Gaming Linux?

[Zarkz]

I wanted to download linux, but there are soooooooo many distrobutions, I dont know which to get!
Halp?

 

[Strider]

Just start with ubuntu, it's very beginner-friendly, clean and features good hardware support.

 

[Zarkz]

k, I also d/l'd mandriva, my bro and cousin like that one, but they arent here right now

 

[UltraMagnus]

both ubuntu and mandriva are easy to use, although personally i prefer ubuntu because it tends to have better hardware compatibility/detection.

just stay away from opensuse, gentoo, and slackware and you should be fine these days though....

 

[Zamo]

Lifehacker - Battle of the Distros
Shows some of the pros and cons of each distro.

 

[FAST6191]

I say screw all the comparisons, if you have more than 3* bits of hardware that do not work it is not the one for you.

*adjust according to personal preference and seriousness (an old TV encoder is probably less important than your sound card)

Still I have tangled with and liked
Linux mint, many will advocate ubuntu but this is ubuntu with the fun stuff left in it.
puppy linux, works on just about everything. Once you have the original running try some of the alt versions.
Several others but I would save those for later.

Also:
distrowatch:
http://distrowatch.com/
Intro to linux file system and choices:
http://lowfatlinux.com/

 

[TLSpartan]

I say screw all the comparisons, if you have more than 3* bits of hardware that do not work it is not the one for you.

*adjust according to personal preference and seriousness (an old TV encoder is probably less important than your sound card)

Still I have tangled with and liked
Linux mint, many will advocate ubuntu but this is unbuntu with the fun stuff left in it.
puppy linux, works on just about everything. Once you have the original running try some of the alt versions.
Several others but I would save those for later.

Also:
distrowatch:
http://distrowatch.com/
Intro to linux file system and choices:
http://lowfatlinux.com/

Linux Mint is also known as making Ubuntu even worse by adding in non GPL stuff. I would suggest trying out Debian (Ubuntu and a lot of other distros are based on Debian). I would suggest testing(AKA Lenny) but every now and then that does have problems but that is expected and for a first timer that is never good so grab stable(AKA Etch). I have been meaning to try out Slackware but have not gotten around to it.

 

[laminaatplaat]

I say screw all the comparisons, if you have more than 3* bits of hardware that do not work it is not the one for you.

*adjust according to personal preference and seriousness (an old TV encoder is probably less important than your sound card)

Still I have tangled with and liked
Linux mint, many will advocate ubuntu but this is unbuntu with the fun stuff left in it.
puppy linux, works on just about everything. Once you have the original running try some of the alt versions.
Several others but I would save those for later.

Also:
distrowatch:
http://distrowatch.com/
Intro to linux file system and choices:
http://lowfatlinux.com/

Linux Mint is also known as making Ubuntu even worse by adding in non GPL stuff. I would suggest trying out Debian (Ubuntu and a lot of other distros are based on Debian). I would suggest testing(AKA Lenny) but every now and then that does have problems but that is expected and for a first timer that is never good so grab stable(AKA Etch). I have been meaning to try out Slackware but have not gotten around to it.

Do you really think that the rom downloading, console modifying and windows using people care about GPL? Mint is the one distro that just works out of the box on most systems and that is thé way to get new people into the linux world that dont have alot of time to fuck around with "building their own OS". Or searching for ways to get a simple youtube movie/ dvd movie/ mp3 file/ mouse/ soundcard/ etc. working. You gotta give Mint credit for that, I think.

 

[TLSpartan]

I say screw all the comparisons, if you have more than 3* bits of hardware that do not work it is not the one for you.

*adjust according to personal preference and seriousness (an old TV encoder is probably less important than your sound card)

Still I have tangled with and liked
Linux mint, many will advocate ubuntu but this is unbuntu with the fun stuff left in it.
puppy linux, works on just about everything. Once you have the original running try some of the alt versions.
Several others but I would save those for later.

Also:
distrowatch:
http://distrowatch.com/
Intro to linux file system and choices:
http://lowfatlinux.com/

Linux Mint is also known as making Ubuntu even worse by adding in non GPL stuff. I would suggest trying out Debian (Ubuntu and a lot of other distros are based on Debian). I would suggest testing(AKA Lenny) but every now and then that does have problems but that is expected and for a first timer that is never good so grab stable(AKA Etch). I have been meaning to try out Slackware but have not gotten around to it.

Do you really think that the rom downloading, console modifying and windows using people care about GPL? Mint is the one distro that just works out of the box on most systems and that is thé way to get new people into the linux world that dont have alot of time to fuck around with "building their own OS". Or searching for ways to get a simple youtube movie/ dvd movie/ mp3 file/ mouse/ soundcard/ etc. working. You gotta give Mint credit for that, I think.

Does everybody who pirates uses Linux? Building their own OS you say? Inserting a disk and chaging a few repo's and some other minor modifications must be a huge overhaul in your books then, changing the DE must be impossible for you then. Youtube can work fine using gnash, I could play DVD's as soon as I installed Debian as well as mp3's, my mouse works fine, and alot of soundcards are supported. Going to google and searching "my sound card linux driver" must be impossible as well for you. Most major distro's work on most systems as well.

 

[FAST6191]

Does linux mint add in non GPL stuff now? (every user level distro I have seen has graphics card modules or similar stuff in the repositories/ in a nudge nudge wink wink manner), all I know is it decided software patents were pointless for the full version (and it a good chunk of the world they do not exist) and decided to go from there. Also see laminaatplaat's answer.

edit: was a bit late in hitting reply.
That is fine for most but for the initial getting used to the file system and the slightly different way things are done (far worse than entirely different in my world) I would rather have something that more or less does it all and then branch into tweaking stuff.

 

[TLSpartan]

Does linux mint add in non GPL stuff now? (every user level distro I have seen has graphics card modules or similar stuff in the repositories/ in a nudge nudge wink wink manner), all I know is it decided software patents were pointless for the full version (and it a good chunk of the world they do not exist) and decided to go from there. Also see laminaatplaat's answer.

edit: was a bit late in hitting reply.
That is fine for most but for the initial getting used to the file system and the slightly different way things are done (far worse than entirely different in my world) I would rather have something that more or less does it all and then branch into tweaking stuff.

The Universal Edition has no proprietary software in it but the Main Edition does. What do you mean by getting used to the filesystem (worst I have done is name things with characters Windows cant display)?

 

[enarky]

[Ahem, I just had a Déjà Vu, I might be posting this into every such topic, but...]

I've been using Ubuntu since 6.06 and like it very much. No idea about that Linux Mint, but unless you have two right hands (*) you can easily install all the "unsupported third party software" by following the tutorials on http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ and http://www.ubuntuguide.org/.

*) in this case Linux (or Computers in general) aren't for you, anyways.

 

[FAST6191]

re: file system. It took a bit of getting used to for me to find sticks in mnt/sda1 and what have you as opposed to a drive letter, the layout of the places the programs were installed (it has been "program files" since windows 95 after all), the concept of users actually being worth something (granted puppy linux is always root for any user), command line differences and things being ever so subtly different (the timing of the menus and the fact they would tend to vanish if you moved the mouse off them messed with my head quite badly for a while).

To this end I figured it would be easier for things to work first and then end up customising/fiddling with a setup to get the most out of it.

Also regarding proprietary software is it really so bad (or even applicable), I can see the logic behind the stuff like graphics card modules but a distinct software package does not seem to apply from what I have read of the GPL.

 

[TLSpartan]

re: file system. It took a bit of getting used to for me to find sticks in mnt/sda1 and what have you as opposed to a drive letter, the layout of the places the programs were installed (it has been "program files" since windows 95 after all), the concept of users actually being worth something (granted puppy linux is always root for any user), command line differences and things being ever so subtly different (the timing of the menus and the fact they would tend to vanish if you moved the mouse off them messed with my head quite badly for a while).

To this end I figured it would be easier for things to work first and then end up customising/fiddling with a setup to get the most out of it.

Also regarding proprietary software is it really so bad (or even applicable), I can see the logic behind the stuff like graphics card modules but a distinct software package does not seem to apply from what I have read of the GPL.

Puppy always being root scared me away from it. A lot of people will argue it is the worst thing in the world, but I will not stop using something if its proprietary and I will always try to find a FOSS equivalent (still trying to find a good MS Powerpoint equivalent). Most of my system is FOSS except for my wireless drivers but I am getting a new wireless card soon because this one is slow and some other little bits which I do have to uninstall soon. Most of the problems you had with Linux I didn't have but I did have a lot of problems with wireless but that was also because of the failing hardware of my old computer.

 

[enarky]

[...] (still trying to find a good MS Powerpoint equivalent) [...]

What's wrong with OpenOffice.org Presentation? I "even" used it for the presentation of my diploma thesis paper and it worked pretty well.

 

[UltraMagnus]

I don't see the problem with OOo presentation either, only thing it lacks is macro's

 

[TLSpartan]

[...] (still trying to find a good MS Powerpoint equivalent) [...]

What's wrong with OpenOffice.org Presentation? I "even" used it for the presentation of my diploma thesis paper and it worked pretty well.

I do not feel I need to have openoffice draw as well just to make a new powerpoint (which I do about twice a term) and the OOo equivalents are very big compared to other sutiable replacements like Abiword, (Abiword is 30MB with all dependencies and Writer is 220MB, Gnumeric (Calc is 179MB with all dependicies and Gnumeric is roughly 30 as well) and I havent found a good powerpoint program yet. My point is I dont feel the need to waste 150MB+ to edit the odd powerpoint here and there when there must be something smaller.