Linux and Linux Distros

[Tux the albion Penguin]

Hi good people of NSC. Currently I'm suffering from Linux withdrawal, but thats not the main thing. I was just wondering what Distro you use if you use Linux and why as I'm trying to build up an Idea on what others think of the different distros. Also If you are using Windows why should I stay? Apart from Gaming which I have covered. Mac peeps in which I know there are alot here, please don't try as there Is no way In Hell I can afford a Mac lol Unless It's going on about a hackingtosh. I can dream.

 

[Daddies_Sauce]

Currently running Fedora 14 on an Acer Netbook, and 15 on a Laptop. The Acer came with a cut down, bastardised copy of Fedora, so that was removed and a full blown copy installed, and I’ve kept with Fedora every since (looked at the others but stayed with Fedora). Waiting for a memory to arrive so that I can update the Acer as it only has 512MB of memory and Fedora 15 requires 640MB minimum to install.

Fedora provides the platform for everything I need, internet, email, Openoffice, Libreoffice etc. load it, point to the repositories, do the updates and away you go.

Trouble with Fedora is it’s a bit ‘cutting edge’, so there are the weekly package updates, and upgrades are released approx. Every 6 months. Looking forward to the Fedora 16 upgrade.

 

[Tux the albion Penguin]

I have that bastardised version version or Fedora on my Acer Aspire One also. Trouble Is It's got a crappy ssd hd. So no putting anything else on there D:

 

[jackanada]

Switched to Ubuntu as had Smart board support (teacher). All has been good. My v cheap acer can go from off to reading email in less than a minute, never received a file I couldn't open (use openoffice and vlc), do photoshoppy stuff in GIMP. really like option to boot earlier configuration of your computer on startup if (like me) you've been fiddling about with stuff you don't fully understand and manage to screw it up.

 

[Tux the albion Penguin]

Switched to Ubuntu as had Smart board support (teacher). All has been good. My v cheap acer can go from off to reading email in less than a minute, never received a file I couldn't open (use openoffice and vlc), do photoshoppy stuff in GIMP. really like option to boot earlier configuration of your computer on startup if (like me) you've been fiddling about with stuff you don't fully understand and manage to screw it up.

Indeed. I like to tinker around with It. I tend to learn more from that.

 

[adrian29uk]

You could always try Linux Mint. Only heard good things about it. Its based off Ubuntu but uses Gnome 2.
Main Page - Linux Mint

I am using Ubuntu 11.04, but in classic mode as I can stand the Unity interface.

Fedora last time I used it there where a couple of things that bugged me. I could not get sopcast installed and I had a font issue. If I could have got those two issues sorted I probably would still have it installed.

 

[adrian29uk]

Switched to Ubuntu as had Smart board support (teacher). All has been good. My v cheap acer can go from off to reading email in less than a minute, never received a file I couldn't open (use openoffice and vlc), do photoshoppy stuff in GIMP. really like option to boot earlier configuration of your computer on startup if (like me) you've been fiddling about with stuff you don't fully understand and manage to screw it up.

Its good that your school allows you to use it. I wish my wifes school would be a bit more Linux friendly. They have locked down the Windows PC's so much at her school that they are at the point where they are unusable. And that's the part I don't get. They spend thousands of pounds on Windows 7, and then spend thousands of pounds on Office 10. They spend thousands of pounds on the network and Windows server only to lock it all down. Whats the point?

Also If the government took a proper look in to open source they could save an absolute fortune on lincensing.

I understand the kids need Word, Excel but I am sure Open Office / Libre Office could be written in to the sylabus without any change. But for everything else Linux is perfect.

Unfortunately there is still a lot of negativity around Linux and especially amongst admins. What a lot fail to realise is that Linux is everywhere these days. Its run a vast majority of servers, its running a vast majority of smart phones, and its used the run the worlds fastest super computers so it can't be that bad.

 

[Gafones]

Ubuntu 11.04 on laptop, pclinuxos 2011 but with lxde desktop on my ten year old compaq pentium 4. Both are dual boot with Windows.

 

[Tux the albion Penguin]

Its good that your school allows you to use it. I wish my wifes school would be a bit more Linux friendly. They have locked down the Windows PC's so much at her school that they are at the point where they are unusable. And that's the part I don't get. They spend thousands of pounds on Windows 7, and then spend thousands of pounds on Office 10. They spend thousands of pounds on the network and Windows server only to lock it all down. Whats the point?

Also If the government took a proper look in to open source they could save an absolute fortune on lincensing.

I understand the kids need Word, Excel but I am sure Open Office / Libre Office could be written in to the sylabus without any change. But for everything else Linux is perfect.

Unfortunately there is still a lot of negativity around Linux and especially amongst admins. What a lot fail to realise is that Linux is everywhere these days. Its run a vast majority of servers, its running a vast majority of smart phones, and its used the run the worlds fastest super computers so it can't be that bad.

It's one of the thing's I was thinking really as the government are always looking to save money. You'd figure the way to go forward with them would be open source.

 

[Tux the albion Penguin]

Ubuntu 11.04 on laptop, pclinuxos 2011 but with lxde desktop on my ten year old compaq pentium 4. Both are dual boot with Windows.

Just checked out that pclinuxos 2011. It looks pretty nice.

 

[beorhthelm]

Also If the government took a proper look in to open source they could save an absolute fortune on lincensing.

you'd think so wouldnt you. by engaging in Open Source project the government could kick start a whole industry with in the country, we have long been top at making games but fell behind in productivity and OS coding. we could create and support our own software, there no good reason why a government needs to buy in packaged software when the ground work is done for their own developers to tweak and tailor something to their exact specification. this applies to other major institutions, where they employ thousands in IT to support apps that dont work properly in the given pre-packaged environment. (i digress)

sadly, MS cottoned on this along time ago and offer practically free licences for schools. iirc Labour looked at forcing tenders to include open source and i know some local authorities did so. but MS went in an persuded the key players in each rebel authority that this wasnt the way forward, no doubt with a fat bulk licence for nothing for a year or two. i dont see any change from on this from the Tories, though their Google love in might lead them down the road to OSS (the reasons are pretty concerning though, dont want the NHS IT absorbed in to their servers)

 

[Tux the albion Penguin]

you'd think so wouldnt you. by engaging in Open Source project the government could kick start a whole industry with in the country, we have long been top at making games but fell behind in productivity and OS coding. we could create and support our own software, there no good reason why a government needs to buy in packaged software when the ground work is done for their own developers to tweak and tailor something to their exact specification. this applies to other major institutions, where they employ thousands in IT to support apps that dont work properly in the given pre-packaged environment. (i digress)

sadly, MS cottoned on this along time ago and offer practically free licences for schools. iirc Labour looked at forcing tenders to include open source and i know some local authorities did so. but MS went in an persuded the key players in each rebel authority that this wasnt the way forward, no doubt with a fat bulk licence for nothing for a year or two. i dont see any change from on this from the Tories, though their Google love in might lead them down the road to OSS (the reasons are pretty concerning though, dont want the NHS IT absorbed in to their servers)

I think you may be right. Google Is all for Open Source, am I correct? I'm guessing from the ChromeOS and Chromium Linux web browser.

 

[Daddies_Sauce]

I have that bastardised version version or Fedora on my Acer Aspire One also. Trouble Is It's got a crappy ssd hd. So no putting anything else on there D:

Can you not get a hard disk for it? I have a couple of the Acer one's, the HD in my sons died, so replaced the HD no problem.

 

[Tux the albion Penguin]

Can you not get a hard disk for it? I have a couple of the Acer one's, the HD in my sons died, so replaced the HD no problem.

From what I read online the cable Is alittle different that connects a SSD to a 1.8' ZIF Hard Drive. Would have to mod the cable abit I think.

 

[ArcticBlue]

Hi Geeks. I have Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (3 yrs long term support) running on my 5 yr old Macbook (1GB RAM) as it was struggling to cope with some internet related activity and my hardware could not run the latest Mac software.

Big fan of Ubuntu and would be happier if i had a better GPU as there is some nice aesthetic features you can run too. I would recommend this version for simplicity and fairly low CPU & RAM demands. Chrome works well, best (most stable) P2P software i have used in Transmission and looks nice too. Not quite as slick as Mac OS granted but waduwant for nowt.

After 5 years of Mac and Linux i could not face Windows which seems like a bloated disease infested animal ready for the nackers yard. Virus anyone?

Oh and 10.04 has never crashed on me.

Good luck.

 

[Tux the albion Penguin]

Hi Geeks. I have Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (3 yrs long term support) running on my 5 yr old Macbook (1GB RAM) as it was struggling to cope with some internet related activity and my hardware could not run the latest Mac software.

Big fan of Ubuntu and would be happier if i had a better GPU as there is some nice aesthetic features you can run too. I would recommend this version for simplicity and fairly low CPU & RAM demands. Chrome works well, best (most stable) P2P software i have used in Transmission and looks nice too. Not quite as slick as Mac OS granted but waduwant for nowt.

After 5 years of Mac and Linux i could not face Windows which seems like a bloated disease infested animal ready for the nackers yard. Virus anyone?

Oh and 10.04 has never crashed on me.

Good luck.

There are themes to make your 10.04 to look like a mac If you preferred. Even a nice little program called Docky to complete the look. Eye candy lol. I broke my Mint Distro by Installing a theme though. Probably didn't follow Instruction's down to the tee. Thank God for free OS

 

[gullshark]

I used to use Ubuntu until GNOME 3, now I use MINT... I'm just too much of a fan of apt!

 

[Tux the albion Penguin]

I used to use Ubuntu until GNOME 3, now I use MINT... I'm just too much of a fan of apt!

I'm just quite shocked really with the amount of software what Is available to be honest. I'm still learning the terminal which is proving to be a challenge but fun.

 

[Another Berkshire Seagull]

Windows 7 distro

 

[ArcticBlue]

There are themes to make your 10.04 to look like a mac If you preferred. Even a nice little program called Docky to complete the look. Eye candy lol. I broke my Mint Distro by Installing a theme though. Probably didn't follow Instruction's down to the tee. Thank God for free OS

Thanks. Do like a good looking OS although I have learned the lesson of messing with Themes, albeit on windows in the past. New themes do seem to f>>k with the OS and make it buggy.

Good on anyone using Linux. I am happy to be free from the tyranny of Microsoft. Power to your mouse!!