Which Linux?

[stefcep2]

Mandriva used to be the best Linux until KDE 4 came out.  The control centre alone was worth it, and it was fast, made Ubuntu look positively pedestrian.  I now use ubuntu 9.04, and I'm loath to upgarde to 9.10, as i finally have EVERYTHING working.  Ubuntu IS bloated, no matter what they tell you, and is no faster than Win 7.

Ubuntu 64-bit seems more hassle than its worth for the user who just wants to get on the net, email, instant message, playback and encode some medai files, and write the odd document or spread sheet.  Last time i used 64 bit Ubuntu, I found the encoding/decoding speeds were not significantly faster, and i never needed the 4 gig ram anyway, so why bother?

[stefcep2]

Ubuntu installs from a single CD (not DVD).  
We have different ideas of bloat.

And Windows 7 barely installs and runs on my PC, where Ubuntu is perfectly happy.  However, I admit my PC is old by MS standards..

desiv

Much of the stuff on a Win 7 dvd is due to drivers for hardware you don't and never will have.  And then in Linux you need to install propriatory nvidia or ati drivers, video codecs, Flash, Acrobat, a decent media player-Kaffeine I found is the best overall, my USB digital TV stick only works with it, a video editor, DVD ripper and then its not so lean any more.
Vista is a pig, but Ubuntu is no speed demon either-in fact I've seen benchmarks that its slower- than Win 7?  And the Ubuntu GUI just feels less snappy


@Karlos.  yep i learned about the LTS version after I'd spent a lot of time and effort putting 9.04 together.  I'll stick with 9.04 for as long as there are security updates.  It does everything I need.

[stefcep2]

Anyone know of a good media player that has the sort of feature os windows media player.  Just want to create an easy to view music library with album covers that will sync ass well as windows with my creative zen vision m

kaffeine, rythmbox