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what's you fav linux!

What is your fav linux version

  • Ubuntu

    Votes: 9 45.0%
  • Fedora

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Gentoo

    Votes: 2 10.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 9 45.0%

  • Total voters
    20

martin_metal_88

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
4,162
Location
Quebec City
I am looking to put a new OS on my lappy. It's a HP DV6704CA and I was looking for a linux. The only problem is that there is so many linux version. So I decided to make a little pool about your prefered one.
Please answer the pool and post why it's your fav version with a link of a bootable CD if possible.

Let's see the stats!!!
 

enaberif

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
11,412
Location
Calgahree, AB
Ubuntu = Debian

Nobody uses Fedora anymore but more CentOS

And Gentoo isn't technically a linux distro as it shares a few things with its BSD counterpart.

And you missed the best of them all Slackware.

Slackware, Debian, and Gentoo are the ones I prefer.
 

CMetaphor

Quadfather
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
6,459
Location
Montreal, Canada
Ill choose "other" = Knoppix or Puppy Linux. Nothing like small live distros that can be moved between pcs and still keep your settings (persistent). I personally don't really have a need for the other distros, once you add the necessary packages to a live-persistent one, there's really no need to have anything more. You get what you need, and you can carry it with you wherever :biggrin:
 

dragoonxx

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 19, 2008
Messages
628
Location
Medicine Hat
I've worked with multiples linux distros
ubuntu is great for basics/general
I liked working with sabayon (gentoo based) it was just pretty heavy
fedora I didn't mind, but my laptop that I was using for my linux playtoy (compaq R4000 AMD variant) could get finicky with some things
 

ilya

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
1,563
Location
Markham
Puppy!

Runs off ram for speed and it's portable. You can pretty much carry your own computer on a stick everywhere you go.
 

Borg

Banned
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
206
Is it accurate to assume this foray into Linux is the first? I suggest Mint and either the version based on Ubuntu or the newer one based on Debian. I also want to point out that Ubuntu is NOT Debian. Just based on it although Ubuntu made a lot of changes. I suggest Mint because whether you choose the Ubuntu version or Debian one, you would be able to switch to Ubuntu or Debian derivatives fairly easily. The familiarity would allow you to try other distros that has its base on either Ubuntu or Debian.

Also, there's many blogs or self-help pages with either Ubuntu or Debian as the central distro used.

I would pick Debian but I can understand the choices many make in selecting Ubuntu. Whatever you choose, make sure you know that there's a learning curve and even experienced linux users run into brick walls or obstacles. There's a few issues of compatibility and WIP situations so google is definitely your friend in so many cases.

Your wireless and GPU will probably be your main problem areas so depending on whether you have Atheros, Broadcom or Intel (I think those are the three possibilities of what your wifi chip might be?), the degree of difficulty may vary a bit. The Nvidia drivers don't really have much of a free or open source alternative to speak of (that works for all intensive purposes) so to get good graphics optimal performance, you need to install the proprietary drivers.

Anyway, you can read all about that on the forum and FAQ/manual on the web page of the distro you choose. You might be using google a lot but it will help a lot too.

In the meantime, you could check distrowatch for getting some ideas but I suggest trying the distros out on live media but straight Debian doesn't really have an established live media but there are some distros based on Debian that have live media versions. Check them out and see if you can have a spare partition to try them out.

My two cents that is probably not worth much after inflation which probably went up already (due to this long post).
 

Keywork

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 12, 2009
Messages
601
Location
Niagara
Solid post Borg!

I've been using Ubuntu for a while myself, since 7.04, and i've grown quite fond of its simplicity. I was off for reading week last week and I had a chance to finally reformat my school/work laptop. I've always wanted to try Debian and since 6.0 just came out a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it a try. I....... was unimpressed, but maybe I was just impatient. It took forever to get wireless working, seeing as Debian now only includes "FREE" repositories/libraries. I also wasn't a big fan of KDE so I decided to install Gnome. Things got better but I ended up just getting fed up after a couple days with minor nuisances. I installed Linux Mint 10 and I can say truthfully that I will not be switching anytime soon.
 

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