Thinkpads Forum

I am exploring different OS and trying to save some money and not go with Windows XP Home and Microsoft Office Suite Pro 2003

*Is it really that fast?

*How fast is boot up compare to XP?

*How long does installation take and how much compiling and re-programming does it take? 1 hr?, 1 day?, 1 week?


Any other comments concerning 600X and Yoper 2.1 is appreciated.

600X specs:

Pentium III 650MHZ, 576MB, 7200rpm hard drive, 4X DVDburner, Belkin Wireless 54GB PCMCIA card!

HarryWild wrote:I am exploring different OS and trying to save some money and not go with Windows XP Home and Microsoft Office Suite Pro 2003

*Is it really that fast?

*How fast is boot up compare to XP?

*How long does installation take and how much compiling and re-programming does it take? 1 hr?, 1 day?, 1 week?


Any other comments concerning 600X and Yoper 2.1 is appreciated.

600X specs:

Pentium III 650MHZ, 576MB, 7200rpm hard drive, 4X DVDburner, Belkin Wireless 54GB PCMCIA card!

Although I don't personally run Yoper, I'll try my best:

*What do you mean by "that fast". If you are talking about CPU usage, it should be better than XP. Otherwise, it depends on what software you run (Noone "runs" an OS, all you can do is sit and watch the desktop )

* Linux bootup is not faster than XP, however it has the advantage that after login you can immediately start working (since everything loads at boot time) while XP still loads stuff after it shows the desktop.

* I believe Yoper is a binary distribution, so compiling time would be approximately 0 mins. I do not know about install, but judging from all binary distros it shouldnt take more than 1-2 hours to set up your system, since with the exception of the modem it should pretty much pick everything up instantly. Also, I do not understand what you mean by reprogramming, please clarify.

I personally prefer source distros (Gentoo, Slackware) since you start with nothing and add exactly what you want on the way, so my advice would be to use that (although everything needs compiling, which takes a little bit more time). If, on the other hand, binaries is your thing, I have heard very good things about Ubuntu Linux, so you might want to give it a try. 600X should be fine with all Linux distros though, IBM makes very linux-friendly hardware.

Good luck!

Stavros

Hi

I have T41p. I have recently tried a few linux distros . . . . FC2 (Briefly), Yoper 2.1 and Mandrake 10 and 10.1.
Mandrake 10.1 is on my machine at present . . .

Yoper really impressed me with its speed. However, I had a problem with not being able to connect to the internet. Was told by Yoper Forum that it was the drivers. However, all the other Linux O.S. that I have tried connected to the next flawlessly. . . .

I advise you to trya few distros and see which one suits your needs. . . .

Have a look at tuxmobile for writeups with your particular hardware etc. .

BTW: Yoper 2.2 will be out in the next few weeks. They are busy upgrading their server at present, so the forum is unavailable at this time!

Regards

If you are looking for simple and free, try Ubuntu Linux. Everything worked 'out of the box' on my desktop. If you run into any problems, check the wiki and the mailing lists, the help there is top notch. Steady releases every six months and only security updates once you get it installed (no massive package changes in between the six month release schedule).

Highly recommend it!

Thanks for your replys.

The Guest mention a Yoper 2.2 to be coming out and maybe I will try that. It seems to be exactly what I wanted - if they fix the internet connection problem; then I will wait to try 2.2 out and not buy the Windows OS and Office 2003. The Windows and Office is my last resort and will cost alot!

To bad it cannot do anything about the booting up speed. I cannot Windows still wins in that department!

Anonymous wrote:Hi

I have T41p. I have recently tried a few linux distros . . . . FC2 (Briefly), Yoper 2.1 and Mandrake 10 and 10.1.
Mandrake 10.1 is on my machine at present . . .

Just curious - why did you dump FC2? I'm getting ready to switch my T20 to Linux and FC2 is on my short list. My goal is to get something that is not too intimidating for a Linux beginner yet has enough power and features to keep a former Windows power user happy. FC2 seems to be closest to that mark. I've looked at Ubuntu, but it seems too limited (things like "SuperUser is disabled by default" bother me).

Ed Gibbs

egibbs wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi

I have T41p. I have recently tried a few linux distros . . . . FC2 (Briefly), Yoper 2.1 and Mandrake 10 and 10.1.
Mandrake 10.1 is on my machine at present . . .

Just curious - why did you dump FC2? I'm getting ready to switch my T20 to Linux and FC2 is on my short list. My goal is to get something that is not too intimidating for a Linux beginner yet has enough power and features to keep a former Windows power user happy. FC2 seems to be closest to that mark. I've looked at Ubuntu, but it seems too limited (things like "SuperUser is disabled by default" bother me).

Ed Gibbs

Ed, something being disabled by default doesnt mean that it takes more than 2 commands to enable it...I think Ubuntu is an excellent introductory Linux distribution (btw Fedora Core 3 is out, 2 is "obsolete" now), although if you are a "power user" I'd go with a meta-distribution such as Gentoo, where you can tweak everything to your liking, and you will learn quite a few things from the installation alone. Linux is not intimidating or hard, Linux is just different. And powerful. And free.

Stavros

Here's a good review of Yoper:

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=7942

I have tried Ubuntu on my T41p

It worked o.k. But for some reason I didnt particularly like it.

Guess its all down to user preference . . .

level,

I thank you for the review and I thought the forum gave more info on Yoper then the review itself did. I am not sure now which way I will go. I may wait to see the reviews on Yoper 2.2 before I do anything!

I may just pay someone to ghost me contents on my notebook hard drive to the new hard drive. I would save a lot of money on that too. I talk a tech that would do it off hour for $200 flat! Save 1/2 of purchasing new software. I will call him to see if he do it for $100. He said it would take only 10 minutes!

Thanks for your reply; it was really informative!

Harry

HarryWild wrote:level,

I thank you for the review and I thought the forum gave more info on Yoper then the review itself did. I am not sure now which way I will go. I may wait to see the reviews on Yoper 2.2 before I do anything!

I may just pay someone to ghost me contents on my notebook hard drive to the new hard drive. I would save a lot of money on that too. I talk a tech that would do it off hour for $200 flat! Save 1/2 of purchasing new software. I will call him to see if he do it for $100. He said it would take only 10 minutes!

Thanks for your reply; it was really informative!

Harry

For $100, you can buy an external hard drive, do it yourself and then keep the extra drive...

Well, I have played it safe and purchase the most recent copy of Windows XP Pro - model E85-02674 Retail Commercial Edition. Got it at a great price and so I this will last me for three years more and if Yoper XX.X by them is solid; I will make the switch.

Thanks for all your input!

Harry