Please post here new or opinions of OS versions.
tracker.

Hi all, hope to have good input and opinions of OS that you like?
tracker

I tried Ubuntu but it didn't play nice with my network. I have since changed my router so it may be fun to try it again. If you've never seen it "Ubuntu Ultimate Edition" is interesting.

I use Puppy Linux on a more regular basis. There are many different flavors of Puppy known as Puplets that people have customized. You burn the version of puppy to a disc and then boot from it. Once you get past the initial setup you have a windows-like os running solely from the cd which is very responsive even on old equipment. Mac Pup has a mac feel to it. Retro Pup has a bunch of old school puppy OSs on it for old equipment. EduPup is for toddlers.

I still use XP, and Windows 7 for everyday use. A few puppy disks are good to have on hand for testing computer equipment or to breathe life back into defunct computers.

Recently I installed edupup on a laptop with a 233mhz cpu and 64mb of ram. The cd drive was dead and I was having a bear of a time getting an OS on the thing but didn't want to throw it away. I put the drive in another computer, installed edupup to it, put the drive back in the elderly laptop and gave it to a local daycare.

I originally heard about puppy from someone who investigates billing fraud. People using windows passwords think their crime is safe. He pops in puppy, ignores windows altogether and goes straight to their files. Busted.

I primarily use Ubuntu because it seems to have the best driver support, and the fact that I like aptitude. The start up time since 9.04 has dramatically improved, and from what I hear and have seen with the Alpha version of 10.04, it will be even faster.

At work we use CentOS on one server, Ubuntu on several others, and Windows on a few others...along with desktop versions of Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux. We're working on a VMWare server that we'll be able to install just about every OS on for troubleshooting and testing purposes.

Avg1joe, have you looked into BackTrack?

I tried Ubuntu but it didn't play nice with my network. I have since changed my router so it may be fun to try it again. If you've never seen it "Ubuntu Ultimate Edition" is interesting.

I use Puppy Linux on a more regular basis. There are many different flavors of Puppy known as Puplets that people have customized. You burn the version of puppy to a disc and then boot from it. Once you get past the initial setup you have a windows-like os running solely from the cd which is very responsive even on old equipment. Mac Pup has a mac feel to it. Retro Pup has a bunch of old school puppy OSs on it for old equipment. EduPup is for toddlers.

I still use XP, and Windows 7 for everyday use. A few puppy disks are good to have on hand for testing computer equipment or to breathe life back into defunct computers.

Recently I installed edupup on a laptop with a 233mhz cpu and 64mb of ram. The cd drive was dead and I was having a bear of a time getting an OS on the thing but didn't want to throw it away. I put the drive in another computer, installed edupup to it, put the drive back in the elderly laptop and gave it to a local daycare.

I originally heard about puppy from someone who investigates billing fraud. People using windows passwords think their crime is safe. He pops in puppy, ignores windows altogether and goes straight to their files. Busted.

Ok, I will do some reading about Puppy and even try it if I can find a bootable ISO? Your right abount the networking. I guess I would have to do a HDD install to get things working?

I primarily use Ubuntu because it seems to have the best driver support, and the fact that I like aptitude. The start up time since 9.04 has dramatically improved, and from what I hear and have seen with the Alpha version of 10.04, it will be even faster.

At work we use CentOS on one server, Ubuntu on several others, and Windows on a few others...along with desktop versions of Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux. We're working on a VMWare server that we'll be able to install just about every OS on for troubleshooting and testing purposes.

Avg1joe, have you looked into BackTrack?

If you see 10.04 out somewhere, please let me know!
BackTrack, no but I will look for it.
To tell you straight, I never knew that other OS were out and available free.
Goes to show the power of ads.

Tried Puppy today. It's ok but I find the interface is not very slick. Unutbu has more of a Windows feel. I understand that Unutbu is based on Debian. I might try that next? I see so many others out there as well so still doing research before burning a stack of CD's.
iwc5893, I did a little reading on BackTrack but still don't quite ubderstand what it is? If you could give me a "nutshell" picture, I may give it a try.

I use Ubuntu 64bit here and dual boot with windows 7 64bit and I have to say I do not know why I bothered to include Win7 as I never use it any more. With VWplayer I have instant access to my OSX 10.4 and Win7 and runs faster then the original boxes.

Ubuntu supports my DVB-S2 PCI card as native, so no messy drivers to load (still can not get it working on Win7) I can just watch satellite HD TV with it in full 1920x1080 on the TV and PC via the dvi output.

The only thing I hate is .. well .. nothing. It all just works.

BackTrack is essentially a "Live CD" (it can be booted up from the disk without changing the hard drive contents), and is used as a recovery/forensic/troubleshooting system. It is not designed as a desktop system.

The final version of 10.04 will not be released until late April, but you can download testing versions (Alpha and the Beta/RC versions when they become available) by going here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidReleaseSchedule. The Alpha2 version had a boot time of less than 15 seconds, and I've heard rumors that Canonical is aiming for a 10 second or less start up time.

I use Mint Linux on my netbook. I love it.

I use Mint Linux on my netbook. I love it.
I used to use on my old Atari back in the 1980's (smile) a great distro.

Which puppy did you try? 4.3.1? Puppy's emphasis is on being small, and fast, not slick. Of course some puplets have a fair amount of bling which slows them down. There are versions of puppy being built from Ubuntu and Debian as well. It is all about finding one that works for you. Some of the puppys I like. Some I don't.

I have not tried backtrack. I don't test security for a company and am not a hacker. Not sure why else I would try it.

Edit: Started this post before you posted again. That boot time sounds impressive.

I downloaded the latest version of Puppy, can't remember which one it was. Have the disk and will have to look.
Right now I'm on SLAX, USB.version, will try a few, log the ones I like then burn disks.
Slax seems to be more of a build your own type of software but fast I tell you!!
Next to try is Fedora, Debian and Mint, and any other that anyone would like to suggest?

Not to quote everyone but lots of great info and suggestions. Thanks all!

joncl, like your DVB-S2 PCI card I see. I'm wondering if I should go that we or get a box?? Are you driving a BUD actuator with it?

I'm downloading Mint via Torrent right now and will give it a try.
Not having much luck finding a Fedora USB download site? Can anyone help?

I'm downloading Mint via Torrent right now and will give it a try.
Not having much luck finding a Fedora USB download site? Can anyone help?

You aren't missing anything by not finding a Fedora distro.

Tracker, what are you looking for in your distro? That may help us in pointing you to something that will fit your needs, especially since there are so many different distros out there.

I installed Ubuntu 7 ( Hardy Heron edition) and it would not work my wireless so i dint use it much as the laptop was dual boot with Vista. Well Vista crashed at the last update so I went to Ubuntu and updated to 9.04 and that works my wireless. So I never looked back. Still missing half my HD that has vista but no biggie it will be replaced in 6 months anyway. Wanted to buy a new one but none of the big names offer Ubuntu only Windoze. I am in no way a computer guru but I love Ubuntu and will never go back to Windoze.

I installed Ubuntu 7 ( Hardy Heron edition) and it would not work my wireless so i dint use it much as the laptop was dual boot with Vista. Well Vista crashed at the last update so I went to Ubuntu and updated to 9.04 and that works my wireless. So I never looked back. Still missing half my HD that has vista but no biggie it will be replaced in 6 months anyway. Wanted to buy a new one but none of the big names offer Ubuntu only Windoze. I am in no way a computer guru but I love Ubuntu and will never go back to Windoze.

The issue with older Distro and newer ones are Atheros driver support.

Wanted to buy a new one but none of the big names offer Ubuntu only Windoze. I am in no way a computer guru but I love Ubuntu and will never go back to Windoze.

Dell offers Ubuntu on computers they sell, but you have to search for Ubuntu on Dell's site to find them. There was an issue a while back where people were buying Ubuntu laptops and didn't realize it, then they called into complain that their Windows wasn't working.

I've also heard good things about System76, which builds the computers with Ubuntu installed, but they are in no way a big name yet.

Tracker, what are you looking for in your distro? That may help us in pointing you to something that will fit your needs, especially since there are so many different distros out there.

I guess what I'm looking for is something that comes the closest to Windows XP.
Right now I'm trying whatever I can find that loads onto a USB stick as not to waste disks. Unutbu so far seems to be it but I have only tried a couple.
Any suggestions would be welcomed.

I'm a little confused by that. Why do you want it to resemble XP? One of the hardest things for me to learn (and it wasn't really that hard) was that Linux is NOT Windows. Things are different, and once you accept that fact, you will be better able to decide what you want from your Linux distro and it will make your transition a lot less painful.

That being said, if you're looking for a Linux distro to get yourself acquainted with Linux in general, Ubuntu is a very good choice. My 62 year old mother made the switch from Windows to Ubuntu about 18 months ago, and hasn't looked back since.

Linux Online - Distributions and FTP Sites (http://www.linux.org/dist/) has a filterable list of Linux distributions that you may want to take a look at.

Still missing half my HD

Hyperguy, I believe if you boot up with your ubuntu cd you can resize the ubuntu partition to to cover what used to be your vista partition. Definately do a little more research before doing it on my say-so but it may be easier than you think.

Well I just put Debian on a USB and runs pretty smooth. I think I will burn this one and try it from a disk next.
I'm having issues seeing my drives saying it cannot mount them but I think if I load to a hard drive, that may take care of things?
It found my network easily! I like the fact that that these Linux systems detect things easily without having to jump thru hoops.
iwc5893, the reason I stated that I was looking for something close to XP is like you said. The fact that I'm using that now and have to get used to other systems. As you can see I'm just starting to look into this Linux thing. So far I like what I see!!
Running fast now with a clean start. Do things slow down as apps get loaded up?

It will slow down just a little bit, but not nearly as much as with Windows, and only if you have several apps open at once. Linux tends to be very frugal with system resources, and as a result will run decently on machines with as little as 256MB of RAM.

In addition, disk fragmentation is not an issue with Linux, especially with the ext4 file system.

The one spot that Linux lags behind Microsoft is in video games, but it has improved over the past couple of years.

Hyperguy, I believe if you boot up with your ubuntu cd you can resize the ubuntu partition to to cover what used to be your vista partition. Definately do a little more research before doing it on my say-so but it may be easier than you think.

GParted is included on the LiveCD, and will do that with ease but you will lose any data on that partition. A few mouse clicks and a few minutes is all it takes.

My goodness, I have been looking for hours for a Debian 5 Live CD ISO and can't seem to have any luck? I found the USB ok!
All I'm finding, the links are no longer working?
Could someone post a link if they run across one. I think a Gnome version is what I'm looking for but I really don't know the difference just know that one works on my USB.
Thanks,, tracker.

Bittorrent would be the best solution for that, Index of /debian-cd/5.0.4/i386/bt-cd (http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.4/i386/bt-cd/)

The problem (and it's not really a problem except in your case) is that Debian doesn't really have a true LiveCD. They have the NetInstall and Business Card CD's, but you have to be connected to the internet to download most of the additional packages.

Oh, I saw this where it said you can download a small package and the install the rest via internet. Is this what you are reffering too? If that the case the internet works fine as I am using it right now on Debian USB version.

Boy, Debian don't make things easy to get thier software.
Strange how they offer a USB live version but not a CD or DVD?
I guess they want you to load it in hopes that you will stick with them??
I'll burn CD (ISO 1) and see where that takes me??

Boy, Debian don't make things easy to get thier software.
Strange how they offer a USB live version but not a CD or DVD?


You're not looking hard enough.

tracker1998
Check out PCLinuxOS, you may like it, or Mepis 8

Bob

I'm diggin'!!
Give up for today.
Thanks all!

i use ubuntu for most stuff but i also use puppy on a thumb drive so if i have to use someone else's computer i can boot up in linux and not wait or have problems with their usually slow and possibly unsecure computer
i also love slackware for its unsurpassed stability, but it is a very complicated distro
the only windows box i still use on the net has xp on it and it is just used for magic jack (for my telephone) they are supposed to be coming out with linux support in the first quarter of this year, then it will get ubuntu or slackware
i still have another computer using xp, but it never gets hooked up to the internet, it is just for protools and adobe audition (multi-track music recording programs for musicians)

GParted is included on the LiveCD, and will do that with ease but you will lose any data on that partition. A few mouse clicks and a few minutes is all it takes.

I thought GPartEd could resize anything non-destructively? I know it worked with my NTFS partitions.

I thought GPartEd could resize anything non-destructively? I know it worked with my NTFS partitions.

It can, but there is always a risk when working with partitions. I've never lost any data yet, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

Found a neat free program today called MobaLiveCD.
It starts a live ISO from your hard drive or a bootable stick.
I tried it from within Windows so I'm not sure if it works in Linux?
It was very slow when I tried it but this PC is not fast to start with.
I may try it in another machine some other time?
I just thought it was a great way to try an ISO file without burning disks and then not liking the program and wasting that disk.

My favorite Linux distro is Cent OS

Well I tried PCLinuxOS and Mepis today. I might try Cent?
I now have 7-8 live disks (programs) to explore a bit more in depth and see which one is more to my liking before I load one to a HDD.
I want to thank you all for your suggestions and input.
tracker.

The PS3 runs Yellowdog.
The media PC (and my other PCs) are on 14Karat Linux :D :D :D (my personal variant of Fedora 10 currently.)
I have used Ubuntu (and other Debs), Mandrake, Mandriva, SUSE, Knoppix, Slackware, Gentoo, Linspire, Freespire... and some others I can't recall currently.
Settled down with Fedora and made it do everything I need it to. Dropped my XP partitions and never looked back.
Not sure what the "you're not missing much" comment about Fedora was earlier - I guess I don't know what I'm missing.
I've been running various Linux distros since the late 90's. Aside from a few driver issues here and there, I think they are all equivalent - just depends on what you want them to do.
For a Windows user coming to Linux, they don't see Linux... they see X in whichever environment that was chosen...so, Gnome or KDE (or the few other lesser knowns out there.)
For some, Linux has too many choices and they don't like that... but that's what I do like about it...

The media PC is a 4-core AMD Phenom. 8GB RAM. Twin 1T SATA drives (hoping to expand to 4 drives & RAID 5.)
Dual Head NVidia. Dual OTA Tuners. Twin dual-layer DVD burners.
It just works...

Someone was asking about an XP variant?? Maybe try Darkstar - it was touted to be similar to XP... if it's even still around...

Eww... looks like Darkstar hasn't been updated in a couple years... it may be a dead one? But... hey - that makes it more like XP, right?

DARKSTAR Linux Project | Secure and Easy to use! (http://www.darkstarlinux.ro/en)

In addition to Ubuntu, I'm a fan of openSUSE and CrunchBang Linux - A nimble Openbox Linux distro (http://crunchbanglinux.org/) . Crunchbang is a very minimal distro, the current version of which is based on Ubuntu. The developers have moved to Debian as a base for the upcoming release, though.