Need some advice and assistance in Linux!!

[fuligin]

Hey everyone,
I have been thinking of installing linux on my R51e, however im confused on which system would the the best for me. I am totally new to it, and even though I can handle most my needs on win xp, i have never used any linux flavor.
I have been reading around and from my unstanding I will need to do some tinkering around which ever way. However which is the best system for Thinkpads.
I know that Suse 10.1 (opensuse for me now till i decide which system to purchase) is popular now, however not for my system.
Fedora
Mandriva
any others you can suggest !!

I want something that is fast, learnable, and most functional to eventually be a replacment to xp, however af first i will have a both systems on, I only have a 40gb hh with 6gb for xp 4 gb for progams and 30 free space.

Thank you all for your advise

[K0LO]

You're likely to get 100 different opinions on which Linux distribution to use. It boils down to personal taste.

My suggestion is to download and burn a "Live Linux" CD from a few of the distros that you might be interested in. These allow you to run the distro exclusively from RAM and your CD without installing anything to your hard disk. You can then try them out without risk to your existing installation. Then if you find one that you like, you can do a permanent installation. Check out Distrowatch.com for comparisons and links to download sites.

A permanent installation will require about 4 GB plus whatever space you may want for user files. Have fun!

[carbon_unit]

Good advice!

[Spif]

In my opinion, there are three distributions suited for people that have no experience with Linux. They are Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE. I cannot tell you which is best suited for your needs, however. Just try one of them and if it doesn't go well, pick the next one on the list.

By the way, Fedora Core 6 was released yesterday and Ubuntu 6.10 is supposed to come out today. Perhaps you should choose one of them as they have a newer kernel and the latest software available.

[newyorkpaulie]

Hi,
I tried a few and have stayed with Linspire. It is very (too?) Windows-like, but you can get into it thru the Terminal Program and tinker. I got my cd via ebaY and the only prob is not being able to use the 3 1/2" floppy drive. It's a sometime thing... works/doesn't. You have to "mount" the drive, but that is something I still don't know how to do. Any helpers? Using a USB solid state drive in place of the floppy does it for me. Also a portable HD via the USB port works fine as well.
Good luck and if you're like me you will love the freedom Linux gives from the Windows scene.
Paul

[felixdv]

Hi,
I tried a few and have stayed with Linspire. It is very (too?) Windows-like, but you can get into it thru the Terminal Program and tinker. I got my cd via ebaY and the only prob is not being able to use the 3 1/2" floppy drive. It's a sometime thing... works/doesn't. You have to "mount" the drive, but that is something I still don't know how to do. Any helpers? Using a USB solid state drive in place of the floppy does it for me. Also a portable HD via the USB port works fine as well.
Good luck and if you're like me you will love the freedom Linux gives from the Windows scene.
Paul

You have to use the "mount" utility (for more info, do a 'man mount'). The device name you probably need is /dev/fd0 and you need to specify a mount point, that's a directory on your system. If your mount point would be /mnt/floppy, the terminal command to mount the floppy drive is:

Code: Select all

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

[Dngrsone]

Ubuntu is a highly recommended distribution for people who just want it to work "out of the box," but if you are a command-line warrior who wants to learn some details about Linux, then Slackware would be the way to go.

[trent9008]

Plus, Ubuntu sends you free LiveCDs from their website...

https://shipit.ubuntu.com

[Dngrsone]

Plus, Ubuntu sends you free LiveCDs from their website...

https://shipit.ubuntu.com

I hear that the wait time is outrageous... is that true?

[felixdv]

Plus, Ubuntu sends you free LiveCDs from their website...

https://shipit.ubuntu.com

I hear that the wait time is outrageous... is that true?

Last time I had them shipped to Belgium, it was about 3 months waiting. It could have changed though (or maybe it depends on where you live).

It's not a 5 cd distro like OpenSuse, so my guess (if you're on broadband) is that it would be a lot faster to just download the 700mb ISO and burn it on a cd.

[christopher_wolf]

I usually just download the Ubuntu distros as they are kinda small, ~700MB as pointed out, when compared to huge distros like SuSE which can take up an entire DVD at ~4.7GB. If you don't mind heavily loading your connection for an extended period of time, it might be better to just grab a torrent of the distro, if available, and go from there to get it quicker.

[somlaifischer]

ubuntu.

simply download it, on my x31 everything works out of the box, all hardware buttons included (well except accessibm )
sleep, hibernate works.

i got the official cd s from south africa in about a month, but well, its more for the fun of it, as downloading will get you the latest always.

[trent9008]

I hear that the wait time is outrageous... is that true?

Last time I had them shipped to Belgium, it was about 3 months waiting. It could have changed though (or maybe it depends on where you live).

I just received my set of ten LiveCDs on December 8. I ordered on November 14, and the website posted the ship date as November 20. So it took 24 days to get here (Asheville, NC), 6 of which were the time it took to send the order to the shipping company. Also the site tells you to expect delays based on your location.