The *nix cat fight thread. No, I really just want opinions ;-)

[redrumloa]

Due to certain issues I have less and less booted into SUSE and mostly just used my comfortable but at times frustrating XP install. I need to re-evaluate my distro of choice. The plan is to likely swear off M$ for good on my main box. If Apple would just release a damn retail version of OSX. Since they aren't yet, it's probably gonna have to be a Linux flavour.

I'm looking for a distro firmly intended for standard desktop use. I have always used SUSE and am pretty familiar with it, YAST works pretty well. Is there a better one for a desktop? Web install would probably be prefered. Documentation is a HUGE plus. I'd say I am a medium experienced Linux user. Not a total newbie, but not l33t ;-)

Thoughts? I am still leaning towards SUSE since I am so familar with it, but am open to any other as long as it's well documented and has a fairly straight forward install.

Final question. Is there yet any Active-X compatible modules for Konquerer or Mozilla?

[Tomas]

I recommend ubuntu. It is pretty userfriendly and use the debian apt packet manager, which is superior to yast in my opinion. The install cd is also a live cd, which means you can see how it works before deciding to install it. For me it found and configured all my hardware correctly.

There are 2 flavors of ubuntu.. The one called ubuntu is a gnome centred distro while you have one called kubuntu which is centered around kde. They are identical with the exception of what window manager they mainly support.

[dillinger]

it's on the tip of everyone's tongue: http://www.ubuntu.com/  :-)

really is an amazing distro based on Debian.

EDIT: there you go, Tomas beat me to it! ;-)

[redrumloa]

Nice laid out site, everything simple, easy to read and navigate. I'm taking a look atm. Thanks!

[InTheSand]

Another vote here for Ubuntu, using it at the moment, and have had it on my server PC since the 5.x releases (used to use Fedora/Red Hat before that, then Mandrake before that, and originally Slackware).

Great OS, fantastic "one-click" repository of tonnes of software, and the multimedia CODECs, etc, are just a few steps away (search for "Automatix" and "Easy Ubuntu" for scripts that install the essentials automatically - including the multimedia stuff, wine, Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer, DVD player, etc).

And coupled with the free VMWare Server, it makes a great AROS testing platform!

 - Ali

[TheMagicM]

Ubuntu/Kubuntu is for linux noobs.. give that a shot.

[koaftder]

I'm tossing in another vote for Ubuntu.

It's friendly to new users but it's just another *nix like all the rest. It comes with synaptic package manager which makes finding and installing stuff a breeze.

The only time I don't use ubuntu is when i don't want a desktop, in that case i usually reach for netbsd or a minimal debian install.

Ubuntu on the macintosh is also very nice, i have 2 minis runing ubuntu. It's significantly faster than osx on the minis.  

[Colani1200]

Time to say goodbye to Suse anyway (see here). :angry:

Ubuntu is a nice distro indeed. Genereally, I'd prefer FreeBSD, but I have to admit that it is not that noob friendly and requires rather a lot of work to set up a nice desktop machine. With Ubuntu, it's just a matter of 3-4 clicks.

[keropi]

I once tried to replace XP with linux on my 2nd pc...
unfortunatelly, linus needs lots of tweaking, and misses some key software, like a NORMAL painting program, like paintingshop pro... I have tested many, I got opinions from linux dedicated forums, but nothing. all it's paint progs are photoshop clones. bah.
So I am back to XP with it's huge software base.

[adolescent]

Stick with SUSE, version 10.1 is great.  

I needed a distro that would support all of the ACPI my laptop needs, and SUSE was the only one that did it out of the box without adding kernel modules, recompiling, etc.  All I needed to add was NDISWrapper for my wifi card and I was done.

[Piru]

@redrumloa

I personally prefer debian myself (ubuntu and friends are based on it).

Is there yet any Active-X compatible modules for Konquerer or Mozilla?

No. You can run IE under linux though: ies4linux

With this you can use IE itself for the specific pages requiring ActiveX crap.

[redrumloa]

Piru wrote:
@redrumloa

Is there yet any Active-X compatible modules for Konquerer or Mozilla?

No. You can run IE under linux though: ies4linux

With this you can use IE itself for the specific pages requiring ActiveX crap.

Sweet, thanks :-D

[redrumloa]

@keropi

I actually prefer Linux over XP, but there were a few very key features I was struggling without.

@all

Since I am getting some fantastic feedback here, what about windowable TV software with WORKING closed caption support and recording capability?

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Colani1200 wrote:
Time to say goodbye to Suse anyway (see here). :angry:

Ubuntu is a nice distro indeed. Genereally, I'd prefer FreeBSD, but I have to admit that it is not that noob friendly and requires rather a lot of work to set up a nice desktop machine. With Ubuntu, it's just a matter of 3-4 clicks.

I think the only noob friendly way is Slackware (+ a big Linux book).
Because it forces you to learn the setup of Linux.
If things go wrong at least you can find out yourself. Else you have to be lucky to find a topic on the net wich is about your problem. And you'll probably spend too much time on repairing your problem and you'll learn not much about it.

[KThunder]

noobs noobies... heh! heh heh heh hahaha!!
sorry just sounds umm funny

ubantu is good id say slackware is better though. i used to use redhat a real lot.