Linux distro question

Hey all,

I want to install a distribution of Linux beside windows xp on an old machine (pentium 3, 128 mb) and I was going to go with mandrake. But now I see that it's called Mandriva and you have to pay to get both the basic and powerpack one.

Mandrake 10.1 is available for download but is that going to be outdated soon then? Is SUSE the way to go (pro edition)?

Just a question as to which distro (or any others which would be better) to choose...i don't have any loyalty really, i used mandrake before and I liked it, had all development tools (most anyway) and found it good to use....any thoughts, opinions...?

Thanks for any help regarding, I realise this topic might have been argued before but just a few quick pointers would be great.

declan_lgs

Go for Mandriva 10.1...
There is a new Mandriva Limited Edition 2005, which is under development and the IOS's are only available to Mandriva Club members. Soon (I think this is what happens:) it will become Mandriva 10.2 Community and the ISO's will be available to everyone. Then once it's stable enough it will become Mandrive 10.2 Official.

Theres nothing wrong with Mandriva 10.1, just upgrade all the packages after you install it.

ssh

Suse isn't very good. I tried it recently and really have issues with they way they lay things out. I know many admins and desktop users who say the same things. I've met 2 or 3 people over the years who actively use it, and their reason generally is that it's what they are used to.

I've been a Debian user for a long time, but recently have found both Ubuntu and Fedora offer a good balance between a working system and a bit of scope to learn a bit about how Linux works. Mandriva seems interesting (I confess I haven't tried it, but if it's like Mandrake, it should be good), though I think the huge popularity of Fedora probably gives you a good chance of getting something that works the way you want it to.

If you have more time to learn about things than you do to actually get stuff done, Gentoo is good. It's just time consuming waiting for software to compile.

Captain Trips

MoonHawk wrote:

Hey all,

I want to install a distribution of Linux beside windows xp on an old machine (pentium 3, 128 mb) and I was going to go with mandrake. But now I see that it's called Mandriva and you have to pay to get both the basic and powerpack one.

Mandrake 10.1 is available for download but is that going to be outdated soon then? Is SUSE the way to go (pro edition)?

Just a question as to which distro (or any others which would be better) to choose...i don't have any loyalty really, i used mandrake before and I liked it, had all development tools (most anyway) and found it good to use....any thoughts, opinions...?

Thanks for any help regarding, I realise this topic might have been argued before but just a few quick pointers would be great.

I;d recommend Slackware as it is less bastardised into distro specific paths. It's more "pure" (....waiting for a flamewar). The downside is very little in the way of niceities like Mandrake branded GUI controls, or mandrakeified config scripts.

So there's overall much less window dressing in Slackware, but it's much more open to whatever you want without pigeonholing you into distroland.

eggshapedfred

afaik, LinuxFormat are including Mandrake 10.2 on next month's cover discs (should be out around the start of may). also i think fedora core 4 is due out shortly after that. so if you want to hang on....

i'd recommend against Slackware. I installed it yesterday and while installation wasn't a real problem (you do know your way around fdisk, right?) the setup afterwards wasn't the best. e.g. i setup the keyboard to be uk both at the loading of the dvd and in the setup program. however when i launched any wm i got the us keyboard mapping, which meant hacking xorg.conf. I also found a problem with using the default alsa sound modules. had to unload them and then load the oss ones in order to get music to play. it took me a couple of hours to get the whole system working properly but i kinda knew where to look for problems.

i don't know your experience level but if you're noobish in anyway I'd recommend looking somewhere other than slackware. if you are a noob I'd go for fedora 3, ubuntu, or mandrake....

ps this wasn't meant as flaming slackware. these are just my experiences with the distro

Eoghan-psych

eggshapedfred wrote:

i don't know your experience level but if you're noobish in anyway I'd recommend looking somewhere other than slackware. if you are a noob I'd go for fedora 3, ubuntu, or mandrake....

ps this wasn't meant as flaming slackware. these are just my experiences with the distro

I'll vouch for that. I've been Windows free since Friday morning - I'm taking it one day at a time. I tried about 5 distros before Mandrake, and couldn't get any of them to work [guaranteed to be my fault - I'm sure the software is great]. Mandrake worked first time.

Now if only I could get it to recognise USB drives consistently....

nadir

gentoo is obviously my choice.

But if you want something quick, go for archlinux.

tomk

If you're considering Arch, read this first. I'm having a great time with Arch, the forum and wiki are good, but it's not recommended as a first-time distro.

Thanks all, for the replies, i might get that magazine with Mandrake on it, because my previous experience was positive, i'd like to try the updated version,
as I am pretty much a noob with respect to linux (hopefully after a few months of loading it on another machine, that'll change )

my only problem with the new Mandrake, is that Mandriva's site seem to only allow you to download after paying a fee (both versions, 3cd or 6cd/1 dvd)...i thought the point of linux was to avoid that type of thing.

ishnid

I'm a Gentoo user myself but wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. I quite like Ubuntu, which I also use. It's got all the pluses of Debian (particularly the *excellent* package management of apt-get) but is much easier to get hold of and install. Latest version is very recent.

tomk

MoonHawk wrote:

my only problem with the new Mandrake, is that Mandriva's site seem to only allow you to download after paying a fee

Mandrake/Mandriva have given a commitment that they will always provide a free version - you can get 10.1 off the HEANet mirror here.

MoonHawk wrote:

i thought the point of linux was to avoid that type of thing.

Well, there are lots of points to linux, as you put it - the relevant one here is that you can avoid that type of thing if you wish (see above), or you can pay someone for their particular Linux distro, with support, etc. The choice is yours, and that is one of the fundamental points of linux, and open-source software in general.

Gandalf23

MoonHawk wrote:

I am pretty much a noob with respect to linux (hopefully after a few months of loading it on another machine, that'll change )

I'm new to Linux too... a really good (and safe!!!) way to play with a Linux distro is to have a look at the Knoppix live CD. No real techie stuff required, and difficult to pooch your existing system. I have been using it for a while now, and it has given me the knowledge and confidence to consider a more "serious" Linux install later this Summer when I have more time on my hands.

My more "serious" Linux install was going to be SuSE btw...

scojones

Install Ubuntu, It's alot easier to install than gentoo and it also has the great package management system "apt-get". Debian based of course. Great for a new user - picked up all my hardware without any worries, download the live cd first if you like - just to know it will work with your system.

Captain Trips

Gandalf23 wrote:

I'm new to Linux too... a really good (and safe!!!) way to play with a Linux distro is to have a look at the Knoppix live CD. No real techie stuff required, and difficult to pooch your existing system. I have been using it for a while now, and it has given me the knowledge and confidence to consider a more "serious" Linux install later this Summer when I have more time on my hands.

My more "serious" Linux install was going to be SuSE btw...

Ah come on, do it like a man and bollocks up your whole system with fdisk! It's a right of passage!!

Fenster

Captain Trips wrote:

Ah come on, do it like a man and bollocks up your whole system with fdisk! It's a right of passage!!

fdisk?! *spits tabaccy* Why in my day, we had to use tiny magnets to format our drives, and by golly, we liked it!

nadir

Fenster wrote:

fdisk?! *spits tabaccy* Why in my day, we had to use tiny magnets to format our drives, and by golly, we liked it!

yeah they were called tape drives if I remember correctly XD

Stark

declan_lgs wrote:

Go for Mandriva 10.1...
There is a new Mandriva Limited Edition 2005, which is under development and the IOS's are only available to Mandriva Club members. Soon (I think this is what happens:) it will become Mandriva 10.2 Community and the ISO's will be available to everyone. Then once it's stable enough it will become Mandrive 10.2 Official.

Theres nothing wrong with Mandriva 10.1, just upgrade all the packages after you install it.

They've stopped with Community and Official. The current "LE 2005" is the last revision of that particular version. The one that will be released next month will be exactly the same, just publicly available in ISO form. There won't be a follow-up "official version".

Mandrake LE2005 is publicly available to everyone at the moment, just not in ISO form. If you've a LAN connection/generous broadband connection (without the seriously restrictive caps) then you can install it direct from the FTP servers. Or find a script to make your own ISOs from the files on the FTP site.

Stark

I used to love Mandrake but haven't liked it as much as of late. I've heard Mandriva 2005 is a lot more stable though.

Trying out Fedora Core 3 at the moment, it's finely polished but has quite a lot of annoyances like not supporting MP3s or NTFS out of the box and only offering you ext3 filesystem at install time (Mandrake offers you ext3, reiserfs, XFS and JFS at install time). The nice thing about Fedora is it's completely free, both CD and DVD ISOs available to everyone, and no having to wiait for public ISOs.

SuSE always bugged me a little but many people swear by it. SuSE 9.3 is supposed to be crippled in the multimedia department as well though. I'm not sure if they've released a fixed version. It's very difficult to get a free version of SuSE.

I've been hearing good things about Ubuntu, must give it a try some time.

I wouldn't recommend Slackware.

nadir

you should just save yourself the trouble and go for a real distro like arch or gentoo