Help setting up a good version of Linux on home pc?

The new cpf server is now running great and on a good version of Linux.

This has me thinking of setting up a multiboot setup with winxp and a good version of Linux.

I picked up and installed Partition Commander today and resized the winxp partition to make room for another partition for Linux.
There is about 220 Gigabytes of unpartitioned space available now reserved for Linux and whatever format/file system is needed for it to install and run properly.

The computer has;
MSI mainboard with Nvidia 570 sli chipset.
It supports up to 8 gigabytes of DDR2.

2 Nvidia 7600 gs video cards running sli with extra slot fans added.
4 Seagate 300 gigabyte sata drives running raid "0" at 1.09 terrabyte.
Soundblaster Live Value PCI. (yes, it's old and moldy now, but it works.)
AMD64 3200 running at 2 gigahertz.
1 gigabyte of Corsair "6400" DDR2 memory installed running at spec at 800 mhz.
An old, but proven DLink 10/100 network card installed.
Internet is AT&T DSL.
A DVD rewriter is installed with blank cdr's and DVDr's waiting and ready.

I just ran a new system backup to my external 320 gigabyte USB 2.0 drive today too.

Any and all input is greatly appreciated.

I have readhat Fedora 6 installed on my workstation and it does all I want. You may need to upgrade some packages for video codecs that are not included in the Fedora base system.

I've not tried too many other distributions in recent years, so I can not say which is "best".

Daniel

I have been using a dual boot Ubuntu/WinXP setup for about a year. I am most happy with it. The only reason I kept the XP is for doing the oddball item that Ubuntu cant. Those are pretty far and few in between. Only thing so far was doing my taxes.
Hey its free.

Dell picked Ubuntu for pre-installed linux systems

AlphaTea; said:

I have been using a dual boot Ubuntu/WinXP setup for about a year. I am most happy with it. The only reason I kept the XP is for doing the oddball item that Ubuntu cant. Those are pretty far and few in between. Only thing so far was doing my taxes.
Hey its free.

Click to expand...

The good thing now is many of the distributions are available on Live CD's so you can test drive your hardware before making a commitment.

A setup that runs the KDE desktop will be more windows like for ease of transition. Suse 10.2 had KDE, Kubuntu is the KDE version of Ubuntu. I am running mostly systems with Gnome right now and it is a little different feel and look but I had no trouble adapting after years and years of windows. Dual booting is good if you have some apps that do not have Linux alternatives and can't be emulated in Wine (which i know Wine Is Not an Emulator )

On my notebook I have XP and Fedora Core 6 running side by side. Just in case FC can't hook onto a wireless network. Less common now but still happens.

My Old PC had Windows XP until it broke for the sixth time. I was able to pull the data off the windows side. The other side of that PC runs Suse 10.2. It might get a whole new setup in a day or two.

My Main PC has Ubuntu and nothing else. I have been very happy with it through two updates.

At work we had a corrupt PC that had so many viruses and trojans it would not allow the CD player to run and lost the ability to send data out on the internet connection. I had to load a tiny Linux version (Puppy) on a pen drive to verify the hardware worked. It did. Then XP Pro would not allow me to even repair or reinstall. Somehow it seemed to lock the floppy drive so I could not run a windows based boot floppy. Back to Puppy and Gparted allowed me to partition the drive and format it as a NTFS drive so I could do a clean install of XP again.

Puppy found all the hardware and set it up properly the first crack. Pretty much the rule for Linux in general unless you have new or some restrictive or odd hardware in the system. XP configured nothing properly so I have spent hours loading this driver and that driver etc.

+1 Ubuntu

On my side, I prefer source based or lightweight distributions. Personally, I use Gentoo Linux on my laptop. It's a source based distribution (you compile everything optimized for your computer) and everything is installed using command line but the manual is excellent! It's an excellent distribution to learn Linux. If I need quick setups with binary packages (no compilation), I use Arch Linux. Again, it may be harder to use than Ubuntu or Fedora (I hate Fedora, and don't like much Ubuntu) but you will learn. A big advantage for me of Arch and Gentoo is that they are "install once, upgrade over the internet" distributions. You can always update them to the latest versions of packages in an easy way and keep them up to date.

What I could say, start with Ubuntu, learn correctly the command line (you may find this better than any graphical interface after) and then switch to a distribution that will more fit your needs.

Oh, I also use FreeBSD on my server. I know it's not the topic of the thread but BSDs are well suited for server environment (and usually more stable than Linux). It's a good one to try when you will love Linux and base concepts of UNIX (included in Linux).

I've been playing with Ubuntu's liveCD all week. In fact I'm using it right now. I needed a good alternative to windows ME. I'm so tired of the crap ME has put me through. Ubuntu looks like it will be a great alternative that is still user friendly. Then again, I'm new at Linux so take it for what its worth.

WildChild said:

On my side, I prefer source based or lightweight distributions. Personally, I use Gentoo Linux on my laptop.

Click to expand...

While I agree Gentoo has many advantages, it's install (and sometimes maint.) isn't for a beginner.

-john

Like many have already said, Ubuntu is a decent place to start. It's not my personal favorite but it is, in my opinion, far better than the rpm based distributions that used to be the only choice for newbies. Ubuntu is simple to install and use, though proficiency in helping yourself using online resources would certainly be beneficial. I've convinced a few coworkers in the past to give it a try and they've had great success despite having never used linux before.

Good luck

I used to be firmly in the Red Hat camp. It was rock stable for what I needed it to do. Lately though I've been experiencing lots of problems with rpms and dependencies, stuff that the system is supposed to resolve but doesn't. I'm now shopping around for another distro also.

If you're looking for stability above all else, I suggest Slackware. It is pretty easy to install and offers what I now believe to be the best Linux experience. If you want to learn how to use Linux, the command line and everything, then Slackware is definitely the best place to start. The default installation is pretty barebones but it includes pretty much everything most users will need, but logging in immediately drops you into a terminal instead of a graphical environment, which may be scary for some people. (This is easy to change with a simple config file edit.) Gentoo is a little hard on a first-time user. If you just want a working desktop... well, I've had a good overall experience with Ubuntu.

Count me as not being a fan of Red Hat and other RPM-based distributions. I have used Mandrake, Fedora, Red Hat and SUSE and I just can't get myself to like the RPM-based package management. They are pretty well-polished distributions, though.

At my company, I run Redhat trainings twice a month, for the pass 3 years.

Personally, I started with Slackware v3. After 10 years, I am still on Slackware. I am a big fan. It isn't a distro that will wow you. Nor anything as hardcore as Gentoo. It is a stable and robust distro.

If you want something with good support and information, I suggest Ubuntu. It is a well organized/funded community and has huge amount of momentum. I think Ubuntu matches your current hardware. Keep in mind that Ubuntu is derived from the Debian distro so it's may be a little bit different from the standard Linux. You can download the Ubuntu liveCD and try it out, or get them to mail you the DVD pack for FREE. Thanks to Mark Shuttleworth for his contibutions.

At the moment I am in the process of Redhat to Ubuntu transition evaluation. We have 250+ desktops and lappy waiting for the upgrade. I am quite confident to say that our problem/bugs with Redhat will be easily solved by the Ubuntu transition. We pay alot of $$ to redhat but all we got was many weeks wait for little updates. They wouldn't help us if we had our source modified. So they aren't really open source after all. So now we decided to dump redhat and go for Ubuntu, ditch the subscription fees and build a new internal support team.

My bro is a big Ubuntu geek now. I used his boxes for a few days and I gotta say I'm hooked on Ubuntu.

I run Ubuntu 7.04 and 6.06 on two of my boxes.
PCLinuxOS also looks like a nice one for newbies. It's KDE based.

With so much HDD space, partition several more to test drive a bunch of Linux distros. See which supports your hw most stable.

Just watch out for the new "win-printers" on Linux. I had a venerable 12+ year old HP 4L that needed a toner cartridge. Staples had the HP1020 on sale for the same price as a toner cartridge for the old printer. And new cartridges are cheaper than the old ones. So I retired the old printer.

But-the printer does not have all the firmware inside it's head. The win-printer part comes from windows loading the firmware on startup each session. Kind of like the win-modem setup. It took me a half hour of looking and loading the solution for Linux. The solution was easy this time. Not like setting up wireless. :mecry:

Printers like that are a huge PITA. I had to set one of these up once for a school linux testbed. With the drivers I had, I never got it working to the point where I was really happy with it.

Ok, I downloaded and put Ubuntu 7.04 for amd64 onto a cd as an ISO.
It boots ok, but when I choose the install option, it starts to do so and then only hangs and nothing happens. :huh2:

Did you run md5sum on the disc iso? If not, it could be that it is a corrupt file, or a bad burn. The hanging problem usually happens with a bad disc.

Another vote for Ubuntu...