What happended to the "help choosing linux distro" thread

[foges]

Hey guys.
I remember something like half a year ago there was a stickied thread on what linux distro to choose. I'm wondering what happened to it? In the near future Ill be installing a version of linux on my PC, but don't know what distro to choose. My biggest requests are compatiability (hardware and software) and simplicity. (I'll be starting Uni soon so I won't have tons of time to spend on fooling around with linux seetings)

Oh and has Open office got a grammar check feature yet?

 

[Brazen]

Is this what you are talking about? http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2073143&enterthread=y

 

[foges]

Thanks. It may have been that one, i thought it had more information on the separate distros though.

I'm prety sure im going to install PClinuxOS or Ubuntu. Im leaning towards PClinuxOS seeing as i tried it out a while back and liked the GUI a lot more than the boring brown Ubuntu one. As i already mentioned though compatiability (with hardware and sofware) is my biggest concern, support is also important. Are these aforementioned concerns better dealt with on ubuntu or PClinuxOS.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: foges
Thanks. It may have been that one, i thought it had more information on the separate distros though.

I'm prety sure im going to install PClinuxOS or Ubuntu. Im leaning towards PClinuxOS seeing as i tried it out a while back and liked the GUI a lot more than the boring brown Ubuntu one. As i already mentioned though compatiability (with hardware and sofware) is my biggest concern, support is also important. Are these aforementioned concerns better dealt with on ubuntu or PClinuxOS.

Hardware is supported by the kernel and going to be pretty much identical between any current distro.

As for the gui, Ubuntu uses Gnome and PCLinuxOS uses KDE. You can use KDE on Ubuntu though, by either installing Kubuntu or intall the kubuntu-desktop package in Ubuntu.

So, as was the overall point of the article, the differences are largely cosmetic and really it's personal preference as to which is better. If you want specifics, then go to Distrowatch.

 

[foges]

Thankyou. Then I'll probably go with PCLinuxOS, i found the Ubuntu design awefully boring. I'm assuming that for the average user the difference between gnome and kde is relatively small

 

[sourceninja]

I thought we all decided that the only way to do linux was from scatch. Anything else simply doesn't meet the needs of linux users

Truth though, you can't go wrong with any of the major names.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I thought we all decided that the only way to do linux was from scatch. Anything else simply doesn't meet the needs of linux users

Truth though, you can't go wrong with any of the major names.

You can get help for that too: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

 

[sourceninja]

I've done LFS a few times, actually I teach a *nix class at the college here. We are looking at having a second class (elective) that builds LFS.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I've done LFS a few times, actually I teach a *nix class at the college here. We are looking at having a second class (elective) that builds LFS.

I myself, have never done it, but I really think it is probably something I could benefit from, as a learning experience. That's a good idea having a class on it.

 

[sourceninja]

yea, it will probably be one of those summer term fun classes. But I think it would be great to do.

 

[foges]

could you please tell me more about the kubuntu-desktop package, does it look like kubuntu, but still run gnome underneath? are there any other ways of adding "skins" to ubuntu?

EDIT: I plan on installing a 64 bit version. I'm assuming that it will run like Vista Ultimate 64 (ie. you can run 32 bit programs just as easily as 64 bit programs). Are there any distro's that do not handle 64 bit very well?

 

[sourceninja]

kubuntu desktop package installs all the programs used in kubuntu.

Basically, you will have all the programs for ubuntu and kubuntu (some overlap and will only be there once). SO you can select kde or gnome at login time and get either 'kubuntu' or 'ubuntu'

as for ubuntu skins. Check out http://gnome-look.org/ for gnome themes. KDE also has its own version of that site.