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Subject : Re: LUG: Linux Flavors and help for a novice

From : Gerald Sears <gwsears@unity.ncsu.[redacted]>

Date : Sat, 24 Sep 2005 21:20:00 -0400

Parent

I'd like to try out both, and will give Ubuntu a try with CDs being
offered. Anyone willing to burn a disc or two of Gentoo? I can offer
blanks of CDs or DVDs, but as I said before I've not gotten downloading
and burning software configured properly on my own system so I can't
really do it myself.

Thanks for the help

Gerald Sears

Alex Marten wrote:

>Personally I would recommend trying out Ubuntu. It has great hardware
>support out of the box, I have run it on some really weird setups and
>it has always supported the hardware. In my case I just prefer the
>debian family.
>
>Ubuntu has a great live cd which you can always try out to see if they
>support your hardware by default. Most times it will, which is great,
>after nearly a decade of linux use I am really tired of compiling my
>own kernels.
>
>I have a stack of Ubuntu produced cd packs (live cd and install cd)
>that they sent me sitting in my office on campus. If you would like
>one just send me an email. Actually this goes for anyone.
>
>On 9/24/05, Ed Anderson <nilbus@nilbus.[redacted]> wrote:
>
>
>>I wouldn't really recommend Slackware or Redhat. One distro that a lot
>>of people have had a lot of success with recently is Ubuntu. From what
>>I hear, it has great hardware support. It's based on debian and uses
>>apt for a package manager. Honestly, I've never used it, but I only
>>hear good things about it. ;-)
>>
>>The distro I use at home is Gentoo Linux. Gentoo is probably a bit
>>different than what you're used to, but it's very good. The biggest
>>difference is that every package you install is compiled from scratch
>>when you install it by the package manager Portage. This gets rid of
>>virtually all the dependancy problems that other distros have (like how
>>you were saying stuff needed GTK but thought it was not there or the
>>wrong version). Also, there is no installer for Gentoo (well, except a
>>testing version that may or may not work). Instead, you follow a guide
>>called the Gentoo Handbook, which walks you through the entire
>>installation process. It guides you through doing things such as
>>setting up your partitions, the kernel, grub, etc by hand. In other
>>words, it takes a lot of time, and you learn a whole lot by doing it.
>>In the end, (in my opinion) it's one of the best distros out there.
>>Getting your hardware working will probably just require configuring
>>your kernel correctly and installing the right packages.
>>
>>Both of these distros are very well documented and have a large user
>>community. I recommend one of these, depending on what you feel
>>comfortable with. I hope this helps. :-)
>>
>>Ed Anderson
>>
>>Brolly Ferret wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Hello all
>>>
>>>Well this semester I'm torn between showing up to lug meetings and Taas,
>>>well not really, anime wins for me.
>>>
>>>Anyhoo, My IBM laptop recently lost its systemboard so to replace it I
>>>got a 300 buck linspire desktop. Hated Linspire and dumped it for
>>>Slackware 10.1.
>>>
>>>Well my problem is configuring my hardware for slackware as well as
>>>getting JRE, python, bittorrent, and several other software packages to
>>>install right. Running into a lot of points where the rpms or makes are
>>>giving me that they want gtk or other softs that I know are installed.
>>>
>>>The hardware that I'm having trouble configuring is my logitech MX 700
>>>wireless mouse, my printer/scanner a HP PSC 1610, and a Pioneer USB DVD
>>>Burner. I also have a keyboard with extra multimedia keys but that I
>>>think I can get configured on my own.
>>>
>>>I do have a cd burner/dvd combo drive that is internal as well, but
>>>haven't figured out how to get the software to burn anything on it
>>>configured (and bittorrent would be useful in getting the isos anyway).
>>>
>>>I'd like to upgrade to the current version of Slackware, or to a current
>>>Redhat version as well.
>>>
>>>Just wondering if anyone has any help/advice/mojo they could share with
>>>me. I don't have any major data on this machine yet that I can't
>>>replace or stand losing so I'm open to trying other flavors of linux as
>>>well.
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>Gerald Sears
>>>
>>>
>
>
>--
>Alex Marten
>alex.marten@gmail.[redacted]
>
>
>


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