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General discussion

What is the easiest Linux to install and add hardware in?

Oct 23, 2005 4:53AM PDT

Thinking about getting my feet wet on a different OS...my hobby evolves...and am looking at a Linux OS.

How about Linspire 5.0?

Thanks for the info

Discussion is locked

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Linspire didn't work on the emachines t5026.
Oct 23, 2005 11:36AM PDT

Knoppix doesn't work on either the t5026 or compaq sa4000t. Think it has to do with pci-express for knoppix as i get a screen saying video output out of range. As for the t5026, i have no clue, maybe because it also has a pci-express x1 slot.

SUSE 10.0- Doesn;t work on sa4000T. T5026 WOrks, but all i get is command prompt, but its in suse (I can see SUSE Logo, but it prompts me for login and stuff). Think its because i downloaded the wrong stuff, this was livedvd.

All three work (same situation for suse though) in my old compaq 5009SR which is slow. 1 GHz PIII, 256mB ram, 60gb hard drive, integrated everything.

I've downloaded fedora red hat, but don't have a hard drive to install it. I'm planning to download suse 10.0 evaluation copy as opposed to the livedvd which only has commandprompt. And also Mandrake linux.

If you have an old computer, such as the PIII, i would suggest the Linspire or Knoppix as their easy to use and don't take up that much system resources. It is also very similar to windows and you can try it out before installing to hard drive.

As for fedora, suse,and mandrake they need to be installed, and as i have no expreience, i dont pass judgement. Ubantu is also very popular, as whether there is a liveboot option, i dk. I suggest you try ubantu, knoppix and linspire first. Then move on to fedora, suse, and mandrake.

ROger

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Cool, I have just the machine, then...Emachines T1220
Oct 23, 2005 9:44PM PDT

A slow 1.2 Gh Celeron, onboard video and audio.

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EASY!
Oct 23, 2005 1:19PM PDT

Xandros OCE and it's FREE! www.xandros.com/about/downloads.html (bottom selection) it's easier than windoze to load and detects all the hardware on all the pc's and laptops that I have installed it upon. Next choice would be Ubuntu. Good Luck!

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Thank you very much
Oct 23, 2005 9:46PM PDT

I've heard...actually read...that Xandros was probably the easiest, from this forum.

I'll likely download it as soon as I get DSL.

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the question is the answer
Oct 23, 2005 6:59PM PDT

Whenever you ask this you are going to get a thousand replies from people who love their particular distro (distro love/hate in the linux world is a religion). Just because something works for somebody else does not mean it will work for you.

I would suggest you go to distrowatch.org and read some reviews. Ubuntu is very popular right now, but there is some concern that it is "amature-ish." Since you are a hobbyist, this may not be bad for you.

Many distros are now available on a live CD, including ubuntu, mandriva (formerly mandrake), mepis, and so on. You should download a bunch of those and test them to see if you like them.

Good Luck!

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Thank you, these cNet forums are incredibly helpful...
Oct 23, 2005 9:52PM PDT

what do you mean by "live CD"? I plan to do just what you said when I get DSL. I have two ways of doing it:

Wait for the service where I live.

Or

Travel 100 miles to my fathers home.

@#$% SBC Happy

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a live CD is...
Oct 23, 2005 10:39PM PDT

Do you remember the olden days when you booted DOS from a floppy disk?

A live CD is the same thing on a much larger level. You put the CD in the drive and the computer boots from the CDROM rather than your hard drive. The result is a complete operating system loaded and running without ever touching your hard drive (which appears as a link on the desktop in most cases, much like a second hard drive would). This allows you to test run a linux distro without installing it. If you deside you like it you can then download the install CD and fire it up.

Live CDs are also useful to perform system maintenence... say if you wanted to make a mirror of your hard drive for backup purposes.

The mother of all live CDs for linux is Knoppix, but when you install it (which you can do in this case) you get a standard debian desktop.

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CDs in the mail
Oct 23, 2005 11:29PM PDT

Ubuntu will send you a copy of their live and install CDs free in the mail, if you do not have enough bandwidth... just sign up on their website.

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(NT) (NT) Thank you very much.
Oct 24, 2005 8:50AM PDT