Citan Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 If you're a Linux user, what's your favorite distribution? I've used Fedora Core, Ubuntu, and Kubuntu. Ubuntu is my favorite, and is currently the one I have installed on my dual-boot PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoke Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Does it count if I have a separate system running Ubuntu as a fileserver and for experimentation purposes? I also dualboot into Ubuntu on my own system from time to time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziwtra Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 My older mixes were actually written on linux using SoundTracker... all the way up until the "Shooting Star Remix" to be exact... Now using Mac OS X / Ubuntu on an intel mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Souliarc Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Hey it's ziwtra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linkspast Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 where can I get one of the linux distros? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necrotic Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Proud member of the Ubuntu (link for ya there linkspast) club. Tried a couple other distros but this one that lets me be the most lazy of all. I dual-boot between Ubuntu and Windows, but I still mainly use Windows for everything. -Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I'm a Gentoo user here. I like the fact that there is way to install every piece of software I personally care about through its package system. When I used Fedora I ended up with a system that had most things as RPM but a few packages here and there that had to be installed manually. I sort've dual-boot. I haven't really used Windows in like a year, but its installed somewhere. While I have possibly all the Linux users on OCR's attention please try out my CD Ripper for Linux, RipOff http://ripoffc.sourceforge.net It's like a very minimalist version of Sound Juicer, and faster as far as my rough benchmarks can tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merk Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 where can I get one of the linux distros? Ubuntu Fedora Core Gentoo openSUSE Mandriva Knoppix Slackware Of course, that's not even all the distros. That List would be way too long. In any case, look for ones with Live CD, that way you can tinker around with it before you actually install. Also, an ideal situation would be a second physical harddrive so you can dual-boot to Linux or your old OS (presumably XP). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necrotic Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I just remembered this site, useful information on the linux world in general. http://distrowatch.com/ -Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverCoat Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I am absolutely in love with Ubuntu. I picked it up in seconds, and I love the add/remove software feature. I'd totally just use that, but I only have one NTFS hard drive and I am afraid of partitioning :[ I'd run it from CD-ROM but it's way too slow that way. the first distro I actually tried was Damnsmall Linux: http://damnsmalllinux.org/ 50 MB operating system. I put it on a USB thumbdrive and it works great it even comes with more software than you'd think, though I didn't like most of them. It also couldn't detect my mobo network adapter like Ubuntu did. Probably why it's only 50 MB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoke Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 UbuntuFedora Core Gentoo openSUSE Mandriva Knoppix Slackware Of course, that's not even all the distros. That List would be way too long. In any case, look for ones with Live CD, that way you can tinker around with it before you actually install. Also, an ideal situation would be a second physical harddrive so you can dual-boot to Linux or your old OS (presumably XP). Ubuntu's distributed as a Live CD that can be installed while you're still using the OS if you like. Also, you don't need a second physical harddrive, just space to create partitions in(Most distros come with the required software to create partitions at an appropriate size) Dual-booting's highly recommended if you're not using a separate system, mainly because you can always go back to the OS you're used to. The only potential issue is sharing files between the two OSes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drack Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I've used the following: Red Hat 9 Red Hat Enterprise Fedora Core 6 Mandrake Mandriva Knoppix Libranet Gentoo (for over a year) SuSE Ubuntu Kubuntu FreeBSD (Not Linux, but close) I was pretty hardcore for the past few years, but my current laptop (and exclusive computer until I build the monster desktop I'm planning) has crucial hardware (wireless) that isn't supported well at all by any of the aforementioned distros - it's a beta, reverse-engineered driver that rarely works and I am not going to put up with it (and don't say ndiswrapper - that doesn't work for it either). Even so, as I'm a computer science major at Georgia Tech, it's almost a requirement to run some sort of Linux if I want to do all of my homework without going to the lab. I dual boot Fedora Core 6 for that. It took the minimum effort to set up and still gives me plenty of flexibility. It's a great OS, but it lacks two crucial things: Standards. A lot of the software works great, but only if you have your system set up a specific way. While I do NOT want the competition between, say, OpenOffice and KOffice to go away, there needs to be more consistency on how the user interacts with the software. MacOS if a great example of how a standard interface simplifies things enormously to the user. Hardware support. It's great if all of your hardware works. It's maddening to hunt down all the drivers, learn their quirks, and forgo features that you take for granted in other OSs because the vendor either provided no driver, or a crippled one, usually just an x86 binary so you're SOL if running anything else, including x86_64. I have NEVER had a distro, even Knoppix, recognize all of my hardware right off the bat. Especially my current laptop. Even ignoring the issues with the wireless, maybe 1 in 10 distros properly recognize the ati radeon mobility x700 it has, and runs it at native resolution. Most can't even load the vesa driver, requiring me to go into the xorg.conf from vim on the command line. That's fine for me, again a CS major at Georgia Tech. But for the average user? This really needs a lot of improvement. That said, I really like the open source attitude (though I prefer the BSD license over the GPL -- it's a long story) and I like where Linux and other Unix variants are going. There's a wealth of great software out there, and if you're geeky enough to know where to find it, it can do things you wouldn't have thought possible on other platforms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citan Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 I'd totally just use that, but I only have one NTFS hard drive and I am afraid of partitioning :[ If you back up anything important, you shouldn't be. Ubuntu walks you through the re-partitioning process. It's pretty easy, actually. The only issue is that if your computer came with Windows already installed, then Windows will already be taking up all of the space on 1 partition. You can try to resize the partition to free up space for the partitions Ubuntu needs, but I had to reformat Windows entirely to set up a new partition for it. I tried to resize the Windows partition, but I couldn't move the data all to one side so I just re-formatted it. The only potential issue is sharing files between the two OSes. That doesn't seem to be a problem on Ubuntu, though. There's an icon right on the desktop that lets me access my Windows files. I know you can do the same with other Linux distributions, but you have to set it up yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellcom Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I'm an avid ubuntu user, although I have used fedora and mandrake when I was testing out distros. Ubuntu is my favourite as it relatively easy to use and install with it's debian based package system and friendly community. Not once have I been told to RTFM, a gem sadly in many open source communities. I run ubuntu 6.10 on my laptop and my desktop, in which they are fully compatably with my hardware inculding wireless out of the box. It fulfils all my needs in sound and video editing and production (though more in sound could be desirable), and general usage. I do have a windows XP partition on my desktop, but that is only for games. I have a data hard drive formatted to ext2 so I can share files between windows and ubuntu with some extra drivers for windows. Right now I'm excited about two things with ubuntu/linux; ubuntu-studio (video and sound flavour of ubuntu) and the 3D interface beryl that makes vista and the mac look like a pile of crap in terms of aesthetics. http://ubuntustudio.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoke Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 That doesn't seem to be a problem on Ubuntu, though. There's an icon right on the desktop that lets me access my Windows files. I know you can do the same with other Linux distributions, but you have to set it up yourself. Yeah, NTFS reading is supported. Writing is still a bit on the iffy side though, and you can't access your fancy Linux partition under Windows without installing extra stuff. That's basically what I mean . Of course, you could set up a FAT32 partition for this purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OverCoat Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I could only make a 3 GB FAT32 partition though - what gives? Even then, the Ubuntu partition tool wasn't able to install itself. Though, for some reason, now I have this 3.37 GB partition viewable in windows, and it looks like a backup partition [there's things like "RECOVER.BAT"]. I've never seen it until, like, yesterday. I think what I should do instead is get another hard drive anyway, make that one FAT32 and put Ubuntu on that. I only have 30 GB or so left on this one anyway, and that could fill up fast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m68030 Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 I've recently installed Fluxbuntu www.fluxbuntu.org on an old laptop, and it is my primary home computer at the moment. PII - 366Mhz 160mb Ram RagePro Mobility 8mb 1.4gig HD I've got gaim, firefox, a few games, xmms, and a few other goodies. Definately all i need sitting on the couch by the TV. Even managed to get 3d acceleration working on this old video chipset. And i've still got like 200megs free to play with. And on top of that, it's wicked fast. I still can't believe this is a PII. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange Pylon Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 My older mixes were actually written on linux using SoundTracker... all the way up until the "Shooting Star Remix" to be exact... Haha, that's pretty awesome. I always liked your stuff. Anyhow, I like Ubunto and, to a lesser extent, Mandriva. Debian was fun for a while, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citan Posted January 30, 2007 Author Share Posted January 30, 2007 I could only make a 3 GB FAT32 partition though - what gives? Even then, the Ubuntu partition tool wasn't able to install itself. Though, for some reason, now I have this 3.37 GB partition viewable in windows, and it looks like a backup partition [there's things like "RECOVER.BAT"]. I've never seen it until, like, yesterday. Hmm, not familiar with that problem. Of course, someone at the Ubuntu forum could probably help you. I've never had trouble getting help at the forums for any of the Linux distributions I've used. Seems like hardware issues are coming up a lot in here. The only hardware I've had trouble with on Linux is my wireless card (Broadcom). Ubuntu has a list of wireless cards it's compatible with somewhere on it's site, so I'll have to keep that in mind when I get a new computer. I know I can use ndiswrapper to get the wireless working on my current computer, but I'm having a little trouble figuring out how to use it... Wish I had more time to play with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telii Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 I'm a Linux nub and use Mandriva. I only got it because it appeared to be one of the most popular when I researched a bit, and was generally considered good for those new to Linux. I've been using it alongside XP on my desktop PC for almost a year now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G_D Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 I really want to get into Linux, but I haven't yet. I'll have to eventually, though, because I've sworn an oath that I will not buy Vista Also, here's some potentially good news for Linux that was posted on Slashdot today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citan Posted January 30, 2007 Author Share Posted January 30, 2007 Also, here's some potentially good news for Linux that was posted on Slashdot today. Sweet. Hardware problems have plagued Linux for a long time, it's good to know that things could change soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Sweet. Hardware problems have plagued Linux for a long time, it's good to know that things could change soon. I doubt its going to really revolutionize things that Linux is pretty spotty on, like wireless cards and adapters. There are stupid FCC regulations limiting what companies can disclose about wireless devices and that's one of the reasons it's been hard to get open-source Linux and OpenBSD drivers for them. I know the OpenBSD guys have fought pretty hard with a few companies for opening up the specs for their wireless cards to no avail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellcom Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 I really want to get into Linux, but I haven't yet.I'll have to eventually, though, because I've sworn an oath that I will not buy Vista Get a live CD (mainstream ones have them; ubuntu Desktop CD etc..) to try out distros and then dual boot for a while to get the hang of it. You definitely don't want to dive in straight away by deleting your windows partition as there is a learning curve and a high likelihood that you will be reinstalling several times It's well worth it though, and once you get the basics it isn't very difficult. In fact its easier to manage than windows IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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