LINUX dist for laptop & workstation

[Carlis]

Hi
I need a linux distribution for an AMD 1600+/256mb laptop and eventually futher down the road a work station (core 2 duo) as a second OS.
I will use it for matlab, latex and other student & enginering related things mainly. I dont have any experience with linux but hey there has to be a first time...

Can anyone recommend a good distribution?

 

[Nothinman]

Chances are any one will do what you want. If you're going to be using the stuff for schoolwork though you should find out what the school uses so you can be sure the versions are all the same.

 

[xtknight]

Ubuntu 6 or Fedora Core 5.

 

[cleverhandle]

Like Nothinman suggested, staying in line with the school could make your life simpler. You might check out the Computer Services (or whatever it's called) part of your school's website. They may not outright recommend a particular distribution, but if you browse through the pages you can probably figure out what distro they're testing with.

 

[drag]

If the school uses propriatory applications that you may need then it is important to find out what they use.

If it's Redhat then get Redhat. If you don't want to spend the money on it then either CentOS or Fedora Core.

FC will offer better hardware support and many more 3rd party repositories for installing many applications, but CentOS will offer better binary compatability with Redhat.

If they aren't going to have special propriatory applications then you can probably use whatever you'd like. My advice is to try several distros and find one that suites you, start off with trying Ubuntu. Distros are like personalities, what I like and enjoy using isn't nessicarially going to match what you like.

 

[Carlis]

My school runs solaris. That would not stop me from running matlab comands from other platforms etc but of course it could be a factor down the road. Maybe using school programs from home will be easier...
Is it difficult to set up solaris?

 

[Blazkowicz]

Check the hardware compaitability list on Sun's website and then decide whether to go for Linux or Solaris.
As for Linux I would suggest Suse 10.1.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Carlis
Is it difficult to set up solaris?

Yes. At least, considerably less pleasant than a nice, modern Linux distribution. Just pick a Linux you like and go with that.

 

[thesix]

Originally posted by: Carlis
My school runs solaris. That would not stop me from running matlab comands from other platforms etc but of course it could be a factor down the road. Maybe using school programs from home will be easier...
Is it difficult to set up solaris?

MATLAB does not have a Solaris x86/64 version.
Your school most likely runs on Solaris SPARC.

Always check system requirements for your applications first.

 

[Carlis]

I see. There is little point to run solaris then on my pc's... I will go for a nice linux instead, starting with ubuntu. Thank you all for your comments.

 

[Carlis]

Is there any significant difference betwean LINUX dists when it comes to multicore computing? Specifically 4 cores (dual Xeon 51xx)

 

[Brazen]

no

 

[cleverhandle]

They're all pretty much the same. Just make sure you're running the SMP kernel (which should probably be detected and installed automatically anyway).

 

[Carlis]

Then my choice is down to SUSE 10.1 since it apperas to be well supported by programmakers and will run on both my computers and take advantage of those cores.

 

[drag]

Nice, if you end up not liking it I strongly recommend Debian Stable.

It's a bit older and not fancy, but the updates are small and you have much less breakage going on software-wise then something that is more cutting edge. I like that quality in servers and workstations.. making stuff 'just work'.

I like this site:
http://www.togaware.com/linux/survivor/
Debian desktop survival guide.

It has some information about using Latex that may be usefull for you. Using emacs with latex, exporting Abiword to latex and stuff like that.