new laptop linux

aidanki

hi all,

New laptop on the way and I want to do a dual boot on this machine.

I was thinking of putting on either Android, linux mint or Ubuntu, as they lighter on memory and all the rest.

Whats the best to go for ?

Rgds,
Aidan

Ill be using the laptop for the usual stuff, internet, email, MS Office and possibly a CAD package

Anyone experience using a CAD package in non Windows environment.

szatan84

I would suggest Linux as wine can run ms office, don't know about cad thou. I'm sure Google would tell u whatever it runs on wine/cedega.

Edit: I would also suggest xubuntu as xfce is lighter then other desktops.

Digital Solitude

Xfce is lovely, you can chop and chance Isos in about half an hour so I wouldn't fuss.

Decent i5 laptop with 4gb ram should cut you fine, 8gb if you'll be doing lots of CAD. Add an SSD to it.

JonHa

I'm running linux mint cinnamon, I've tried a good few other distros but I find the cinnamon desktop environment the best all round (clean interface, looks good, doesn't get in the way of work flow). Instead of dual booting you could run windows in virtual box to give you access to MS office and whatever CAD package your using at the moment, thats if your laptop is powerful enough. Its also really handy for trying different versions of linux.

Keplar240B

I dual booted the distro Linux mint 17.3 with windows 10 thread here with details
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=99021140

Linux mint is pretty good, user friendly no problems seen.

I dunno about CAD programs, there is a librecad program that comes free.

human 19

Linux Mint tends to be the best for a new user, even though its based on Ubuntu.
The installer gives, as one of the options, to install alongside windows, which is probably what you want while checking it out.
Ubuntu have just released a new long-term-support version which will be supported with updated for 5 years. It will be quite buggy at the start so I would install linux mint 17 for now to play around with , and wait for the next version of mint in a month or 2 after they make it stable based on this latest Ubuntu version.
There are various Ubuutu derivates which I will be looking at myself, when they release in the next few months, just for S&G.
If you like what you see you can move later to one of the various "rolling release" operating systems, a couple of which I use, which means it is constantly updated with the newest version so the linux base, and apps, rather than be sort of frozen for a few years like those OSs that only relese a new version every so often.

scamalert

Android as in chrome OS ? since dont think android is ported as stand alone OS.

Best way to do it,first install windows and then do linux thus wont mess up with your boot loader.also split partition before hand and leave enough for linux-mint currently is top distro that most use it, its light enough and user friendly.

bonzodog2

scamalert wrote: »

Android as in chrome OS ? since dont think android is ported as stand alone OS.

Best way to do it,first install windows and then do linux thus wont mess up with your boot loader.also split partition before hand and leave enough for linux-mint currently is top distro that most use it, its light enough and user friendly.

http://www.jide.com/remixos-for-pc
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/08/jide_remix_os_interview/

I haven't tried it yet.

scamalert

^^ dont keep up much with linux but android would be considered unix based since google own license to it,thus not much freedom as independent distro.

But since many dont need all access to source code and what not,it seems like good option,since given how lightweight on resources it is.

mezzanine08

Get Linux Mint with Xfce.

PrzemoF

aidanki wrote: »

[..]
Ill be using the laptop for the usual stuff, internet, email, MS Office and possibly a CAD package

Anyone experience using a CAD package in non Windows environment.

Check FreeCAD and LibreCAD