Best Linux os?
- Thread starter mrleemcc
- Start date
mrleemcc
Active member
Chassis & Display
Viper II: 18.4" HD+ LCD Backlit Widescreen (1680x945) Super Clear Matte
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-580M (2.66GHz) 3MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5165 - 1GB GDDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 10
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 4 in 1 Card Reader (SD, MS PRO, MMC, MS)
Network Facilities
INTEGRATED GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Battery
2 x Viper Series 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (One Spare) (£39)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1
This is my spec and can anyone see a problem with linux running on it?
Viper II: 18.4" HD+ LCD Backlit Widescreen (1680x945) Super Clear Matte
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-580M (2.66GHz) 3MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5165 - 1GB GDDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 10
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 4 in 1 Card Reader (SD, MS PRO, MMC, MS)
Network Facilities
INTEGRATED GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
Integrated V2.0 Bluetooth Adapter + EDR Capability
Battery
2 x Viper Series 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (One Spare) (£39)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND (£19)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1
This is my spec and can anyone see a problem with linux running on it?
barrydrake
Silver Level Poster
To be honest, they're all excellent these days. Clearly I promote Ubuntu because you can put it on a PC and know that the user will adapt to it almost instantly and need never even need to see a command line! It's also probably the best supported distro and the twice yearly releases keep all of us on our toes. But as I say, all the distros are good.
Kind regards, Barry.
--
Barry Drake is a member of the the Ubuntu Advertising team.
http://ubuntuadverts.org/
Kind regards, Barry.
--
Barry Drake is a member of the the Ubuntu Advertising team.
http://ubuntuadverts.org/
Mint is an excellent choice, especially the rolling Debian based version in my opinion.
Also worth a look if your wanting the most up to date, but still pretty stable, is Fedora. Updated pretty regularly and is the testing ground for RHEL devs. They're all pretty damn good these day though, as barrydrake says..
Also worth a look if your wanting the most up to date, but still pretty stable, is Fedora. Updated pretty regularly and is the testing ground for RHEL devs. They're all pretty damn good these day though, as barrydrake says..
I find Ubuntu hides things too much - in an almost Microsoft way of "daddy knows best". However this partly depends on your level of expertise and how much time you want to spend on sysadmin stuff. Mint is quite good, depending on your needs. Personally I use CentOS because I found Fedora flaky at times.
Being pedantic though, the OS is Linux. What you are asking about is which distribution. Semantics maybe....
Being pedantic though, the OS is Linux. What you are asking about is which distribution. Semantics maybe....
Agreed to an extent.. I think Ubuntu is a great starting point for a new Linux user, but it's a platform to better things. I currently run Debian on most of my servers, and have a mix of Ubuntu (with Gnome3 instead of Unity), Fedora and Mint systems for personal use.
I think all the big boys are worth checking out... an almost more useful question would be.. "Best windowing system?"
I'm a Gnome man myself having found it to be simple and stable the majority of the time. I've tried KDE but found it too Windows like and resource hungry.. I've also dabbled in a number of the other systems, but really believe Gnome and KDE to be the main options, although i think there's a space for something along the lines of the new GUI that should debut in Windows 8, Phone etc...
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Frenchy
Prolific Poster
I prefer debian based, however I do use redhat and SUSE quite a bit too. Either are very good anyway, I think to expand to the market they need to have an OS like Ubuntu that hides things, otherwise it will never become a mainstream OS for the normal user, it will very much remain as a programmers or computer know it all OS.
Gibbs
Gold Level Poster
I think Mint is good for more experienced users but if you are introducing yourself to Linux then I'd recommend Ubuntu. Ubuntu is just that bit closer to Windows in terms of ease of use.
If you are introducing a complete noob to Linux (i.e. they barely 'got' Windows too) and they have a bit of an older PC then I'd recommend something like Joli OS (http://www.jolicloud.com) as it behaves a bit like an iPad in terms of it just gives you the basics in the form of apps. Chrome, Web links, some native apps etc. and it is cloud orientated. Great for novices like my Dad for example.
If you are introducing a complete noob to Linux (i.e. they barely 'got' Windows too) and they have a bit of an older PC then I'd recommend something like Joli OS (http://www.jolicloud.com) as it behaves a bit like an iPad in terms of it just gives you the basics in the form of apps. Chrome, Web links, some native apps etc. and it is cloud orientated. Great for novices like my Dad for example.
Gibbs
Gold Level Poster
No, I've not tried MeeGo yet. I've not had any major issues yet with Joli but I've only installed it on 3 or 4 computers/laptops to date. One problem I had is that it didn't recognise that it was connected to the internet even though I could ping web sites etc. Was a bit weird but as it turned out, I updated the firmware on my wi-fi router and it sprung to life. Yet all other devices were fine with the Wi-fi on the old firmware. Was very strange but glad I got to the bottom of it.
There is supposed to be a big update coming to Joli soon too which promises to be 'very exciting' but they won't say what it is just yet..... we shall see!
There is supposed to be a big update coming to Joli soon too which promises to be 'very exciting' but they won't say what it is just yet..... we shall see!
As far as best os is concerned, linux is linux and it depends what you want.
Linux mint / ubuntu are great to get you into linux and have an install wizard that will walk you through things.
What I like is Archlinux, it is a minimal distribution giving you the option to install what you want and is a rolling release system that allows you to get updates as they are released.
They say archlinux is more for advanced users (because it doesn't have a windows manager / gui installed by default) but I only briefly used fedora at work and had no troubles starting with arch, they have a fantastic community and wiki.
Linux mint / ubuntu are great to get you into linux and have an install wizard that will walk you through things.
What I like is Archlinux, it is a minimal distribution giving you the option to install what you want and is a rolling release system that allows you to get updates as they are released.
They say archlinux is more for advanced users (because it doesn't have a windows manager / gui installed by default) but I only briefly used fedora at work and had no troubles starting with arch, they have a fantastic community and wiki.
mishra
Rising Star
For me ubuntu-server for servers, ubuntu-desktops for desktops. Can't really say much used to play with Debian, Red Hat, Solaris and a bit of Fedora but nowadays I'm just using Ubuntu mostly. It works out of the box so I can get on with stuff straight away, be it file server, web server or whatever. In short anything which is *.deb based is the "right" way to go for me.
Regarding the gui manager, all that recent Unity mess is a shame, Gnome3 is also a bit of a fail, it's strange how can you make something good = Gnome2, worse by making Gnome3. KDE well funny enough I'm liking it.. but the gui im using is Xfce cause its lightweight and just right for me. Can't say much since I'm using linux mostly at work and 99% of time its putty/SSH anyway so not that concerned about gui's.
Regarding the gui manager, all that recent Unity mess is a shame, Gnome3 is also a bit of a fail, it's strange how can you make something good = Gnome2, worse by making Gnome3. KDE well funny enough I'm liking it.. but the gui im using is Xfce cause its lightweight and just right for me. Can't say much since I'm using linux mostly at work and 99% of time its putty/SSH anyway so not that concerned about gui's.
I would recommend Ubuntu if your new to Linux it is a fantastic distribution. There is an amazing community behind the OS "Ubuntu forms" is an amazing resource you can get help with anything. The software centre is incredibly helpful for applications, just try installing applications on OpenSuse 
Also there are many ways to play Mp3's and DVD's so it can easily replace Windows or OSX.
While Mint is good the help is not as readily available as Ubuntu. Try multi booting various distributions I would recommend booting Ubuntu, Mint, OpenSuse - leaving one space for Windows or OSX
I absolutely love OpenSuse and Ubuntu.
OpenSuse is not as simple as Ubuntu tp download apps and make alterations but it's incredibly nice to use. Gnome 3 is much better than Unity and the UI just seems so clean and professional
Be wary when installing your OS's make sure Ubuntu goes last, other distribution boot loaders have a habit of removing Ubuntu I found and messing around with boot loaders when you don't know what your doing can be dangerous.
Good luck
Also there are many ways to play Mp3's and DVD's so it can easily replace Windows or OSX. While Mint is good the help is not as readily available as Ubuntu. Try multi booting various distributions I would recommend booting Ubuntu, Mint, OpenSuse - leaving one space for Windows or OSX
I absolutely love OpenSuse and Ubuntu.
OpenSuse is not as simple as Ubuntu tp download apps and make alterations but it's incredibly nice to use. Gnome 3 is much better than Unity and the UI just seems so clean and professional
Be wary when installing your OS's make sure Ubuntu goes last, other distribution boot loaders have a habit of removing Ubuntu I found and messing around with boot loaders when you don't know what your doing can be dangerous.
Good luck