Someone prescribe me a Linux Distro!

[chazdraves]

Welp, as it says, I'm looking for something that will run very well on a 300MHz laptop but still is attractive, has a GUI, and allows me to surf the web (wirelessly)/edit text documents... that's all I'm looking for.

Of course, I'm also a complete Linux newb, so please keep that in mind

And let the recommendations flow in!

Thanks,
- Chaz

 

[keeleysam]

Fedora Core 4

 

[chazdraves]

Wow! That is one seriously huge download!

Do you think I'd have working sound in Fedora? I don't know if you saw my other post, but the reason I'm so fed-up with Ubuntu is that I can't seem to get my onboard sound to work and nobody here has yet cracked the mystery either...

Thanks,
- Chaz

 

[Spydermag68]

I don't know if it will solve your sound problem but I I like Fedora Core 4.

I downloaded it from here at 400+kb/sec

ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/linux/distributions/fedora/4/i386/iso/

 

[thirdlegstump]

having pretty good luck with Debian although the commands seem to have a different naming convention than other distros making it really tough for me to go through tutorials.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: deathkoba
having pretty good luck with Debian although the commands seem to have a different naming convention than other distros making it really tough for me to go through tutorials.

Fedora Core/Redhat distros have a bit of the same problem. The only popular distro that sticks to "standard Linux conventions" is Slackware, but the newb doesn't want to go there!

On that note: I suggest Fedora Core 4, or Fedora Core 3 since there is a lot of Fedora Core 3 specific documentation out there. Although, Fedora Core 3 documents should transfer to Fedora Core 4 for the most part.

Personally, with Fedora Core, I just download the first install disc, to a "minimal" install and then yum install anything else I want. I think this results in a leaner system since the standard setups install a lot that I don't need, and it has helped me to get to know linux.

 

[Nothinman]

having pretty good luck with Debian although the commands seem to have a different naming convention than other distros making it really tough for me to go through tutorials.

Like what? There are some Debian specific things that generally revolve around package management, but the majority of the commands are the same across distributions.

 

[wallsfd949]

check sig. Small, works well with older hardware, ships with many lightweight GUIs

 

[indianduddawg47]

debian.

 

[NoToRiOuS1]

linspire?
dunno if it would run well on that machine though

 

[egeekial]

I think SuSE is very well suited for a n00b. You don't ever need to see the console.

 

[imported_vdorta]

I also have a very old 366Hz laptop (Dell Inspiron 7k) that I still use. Years ago I tried several Mandrake and Red Hat versions and both had the typical shortcomings of incomplete hardware detection which meant having to walk the dreaded console route. More recently I installed Libranet, a Debian GUI distro, and I practically had no problems with it.

With the caveat that I am no Linux expert, I think your best bet is to try a modern Debian-based live-CD distribution such as Kanotix or Mepis. Both are free downloads, very complete desktops and newbie-friendly distros, and running one off the CD will let you know of any hardware problems before installing them on your hard drive. Their forums are also very helpful in case you need help.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Slackware.