# linux distro that best rivals vista



## cyyc (May 31, 2007)

for me it would have to be opensuse.  set it up with xgl/compiz (i heard beryl's pretty good too) and you have a system w/ about as much eyecandy as vista.  anyway what do you guys think?  and what eyecandy addons would you consider to be the best?


----------



## Atech (Jun 1, 2007)

I'd say Gentoo, but only because it's so customisable by default.

Beryl is imo the flagship of GNU/Linux eye candy, though there's also a piece of software that turns your desktop into a literal desktop, never tried it myself.


----------



## zekrahminator (Jun 1, 2007)

Hmph, to me, none of the linux distros compares with the ease of Windows Vista. Sure, Beryl may be prettier...but do you have any idea how much configuration you have to do to get it just right? And even if you just have beryl running...good luck with ordinarily simple things such as flash, adobe PDF support, 3D games/apps, and installing programs compiled for and designed around Windows.

And yes, I have tried a couple linux distros. Ubuntu never installed on my main rig, Kubuntu feels empty, and FreeBSD takes quite the amount of dedication (and is made for servers anyways). 

The distros that come with things like flash pre-installed cost money, and Windows apps such as photoshop may not even work. And at that point...might as well go with Windows anyways. 

Don't get me wrong, I think easy-to-use distros such as Ubuntu have potential for light user load (standard web-surfing, IM, some office work). But for mainstream or high-end usage, Windows definitely is the best.


----------



## gamer210 (Jun 1, 2007)

I'm using PCLinuxOS 2007.  Comes with Compiz/Beryl right out of the box


----------



## Atech (Jun 2, 2007)

zekrahminator said:


> Hmph, to me, none of the linux distros compares with the ease of Windows Vista. Sure, Beryl may be prettier...but do you have any idea how much configuration you have to do to get it just right? And even if you just have beryl running...good luck with ordinarily simple things such as flash, adobe PDF support, 3D games/apps, and installing programs compiled for and designed around Windows.


I don't think Linux is any harder than Windows to configure, it just requires an (almost) entirely different model of thinking. The workings of any *nix system is completely alien to someone with experience of Windows software. Two of the huge problems I had when switching were the structure of the file system (what? Where's "Program Files" for example), and the everything-as-a-file concept. I love both of them, I think they're both much more elegant designs than the Windows one, they just take time to get used to.


----------



## zekrahminator (Jun 2, 2007)

Atech said:


> I don't think Linux is any harder than Windows to configure, it just requires an (almost) entirely different model of thinking. The workings of any *nix system is completely alien to someone with experience of Windows software. Two of the huge problems I had when switching were the structure of the file system (what? Where's "Program Files" for example), and the everything-as-a-file concept. I love both of them, I think they're both much more elegant designs than the Windows one, they just take time to get used to.



Alright, I concede, there are definitely a few advantages to the *nix file system/design, especially in efficiency. 

However, my point on compatibility still remains. I know it is a little mean to have to pay $120 for all your programs to work, but...what's the point in buying hundreds of dollars worth of games, music, and movies if you can't do anything with them?


----------



## Atech (Jun 2, 2007)

zekrahminator said:


> Alright, I concede, there are definitely a few advantages to the *nix file system/design, especially in efficiency.
> 
> However, my point on compatibility still remains. I know it is a little mean to have to pay $120 for all your programs to work, but...what's the point in buying hundreds of dollars worth of games, music, and movies if you can't do anything with them?


Well, with Gentoo mp3 support works out of the box. It's as simple as adding mp3 to USE flags and emerging the player of choice. PDF works by default. Most applications that don't originate from Microsoft work on top of Wine.

Edit:
DVDs work by adding dts and dvd to USE flags and emerging the player of choice. Hop over to Doom 9 to work out how to get HD-DVD/Blu-Ray working


----------



## zekrahminator (Jun 2, 2007)

Hmmm, I shall have to try this "Gentoo" thing out sometime, I've never heard of it before . 

You have to admit, Ubuntu is a bit lacking out of the box. I say Windows rocks because...you don't have to deal with things like USE flags and doom 9 .


----------



## Atech (Jun 2, 2007)

zekrahminator said:


> Hmmm, I shall have to try this "Gentoo" thing out sometime, I've never heard of it before .
> 
> You have to admit, Ubuntu is a bit lacking out of the box.


That's why I don't use it anymore  I think Ubuntu is a great distro to learn the basics about GNU/Linux before moving onto a more customisable distro.



> I say Windows rocks because...you don't have to deal with things like USE flags and doom 9 .


No, you just can't do the things you (or at least I) want to do, full stop(/period)


----------



## Ripper3 (Jun 2, 2007)

zekrahminator said:


> Hmmm, I shall have to try this "Gentoo" thing out sometime, I've never heard of it before .
> 
> You have to admit, Ubuntu is a bit lacking out of the box. I say Windows rocks because...you don't have to deal with things like USE flags and doom 9 .



Ubuntu is an all-open-source OS, so they hardly include the full-fat programs we Windows users depend upon. MP3 support, install it yourself. Want to play DVDs? Get the codec yourself. Like using Flash? Get it yourself.
About the Windows support though, for someone that grows up with just Linux, it'd probably be so strange to move to Windows (although alot of Linux apps have full, or at least partial Windows support, and there are many commercial apps), and Windows support would of course be unnecesarry anyhow, if they've grown up without it.
That's the main problem with having a one-OS kind of world. You'll always have very little support for everything else. It'd be great if apps were compatible with other OSs, or OSs were compatible with each other's APIs and frameworks, but that'll probably not happen in the near future.


----------



## Fox34 (Jun 5, 2007)

Open SuSe 10.2(installed) looks AMAZING and supports all of my hardware. The install was great and everything is just so walk-through like. It connects to the servers to download the newest updates, and unlike windows, linux updates actually work and contribute something to your rig. The problem I got with SuSe is it supports my Vid card, but says "no 3d support" which transfers too, not run games. But I can fix it, don't feel like figuring it out because I don't game on linux. And about this Gentoo, how is it? I wanna try out another *nix.


----------



## Zedicus (Jun 5, 2007)

elive or symphony os.
both .deb based.  neither use that 3d desktop BS so they are lighter on system requirements. both manhandle vista.


----------



## Wile E (Jun 6, 2007)

Zedicus said:


> elive or symphony os.
> both .deb based.  neither use that 3d desktop BS so they are lighter on system requirements. both manhandle vista.


Not in the eyecandy department, which is what I presume the OP was getting at. Believe it or not, some of us prefer to have that 3d desktop eyecandy crap. I hate plain OSes.


----------



## Fox34 (Jun 6, 2007)

Well, your on your OS the whole time, so I really like to have it look nice or It almost ruins my computing experience....wow that was nerdy


----------



## Zedicus (Jun 12, 2007)

did u even bother to look up the distros i suggested?   they do hav lots of eyecandy they just dont lug down yur system to make it.

also theres some pretty slick window managers like fluxbox that are distro agnostic that can be made to do some pretty cool desktop effects that again are light weight and dont rely on yur video card.

i do like nice looking desktops i just dont believe in running the video card wide open all the time to get there.


----------



## Wile E (Jun 12, 2007)

Yeah, I've used Elive before, didn't like it. Never tried Symphony, and if it's anything like Elive, I don't want to. No offense to you intended, btw, but I don't think they stack up in the eyecandy depaartment. I'll happily take a resource hit for a really good looking UI.


----------



## Zedicus (Jun 12, 2007)

to eech there own.  im perfectly happy with a black screen and a flashing cursor.  thouse 2 distros are the apsolute max i would ever go for eye candy. still it might be worth yur time to atleast check out the screenshots from symphonyos.


----------



## Wile E (Jun 13, 2007)

Zedicus said:


> to eech there own.  im perfectly happy with a black screen and a flashing cursor.  thouse 2 distros are the apsolute max i would ever go for eye candy. still it might be worth yur time to atleast check out the screenshots from symphonyos.


I will do that. Thanx for the tip. I might be getting an old p3 given to me, and a light distro might be what the dr ordered for it. Make it the public surfing box.


----------

