[Nottingham] A newbie speaks... nervously

[Joel Wright]

Hiya,

Here's my opinion (treat with extreme caution) ...

> 
> I'm just dipping my toes into Linux using Knoppix, which actually runs
> nearly fine off CD - eventually (ie come payday) I'm going to bung a
> second hard drive on the PC and do a dual boot. However - and you may
> have seen this coming - a few questions:
> 
> 1. Am I right in thinking Knoppix is based on Red Hat? If so, given
>    Knoppix seems to find almost all my hardware and run fine, is that
>    going to be the best distro to go for? In which case, RH9?
> 

Nope, from what I can tell Knoppox is based on Debian. However I
wouldn't recommend Debian to a newbie (or at all, but that's just me). A
good free newbie distro is Mandrake Linux. You could also pay and go for
xandros (www.xandros.com) or lycoris (www.lycoris.com) which are aimed
at people migrating from windows, but I have no experience with those
(coz I'd have to pay!!) and it's no fun if things just work ;)

They all have fairly good hardware auto detection.

> 2. Knoppix seems to have problems with my sound card. XMMS runs, but nowt
>    comes out of the speakers, and the test config only produces eerie
>    silence, claims to have installed the card fine (an AC97), but in fact
>    doesn't work. I've checked the cables, and the mixer. Any thoughts?

Depends what your soundcard is, without more information it'll be hard
to help.

> 3. I'm on ntl cable broadband, using an external modem (one of the silver
>    ones) through my USB port, and Knoppix is a bit iffy about it.
>    Sometimes it'll function flawlessly. Sometimes it's okay for a few
>    minutes then drops the connection. Is there a known Linux driver for
>    these things? What's the best way round it, because the absence of a
>    net connection really is the deal breaker when it comes to Linux.

I'm on ntl broadband too, much better to connect using an ethernet card
(the modem should be able to connect via a crossover cable to your
network card if you have one).

Good Luck,
Joel.

Have patience it's worth it in the long run!

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