Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: A Linux Distro for Bee Happy  (Read 5726 times)

bigbearomaha

  • Guest
A Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« on: November 15, 2009, 01:58:41 pm »
Personally,  I would say it all depends on your total needs.  If you are more the 'typical' home user, looking for multimedia and web stuff, I would suggest that the better "out of the box" solutions to look at would be Linux Mint and PClinuxOS.

These come with the most common drivers and codecs and formats used in multimedia and on the web included without having to search through extra repositories for them.

If you don't mind 'tinkering' then using Opensuse 11.2 or even ubuntu might be a good selection (my own personal preference being opensuse) .  You will need to add a couple repositories to find those "extras" in terms of multi-meda and web codecs, formats, etc.. but it's not a deal breaker in either situation.

There are multiple versions of each distro, mostly accounting for the type of Desktop Environment you prefer.   Those Desktop Environments being KDE, Gnome or Xfce.   (the others that are out there are considered "window managers" and not quite full blown DE's)

To put it succinctly, Perhaps the most "Windows" like would be the KDE desktop, which is the 'default' desktop of PCLinuxOS and all the others offer a remaster of their distro using it  (except for OpenSuse 11.2 which has now adopted KDE 4.4 as it's 'default' but the others are very easy to find or add.

Gnome is typically most associated with the "apple' type of presentation, having two panel bars, one at the top of the window and one at the bottom.  Having said that, many Gnome based presentations now offer Gnome setup as a one bar at the bottom view.

Big Bear

Offline Bee Happy

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1656
  • Gender: Male
  • that's me - setting a phoenix free
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2009, 02:13:00 pm »
I'll go after the mint, since I was already considering it. I was hoping for a distro that would make the transition more comfortable for me so  I wouldnt have to suffer manual protocol settings every time. (stuff that is definitely beyond me now) thanks for the tip, Ive got an exam to prep for now, but I can start the download without getting tangled up too much.
be happy and make others happy.

Offline Bee Happy

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1656
  • Gender: Male
  • that's me - setting a phoenix free
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2009, 09:06:22 pm »
download went sorta smooth (there was a 1.3G version >??) it loaded onto the old desktop - but I had to overwrite the arklinux OS - there were partition commands it asked for I didn't understand they must have been important too because it wouldn't let me proceed without answering correctly, so I had to go back and authorize it to overwrite arklinux (too bad, it had some nice fun games).
be happy and make others happy.

bigbearomaha

  • Guest
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2009, 09:57:16 pm »
if it's Linux, and Mint is indeed that,  I imagine you will be able to find all or at least most of those games again.

Big Bear

Offline RayMarler

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 520
  • Gender: Male
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2009, 03:01:36 am »
I liked the looks of Mint7, but for what I wanted myself, PCLinuxOS was the ticket for me.

I've got a 500gig SATA Laptop drive in an external USB case. PCLinuxOS loaded right up with the GRUB loader on the external drive, not on the internal, so this drive should be portable to any pc that will boot to USB.

I have XP loaded into a VirtualBox window on my Linux Desktop, on that external drive.

I can boot to that drive, booting up Linux, it sees my internal drive as well. I can run my XP in a desktop window, and it sees the internal drive as well. I've got three partitions for linux that total 40 gigs and the rest is partitioned as NTFS for the XP in a window. XP in a window sees all the NTFS partitions. Linux sees all partitions.

This is going to be a great portable drive for when I give PC support calls, giving me portable bootable Linux with XP in a window, how very kewl   :-D

Offline Bee Happy

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1656
  • Gender: Male
  • that's me - setting a phoenix free
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2009, 09:52:30 am »
that fixed it bigbear - this post is my first one as a linux online user.
be happy and make others happy.

bigbearomaha

  • Guest
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2009, 10:20:11 am »
Glad to hear it.  If there's anything  I can help with, let me know.

I get along with Clem pretty well and the forum is pretty helpful too.

Big Bear

Offline Bee Happy

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1656
  • Gender: Male
  • that's me - setting a phoenix free
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2009, 10:26:00 am »
Ray I must have missed #8, helena by mere hours, I D/ld 7 yesterday and decided to give it a test this am and 8 is released
be happy and make others happy.

bigbearomaha

  • Guest
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2009, 10:37:41 am »
You can do an update to 8 easily with the package management tool APT.

Big Bear

Offline Bee Happy

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1656
  • Gender: Male
  • that's me - setting a phoenix free
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2009, 02:28:31 pm »
I think that's what I have running now; something like 250 updates. it's interesting so far, and I went right for the games, the install menu has acres of them.  I'm not going to mess about too much with it to begin with, but ultimately I wouldn't be against learning the programming language. (I have other study priorities for now though).

For anyone else interested in reviving an old computer with a free Linux operating system; after you download the one you want (this mint is the only one of 2 versions I was able to "plug and play" for getting online) when you go to burn your CD right click on the linux program and "Open with" your CD burner (I made about 4 bad arklinux disks because I was unaware of that teeny detail)
be happy and make others happy.

Offline RayMarler

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 520
  • Gender: Male
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2009, 05:35:24 am »
Here is where I go to get Linux distributions...
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major
That is a link to the top 10 distros, but you can get many many many distros there.
I dloaded quite and few, installing and testing on my external drive.
I'm not Linux familiar, I've not worked with UNIX or Linux in 15 years, and I was no expert by a long shot back then either.
But for the specific need I had, booting to external drive without any errors and not loading a boot loader on the internal drive, PCLinuxOS was the one for me. Mint was very nice, but it wanted to put the boot loader on the internal drive, and that wouldn't work for what I wanted. I'm sure If I was more fluent in Linux, I could have accomplished the wanted task with Mint or any version Linux, but I needed and wanted it to work how I needed it to, with the standard GUI interface administration and system tools.

bigbearomaha

  • Guest
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #11 on: November 17, 2009, 08:52:16 am »
Yes, you can 'manhandle" Ubuntu boot loader ( as Mint is based on Ubuntu, uses most of their tools) to a different location.  it just requires going 'the long way around) which most people especially "beginners" typically don't do, at least, that's their way of thinking.

Distrowatch is a place  I never go to anymore, haven't in a long time.  it is a place to get links but the lack of factual information and un biased information leaves a lot to be desired.  It is also quite overwhelming to folks who  see all those distros but have no idea from among those which to start with. 

There, of course, is no such thing as 'perfect' software, as people create it.  No matter how much money is thrown at it.

Similarly, there is no single perfect distro.  most of what is the 'best' distro is dependent on a given users needs, hardware and usage environment.

In other words, it's all good.  LOL 

Big Bear

Offline Bee Happy

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1656
  • Gender: Male
  • that's me - setting a phoenix free
Re: a Linux Distro for Bee Happy
« Reply #12 on: November 17, 2009, 11:42:11 am »
Yes, you can 'manhandle" Ubuntu boot loader ( as Mint is based on Ubuntu, uses most of their tools) to a different location.  it just requires going 'the long way around) which most people especially "beginners" typically don't do, at least, that's their way of thinking.

Distrowatch is a place  I never go to anymore, haven't in a long time.  it is a place to get links but the lack of factual information and un biased information leaves a lot to be desired.  It is also quite overwhelming to folks who  see all those distros but have no idea from among those which to start with. 

There, of course, is no such thing as 'perfect' software, as people create it.  No matter how much money is thrown at it.

Similarly, there is no single perfect distro.  most of what is the 'best' distro is dependent on a given users needs, hardware and usage environment.

In other words, it's all good.  LOL 

Big Bear

          This is why I've been interested for a couple years in going to linux; there's only so much you are permitted to know as a windows user and the best skill advancement ive been able to hope for without having to digest volumes of languages is "advanced mouse jockey"
be happy and make others happy.

 

anything