MB RAM to install. The Alternate Install CD only requires you to have 64 MB RAM.

To install Xubuntu, you need 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk.

Once installed, Xubuntu can run with 192 MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to have at least 256 MB RAM.

So with your current setup you will need to do a text based install with the alternate cd (unless you do upgrade your ram).

There are good guides for installing out there. Just google for them.

Have fun with linux!

[tekkieman]

I have an old Pentium 3 650mhz laptop currently with 96MB SDRAM - upgradeable to a total of 196MB - and a spare 6GB Hard Drive that I would like to use for this purpose. Can you suggest a flavor of Linux that will work on this computer?

Since I just read an article on the "Top 5 Tiny Distros", I figured I'd post a link for you.

You might also take a look at antiX, although it seems you may need an older version of it for those specs.

[Number Six]

Well - I think that my main Windows laptop just got very angry with me for playing with Linux!! It is a Toshiba, and it already had 1 broken screen hinge - but the screen stayed in place. Just as I was downloading more Linux software, the other hinge obliterated itself !! BTW - Toshiba laptops are notorious for having bad hinges.

Freebird - I downloaded Xubuntu. I think that it will be perfect for my laptop - I will order another memory chip to bring the total up to 192MB, but It can't go to 256MB. When another salvageable laptop with better specs falls into my possession - I will use it instead. I'm assuming that a hard drive with Linux on it will reconfigure itself if it is moved into a different computer - can you confirm this?

Tekkieman - thanks for the link to the Tiny Distros. Puppy looked very cool - so I downloaded it as well.

[freebird73717]

I'm assuming that a hard drive with Linux on it will reconfigure itself if it is moved into a different computer - can you confirm this?

To be honest I'm not sure. I would assume yes. But I haven't tried it before. Perhaps Tekkieman could answer that as I know he has been using linux longer than me.

[tekkieman]

Well - I think that my main Windows laptop just got very angry with me for playing with Linux!!

Yes, many computer manufacturers have specifically designed their systems to fail when non-Windows operating systems are installed on them. This includes BIOS vendors locking systems to Windows only, laptop hard drives that melt, and fans that fail to start until after the CPU explodes. Installing linux also voids most warranties. :P (links provided on request).

I'm assuming that a hard drive with Linux on it will reconfigure itself if it is moved into a different computer - can you confirm this?

Perhaps Tekkieman could answer that as I know he has been using linux longer than me.

Sorry, I can't. I have certainly heard of it being done, but I have never done it myself. There are only a couple of things that could really go wrong, and those are the video configuration, and the GRUB entries. Usually, these can be fixed pretty easily by rebooting with the LiveCD. Most current distros have reconfigure options in the menus of the LiveCD that will reconfigure the video or repair GRUB entries.

[Number Six]

Tekkieman - I wasn't loading Linux on the Toshiba, just downloading the files . It was just funny that the hinge destroyed itself at that moment. I removed the screen assembly and hooked up an external monitor. I'll get new hinges on eBay.

At this point I do not want to mix operating systems - I am installing Linux on independent hard drives or laptops.

I just burned Xubuntu and Puppy to CD's and will install them over the weekend. I will also try moving a Linux hard drive to another computer and let you guys know what it did.

Thanks for the help Freebird and Tekkieman.

[FulciLives]

TEENpup is a version of Puppy that has pretty much all the multimedia codecs and software you could ever want pre-installed. Give it a try.

You can find it at http://www.distrowatch.com/

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Nitemare]

Yes, many computer manufacturers have specifically designed their systems to fail when non-Windows operating systems are installed on them. This includes BIOS vendors locking systems to Windows only, laptop hard drives that melt, and fans that fail to start until after the CPU explodes. Installing linux also voids most warranties. (links provided on request).

I would love to see those links... maybe in a new topic?

[GMaq]

OK,

Nitemare and Fulci, I think your avatars are scaring potential converts away! :P