Linux distribution which one?

Ubuntu is most popular, because it has a nice package system and it's easy to install drivers and other things for.

They also have a great guide that walks you through pretty much anything you want to do.

Ubuntu just because its the easiest to use, has good hardware support and works fine for use as a basic desktop machine


driver, hardware and other configuration on Fedora tend to be more of a pain, really not worth it unless your actually need its fairly advanced server orientated features

Ubuntu, for the points mentioned above. And since it's the most popular, there's bound to be a package for almost any program that you wish to install.

Ubuntu isn't the easiest distribution around. If you're looking for easy, try the new PCLinuxOS 2007. And the prize for the largest amount of packages goes to Debian, not Ubuntu. Ubuntu's best feature is a large and newbie friendly community at the Ubuntu forums.

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Original post by Ravuya Ubuntu is most popular, because it has a nice package system and it's easy to install drivers and other things for. They also have a great guide that walks you through pretty much anything you want to do.

I don't really like Ubuntu. On my old computer I could never get the sound to work, and now on my laptop I can't get the ATI drivers to install.

Slackware, on the other hand, I've never had any problems with. Of course, I haven't tried it on a laptop yet.

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Original post by Sander Ubuntu isn't the easiest distribution around. If you're looking for easy, try the new PCLinuxOS 2007. And the prize for the largest amount of packages goes to Debian, not Ubuntu. Ubuntu's best feature is a large and newbie friendly community at the Ubuntu forums.

I thought Ubuntu was based on Debian. They aren't compatible? I managed to use some Ubuntu stuff on Debian once trying to set up my sister's laptop. I eventually had to give that one up though, due to too many hardware difficulties.

Anyway, Ubuntu (which I transformed into Kubuntu) had me ripping my hair out not to long ago. Sure, getting it to run on the basic settings is a snap. But, installing graphics drivers to get my GeForce 8800 GLS to work so I can use a resolution higher than 1024x768 was a pain.

Eventually I found a forum post that had all the steps I needed (it even explained how to stop the X server without being lost in a blank screen *gasp!!*).

To make a long story short, my journey involved experiences with Vi *shudder* (I know now that I should've used nano) and trying to navigate the safe mode terminal using "cd" and "find." I don't even want to think about the pains that the "./" notation gave me...

But, now it works great and I remember how I did it :) Plus it's faster than Vista Home Premium.

Also the KDE interface (Kubuntu) looks nicer than the GNOME one (Ubuntu) but the GNOME one is simpler. I currently have both on the same Ubunutu install.

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I thought Ubuntu was based on Debian. They aren't compatible?

Not anymore. In the past with Warty and Hoary you'd still be able to use Debian packages on Ubuntu but after that it has become more difficult because Ubuntu has been making more changes. Ubuntu itself only supports a few thousand packages: the "main" repository. They do take a sizable amount of other other Debian packages (the "universe" repository) but they are not supported by Ubuntu/Canonical but by the community. The universe is still smaller than Debian though and on Debian everything is supported.

Perhaps you should give Debian Etch a try. Debian has make a large jump forward with Etch, obviously profiting from Ubuntu's work. It's not as polished as Ubuntu but far, far better than the old Debian Sarge. IMHO it's also more stable than Ubuntu which has been having some problems since Edgy.

I use openSUSE after trying ubuntu and kubuntu. As it's more mature than ubuntu you find that you'll encounter fewer problems (well, I did at least). Your basic openSUSE installation comes with pretty much everything you'll need for basic usaage, and YAST can be used to install everything else.

I highly recommend it.

I had no problems getting things to work with Fedora Core 6 and yum.

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Original post by Sander Quote: I thought Ubuntu was based on Debian. They aren't compatible? Not anymore. In the past with Warty and Hoary you'd still be able to use Debian packages on Ubuntu but after that it has become more difficult because Ubuntu has been making more changes. Ubuntu itself only supports a few thousand packages: the "main" repository. They do take a sizable amount of other other Debian packages (the "universe" repository) but they are not supported by Ubuntu/Canonical but by the community. The universe is still smaller than Debian though and on Debian everything is supported. Perhaps you should give Debian Etch a try. Debian has make a large jump forward with Etch, obviously profiting from Ubuntu's work. It's not as polished as Ubuntu but far, far better than the old Debian Sarge. IMHO it's also more stable than Ubuntu which has been having some problems since Edgy.

Debian 4.0 (aka Etch) is what I tried on my sister's laptop. I got further (just a little) using Freespire, but that's only because it had NDISWrapper preinstalled. I still could not get the wireless driver to work but her machine had too many problems with Linux anyway.

As for my system, given the work I already put into getting my graphics card to work, I think I'll keep Kubuntu. Although I guess I can always add another partition. I mainly want Linux so I can learn it and get into cross platform development. I also have an interest in running a linux server, but that's a project for a later time.

I would also like to think that I have a viable Windows alternative if I find myself too fed up with Windows. Right now however, Vista is being a bit better to me than Kubuntu, I have no serious complaints with it yet although it isn't as fast.

What ever you get, I would recommend trying Beryl. Although setting it up on Kubuntu was a pain, it is definitely worth it. Now that I have it, I don't see myself using Vista so much anymore. Although I still cannot get Kubuntu to sleep and wake up as smoothly as Vista.

Anyway, Beryl provides 3D desktop enhancements (the multiple desktops on a spinning cube thing can actually improve productivity) that are way ahead of Vista Aero Glass. It doesn't slow my system down either.