Linux, Ubuntu vs. .....?

[Anon001]

This is mainly for Martin (or anyone else). I didn't want to hijack mommato ..... 's thread on Ubuntu.

My question is how do the other distros compare as far as ease of use and bugs, etc. I mean... I finally have everything working right on my Ubuntu, but I have noticed it getting slower with the last couple of upgrades.

Are the other distros that you've mentioned more "skeleton" than Ubuntu? Do you have to be more computer savvy than with Ubuntu?

Thanks,
Paul

[AlchemyAcres]

Hey Paul....

I can best answer your question if I know how much RAM you have and if you have DSL? I think I can remember you mentioning that you have DSL!?


~Martin

[oeb]

Paul, I'll not swipe Martin's thunder; nevertheless I offer this suggestion: Since you've got broadband just download a few distros, run from cd's, and experiment with each for a bit to see which will handle your equipment and package requirements best.

IMHO Ubuntu is somewhat bloated but still a pretty fair newbie distro. It, like any distro, can be cleaned and/or extended; i.e., "fine tuned," to about any performance level you want (within reasonable limits, of course). After all, it's just Linux at the core.
While you're at it check out some Vector variants-- the smallest version comes to mind. It's a blazing Slackware based beauty that renders its venerable parent easy to install and upgrade while keeping the all 'round dependability. Hope you enjoy the quest.

Otis

[Anon001]

Martin, Otis,
Thanks. I do have DSL. I have 80G drive with 1G ram. It's an HP Pavillion dv5000 series. I think it's a 5224. It also has wireless. It has 3 USB ports, a serial port, PCMCIA slot, expansion port, phone ...rj11?, CD/DVD drivve, and a S digital port. It also has microphone and headphone jacks and a slot for a tv tuner that resembles the PCMCIA slot. But, I don't use the tv tuner slot or the PCMCIA slot. It also has a dv port.

Is that enough to go on? I will download some other distros and try them. I like Ubuntu a lot except with the new Jaunty, it is a lot slower than it was previously.

One other thing, I also use Pidgin and Skype to chat with friends and familly.

Do y'all suggest certain distros over any other?

Thanks again,
Paul

[oeb]

You "like Ubuntu a lot" so why not try Mint or, if you're ready to move up a step or two in the level of experience that may be required, go straight to Debian. Ubuntu spawned Mint and is the child of Debian so you're already in the know for package handling and most other particulars. I think both are cleaner than Ubuntu. Again, good luck and enjoy.

Otis

[AlchemyAcres]

1G of RAM is plenty!

If you're looking for speed, ease-of-use and functionality.....I highly recommend Puppy!

I've tried well over 100 distros in the past 3 years, and I keep coming back to Puppy.

The main reason is speed....the current version is just a 100 mb download...when run as a live CD it totally loads itself into RAM....it's incredibly fast! Running it from a live CD allows you to test Puppy without an install.
The second major reason is....being off-grid...it's possible to run it in RAM with no HD...saving files to a stick drive...operating without a resource hogging operating system and no slow accessing of files on a power hogging HD saves an amazing amount of power.

You can easily use the package manager to add Pidgin, Skype, Java, other browsers, etc....

http://www.puppylinux.org/

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/

Once Puppy loads you will have to hit the Connect icon to configure the connection...no big deal.

Let me know if you have any questions.

~Martin

[Anon001]

I think I will give Puppy a try. I guess I just download it and burn it to a CD?

Thanks again for the help.. both of you.

Paul

[oeb]

Paul,
I just noticed this on distrowatch.com:

Ronald Ropp has released the third beta build of wattOS 1.0, an Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution aiming at running computers in a lightweight but fully-featured way using less energy.

Distribution build should follow shortly,
Otis

[Anon001]

I looked at Puppy and Mint. The only question is this... Can I do everything with Puppy that I can do with Ubuntu... as far as software goes? I liked how fast Puppy was.... The ubuntu used to be before it got so bloated.

One main concern is that I use LAMPP (XAMPP for Linux) for testing before I make changes to my websites. I assume I can still use it with Puppy?

Thanks again, guys.. oh.. I also bookmarked the sites you listed,OEB, for the distro news.

Paul

[AlchemyAcres]

One main concern is that I use LAMPP (XAMPP for Linux) for testing before I make changes to my websites. I assume I can still use it with Puppy?



Yes, there's even a Puplet with Lampp/Xampp pre-installed.

http://browserpuppy.com/server.html

[/URL] It's been discussed a lot at the Puppy forums.....

[URL]http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?search_id=1250588303&t=43285 (http://www.puppylinux.org/downloads/puplets/webserverpuppy-lamp-xampp)


~Martin

[Anon001]

Okay, I have Puppy settings saved to an 8G USB stick. I have downloaded and unzipped Evolution (for my mail) and Open Office. But, the problem I'm having is in trying to learn how to install them. I even tried to play around with installing from the terminal command line, but that didn't work.

In Ubuntu, to download and install from the command line, it is "apt-get install [filename]. But I can't find the command line codes anywhere on the puppylinux websites.

I'm not giving up though. I like puppy. It really zips along and uses so little resources. I'm really amazed.

Also, is Debian as fast as Puppy?

Thanks again,
Paul

[AlchemyAcres]

Okay, I have Puppy settings saved to an 8G USB stick. I have downloaded and unzipped Evolution (for my mail) and Open Office. But, the problem I'm having is in trying to learn how to install them. I even tried to play around with installing from the terminal command line, but that didn't work.

In Ubuntu, to download and install from the command line, it is "apt-get install [filename]. But I can't find the command line codes anywhere on the puppylinux websites.

I'm not giving up though. I like puppy. It really zips along and uses so little resources. I'm really amazed.

Hi Paul,
Evolution is a Gnome program. So you'd need the Gnome desktop in order to install it. There is a Windows version if you have Wine. Evolution win32, I think.

Openoffice is best installed as a sfs file....
Files and instructions here.....
http://www.puppylinux.org/?q=wiki/software-applications/office/openoffice-0


Also, is Debian as fast as Puppy?
No!



~Martin

[RueTheDay]

This is mainly for Martin (or anyone else). I didn't want to hijack mommato ..... 's thread on Ubuntu.

My question is how do the other distros compare as far as ease of use and bugs, etc. I mean... I finally have everything working right on my Ubuntu, but I have noticed it getting slower with the last couple of upgrades.

Are the other distros that you've mentioned more "skeleton" than Ubuntu? Do you have to be more computer savvy than with Ubuntu?

Thanks,
Paul

If you're looking for more of a skeleton" distro, you could always try Debian, which is what Ubuntu is based on.

[bee_pipes]

I got into this discussion before with Martin. We had a WinModem that wouldn't work with Linux, so the move was postponed - other projects took priority and the computer was still working with windows XT.

Well, we just got on with DSL, the local phone company has managed to make it out here to our place. I read this and a few other threads to see which distributions to look at, and did some searching on the net.

Downloaded Puppy and burned it to a CD. I gotta agree, it is fast. The only problem is that I can't see the mouse cursor. The mouse causes things to happen on the desktop - the scroll wheel makes stuff happen, and the right click will pop up a menu, but I don't seem to be able to get around the desktop with tab keys (shift, alt, ctrl - you name it, I've tried it), arrow keys, etc. Fiddled with it for a few hours - tried running the mouse wizzard and switching from ps/2 to serial - the only other option - no change. Didn't think it would work, but just one more thing to rule out tinkering.

So I thought "well, lets just give ubuntu a try." Yikes! 700mb distro, takes forever to boot from CD, not impressively fast.

Since then I have been reading up on puppy - sounds good and like the way to go. Put a lot of weight on Martin's recommendation, but can't get around if I can't see the mouse cursor. Searched the user forums, but this does not seem to be a problem. Search results got back posts on the forum that didn't seem to address the topic.

The computer is an HP, a few years old, 1gb memory, 80gb hard disk. Mouse is a logitech two-button scroll wheel type that came with the computer, plugged into the mouse port of the computer and set up in windows as a ps/2 compatible.

Any ideas?

Man, this DSL really rocks. After spending four years on dial-up it is a pleasure to be able to download distributions and other software.

Regards,
Pat

[sally]

Paul,

Another option would be to keep the Ubuntu, but change the desktop gui. Gnome and KDE are a bit resource-intensive. Something like XFCE (Cholesterol-free desktop) might make your distro run faster.

[AlchemyAcres]

I got into this discussion before with Martin. We had a WinModem that wouldn't work with Linux, so the move was postponed - other projects took priority and the computer was still working with windows XT.

Well, we just got on with DSL, the local phone company has managed to make it out here to our place. I read this and a few other threads to see which distributions to look at, and did some searching on the net.

Downloaded Puppy and burned it to a CD. I gotta agree, it is fast. The only problem is that I can't see the mouse cursor. The mouse causes things to happen on the desktop - the scroll wheel makes stuff happen, and the right click will pop up a menu, but I don't seem to be able to get around the desktop with tab keys (shift, alt, ctrl - you name it, I've tried it), arrow keys, etc. Fiddled with it for a few hours - tried running the mouse wizzard and switching from ps/2 to serial - the only other option - no change. Didn't think it would work, but just one more thing to rule out tinkering.

So I thought "well, lets just give ubuntu a try." Yikes! 700mb distro, takes forever to boot from CD, not impressively fast.

Since then I have been reading up on puppy - sounds good and like the way to go. Put a lot of weight on Martin's recommendation, but can't get around if I can't see the mouse cursor. Searched the user forums, but this does not seem to be a problem. Search results got back posts on the forum that didn't seem to address the topic.

The computer is an HP, a few years old, 1gb memory, 80gb hard disk. Mouse is a logitech two-button scroll wheel type that came with the computer, plugged into the mouse port of the computer and set up in windows as a ps/2 compatible.

Any ideas?

Man, this DSL really rocks. After spending four years on dial-up it is a pleasure to be able to download distributions and other software.

Regards,
Pat

That's a bummer!!!! :(

I suspect that it may be a video server issue.
Try using xvesa when booting instead of xorg.

If that doesn't make a difference, post the question over on the Murga site, they're great at resolving an odd issue such as this.

It's surely worth getting it resolved.... there isn't anything else quite like Puppy.


~Martin

[bee_pipes]

That was the problem! Thanx man. I'm logged in now with SeaMonkey. Got some issues to work out for resolution, but it works much faster than windows and was a breeze to bring up.

Regards,
Pat

[Anon001]

I still like Linux much better than Windows.

Pat, my HP sounds like yours. I have 1G with 80G. However, my keyboard is shot, and my hard drive is dying, it's having too many errors.

Yesterday, I ordered a new IBM Lenovo S10. I plan to put Puppy on it.

I've already downloaded the latest version of Puppy to a USB.

Pat, DSL is great, huh! lol I switched about 14 months ago. It was a big difference.

Paul