[dundee] Re: dundee Digest, Vol 66, Issue 1

Fri Oct 14 12:37:42 BST 2005

Personally I'd stear clear of any RPM based distributions and aim for
something DEB based - this is more a personal preferance than anything, but
I belive DEBs to be more conveinient and slightly easier to use than RPMs.

Off the top of my head this would point you towards Debian, Knoppix (which
you said you had problems with) and Unbuntu.

Personally I use Debian and have switched a new user onto it with success
(their choice too!) although I think Unbuntu may be the more 'user-friendly'
option.

As for MP3 players, your best bet is probably XMMS as it is almost identical
in looks and function to WinAmp (at least until Winamp went crazy with
WinAmp 5) for word document editing you have a plethora of options, Abiword
and OpenOffice being the two that instantly spring to mind, and as far as
having a web server installed - for most (if not all?) distributions it's
simply an option you select on install and there it is!

Hope this helped a little - but having said all this, when it comes to
chosing a distribution, you can't really go wrong - most of it comes down to
personal preference (and in a few cases minor specializations to suit your
needs).

And before I close this email, you may also want to take a look at Gentoo -
personally I haven't used it, so I can't vouch for it - but those that I
know that have rave about it, so it may be worth a look.

P.S for wireless problems, take a look at ndiswrapper(s) it tends to be the
solution

Cheers and good luck!
Lee

On 10/14/05, dundee-request at mailman.lug.org.uk <
dundee-request at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. Linux Newbie - Help Choosing Distro (Ry.)
> 2. Re: Linux Newbie - Help Choosing Distro (Owen Daily)
> 3. Re: Linux Newbie - Help Choosing Distro (paul)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 05:57:44 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "Ry." <imational at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [dundee] Linux Newbie - Help Choosing Distro
> To: dundee at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Message-ID: <20051013125744.1816.qmail at web30808.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi, my laptop harddrive packed up and I lost my old OS (XP Pro). I can't
> afford to replace the Win OS at moment, so I'd like some advice on choosing
> a Linux OS.
>
> I've had issues with 2 versions so far - using Fedora Core 4, I wasn't
> able to view the graphics correctly and therefore couldn't even finish the
> installation. Knoppix works and runs fine except one problem, the laptop
> touchpad mouse only seems to work for 3/4 of the screen area. Not sure if I
> can fix this or not....
>
> Anyways... I want an OS that is pretty handy to install, will auto detect
> most of my settings (graphics card, mouse, USB, etc), MS Word compatible &
> good MP3 player (probably ubiquitous, not sure), and if it had a web server
> built in (e.g. apache) that would be the cherry on the cake.
>
> Any advice would be gratefully received! Thanks a bunch
>
> Ryan.
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:24:44 +0100
> From: Owen Daily <o.daily at dundeecoll.ac.uk>
> Subject: Re: [dundee] Linux Newbie - Help Choosing Distro
> To: Tayside Linux User Group <dundee at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Message-ID: <7316B15E-2DEC-4AB2-B373-5AF9BC6CFD6E at dundeecoll.ac.uk>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> try puppy linux, tiny (60Mb) and work well.
>
> http://www.goosee.com/puppy
>
> On 13 Oct 2005, at 13:57, Ry. wrote:
>
> > Hi, my laptop harddrive packed up and I lost my old OS (XP Pro). I
> > can't afford to replace the Win OS at moment, so I'd like some
> > advice on choosing a Linux OS.
> >
> > I've had issues with 2 versions so far - using Fedora Core 4, I
> > wasn't able to view the graphics correctly and therefore couldn't
> > even finish the installation. Knoppix works and runs fine except
> > one problem, the laptop touchpad mouse only seems to work for 3/4
> > of the screen area. Not sure if I can fix this or not....
> >
> > Anyways... I want an OS that is pretty handy to install, will auto
> > detect most of my settings (graphics card, mouse, USB, etc), MS
> > Word compatible & good MP3 player (probably ubiquitous, not sure),
> > and if it had a web server built in (e.g. apache) that would be the
> > cherry on the cake.
> >
> > Any advice would be gratefully received! Thanks a bunch
> >
> > Ryan.
> >
> > Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.
> > _______________________________________________
> > dundee GNU/Linux Users Group mailing list
> > dundee at lists.lug.org.uk http://dundee.lug.org.uk
> > http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dundee
> > Chat on IRC, #tlug on dundee.lug.org.uk <http://dundee.lug.org.uk>
>
> -----------------------------------------------
> Owen Daily
> Graphic Designer
> Marketing Department
> Dundee College
> Kingsway Campus
> DUNDEE DD3 8LE
> Tel: 01382 834834 ext 5345
> Fax: 01382 858117
> Email: o.daily at dundeecoll.ac.uk
> -----------------------------------------------
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:20:17 +0100
> From: paul <paul_lancaster at blueyonder.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [dundee] Linux Newbie - Help Choosing Distro
> To: Tayside Linux User Group <dundee at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Message-ID: <434EDDA1.3020107 at blueyonder.co.uk>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Mandriva 2005/6 has found most of my hardware on both desktop and a
> Toshiba Satalite pro laptop.
> Also had some sucess with Vector Linux 5.1, on two older laptops and IBM
> Thinkpad 600e and a Toshiba Tecra 8000.
> Unfortunately none of them recognised my wireless cards.
>
> Hope that helps
>
> Paul
>
> Ry. wrote:
>
> > Hi, my laptop harddrive packed up and I lost my old OS (XP Pro). I
> > can't afford to replace the Win OS at moment, so I'd like some advice
> > on choosing a Linux OS.
> >
> > I've had issues with 2 versions so far - using Fedora Core 4, I wasn't
> > able to view the graphics correctly and therefore couldn't even finish
> > the installation. Knoppix works and runs fine except one problem, the
> > laptop touchpad mouse only seems to work for 3/4 of the screen area.
> > Not sure if I can fix this or not....
> >
> > Anyways... I want an OS that is pretty handy to install, will auto
> > detect most of my settings (graphics card, mouse, USB, etc), MS Word
> > compatible & good MP3 player (probably ubiquitous, not sure), and if
> > it had a web server built in (e.g. apache) that would be the cherry on
> > the cake.
> >
> > Any advice would be gratefully received! Thanks a bunch
> >
> > Ryan.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.
> > <
> http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=36035/*http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/
> >
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >dundee GNU/Linux Users Group mailing list
> >dundee at lists.lug.org.uk http://dundee.lug.org.uk
> >http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/dundee
> >Chat on IRC, #tlug on dundee.lug.org.uk <http://dundee.lug.org.uk>
> >
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tayside LUG mailing list
>
> End of dundee Digest, Vol 66, Issue 1
> *************************************
>

--
<generic witty comment>
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