Thinkpads Forum

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:24 pm**

I use Mandriva. Specifically 2009.0. Im waiting till 09.1 comes out then i probably wont upgrade till 2011.

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:44 pm**

I use Mint for the most part, but am playing with Mandriva 2009 on one of my T43s...

Will be looking into SuSE and Fedora since I'm curious how they'll work on W500...

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:49 pm**

Also Mint here (see sig.). Moved to it after using Ubuntu for quite long time. I like the small additions it has and since it's Ubuntu-based, finding help for the small problems I may have (no Linux guru here) is easy. I plan to stay with it for the time being.

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:50 pm**

Not sure if count Kubuntu counts here as a different distro within the Ubuntu family (but IMO it´s a different distro, not just Ubuntu with KDE installed

). Right now, I´m fighting with Kubuntu 8.10 in a VM. Unfortunately, all the 8.10 from the Ubuntu family have a little problem with VMware 6.5.1. As VMs they cannot authenticate as root from the terminal. I guess I´m missing here something, but I hope I´ll figure it out soon... Other than that, I have it installed in dual-boot with Win 7 to show off KDE and compiz to friends

Apart from this, I have the good intention, but not the time to load Arch linux x86_64 and start learning Linux the way it should be learned... On a long term, i guess I´ll stay with Arch because I really like to configure my system with all the apps and settings from the bottom upwards. I don´t like the fact that the recent 'consumer' distros come with so much stuff preinstalled.

Ah, yes, I forgot to ask, judging my situation, what should I vote here for?

Marin

EDIT: VM issue resolved (wrong password due to keys remapping as my keyboard has German layout)

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:00 am**

Marin85 wrote:Not sure if count Kubuntu counts here as a different distro within the Ubuntu family (but IMO it´s a different distro, not just Ubuntu with KDE installed ).
Ah, yes, I forgot to ask, judging my situation, what should I vote here for?

Marin

According to Kubuntu's FAQ:

Q: What is Kubuntu?
A: Kubuntu is the first Ubuntu derived distribution. Our Kubuntu CDs are made up of Ubuntu's base plus KDE. You can get exactly the same effect by installing Ubuntu and adding the KDE packages (and removing the Gnome packages) from the Ubuntu archives.

Q:Is this a fork of Ubuntu?
A: No, it is an official part of Ubuntu. All our packages are in the same archives.

I would say vote "Ubuntu." Ubuntu/Kubuntu=same thing. In fact, I have "Ubuntu" installed and added the "Kubuntu" packages to get KDE.

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:05 am**

t140568 wrote:I would say vote "Ubuntu."

Done!

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:42 am**

Ubuntu... is sooo brown.... uuggghhh. Just saying they could have found a much better color. but hey, it is a good distro.

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:43 am**

i-SnipeZ wrote:Ubuntu... is sooo brown.... uuggghhh. Just saying they could have found a much better color. but hey, it is a good distro.

Actually orange-brown

The first time I saw it I found it very cool. But I wouldn´t put my Win 7 in such a color scheme... Besides, one can always change to color themes etc or just get Kubuntu...

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:29 pm**

i-SnipeZ wrote:Ubuntu... is sooo brown.... uuggghhh. Just saying they could have found a much better color. but hey, it is a good distro.

Haha, I agree. First thing I did was switch to a blue theme.

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:18 pm**

aaa wrote:First thing I did was switch to a blue theme.

Blue is to me very windowish

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:00 pm**

Well not that kind of blue, obviously.

Posted: **Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:40 pm**

Arch.

It's fast, lightweight, and I know exactly what is going on with virtually every aspect of my system. The other benefit is that with Arch I've learned a LOT about Linux...more than I have with past distros. The KISS mentality has stopped my distro-hopping.

Posted: **Thu Mar 12, 2009 2:50 am**

I for one like the brownish-orange or "browrange."

It provides a dark theme (which I like) with a nice change from the black/grey/white schemes I'm used to using and provides a little color.

Posted: **Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:49 am**

Fedora, it's a great development platform and fully functional workstation.

Posted: **Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:38 am**

tylerwylie wrote:Fedora, it's a great development platform and fully functional workstation.

Did they finally make it run all the fancy 3D effects?

Posted: **Fri Mar 27, 2009 5:01 am**

I'm currently running Ubuntu 8.04. After "distro hopping" for a few years just for the fun of it and all on one machine, I settled into Ubuntu a year ago. While there are several reasons I like it, the main reason is it runs so well on several of my ThinkPads with a minimum of tuning. With the exception of one "test machine" I like to keep the same dual boot combo of Ubuntu & XP across each of my favorite ThinkPads. This way when I feel like it I can just grab one and go. At the end of each days computing session I back up to a WD Passport drive so the next day its easy to load my most recent work on whatever machine I take. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it ......heh!
.
Cheers...

Posted: **Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:18 am**

Marin85 wrote:Did they finally make it run all the fancy 3D effects?

For intel drivers, Fedora is the best to use right now until Ubuntu, openSUSE, and others start using the latest intel drivers. I get EXA acceleration and can watch movies using OpenGL with tons of 3d effects enabled, and the performance is as good as my NVIDIA card.

Also you can enable Kernel Mode Setting if you want, which enables the X driver from the boot menu and it boots up even faster.

I also roll my own RPM's for certain packages(kernel, etc) and Fedora's easy to do that with, so now I'm running 2.6.29 as well, with the latest wireless drivers for ath9k.

Posted: **Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:21 am**

I've been using 8.04 32-bit on my desktop for a while (exclusively) and 8.04 64-bit on my x61. The only real issues I've encountered with 64 bit Ubuntu on the x61 were the lack of 64 bit Java plug-in from SUN (used OpenJDK instead which seems to work OK), USB keys are problematic in some cases (wouldn't detect a 4 or 8 gig drive which worked with the machine fine when I was running 32 bit ubuntu), etc.

I've also been running OpenSolaris 2008.11 in a virtualbox VM and I think it has a lot of potential as a Java development platform, seems to be getting more polished and improving compatibility with each release.

Posted: **Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:47 am**

another reason why arch is awesome is that you can update all of your packages by typing "pacman -Syu" into the terminal. I think that you can update the kernel with pacman as well, though I failed when I tried before. lol.

Posted: **Sat Apr 04, 2009 12:02 pm**

aaa wrote: Haha, I agree. First thing I did was switch to a blue theme.

I use Ubunti 8.04 and installed the Ubuntu Studio theme, which is a nice black/gray color scheme and comes with some nice wallpapers.

Posted: **Sat Apr 04, 2009 12:45 pm**

TheRedFox wrote:another reason why arch is awesome is that you can update all of your packages by typing "pacman -Syu" into the terminal. I think that you can update the kernel with pacman as well, though I failed when I tried before. lol.

That's common across most distributions with package managers.

Fedora:

Code: Select all

yum update

Ubuntu/Debian:

Code: Select all

apt-get upgrade

Gentoo:

Code: Select all

emerge --update --deep world

OpenSUSE:

Code: Select all

zypper update

etc....

Posted: **Sat Apr 04, 2009 12:49 pm**

Another reason I've switched to Ubuntu Hardy Heron, is that time is always at a premium, and I like to have Linux on as many of my current ThinkPads as possible. I've found that with few exceptions, you just install Ubuntu and you're ready to go. As we all know ThinkPads are very Linux friendly, so for me the magic combination is any ThinkPad plus Ubuntu. It's great for quick installs that require minimal (if any) extra work to get up and running with everything working. Then one can enjoy customizing later on as time permits.

Cheers...

Posted: **Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:05 pm**

Oh....

It's still awesome. what do the new versions add then?

Posted: **Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:06 am**

archer6 wrote:Another reason I've switched to Ubuntu Hardy Heron, is that time is always at a premium, and I like to have Linux on as many of my current ThinkPads as possible. I've found that with few exceptions, you just install Ubuntu and you're ready to go. As we all know ThinkPads are very Linux friendly, so for me the magic combination is any ThinkPad plus Ubuntu. It's great for quick installs that require minimal (if any) extra work to get up and running with everything working. Then one can enjoy customizing later on as time permits.

Cheers...

Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE are all distributions that have great 'Thinkpad' support in that they generally configure the hardware with little to no issue at all. If you want to spend some time on it, look at FreeBSD, Gentoo, Slackware, or Arch

Posted: **Thu Apr 09, 2009 7:47 pm**

Posted: **Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:20 am**

tylerwylie wrote: Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE are all distributions that have great 'Thinkpad' support in that they generally configure the hardware with little to no issue at all. If you want to spend some time on it, look at FreeBSD, Gentoo, Slackware, or Arch

I concur. In fact I started with Fedora and while I enjoyed it I was curious and wanted to try some others. Noticing that Lenovo is aligned with OpenSuse I tried that next. At the end of the day, another strong aspect of the ThinkPad lineup is how well they run Linux.
.
Cheers...

Posted: **Sun Apr 12, 2009 9:31 am**

Although I voted "Gentoo" as I consider that my main distro in various forms including Sabayon Lite and working on funtoo, I also currently have Fedora 10 and Ubuntu installed and use both frequently. Fedora has been great on my T42p and is installed on my internal HD, as has Ubuntu, on an external HD for that matter. I'm going through an issue with 2.6.29 kernel in Gentoo right now that I hope is not confined to the T42p, as has been suggested in the Gentoo forums, and my external USB SATA HD.

I'm a fan of Mint as well, and have used it from time to time. Mint 6.0 however won't install to my external HD (refuses to see the partitions) so that CD goes to the bottom of the stack.

For any of you who have not tried Linux at all I would like to recommend Puppy Linux run from the CD, or once you've burned the ISO on a CD, start it and install it on a Flash drive. It's a fantastic little distro that is extremely fast and has worked with about everything I've tried it on so far. I have it on a USB Flash drive, so that I can plug it in to just about any machine (that will allow me to boot from flash) and have my way with it! Seriously, it's a very handy device for legitimate purposes.

I toy with VectorLinux and ZenWalk as well (both based on slackware) and they are exceedingly fast. Vector, as I remember is a replaceable distro in that when they upgrade the distro, you have to reinstall to ensure stability. ZenWalk seems a little better in that regard. Both have good forums, and provide great support.

Posted: **Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:52 pm**

Unfortunately no distro seems to support the NVS 140m in my T61 like Ubuntu so it looks like im sticking to that. I miss Mandriva but hey part of the fun in linux is trying new things. 8.10 is much better than 7 when it came out as far as I remember though, so i'm content.

Posted: **Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:29 am**

Been distro hopping for a while but finally seem to have settled on Arch. Actually I'm booting Debian Lenny and Vista Business on the side, too (it's just a little crowded in my 60 gig hard drive) but Arch is the one I do pretty much everything in. It takes some doing to set up but it's been remarkably stable for me, everything works almost out of the box.

Posted: **Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:56 pm**

I tend to use RHEL, Fedora, or Centos the most over the years. I initially started with Redhat 4.1 after several unsuccessful attempts to load Slackware. The slackware installation method was fairly convoluted back then. I took me about a week to figure out how get the odds and ends then compile the alpha drivers (v.0.10) for the Forerunner 155Mbps ATM networks cards CWRU issued us. So if anyone whines about not having a NIC or a video adapter working out of the box - you do not have my sympathy, sorry. I also got rpm working under slackware, although initially I built the system (including with enlightenment and all of its dependencies at the time - no small feat) without package management and rather I compiled everything by hand on a pentium pro. I also spent a bit with FreeBSD 5.2 as well as with Debian Linux (once its package manament system .deb came around).

My current *nix machine (a Dell) is running OpenSolaris (since Dec 2008) though normally it runs Debian Linux. I also have an older self-built desktop computer with a Hauppage PVR350 capture card running KnoppMyth which serves as my DVR appliance. It's an older AMD Athlon 1.33G/512MB/40GB/DVD+R system pressed into service back in Aug 2006. I use it to record DirecTV broadcasts.

At work we use RHEL on a couple of boxes mostly due to vendor recommendation and the fact that we can purchase (somewhat costly) yearly maintenance from Redhat (as a CYA arrangement). It's sort of silly as we spend at most one day per year doing Linux (or prior to that HP-UX) administration. But I can't complain.

I did try an Ubuntu Live CD and a local installation of the 5.04 and 5.10 versions and was fairly impressed with that distro. I also had a Xubuntu installation going at one point on a Pentium II/233 notebook. I would like to try Mythbuntu as a possible replacement for my Knoppmyth box.

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