Which linux flavour

[steveG]

One for the Linux gurus....I know there are some of you out there...

Its about time I got off my butt and did what I've been threatening for months: format my horrible Vista notebook (HP6710b), install linux, and just run Windows in a VM when I REALLY need to.

My work is in IT support, mainly servers/network/Oracle database support, so I'm comfortable with command line unix (Solaris/Redhat/Centos), but I do want a graphical desktop so that I can support the Windows servers/pc's remotely via VNC.

I've got a decent PC to trial the concept on for a start, and plan to set it up and do my work on the trial PC remotely (via VNC and ssh ) while I iron out the issues. Once I'm happy I can do the essentials I'll install on the notebook and go from there..
I'm struggling to find the right distribution that will do what I'm after.

Tried Centos 5 but it has issues with tightvnc-server crashing the kernel.
Tried PCLinuxOS but having issues with sshd dependency conflicts.

I know I'm up for a fair bit of work to get it going properly, but when I'm already jumping hurdles just setting up VNC/ssh I figure there has got to be a better distro.

BTW - the boss won't spring for a MacBook Pro which was my preferred option (nice GUI, Linux under the hood, and Windows in a VM when I have to).

Any suggestions on a good distro for what I'm trying to do?

Steve

[hoadie72]

Ubunutu (http://www.ubuntu.com/)is the flavour of the month.

[29dinosaur]

Ubunutu (http://www.ubuntu.com/)is the flavour of the month.

Absolutely.

[inside]

Ubunutu (http://www.ubuntu.com/)is the flavour of the month.
Or Mythbuntu if you have a TV!

[JDNSW]

If you put any data or settings you want to keep in "home" (and most distributions do by default) and put this on its own partition, you can change distributions without losing anything (may have to select the custom install) and of course back up anything important to guard against stupid mistakes. In this way I have changed from Mandrake to Suse to Ubuntu plus several upgrades of each.

Most distributions support the same software, although what comes as standard with each varies, and the main differences between distributions seem to be in their software mangement.

I would be inclined to try Ubuntu as suggested, plus Suse, Fedora and Mandriva. All of these support the most popular desktops, Gnome and KDE, as well as usually a couple of others.

Note that Mac's OS-X is a variant of BSD, not Linux although both of these are essentially variants of Unix, and are very similar.

John

[Tombie]

Note that Mac's OS-X is a variant of BSD, not Linux although both of these are essentially variants of Unix, and are very similar.

John

OS X is now a Certified Unix OS...

Apple - Mac OS X Leopard - Technology - UNIX (http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/unix.html)

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9733/picture1zt1.png

[vnx205]

One advantage of Ubuntu is that its popularity means there is a lot of help available if you need it.

While being the most popular doesn't necessarily make it the best, it must suit a lot of people.

I run Xubuntu because my computer is about 8 yrs old and am very happy with it.

This table from the Distrowatch site gives an idea of its popularity.

Rank Distribution H.P.D* *Hits per Day
1 Ubuntu (http://distrowatch.com/ubuntu) 2329
2 openSUSE (http://distrowatch.com/suse) 1713
3 Mint (http://distrowatch.com/mint) 1559
4 Fedora (http://distrowatch.com/fedora) 1362
5 Debian (http://distrowatch.com/debian) 1265
6 Mandriva (http://distrowatch.com/mandriva) 1042
7 PCLinuxOS (http://distrowatch.com/pclinuxos) 973
8 MEPIS (http://distrowatch.com/mepis) 660
9 CentOS (http://distrowatch.com/centos) 656https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/03/1291.jpg
10 Puppy (http://distrowatch.com/puppy) 644https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/03/1291.jpg

[81stubee]

I'd be inclined to try Ubuntu, I run it on my home PC and it works straight out of the box. Mind you I don't get very technical though.

IMHO I think Ubuntu will become a standard so to speak as it seems to be almost now that you can get anything for ubuntu.

Stu

[JDNSW]

I'd be inclined to try Ubuntu, I run it on my home PC and it works straight out of the box. Mind you I don't get very technical though.

IMHO I think Ubuntu will become a standard so to speak as it seems to be almost now that you can get anything for ubuntu.

Stu

Actually, if it runs on and is available for Ubuntu, it runs on most other distributions, and is also available for them, although getting and installing it may be a little (or a lot) messier. One of Ubuntu's strengths is the slickness of their software mangement, but some of the others are close, or even use Ubuntu's system.

Note: Ubuntu variants:-

Edubuntu = Ubuntu set up for class use (harder for the user to change things and some special educational software)

Kubuntu= Ubuntu with KDE desktop (standard is Gnome) - more like Windows, where Gnome is more like Mac in appearance and philosophy

Xubuntu = Ubuntu with XCF desktop - much less demanding of resources, hence good with your older computer.

John

[hoadie72]

Last year I tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, SUSE and openSUSE and found Ubuntu the easiest to install with the least mucking around to get it working. This was on an IBM Thinkpad which being on the older side had a fairly well documented chipset so should've been a doddle to set up on all varients but it wasn't. That's why my vote goes to Ubuntu & it's various flavours.

[LoveMyV8County]

I have to say my vote goes to Ubuntu too.

It's grudging because i have used SuSE for years a while ago and remain loyal to it, and really liked Mandriva when I tried it out, but Ubuntu was streets ahead in the ease of getting things working out of the box for me and the support available on the 'net.

Chris

[loanrangie]

I have used Ubuntu and found it works well but particularly user friendly, Kubuntu is easier but still lacks that ease of use. Now using PCLOS in both KDE and Gnome variants and find that its as close to microshaft as you can get and still work. The best feature of these is the almost endless supply of applications both supported and not that is available in the repositories.
One of my major dislikes in the operation of peripherals which is still a painfull experience.

[It'sNotWorthComplaining!]

I tried Ubuntu and Kubuntu in various editions, then switched to PClinos gnome. I found it a breeze to install stuff with a packet manager. There have been a couple of issues lately as it's a rolling update, but I will perservere with it as I find it a better o/s in opinion. But each to his/her own. :)

[Panya]

The only thing I would add is load Ubuntu as another o/s so that you can still access Vista if you need. Also top tip: don't delete the hidden recovery drive 10gb or so - because then all the %$^&*(*^&%^^% recovery disks won't work when you try to re-install Vista...:p

[JDNSW]

I have used Ubuntu and found it works well but particularly user friendly, Kubuntu is easier but still lacks that ease of use. Now using PCLOS in both KDE and Gnome variants and find that its as close to microshaft as you can get and still work. The best feature of these is the almost endless supply of applications both supported and not that is available in the repositories.
One of my major dislikes in the operation of peripherals which is still a painfull experience.

I am not too sure that being closer to MS is a real advantage except during the learning period!

Whether or how much trouble you have with peripherals depends on which peripherals you have - check before changing whether you will have problems (search linux, compatability, your peripheral) and the same if buying new peripherals.

A particular problem is likely to be ISP supplied equipment that 'needs' to run their own software - there is probably a workaround but it may take a while to find. A general rule for such equipment is that if it connects via a network cable there is not likely to be a problem (my satellite modem just plugged in and worked as an example), but if it connects with a USB cable problems are more likely.

John

[vnx205]

I am not too sure that being closer to MS is a real advantage except during the learning period!

Whether or how much trouble you have with peripherals depends on which peripherals you have - check before changing whether you will have problems (search linux, compatability, your peripheral) and the same if buying new peripherals.

A particular problem is likely to be ISP supplied equipment that 'needs' to run their own software - there is probably a workaround but it may take a while to find. A general rule for such equipment is that if it connects via a network cable there is not likely to be a problem (my satellite modem just plugged in and worked as an example), but if it connects with a USB cable problems are more likely.

John
You can also check compatibility with peripherals you already own by running Ubuntu from a live CD before you actually install it.

It runs a bit slowly of course because it has to access the CD every now and then, but it does allow you to test that things work.

If everything works, you can then install it with confidence.

[It'sNotWorthComplaining!]

Whilst my beloved pclinosgnome is being worked on by the pclin gnome gurus. Whilst I wait I installed Kubuntu 8.10 and installed the bells and whistles of the compiz. I'm finding it fun, but a bit hard to configure in comparison to the pclinuxos gnome I used prior.
I did have a hell of ajob trying to install it on a dual boot with Xp, Couldn;t get the partitioner to do what I wanted, in the end managed to install it on a partition ,but never got to install a swap file. But having heaps o Ram I'll think it'll run ok for a while.;)

[loanrangie]

I am not too sure that being closer to MS is a real advantage except during the learning period!

Whether or how much trouble you have with peripherals depends on which peripherals you have - check before changing whether you will have problems (search linux, compatability, your peripheral) and the same if buying new peripherals.

A particular problem is likely to be ISP supplied equipment that 'needs' to run their own software - there is probably a workaround but it may take a while to find. A general rule for such equipment is that if it connects via a network cable there is not likely to be a problem (my satellite modem just plugged in and worked as an example), but if it connects with a USB cable problems are more likely.

John

I know what your saying but for the average home pc owner they just want to buy something, plug it in and expect it to work - this is really the thing that lets it down IMHO. For those that like tweaking like me its not so bad cant same the same if you try to get the missus to do something on it that she prevuiously breezed thru on windoze.

[JDNSW]

I know what your saying but for the average home pc owner they just want to buy something, plug it in and expect it to work - this is really the thing that lets it down IMHO. For those that like tweaking like me its not so bad cant same the same if you try to get the missus to do something on it that she prevuiously breezed thru on windoze.

Yes, but I'm afraid that it is a bit of an illusion that you don't have this sort of thing happens with Windows - for example, I am typing this on my son's computer running Vista - and I do not want anything to do with it again if I can avoid it - it has twice kicked me off, downloaded an update and rebooted while I was in the middle of writing an email, and it will not run the software they were previously using for video editing. And then you have all the problems of viruses, security software etc.

Both have their drawbacks, its just that Linux has less familiar ones.

John

[loanrangie]

Yes, but I'm afraid that it is a bit of an illusion that you don't have this sort of thing happens with Windows - for example, I am typing this on my son's computer running Vista - and I do not want anything to do with it again if I can avoid it - it has twice kicked me off, downloaded an update and rebooted while I was in the middle of writing an email, and it will not run the software they were previously using for video editing. And then you have all the problems of viruses, security software etc.

Both have their drawbacks, its just that Linux has less familiar ones.

John

Ah but vista is crap, my XP pro has been rock steady for over 7 years .

[steveG]

Thanks everyone for your input.
I took the recommendation of Ubuntu - initially tried 8.10 but ended up going with 8.04 as it was more compatible with Oracle client software I need.

So far its just running on a spare PC I had (haven't done my notebook yet), but have WinXP running nicely in Virtualbox, Oracle client and development software installed, and no show stoppers as yet.

As many of you said - plenty of support on the web for most things.
Would be nice if you could get a VNCServer that would allow access to the console display before login but I think I understand why thats not as simple as in Windoze.

Anyway - still a work in progress but going OK so far.

Steve

[Disco Keith]

One thing you can do with 8.04 is to point the updates to a later version so that you'll get the latest updates but still have the 8.04 which you've found works better for you.

[markz]

ubuntu +1

[JDNSW]

One thing you can do with 8.04 is to point the updates to a later version so that you'll get the latest updates but still have the 8.04 which you've found works better for you.

8.04 is a LTS (Long term support) distribution - it will continue to get updates until 2011 without upgrading. Generally these updates will include all security and bug fixes, backported as necessary, but not necessarily new package versions.

John

[subasurf]

I'm a Ubuntu user. I stick with 8.04 and didn't bother upgrading to 8.10.
I use to use Fedora 8 but found it to be too buggy and not have near as much support.

[dickyjoe]

I work in the IT game and do networking and server solutions. For a graphical type desktop I would go down the Ubuntu track. Whack WINE on it and you can do anything your Windows box can do. I think Ubuntu would be the pick of the bunch at the moment in terms of desktop computing with linux, or you could run OS X like on a toshiba Net PC I saw. :eek:

For linux on the server side (I do a bit with Asterisk) I use CentOS as I find its redhat compatibility quite good. Fedora drives me nuts.

BSD is also handy for server boxes for "tried and tested" applications like Apache,etc.

Go the Ubuntu.

[29dinosaur]

Whack WINE on it and you can do anything your Windows box can do.

But how do you get quickbooks to run on a ubuntu machine??

[subasurf]

*shudders at the thought of WINE*

I know it's all we've got, but damn it's rough to use sometimes.

[dickyjoe]

According to WineHQ it appears to install correctly under WINE. It may be worthwhile to give it a shot on your machine.

[hoadie72]

What about trying VirtualBox?

VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/)