Linux Distribution Suggestions

[Ruku]

Hiya people, just bought a crazy laptop (you can look at the specs in the jpg attached file),

And i was wondering, what distribution of Linux should I install... ???

The last one I used was Redhat 8, and I usually used the KDE gui or the gnome... when I wasn't in text-only. Now I found that distribution not really my fit, since it disabled A LOT of functions considering mp3s which they had a problem over legislations (they disabled such simple functions such as mpg123 or something who played an mp3 and removed all mp3 supported softwares)

I guess what I'm asking is what kidn of suggestions would you give me? Basically, I'd like to get around with Linux a 'lil more and try to eventually unslave myself from the Evil Empire of Microcrap... , which is a long way when I look at it!

So if you could simply name the distributions with their main features that would be great, coz my knowledge of linux is VERY restrained...

If you wonder what I might do with linux, well probably programming in C++, text editing (so yeah openoffice!!!) and stuff like that... I don't really care about the interfaces I even prefer using text-only, so if you can find text-only editors attached with c++ compilers, great! But I will need a gui for stuff like text editing and paint,

Last thing: 80 gigs hard drive, I'm thinking 10 gigs for linux, so that's like 5 swap and 5 ext3... 69 for NTFS and 1 for FAT32(Bootmagic...)

but that could change,

well, guess that's about it, thanks in advance

- Ruku

[cid]

You can run a live version of linux off of cd called, Knoppix. With a live cd you just burn the iso and pop the cd in and it will load linux, no configuration required, it loads kde by default. The only draw back is customization.

If you wanna run off the machine and dual boot i suggest slackware, lil difficult to configure but it is a great distro. It mixes guified linux like Redhat with a more unix based operating system like FreeBSD. You will have to configure your shell and set your run level for a gui login but all in all slackware is my favorite distro. If you want something more simplified go with suse, redhat, mandrake.

[Ruku]

Yeah, thanks for the information, I think I'll go with slackware. It looks interesting, I'll just have to find a download...

For Knoppix, It's been a long time since I've wanted to try it, it will be useful at school on deep freezed computers mainly... .

Thanks again, I new about suze, redhat and mandrake, but I didn't hear a lot of goods from them, so I hope slackware will be great.

If there are other distros. that weren't listed above and you think their superior in stability and stuff, keep on postin ppl, it's all good .

[cid]

www.linuxiso.org

The main page has the major distros on it

[Ruku]

Originally posted by cid
www.linuxiso.org

The main page has the major distros on it

Web site ROCKS!

Anyways, Now I'm just havin this trouble maker, I'm still a n00b to Linux, and um, well...

I've installed slackware, but I forgot something: The boot, I figured BootMagic would've had booted the ext3 partition and everything automatically, but it looks like it needs the primary linux boot things too on that drive...

I think what I need is lilo, now I need it(/something else) on a laptop where I have no floppy drive...! So I'll need to boot out of a cd, and like put Lilo(/something else) on it, somehow... um, anyhelp on that one... ???

[cid]

Choose ext2, and also use lilo.

Just take your slack cd, and boot from cd-rom and just re install it.