# Linux-Luring Me Closer



## prime95 (Mar 29, 2007)

Ahoy!  I've been playing with Ubuntu for the last 6 hours ( took 4 hours just to get it to install on my spare hard drive I bought today ), and it's not quite working out as I'd hoped.  It may be my hardware, it may not be.  The thing is, Ubuntu just doesn't quite seem to cut it yet.

I'm wondering what other versions of *nix OS's are out there that would be good to play with.  My goal, even as a *nix-nub right now, are to eventually switch to a *nix OS so that I'll rarely have to use Winwoes again.

Currently I'm downloading openSUSE and Fedora, the x86_64 versions.  I'm hoping to finally put my dual core 64 bit proccy to some use.  The 64 bitness is not necessarily a requirement... but I would like that.  Anyway though, the main features I'm looking for are:  hardware compatability (ie audigy 2, my mobo's chipset, etc); drivers (ati drivers is really all I want); and eventually, I would REALLY like to install Adobe CS2, as I do graphic design work (piss-tired of windows).  *also, if you think Ubuntu is the better choice, any tips or tricks to help me out of course are appreciated.

Your help is very much appreciated.


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## Easy Rhino (Mar 29, 2007)

you will find that with some work on your part you can get all your hardware working properly. it may not all be working to its full potential right away but linux pretty much supports all hardware out. graphics cards are lagging behind but that is because there isnt a market for games on linux (yet) so no reason to spend money on developing 3d acceleration drivers for them on a broad scale. linux is great for websurfing/mp3 encoding/decoding and video encoding/decoding and of course using it as a server (apache,ftp,shells,bncs,samba/nfs) the works.


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## prime95 (Mar 29, 2007)

So far I've been terribly disappointed.  I had thought linux was a lot more mature than it currently is.  So far Ubuntu 32/64 bit, fedora core 6 32/64 bit, and openSUSE 32/64 bit have all not met any of my expectations.  Installation of all these versions was easy, but from there on, there was minimal functionality due to poor hardware recognition.  I would have thought by now *nix would be something that you could run on CURRENT hardware..

I'll be trying both the 32 and 64 bit versions of mandirva tonight.


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## pt (Mar 29, 2007)

i'm thinking of doing a dual boot with xp and linux, what's the best *nix for word, net, msn (the only things i do besides gaming


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## Easy Rhino (Mar 30, 2007)

prime95 said:


> So far I've been terribly disappointed.  I had thought linux was a lot more mature than it currently is.  So far Ubuntu 32/64 bit, fedora core 6 32/64 bit, and openSUSE 32/64 bit have all not met any of my expectations.  Installation of all these versions was easy, but from there on, there was minimal functionality due to poor hardware recognition.  I would have thought by now *nix would be something that you could run on CURRENT hardware..
> 
> I'll be trying both the 32 and 64 bit versions of mandirva tonight.



the open source community still has a long way to go. but looking forward this should be a great year. KDE4 is coming out. freebsd 7 is coming out. xorg 7 should be widespread with better 3d acceleration. what exactly do you want to do with linux?


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## Easy Rhino (Mar 30, 2007)

pt said:


> i'm thinking of doing a dual boot with xp and linux, what's the best *nix for word, net, msn (the only things i do besides gaming



well the GUI KDE has koffice which is a nice suite. ubuntu comes default with gnome so you would have to install it. most flavors come without a GUI preinstalled so it depends.


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## prime95 (Mar 30, 2007)

I want to switch from windows to a *nix OS, and still be able to do essential things, like print, share files, use photoshop, manage my music, browse the web.  all pretty much basic things, but the catch is I want everything to work... which is where im having problems, hardware compatability isn't working out.  

*nix isn't quite ready, but i would agree it is going in the right direction.. the main problem is all the different distros, they all need to come together if they want to create something sensational..


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## psychomage343 (Mar 30, 2007)

then you would have windows without so many bugs lol


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## prime95 (Mar 30, 2007)

lol.... still though....  

windows that works... yeah, i suppose thats all i really want.


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## psychomage343 (Mar 30, 2007)

lol, i love linux, you should try suse, it's great and it's very close to linux, if you'd like ot tinker with it, i'd stick with the knoppix boot os it's pretty easy to use


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## prime95 (Mar 30, 2007)

I'm re-trying suse cause i had the best luck with it out of all the *nix's ive been playing with.  we'll see how that goes.  another thing... why hasnt the world switched to 64 bit apps!!!!! GAH!!  might as well stop making 64 bit proccies cause theyre not getting used too much >.>


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## Easy Rhino (Mar 30, 2007)

i also wish that all these linux companies would come together to make one kick ass OS!!!


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## prime95 (Mar 31, 2007)

Well... by a stroke of very good luck, I managed to get my ATI drivers to intall on SUSE (took the better part of 3 days and over 16 hours of non-stop work to do).  This has finally allowed me to fully utilize all that openSUSE has to offer, and I must say, it's very nice, especially the desktop effects.  Although I won't take back some of my harsh comments about linux, the average user would never have been able to get this far... and there are still some quirks, but I'm slowly trying to work everything out.  Maybe I have found my windows-replacement..


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## gothic (Mar 31, 2007)

once you slack you'll never go back! slackware rocks!


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## prime95 (Mar 31, 2007)

Linux ATI drivers not fully stable for me in openSUSE 10.2.... drivers corrupted and everything crashed.  yay...  

Also, spent 3 hours trying to satisfy dependencies for exaile... never finished that... 

I don't understand why makers of different distro's don't develop together to make something that just works.  Sadly, even though windows has its quirks, it does just work.

I'm almost at the end of my week long search for a fully functional linux distro.

SUSE 10.2 32 and 64 bit, Ubuntu 6.10 and 6.06 32 and 64bit, Fedora Core 32 and 64 bit all are still not suitable for the 'average' user.  My guess is they never will be, cause it will take years before any of them become mature enough to be.

I still have Mandirva and Elive to try though, so we'll see.


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## aximbigfan (Mar 31, 2007)

i have a dual boot setup.
ubuntu 6.10 latest build
winxp pro...

ubuntu is my development os, xp is for everything else...

chris


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## prime95 (Mar 31, 2007)

Still, what im finding is linux distros work for some, but not for everyone.  I myself have an ubuntu server running just fine on an old comp which woulda been garbage if it wasnt for linux.  but as for really new hardware, it doesnt seem to be doing a good job.  and for ease of use (ie installing) its not the most self explanatory.  i've spent my spring break on a mission to find a fully stable, easy to use----- let me put it this way - a windows alternative that just WORKS.


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## Wile E (Apr 2, 2007)

I'm using Fedors Core 6 right now. If you enable the right 3rd party repositories and the official dev repositories, almost anything you need can be Found in the Add/Remove Applications, well, ummm, application. That included a "mostly " painless install of the proprietary ATI drivers. I only had to add 1 line to my Xorg.conf file, to re-enable the composite manager(glass effects and such). In fact, I did a little too much tinkering with the Xorg.conf, and upon reboot, the X window server crashed, and Fedora automatically fixed it to an operating, albeit generic, state.


Also, the extra 3rd party repositories  have DVD decryptors and players, mp3 support, and a host of numerous other things these open source distros can't include by default, due to licensing reasons. Fedora also offers KDE, Gnome, and Xfce on the install DVD. I installed both KDE and Gnome, and switch between them for whatever suits my mood. My experience with FC6 has been much more pleasurable for me, than any of the Ubuntu variants. Oh, and downloading and compiling from source is easier for me than the Ubuntu distros.

I'm gonna boot into it right now, and figure out for everyone the repos I added.

EDIT: I added the Livna, Atrpms, and rpmforge 3rd party repos. Sorry, I forgot to save links, but I'm sure Google is your friend. lol


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