Which One?

13-11-2005, 19:41

I am looking to download a copy of the linux OS.

But I need advice on which one as there are so many of them out there.

I will be using it on a pc which will be used to browse the net and other general pc use.

any advice will be great. (Link will be even better)

ikthius · 13-11-2005, 20:29

I prefer Suse. i find it is more like windows better look and feel. easier to upload and install programs.

I have tried:
Suse 9.3
Kubuntu
Ubuntu
Mandrake (now mandriva)

ik

13-11-2005, 20:40

Any chance you got a link where I can download it from?

I've been searching but there are so many different versions and they all seem to charge for it????

Wicked_and_Crazy · 13-11-2005, 20:45

i downloaded Knoppix a few weeks back. Haven't used it much but i was pretty impressed with it. You can run it from the bootable CD so theres no need to install if you just want to try it

spiderplant · 13-11-2005, 21:19

I use RedHat. It's a bit bloaty, but it does the job.

http://fedora.redhat.com/download/

13-11-2005, 21:30

when u say bloaty what do you mean?

Wicked_and_Crazy · 13-11-2005, 21:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by acoolwelshbloke

when u say bloaty what do you mean?

fat. contains a lot that you dont need and hence takes up disk space

13-11-2005, 22:58

I am in the progress of putting my 10MB broadband to good use and i'm downloading mandriva, although the screen shots ain't that impressive I wanna give it a try. I am also downloading SUSE as it does have a windows look about it an I intend to try that out after mandriva.

What about my system drivers should my system install without any problem?

I have all the original drivers etc for the system I intend installing it on but I guess it ain't going to be as easy as that, or am I wrong?

14-11-2005, 10:02

Well ok, I have got Linux mandriva and suse pro 9.3 and have tried them both although I think Suse is looking better to me but now I have decided to do this.

I want to dual boot so I am going to partion my HDD in to two sections, I.E. C & D so do I install XP Pro first on partion C? As it is going to be my main operating system and then install Suse?

Bez · 14-11-2005, 12:08

i like suse! seems to install easy and works well and smooth!!

ikthius · 14-11-2005, 12:38

suse

ik

Aragorn · 14-11-2005, 13:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by acoolwelshbloke

Well ok, I have got Linux mandriva and suse pro 9.3 and have tried them both although I think Suse is looking better to me but now I have decided to do this. I want to dual boot so I am going to partion my HDD in to two sections, I.E. C & D so do I install XP Pro first on partion C? As it is going to be my main operating system and then install Suse?

One small point here -
When you partition your disk, create the Windows partition as NTFS, a small (100Mb?) FAT32 'transfer' partition and leave the rest of the disk un-partitioned. The Linux install will use the un-partitioned space to add the EXT3 & Swap linux partitions. Most Linuxes can't write to NTFS & some need a driver to read, but you should be able to read & write to FAT32 from both Windows & Linux

Personally, I have tried ubuntu & Fedora (FC4) and Fedora has stayed, so far.

14-11-2005, 16:24

Well that did not go to plan!

I formated my 160gig drive so that there was C = 120gig and D = 40gig, I formated partion C as NTFS and installed windows xp on it and left partion D unformated.

When I installed linux it did not install it on the unformatted space it automatically re-partioned drive C, reduced the part windows was on to 40gig and created two more partions one using 10gig and which had linux put on it and the other partion was around the remainder of the space????????

Drive D or the partion I created called D was left untouched????????

It all worked though when I chose windows windows booted up and worked and vice versa I just did not like the way it setup the partions on my drive!

So I reformatted my HDD in to 1 partion C, and re-installed xp!

Aragorn · 14-11-2005, 16:34

It depends on the distro how they handle partitioning, eg Ubuntu's default mode is to blow away Windows (expert mode was more Windows friendly) and Fedora allowed me to specify which area of disk to use. I'm impressed that Suse was able to shrink an NTFS partition! Fedora has a partition manager on the CD, but I didn't dare try resizing my Windows partition.

Graham M · 14-11-2005, 16:39

Right, when you install everything, create your xgb Windows partition and leave the rest of the disk empty, then goto install Linux and it should satisfacotrily create the required partitions.