# All "which distro should I choose?" queries here.



## iamharish15 (May 16, 2011)

I have only operated on windows platform till date, but now I also want to try Linux OS, but there are many Linux OS available such as RedHat Linux, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and so many... I am a beginner, so I want to know which Linus OS I should opt for and why? And what are the differences between them?


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## abhijangda (May 16, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

For an absolute beginner, try Linux Mint. You can also try Ubuntu after getting little exprience. Fedora, openSUSE are meant for advanced/experienced user. Although, a beginner can also use them but he will face problems.


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## MatchBoxx (May 17, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

Ubuntu is best for learning Linux!


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## iamharish15 (May 17, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

if they all are Linux, then why they have different names? what is the difference among them?


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## doomgiver (May 17, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

just visual style and a little bit of difference in high level working. deep down in the core, all linuxes(or lini) are equal.


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## iamharish15 (May 17, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

ok! thanks all. I am now thinking of using Linux Mint as I have a copy of it available. Let's see what I figure out about it.


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## doomgiver (May 17, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

good choice.
mint and ubuntu are quite similar, the major difference is cosmetic


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## iamharish15 (May 17, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

Nobody suggested RedHat Linux? Is it not in use or is it for advance user or what?


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## doomgiver (May 17, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

dunno, its quite old (as in long running) and oriented towards paid business users


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## sygeek (May 17, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

Go for Gentoo, LOL!
I recommend you go for Pinguy OS instead of Ubuntu.


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## ssk_the_gr8 (May 18, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*



iamharish15 said:


> Nobody suggested RedHat Linux? Is it not in use or is it for advance user or what?



you can say it's advanced... go with ubuntu... if there are any issues , there's a big community which will help you out....


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## iamharish15 (May 18, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

thanks all, well I have my exams this month, so I will use either ubuntu or mint after my exams.


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## iamharish15 (May 19, 2011)

*re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

I've been using Linux Mint 9 for 3 days. Its a nice experience, it is simple , user friendly and preloaded with most of the useful softwares, but I need to find drivers for my graphics card, bluetooth, wireless LAN,etc. 
And Does Linux not run the .exe format?


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## krishnandu.sarkar (May 19, 2011)

*re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

^^Nope, .exe is executable file for Windows.

Though you can run it under Linux through Wine. But not all applications are supported.


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## nims11 (May 19, 2011)

*re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

there are alternatives for most windows applications in LINUX.


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## iamharish15 (May 20, 2011)

*re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

ok. does that mean that I can't play games on Linux Mint? or there are other alternatives available?


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## nims11 (May 20, 2011)

*re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

there are games for LINUX but good ones are really few. for the windows games, 
search for the game in the wine comatibility list
WineHQ - Browse Applications


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## ico (May 21, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

can you run PS3 games on Xbox 360? can you run your Windows ".EXE" games on your Xbox 360? Nope.

So, Linux won't run Windows executable files. Find native games for Linux like "Urban Terror" or stick to Windows for gaming. Use Linux for everything else. You can try using WINE for running Windows softwares/games.



iamharish15 said:


> I've been using Linux Mint 9 for 3 days. Its a nice experience, it is simple , user friendly and preloaded with most of the useful softwares, but I need to find drivers for my graphics card, bluetooth, wireless LAN,etc.


1) Bluetooth and Wireless LAN should work out-of-the-box.
2) Which graphic card do you have?
3) You won't be installing your Windows "drivers" in Linux. This is a completely different Operating System ffs.


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## mitraark (May 21, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

Definately Ubuntu , the most common Linux distro i think.


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## Liverpool_fan (May 21, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

For restricted drivers for hardware which doesn't work out of the box -
*i.imgur.com/kkOczl.jpg


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## iamharish15 (May 21, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*



ico said:


> 1) Bluetooth and Wireless LAN should work out-of-the-box.
> 2) Which graphic card do you have?
> 3) You won't be installing your Windows "drivers" in Linux. This is a completely different Operating System ffs.


Thanks for your advice, I found an option there to find the drivers for my bluetooth and wireless LAN.
And It automatically detected my graphics card when I tried to adjust the visual setting to higher visuals and it provided me with an option to avtivate the drivers for my graphics card.
I have nVIDIA GeForce 310M 512 MB graphic card.


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## krishnandu.sarkar (May 21, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

Merging it with *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/open-source/141067-distro-should-i-choose.html

The generalized Sticky Thread.


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## babatu (May 23, 2011)

*Which linux to be installed in this config*

My rig has the following config

AMD Sempron 1.8GHz
Ram 512mb 
HDD 160+20GB
Moreover I have an nVIDIA 128mb graphics card. 

I want to install a linux in my computer. Please suggest which to use?

Which one is better fedora or ubuntu?


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## Rahim (May 23, 2011)

*Re: Which distro should I choose?*

^Ubuntu anyday


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## uniquerockrz (Jun 3, 2011)

seems not many are fedora fans here :-B


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## krishnandu.sarkar (Jun 3, 2011)

^^I use F14 at Office


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## Liverpool_fan (Jun 3, 2011)

uniquerockrz said:


> seems not many are fedora fans here :-B



Can I say one thing - FONTS.
Yes FONTS. Fedora 15 has totally messed up fonts. No matter how I try it, it's nowhere near Ubuntu's levels. And don't think I've not tried enough. 
Fedora 14's fonts were okay, not Ubuntu's levels but still pretty good. I wonder what did they do with the fonts in this newest release.


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## Garbage (Jun 3, 2011)

uniquerockrz said:


> seems not many are fedora fans here :-B



I would love to try Fedora, but no matter which hardware I use, it always screws up the installation. And I don't get the drivers as easy as Ubuntu.


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## sygeek (Jun 3, 2011)

I strongly Recommend people who are just new to linux should try PinGuy. Some may feel it bloated but it is a great alternative if you didn't like Ubuntu's Unity UI (or Ubuntu at all)..


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## hellknight (Jun 4, 2011)

According to my personal experience, there are three types of GNU/Linux distributions or levels :-

*Beginner :- Linux Mint (this due to all codecs & drivers), Ubuntu*
*Intermediate :- Fedora, OpenSuse, Mandriva (after 6-12 months of experience with Beginner distros)*
*Advanced :- Arch Linux* & then the ultimate, *Gentoo Linux* (they are rolling releases i.e you don't have to wait every 6-8 months for new releases. They update whenever they want and whatever they want. You can customize them to extreme level) Try these, once you master the command line & you don't need a graphical package management tool to install/remove packages. Moreover they're BSD init based not System V based but that is completely different topic.

Lastly, when you are quite familiar with GNU/Linux i.e. mastered most of the commands, will boot Windows only for gaming , don't see any valid reason to boot Windows or Mac , then you can move on to

*Debian :- The true FOSS distro*
*CentOS :- Best damn distro available for servers. Pure Red Hat packages except the artwork. It is 99.99% RHEL.*

You can use the above mentioned distros (Debian & CentOS) for deploying any kind of server. They're very good desktop distros too. Moreover, Debian has legendary stability.

Offtopic :-

If you really like trying out operating systems, then please look at :-

*FreeBSD* :- The unknown giant. Is used by Yahoo servers. Once powered Hotmail servers. Currently FreeBSD 6 or 7 is used to power SBI site & online banking site. Supports GNOME & KDE. Has both 32-bit & 64-bit packages. Is available for variety of platforms. Try this once you get familiar with UNIX environment.

*PC-BSD* :- Almost the same, but has very easy installer. Currently supports only KDE but ver. 9.0 will add GNOME support as well.

They can only be installed on primary partition though.

For users who want to try *Fedora 15*, please keep in mind the following facts :-

1. It *WILL ruin* your installation if you install *propreitary ATI* drivers on the system. ATI has the poorest support for not only Fedora but everything else. It is only stable on Ubuntu based distros. The open source drivers work fine but don't provide good hardware acceleration.
2. Never, ever choose * use free space * while installing Fedora. There's nothing wrong with it, but it makes LVM partitions which users aren't familiar with.
3. Make sure *you read the articles* posted at FedoraForum.org for your queries before installing it.

The thing that you'll love about Fedora, its update system. Yum has a plugin called Yum-presto which reduces the update size upto 90% in some cases.


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## iamharish15 (Jun 4, 2011)

*How to boot Linux Mint 9 alongside Windows 7*

I want someone to give me detailed description of "How to boot Linux Mint 9 alongside Windows 7". 
The problem I am having is that when I booted Linux mint first, it makes 3 primary partitions and thereafter when I tried to boot win7, it required to make another 2 primary partitions but it showed an error that only four primary partitions can be made.
So then I removed linux mint and booted Win7 first(it created 2 primary partitions,1 for windows and 1 system reserved) and after that when I booted with linux mint, I was unable to create the required 3 primary partitions.
I somehow once Installed the both, and at the startup a green graphical interface appears to choose which OS to load, but I want the non-graphical black screen interface like windows for choosing which OS to load.
So please give me the detailed description about that.
I have a 320GB HDD.
I want to install both the OS at different partitions and atleast two more partitions for storing my data.


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## doomgiver (Jun 5, 2011)

1. install windows first in primary partition
2. use extended partition to install mint
3. google


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## sygeek (Jun 5, 2011)

Installing Linux Mint 9 64bit Dual Boot with Windows 7 Tutorial // Current
Remove Linux Mint and wipe out the entire hard disk. Install Windows 7 on the PRIMARY partiton and Linux mint on the EXTENDED partition. Use Linux Mint Installer's Partition Manager to do this. Try some partition guides before you lean on to this Dual-Boot stuff.
How To Dual Boot


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## iamharish15 (Jun 5, 2011)

SyGeek said:


> Installing Linux Mint 9 64bit Dual Boot with Windows 7 Tutorial // Current
> Remove Linux Mint and wipe out the entire hard disk. Install Windows 7 on the PRIMARY partiton and Linux mint on the EXTENDED partition. Use Linux Mint Installer's Partition Manager to do this. Try some partition guides before you lean on to this Dual-Boot stuff.
> How To Dual Boot


The problem I'm having is that I have all my important data on a 150GB partition and I want to avoid formatting the whole disk. And there is a 1GB of partition that I am unable to use that previously contained some lenovo files but I deleted that partition so that I could merge it with all other partitions but it couldn't be merged with the free space.
And I also want to know that on which partition should I install the Linux mint loader? so that at the start up I want a non-graphical black interface showing all the OS installed.

How To Dual Boot
I hope the EasyBCD app provided in the link will do the same for Linux Mint 9 too, '
I  haven't tried it yet due to exams, but will try it and share whether it works or not.


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## sygeek (Jun 5, 2011)

Just shrink that 150GB partition if it isn't full..


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## mastercool8695 (Jun 14, 2011)

how much disk space will linux require ???? just the installed os??


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## krishnandu.sarkar (Jun 14, 2011)

Including / and /swap, 8-10GB would be fine.

Though it'll be covered within 4GB, but still I recommend around 10GB if you want to use it daily basis, as updates, diff apps, /home will also get included.


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## mastercool8695 (Jun 14, 2011)

thanks.

and which version?

IS IT HARD TO USE???
IT IS A GUI BASED ONE ?? (IT IS, I KNOW ) BUT IS IT GOOD FOR NOOBS??


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## krishnandu.sarkar (Jun 14, 2011)

If you are first time linux user then I recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

It's not hard, but if you are moving from windows for first time, it may seem odd for you for few days. But after that everything will be alright.


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## mastercool8695 (Jun 14, 2011)

Ok
where can i download these??


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## Joker (Jun 14, 2011)

*ubuntu download*


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## krishnandu.sarkar (Jun 14, 2011)

Ubuntu : Download | Ubuntu

Linux Mint : Download - Linux Mint


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## mastercool8695 (Jun 14, 2011)

Thanks


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## Liverpool_fan (Jun 14, 2011)

mastercool8695 said:


> Thanks



Get Linux Mint, rather than Ubuntu.


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## iamharish15 (Jul 2, 2011)

I have installed the Linux Mint and I have a MTS Mbrowse data card. But the data card runs from the application which can not be run on linux mint as its set up file is in .exe format. 
Suggest me the alternatives to be able to use the data card on Linux mint also.


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## nims11 (Jul 2, 2011)

this should help
[SOLVED] MTS Mblaze(mobile broadband internet) - Ubuntu Forums

let me know if this works, i planning to buy MTS Mblaze in few days


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## iamharish15 (Jul 5, 2011)

*Problem Solved for Connecting MTS MBrowse/MBlaze in Linux*



nims11 said:


> this should help
> [SOLVED] MTS Mblaze(mobile broadband internet) - Ubuntu Forums
> 
> let me know if this works, i planning to buy MTS Mblaze in few days



No that didn't worked!
But Finally I have found the solution myself yesterday after googling it for so long!
I have copied all the important steps into one file and attaching it here.
For MTS MBrowse change the password to : 123
For MTS MBlaze password is given in the file: mts


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## iamharish15 (Jul 5, 2011)

once you connect to the Internet in Linux, and apply the recommended updates particularly the" list of mobile operators" package, then you will no longer need to connect using terminal as suggested in the file attached by me.
Because the new updates include MTS MBlaze in its list of operators, so you can configure using that.
But for MTS MBrowse you will still have to use the terminal for connecting to the Internet, so better create the launcher for that!


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## ico (Jul 6, 2011)

Good job imharish15.


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## rchi84 (Jul 6, 2011)

For desktops, it has to be a tossup between ubuntu (for its wide hardware support) & derivatives, Fedora or Open Suse. (strictly from my experience).

Laptops though is another issue. With my current DV6 laptop, I am yet to find a linux distro that works with the RALINK 3090 wifi chip out of the box. There's always a manual installation of the driver involved. So the best thing to do is to load a Live CD session and check if you are able to CONNECT to a wireless network successfully. 

Most of the time, the networks will be shown up fine, but you will never be able to connect to them 

For netbooks, I would recommend Puppy Linux on an SD card. Saves a ton of drive space, and is very light on the system. But again, you'll have to check if your wireless card is supported properly via a Live CD session. and NDISWrapper doesn't work half as well as its supposed to..


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## Liverpool_fan (Jul 6, 2011)

It's a better idea to check hardware compatibility before with Linux you buy a lappy. If you do that everything will work.


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## iamharish15 (Jul 7, 2011)

ico said:


> Good job imharish15.


Thanks for appreciation! well, my real name is not difficult to get from my username!!!


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## Anand_Tux (Jul 8, 2011)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*



iamharish15 said:


> Nobody suggested RedHat Linux? Is it not in use or is it for advance user or what?



RedHat Linux is Enterprise Linux which is used by professionals so it is not suited for a newbie but Fedora is derived from RedHat and anyone can use it.


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## cute.bandar (Jul 8, 2011)

*Need distro suggestions*

Can you people give me names of distros , that have the option to install the bootloader(grub|lilo) on a partition (volume boot record), instead of the MBR ?

Would appreciate quick responses.

Thanks


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## doomgiver (Jul 8, 2011)

ubuntu, arch, crunchbang, fedora(i think)


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## iamharish15 (Jul 8, 2011)

Linux Mint also provides that option in the last step of booting, click on the Advanced Button and then you can select the partition you want to install the grub on



Anand_Tux said:


> RedHat Linux is Enterprise Linux which is used by professionals so it is not suited for a newbie but Fedora is derived from RedHat and anyone can use it.


Thanks!


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## vaibhav23 (Jul 13, 2011)

Friends I have the following config:
p4 2.66 Ghz
1GB DDR 
80 GB HDD
INTEL 845GE Graphics controller(VRAM:64MB)

I want to install an open source OS but which one I could not finalize.
I only surf the net and watch occasional movies.
I had thought of installing Ubuntu 11.04 but was not sure it would work or not.
Please suggest

My mouse has  some problem.I click only once but sometimes it takes a double click.
As soon as I saw my thread I  PM'ed a mod to please delete one of  my threads


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## vaibhav23 (Jul 13, 2011)

I have decide to use linux mint but not sure whether my graphics controller will be supported or not.Config:
p4 2.66 Ghz
1 GB DDR
Intel 845GE graphics controller
I will download the linux drivers for my graphics controller but they are of 2007.So please help


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## Anorion (Jul 13, 2011)

yeah 10GB should be about enough, and I dont even use the swap so you can do it in two partitions, one for mint and one for windows
I know not using swap is not recommended, but I never have, and never faced any problems


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## doomgiver (Jul 13, 2011)

Anorion said:


> yeah 10GB should be about enough, and I dont even use the swap so you can do it in two partitions, one for mint and one for windows
> I know not using swap is not recommended, but I never have, and never faced any problems


how much ram do you have?



sunny10 said:


> My mouse has  some problem.I click only once but sometimes it takes a double click.
> As soon as I saw my thread I  PM'ed a mod to please delete one of  my threads



its the problem with the mouse hardware, replace it. i too have a double clicky mouse. very annoying


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## vaibhav23 (Jul 13, 2011)

Yes it is very annoying but will buy a mouse next month.
So would  Linux Mint l work well on my pc


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## Piyush (Jul 26, 2011)

Ubuntu vs Linux Mint

Pros and Cons???


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## doomgiver (Aug 28, 2011)

here goes.
pentium D 2.8 ghz
1 gb ram
no gpu.

distro required for basic office work
pdf,doc,(basically, office files), image files
MUST BOOT FAST (my arch boots in 13 secs)
easy to configure
linux beginner going to use it (he can manage his way a bit, but does not like command line too much)
also, NO PCMANFM, my brother hates it(i hate it too  )
file manager must have breadcrumbs, tabs, and when going one level up in the directory structure, it MUST KEEP THE LAST OPENED FOLDER SELECTED.(this is why we hate it)

audio/fancy graphics NOT required (sound is dead and colors are not displayed properly, so not needed)

im thinking of lxde/xfce ubuntu or mint.
Peppermint OS
suggestions?


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## abhijangda (Aug 29, 2011)

^^ go for mint.


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## NeptuneTech (Sep 7, 2011)

^^^i'd suggest you to use ubuntu because mint is a derivative of ubuntu...with ubuntu, u can create more capabilities for your machine than from mint....(if you plan to get into deep someday)


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## eagle_y2j (Sep 7, 2011)

xfce ubuntu 

if resources are low xfce is really a charm !


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## nims11 (Sep 7, 2011)

NeptuneTech said:


> u can create more capabilities for your machine than from mint....(if you plan to get into deep someday)



not true. most distros are more or less the same if you *plan to go deeper* in Linux.


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## Chaitanya (Sep 7, 2011)

try virtualbox for running windows applications.

this link


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## Ishu Gupta (Sep 7, 2011)

Chaitanya said:


> try virtualbox for running windows applications.
> 
> this link


Alternative > Wine > Virtual Machine


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## doomgiver (Sep 8, 2011)

Chaitanya said:


> try virtualbox for running windows applications.
> 
> this link


AAARGHHH!!!! TOO MANY MOVING PIXELS!!!
*goes into epileptic seizure and starts spamming(pun, lol)



eagle_y2j said:


> xfce ubuntu
> 
> if resources are low xfce is really a charm !



im using xubuntu... slightly more bloated, but easier o configure and use for my brother. (keep in mind that he is not aware that the "windows" he sees is different than the desktop or the os, you know typical windows newbie)

also, how is nautilus as a file manager? is it better than thunar/pcmanfm???
(dang, i hate the fact that linux has such few good file managers, little choice here)


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## nims11 (Sep 8, 2011)

^^ nautilus > thunar = pcmanfm
in terms of features as well as lightweightness. but the features overshadow the lightweightness factor.


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## doomgiver (Sep 8, 2011)

k, ty.
i think ubuntu comes with nautilus? or what is its default fm?


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## nims11 (Sep 8, 2011)

doomgiver said:


> k, ty.
> i think ubuntu comes with nautilus?



right.


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## Piyush (Sep 9, 2011)

just installed ubuntu 11.04
and liking the unity interface a lot

are there any cpu monitoring gadgets for 11.04?


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## fz8975 (Oct 8, 2011)

Which one for a beginner like me ??
I want to learn more about linux/unix ?
how do i get started ?


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## nims11 (Oct 8, 2011)

install ubuntu or More preferably, Linux Mint.


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## Krow (Oct 8, 2011)

Yeah Linux Mint is a good place to start as you won't have to install all codecs to play avi, mp3 files either.


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## mitraark (Oct 25, 2011)

Which version of Ubuntu to go for ? I had been using 10.04 but now its time to shift to 11 , but have heard new ones have some Wifi driver problems etc.


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## Krow (Oct 26, 2011)

On my HP dm1z, I can't figure out how to get the sound working with Ubuntu 11.10.

And right click does not work either.


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## nims11 (Oct 26, 2011)

^^ quite a common problem with new systems but haven't faced with ubuntu 11.10.
There are many reasons for it. try one of these and then use the *speaker-test* command to test.
1. */usr/bin/pulseaudio*
2. *alsamixer* and then check if any output channel is muted. if yes, then unmute it by *m*.
3. try this Ubuntu 11.10 « Abhishek's Programming And Linux Solution Blog


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## Krow (Oct 27, 2011)

^Thanks for that. I'll check it out as soon as I have the time.


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## Krow (Oct 28, 2011)

Thanks a lot nims11. Your post helped. A little more googling solved two of my problems. I can right click now and I got the sound working.

But, now my laptop randomly hangs/freezes with the caps lock led blinking. I was just browsing on FF both the times it froze. No keys work. Only a hard reset helps. This distro is giving me headaches.


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## Faun (Oct 28, 2011)

^^try
*PRtScr/SysRq* hold it and press these keys sequentially

*R E I S U B*


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## Krow (Oct 29, 2011)

^I'll try that. What does it do?

Ubuntu has become too much of a Mac clone in recent years. Unity has made it even more so (the dock has been moved to the left that's about it). Anyone following Mint? They said they may release a Gnome 3 version next. Looking forward to it. If they give a good Gnome 3 version, I'll donate instantly.


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## Faun (Oct 29, 2011)

^^when nothing responds it will safely reboot.


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## Krow (Oct 29, 2011)

^Hmmm... That is fine, but the system shouldn't be freezing I suppose. I'll update the AMD video drivers and check.

Downloaded Arch 32-bit. How to burn it to a pendrive? Any good software for Win or Lin?


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## Ishu Gupta (Oct 29, 2011)

Unetbootin


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## Krow (Oct 29, 2011)

^It didn't work with Ubuntu 11.10 for me. I used some other software called Universal USB or something like that.


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## Ishu Gupta (Oct 29, 2011)

Haven't tried 11.10 but worked with every other distro I tried (11.04, Arch etc).


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## doomgiver (Oct 29, 2011)

if you have arch, you dont need any mac/windows clone


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## nims11 (Oct 29, 2011)

none of the bootable usb creators works for me in case of Arch. I have to use the *dd* command in Linux to make one.



doomgiver said:


> if you have arch, you dont need any mac/windows clone


+1
you get what you want.


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## Krow (Oct 29, 2011)

Ah yes, I saw the dd command on the Arch wiki. I'll use it. Its a dangerous command apparently, if you enter the wrong drive letter.


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## doomgiver (Oct 29, 2011)

nims11 said:


> none of the bootable usb creators works for me in case of Arch. I have to use the *dd* command in Linux to make one.



none?
did you try *launchpad.net/win32-image-writer???


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## Windows (Nov 17, 2011)

Guys, i am totally new to Linux, installed Ubuntu a month back and now i want to install Arch Linux alongside my Windows installation on my laptop.

It has an x64 Core2Duo Processor with 3GB DDR3 RAM and a 320GB SATA HDD.

I downloaded 
archlinux-2011.08.19-netinstall-dual.iso
from the website.


Is it the right iso? Is the Install Procedure really difficult and time consuming?


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## Liverpool_fan (Nov 17, 2011)

You need to be comfortable with the Linux command line, and be able to follow and understand the Arch's Beginner's guide. If that's called difficult, then the answer is yes. Personally I don't call it difficult, just a lot more attention to details.


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## nims11 (Nov 17, 2011)

the only prerequisite for installing and using arch is comfort with command line, familiarity with basic Linux structure and most importantly, patience.


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## RahulB (Nov 24, 2011)

Which Distro to use
-----------------------

Answer to this question is difficult as there are so many easy to use distros out there...

However.... here are some I recommend

1. Linux Mint - Very popular, Ubuntu based so it can use its packages, can install debian packages as well, very very easy to use.

2. Sabayon - Again a very easy to use distro in the same vein as Mint

3. Mandriva - Very polished Linux Distro

All of these are very polished distros so start with either of them.

To find more go to DistroWatch:DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.


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## sygeek (Nov 24, 2011)

RahulB said:


> Which Distro to use
> -----------------------
> 
> Answer to this question is difficult as there are so many easy to use distros out there...
> ...


I would like to add xubuntu.


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## doomgiver (Nov 25, 2011)

anyone uses mandriva???


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## RBX (Jan 7, 2012)

I'm a very new user to Linux community. Installed Linux Mint 12 on my pc yesterday , would have opted for Ubuntu but wanted to try a different distro as I've already tried Ubuntu 10.04 on a friend's laptop.

Things on Mint are quite easy, the Gnome seems much better than what was on Ubuntu. Now I want to install one on my own laptop and want to move on to a more advanced distro - Fedora or openSuse.

I'm a student and want to work with various programming languages and IDEs, databases, diagram and presentation softwares, occasionally listen to music, and socialize on internet.
Which one would be for me ? (I like clean, sophisticated interfaces, but that would come secondary to usage)

Two more things - 
1) Would it be feasible to install an older distro (from Digit DVDs) and upgrade it to latest to avoid significant amount of download ?
2) What is Solaris ? No one seemed to mention it among Linux lineage. Could it be an option ? I'm not sure what architecture it runs on.

P.S. I have a Dell XPS 15, I hope Nvidia drivers will be readily available despite the distro I select.


----------



## Liverpool_fan (Jan 7, 2012)

Linux Mint is perfect. Alternatively you can try Fedora, but it would require *some* work to get it up and running perfectly (with multimedia, good fonts, etc.). Mint won't need you to do the extra stuff.

1) You're under limited download cap? Well in any case avoid older distros. Out of date packages and what not. A 300-400 MB download of packages will suffice all programming and multimedia needs.
And which database, presentation, diagram software do you plan? Make sure it's either cross platform or you're willing to move to an alternative.

2) Solaris? Forget it. OpenSolaris was left in the cold by Oracle, and while Illumos continues its code base, it's not really the OS I would suggest to use, unless you are interested to play with it itself. Forget about Oracle's closed source Solaris anyway.

As long as your Dell XPS 15 doesn't have NVIDIA Optimus, it's fine. Otherwise we have a problem. A major one.


----------



## RBX (Jan 7, 2012)

I'm not under a download cap, I just like things up and running so I can explore while the updates etc take place.

My working areas are ever changing, I prefer MySQL/Oracle XE as DBs, Eclipse IDE for Java, Netbeans , Topstyle for HTML/CSS, Notepad++ like apps for other web developments, been using GCC for some time in Windows, but I hope a dosbox/wine could run TurboC properly because I don't have a clue about using graphics with GCC. I think MySQL Workbench for EER diagrams should also be available for Linux.

I'll be choosing Gnome based Fedora 16.

And, yes, my laptop does have Optimus


----------



## ico (Jan 8, 2012)

If you have nVidia Optimus, then nVidia card and drivers will not work in Linux. Only Intel HD 3000 is going to be used.

Infact, the nVidia GPU will waste battery if you the laptop on battery.

Here's how you disable the nVidia GPU from running in Linux.


```
$ sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
```

Add these lines:


```
blacklist nouveau
blacklist nvidiafb
```

Save.


```
$ sudo depmod -a
$ sudo update-initramfs -u
```

and reboot.


----------



## debian (Jan 11, 2012)

For all those users wanting to try Arch, but dont feel they are techniaclly equipped, you can try some arch clones and forks like crunchbang or chakra. chakra is especially good fork with absolutely no gtk dependencies. If you like kde and arch, this is the distro to get.


----------



## utkarsh73 (Feb 4, 2012)

This is the first time I installed Linux Mint-12 today and I m pleased by the user interface. A good change from regular windows 7(Although I like 7 too).

One thing is, the battery consumption was very high on my laptop. Can I do anything to save some battery while on Linux mint??


----------



## Krow (Feb 4, 2012)

Tried tweaking power settings? It will help if you post your laptop model number and also that of its graphics card.


----------



## Liverpool_fan (Feb 5, 2012)

utkarsh73 said:


> This is the first time I installed Linux Mint-12 today and I m pleased by the user interface. A good change from regular windows 7(Although I like 7 too).
> 
> One thing is, the battery consumption was very high on my laptop. Can I do anything to save some battery while on Linux mint??



Install Jupiter. (Things to do after Installing Linux Mint 12 Lisa ~ Noobs on Ubuntu and Windows, HD Wallpapers, Tutorials, jump to #9)


----------



## utkarsh73 (Feb 5, 2012)

Krow said:


> Tried tweaking power settings? It will help if you post your laptop model number and also that of its graphics card.


Laptop: lenovo Ideapad Y560. Graphic Card: ATI HD 5730.
I will be free today and will explore linux thoroughly.

Also I have switchable graphics feature in my laptop. I can switch to integrated GPU in windows and then boot into Linux Mint. Will it work???


----------



## Krow (Feb 5, 2012)

Yes it will work. Although I am not sure if Mint works well with Intel HD3000.


----------



## hellknight (Feb 5, 2012)

debian said:


> For all those users wanting to try Arch, but dont feel they are techniaclly equipped, you can try some arch clones and forks like crunchbang or chakra. chakra is especially good fork with absolutely no gtk dependencies. If you like kde and arch, this is the distro to get.



Actually.. Arch Clone is *Archbang* Crunchbang originated from Ubuntu but is now based on *Debian*


----------



## debian (Feb 6, 2012)

Firstly switchable graphics like nvidia optimus is not well supported on linux. Some reverse-engineered projects have come up, but your mileage will vary. Nvidia as of now, has no plans of bringing optimus to linux.

Arch users wishing to try out gnome-shell can look at kahel-os, a clone like chakra but with gtk.



utkarsh73 said:


> This is the first time I installed Linux Mint-12 today and I m pleased by the user interface. A good change from regular windows 7(Although I like 7 too).
> 
> One thing is, the battery consumption was very high on my laptop. Can I do anything to save some battery while on Linux mint??



This is a known kernel bug relating to aspm power management. The fix is available in kernel 3.3 and has been backported by canonical to 3.2 for their 12.04 LTS release. Mint 12 use kernel 3.0, so you are out of luck. You can use tools like jupiter or granola, but your best bet will be mint 13. If you are feeling adventurous, you can try ubuntu 12.04 alpha 2 release 2 days back.



RazorbladeXtreme said:


> I'm a very new user to Linux community. Installed Linux Mint 12 on my pc yesterday , would have opted for Ubuntu but wanted to try a different distro as I've already tried Ubuntu 10.04 on a friend's laptop.
> 
> Things on Mint are quite easy, the Gnome seems much better than what was on Ubuntu. Now I want to install one on my own laptop and want to move on to a more advanced distro - Fedora or openSuse.
> 
> ...



If you are desperate to try solaris, the only feasible option now is openindiana based on the illumos kernel. And since you have dell XPS ( which i think has nvidia gt 525 GC), install the latest Nvidia proprietary Driver as Noveau has known problems with 5 series chipset.


----------



## kaput (Feb 13, 2012)

After reading this thread and all possible tutorials tried idualbooting Linux mint 12(digit dvd). 
Tutorial
Have followed all steps correctly.
The thing is there is no option to install "alongside windows 7" but just the "replace" option. 
Same case with ubuntuPlease help
Maybe this isn't the right thread(sorry), a bit desperate here.


----------



## nims11 (Feb 13, 2012)

choose manual install and then create an ext4 partition with mount point as '/' in the extended (preferably) partition. also create a swap partition twice your RAM.

if you didnt understand any of the above, simple install ubuntu using wubi installer under windows.


----------



## varshi_s (Feb 25, 2012)

From my knowledge, Ubuntu is the most user friendly distro from Linux.


----------



## doomgiver (Feb 25, 2012)

not anymore.
unity has screwed everyone over.

even finding the file browser is hard, hidden away under 2-3 layers of "menus" and buttons.


----------



## soham.b (Apr 9, 2012)

I am a complete newbie to Linux world. Want to experiment with it. Have been looking at certain sites and i feel that Linux is getting better and better and user friendly and looks good.

I am a hardcore windows user. I have been brought up on windows. Have been using windows for more than 15 years now. 

Which is the best distro for me?? I want something smooth good looking fast and bug free.

How to install it?? is there any simple consumer style user friendly method.Download use the the bootable cd and install like windows bootable cd??

How to install the drivers??Do i need to first find all the driver files and keep it ready??  


P.S:- any chances for chrome os(wud have the with the new aura shell )releasing in india this year q3 may be??


----------



## doomgiver (Apr 9, 2012)

its easier and faster to install some linux distros than windows 
try linux mint. or ubuntu. but they require decent hardware to show their best eye-candy.


----------



## pramudit (May 12, 2012)

does anybody here uses opensuse??


----------



## krishnandu.sarkar (May 12, 2012)

pramudit said:


> does anybody here uses opensuse??



I have it installed in my Virtual Box but don't use it..!! I don't like it from the very beginning


----------



## Anish (May 14, 2012)

pramudit said:


> does anybody here uses opensuse??



Right here. Been using for the past 18 months. Love it. Currently running openSUSE 12.1 with KDE 4.0 && GNOME 3


----------



## debian (May 14, 2012)

The one thing that stands out for opensuse is the installer. Its the best one i've come across. Plus SUSE is known for their superb kde implementation. Unfortunately the 12 series is still not as good as 11.4 was.


----------



## doomgiver (May 15, 2012)

^^ you lost me there at KDE.


----------



## ssk_the_gr8 (May 15, 2012)

doomgiver said:


> ^^ you lost me there at KDE.



whats so wrong with KDE ?


----------



## doomgiver (May 16, 2012)

many things.
bloated. too windows like. weird menu layout. way to distracting (having a jumping ball in your face is not very good manners)

i'd tried a lot to simplify it, and reduce the eye-candy, but it just would not work. finally, i had to ditch it in favor of openbox.


----------



## ssk_the_gr8 (May 16, 2012)

I've not used kde but wanted to know the use of the jumping ball


----------



## papul1993 (May 16, 2012)

Tiling Window Managers for the WINZZZ


----------



## doomgiver (May 17, 2012)

papul1993 said:


> Tiling Window Managers for the WINZZZ


agreed!!!
using awesome, and tried out xmonad and scrotwm(didnt like the config).
mousefree life!!


ssk_the_gr8 said:


> I've not used kde but wanted to know the use of the jumping ball



its the default "working/busy" indicator, like the hourglass in windows, except its twice as big, is really bouncy, and changes color.

distracting, useless, and unnecessary.

and there is no option to turn it off, either.


----------



## nims11 (May 17, 2012)

doomgiver said:


> agreed!!!
> using awesome, and tried out xmonad and scrotwm(didnt like the config).
> mousefree life!!
> 
> ...



in system settings, search for launch feedback.



doomgiver said:


> many things.
> bloated. too windows like. weird menu layout. way to distracting (having a jumping ball in your face is not very good manners)
> 
> i'd tried a lot to simplify it, and reduce the eye-candy, but it just would not work. finally, i had to ditch it in favor of openbox.



different people different choices. KDE seems simpler to me compared to other DEs. Also, i feel more comfortable configuring it.
That was a long time ago, i too have ditched it favor of openbox.


----------



## JojoTheDragon (May 17, 2012)

doomgiver said:


> many things.
> bloated. too windows like. weird menu layout. way to distracting (having a jumping ball in your face is not very good manners)
> 
> i'd tried a lot to simplify it, and reduce the eye-candy, but it just would not work. finally, i had to ditch it in favor of openbox.



 You don't say.


----------



## thetechfreak (Jun 14, 2012)

Not really a query but a bit offtipic TBH.

I have a .ISO of Ubuntu 12.04 which I want to install as a "program inside Windows"

thing is the Wubi in the ISO doesn't have this option. so I downloaded Wubi from Ubuntu website, which has this option.

so how do I use this Wubi instead of one on the iso? as when I double click this Wubi, the installer starts downloading Ubuntu


----------



## Minion (Jun 14, 2012)

thetechfreak said:


> Not really a query but a bit offtipic TBH.
> 
> I have a .ISO of Ubuntu 12.04 which I want to install as a "program inside Windows"
> 
> ...



You can use ubuntu in virtualbox but I prefer SUSE very good interface.


----------



## nims11 (Jun 14, 2012)

thetechfreak said:


> Not really a query but a bit offtipic TBH.
> 
> I have a .ISO of Ubuntu 12.04 which I want to install as a "program inside Windows"
> 
> ...



extract the iso, replace the wubi and directly run it. Wubi will automatically use the extracted content.


----------



## thetechfreak (Jun 15, 2012)

nims11 said:


> extract the iso, replace the wubi and directly run it. Wubi will automatically use the extracted content.



Thanks a lot mate  I can install it now 

edit:  
its started downloading again!


edit: seems I need a tar.xz file too

this precisely-

ftp://ftp.free.fr/mirrors/ftp.ubuntu.com/releases/12.04/ubuntu-12.04-wubi-amd64.tar.xz


----------



## bharadwaj (Jul 3, 2012)

All of the guys who are gonna post in this thread, should take this quiz first and decide on their own...

zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Chooser

I think that's the best way to choose your own linux distro...


----------



## Piyush (Jul 3, 2012)

bharadwaj said:


> All of the guys who are gonna post in this thread, should take this quiz first and decide on their own...
> 
> zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Chooser
> 
> I think that's the best way to choose your own linux distro...



nice..but the quiz was not too much detailed one
still good 

Debian, Mandriva, Fedora and OpenSuSe 100% perfect for me according to the result


----------



## prudhivisekhar (Jul 4, 2012)

any one tried Linux Deepin? Based on Ubuntu..Looks cool


----------



## kg11sgbg (Jul 29, 2012)

Recently installed the Linux Mint -13(64-bit) "MAYA",with *MATE* desktop as the default one,along with "*Cinnamon*" Desktop, KDE Plasma ,GNOME...desktops.

Must admit,that though Fedora-17(64-bit) already installed with updates(installed to the latest) is a STABLE & SOLID distro,Mint-13... ROCKSSS


----------



## fz8975 (Aug 1, 2012)

Which DISTRO for my sister ??
>>she will be working with word(.docx) excel (.xlsx) and ppt files
>>web browsing
>>a "pdf creator" like software is needed for printing(to pdf files)
>>she has used win xp till now


----------



## ssk_the_gr8 (Aug 1, 2012)

fz8975 said:


> Which DISTRO for my sister ??
> >>she will be working with word(.docx) excel (.xlsx) and ppt files
> >>web browsing
> >>a "pdf creator" like software is needed for printing(to pdf files)
> >>she has used win xp till now



ubuntu 12.04 ... it has libre office ... it has everything you need


----------



## nims11 (Aug 2, 2012)

fz8975 said:


> Which DISTRO for my sister ??
> >>she will be working with word(.docx) excel (.xlsx) and ppt files
> >>web browsing
> >>a "pdf creator" like software is needed for printing(to pdf files)
> >>she has used win xp till now



Linux Mint
She probably won't need to install anything separately


----------



## papul1993 (Aug 2, 2012)

Linux Mint better than Ubuntu. Try the new Linux Mint xfce edition.


----------



## abhijit_reddevil (Dec 16, 2012)

Hello friends,

I am planning to use Linux for the first time. I have decided to try out Ubuntu by reading through the comments on this thread. I plan to use skype/yahoo messenger, web browsing, office applications, photo editing with the new distro. Keeping in mind all these, should I try out some other distro? I am completely new to this and need some time to learn the features of linux. From the ubuntu site, I saw there is option of the windows installer (Windows installer for Ubuntu Desktop | Ubuntu) which I can use to install this while running windows and then dual boot it.

My laptop is Asus K53SM - SX 010 D, details in my sig.

If I decide to not use it, how can I uninstall this?

Thanks..


----------



## krishnandu.sarkar (Dec 16, 2012)

You can use Ubuntu / Linux Mint. Max. members will suggest Linux Mint, as it's based on Ubuntu and comes with some pre-installed codecs and all. Ubuntu doesn't comes pre-installed due to some restrictions and their policies. So to play general Media Files (Audio / Video) you need to install those codecs manually also Flash Player, JRE etc. for browsing which comes pre-installed in Linux Mint.

So I'd also say, for first time, better try Linux Mint, you can also go with Ubuntu, there's no harm.

As you mentioned, you are thinking of trying it using Wubi (i.e. within Windows), I strongly do not recommend that (Almost everyone will). There are many drawbacks. Don't consider it for now.

If you are trying to seriously trying Linux, then free up some space on your HDD / SSD (whatever you use!!) and install directly form bootable CD / DVD / USB.

Ofcourse in this generation, it doesn't makes sense to waste CD / DVD, instead create Bootable USB from Downlaoded ISO and try it out.

*www.linuxliveusb.com/ will help you to create Bootable Linux USB flawlessly.

Also you may try the same within Virtualization Software like VirtualBox. Directly boot from the ISO and install and keep using it. If you want to continue you may consider installing it on HDD (as multi boot with Windows) otherwise simply delete the Virtual Machine..!! As simple as that.

In case you want to delete after installing in HDD (as multi boot with Windows) you may simply delete the Linux Drive from Windows and use Windows Recovery Disk to fix your MBR.

Hope that helps


----------



## abhijit_reddevil (Dec 20, 2012)

krishnandu.sarkar said:


> You can use Ubuntu / Linux Mint. Max. members will suggest Linux Mint, as it's based on Ubuntu and comes with some pre-installed codecs and all. Ubuntu doesn't comes pre-installed due to some restrictions and their policies. So to play general Media Files (Audio / Video) you need to install those codecs manually also Flash Player, JRE etc. for browsing which comes pre-installed in Linux Mint.
> 
> So I'd also say, for first time, better try Linux Mint, you can also go with Ubuntu, there's no harm.
> 
> ...



Hello,

Thanks for information. By mistake I installed Ubuntu 12.04 from Windows and facing some problems like I could not install Skype for linux (some packages missing). I had to also run autoupdate to update the software center. Looks like I have to try Linux Mint or alternatively create a bootable USB and install Ubuntu from there.


----------



## krishnandu.sarkar (Dec 20, 2012)

No issues. Once you have installed, explore it rather than Distro Hopping.

Post the problems, members are always here to help you out.

Now that you have moved to Ubuntu, first run these commands one by one...

1. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

This will ask for your root password which you provided during installation, provide it. This commands updates the repo ad updates your OS to latest version of packages.

2. sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

This will install general Codecs (for playing MP3, AVI, MPEG Files etc.) JRE, Flash Player and many other important packages

Now, after that, when you are trying to install Skype, let us know what packages are missing, i.e. what is displayed, we'll help you out to install and get going.


----------



## Naxal (Jan 16, 2013)

Hi.

Like so many people, I am in next upcoming days will have some free time and I wish to explore Linux world.

My PC Configuration is,

Q6600 / G41M-Combo / 8GB DDR-III / 500 GB HDD / 9600 GT

I wish to know which one ? Ubuntu ??

Secondly, should I virtualize ? or use Pen Drive installation ??

How Big Pen drive would be needed for Live Boot install of Ubuntu and will it anyway effect my Windows installation ??

Thanks.


----------



## Vyom (Jan 16, 2013)

^^ Yes, Ubuntu OS is the best as the first stepping stone to the world of Linux.

You have two options:

*1. Live USB Disk*
To make a live USB disk of ubuntu download the Ubuntu ISO from official site, and use this nifty tool: *www.linuxliveusb.com/en/home. The tool is pretty self explanatory. You can use a Pen drive as small as 2 GB to make this live disk. And by choosing "Persistence Space" you can also make sure that any changes you make while using Ubuntu in live mode, is saved. So for eg, if you downloaded an app, XChat then if you have enabled Persistence, the next time you boot from Live disk, XChat would be there. If you don't enable persistence at all, it would be like using a fresh copy of Ubuntu every time you boot from it.

*2. Dual booting along side Windows:*
If you install Ubuntu on some other partition, that is, dual boot it along side the existing Windows OS, then Ubuntu will make a bootloader, GRUB, separate from Windows bootloader, and GRUB would have an entry to let you choose between Windows or Ubuntu. So, if you install Ubuntu carefully, it won't affect existing Windows in any way.
If ever you decide to remove Ubuntu you can just format the Ubuntu partition from Windows "Computer Management". In that case GRUB will probably be erased, and you would have to restore Windows bootloader which you can easily do so using a utility called, EasyBCD, which btw have become paid now. But, is free for Non Commercial use and you can download from official site after registering.

Of course, there is a 3rd way too to use Ubuntu, which doesn't involve making a Live USB disk or dual booting, and is called "Wubi" which allows you to let install Ubuntu inside Windows itself, but this kind of Virtualized environment doesn't do justice to the experience of Linux for a newbie. So better stay away from it!


----------



## Naxal (Jan 16, 2013)

^^
Can I use Virtualization ?? Like I am used to using Windows XP Mode

Just like that will it give me full experiences in VMWare or such ??


----------



## Vyom (Jan 16, 2013)

Naxal said:


> ^^
> Can I use Virtualization ?? Like I am used to using Windows XP Mode
> 
> Just like that will it give me full experiences in VMWare or such ??



Of course you can, but I will reiterate:
*"... this kind of Virtualized environment doesn't do justice to the experience of Linux for a newbie. So better stay away from it!"*


----------



## doomgiver (Jan 17, 2013)

noh, ubuntu is not the best!!!

try linux mint/SUSE. better.
and there is always Xubuntu and Kubuntu.

protip : get rid of the unity interface, as soon as possible. its nothing but a nightmare to navigate.


----------



## Vyom (Jan 17, 2013)

doomgiver said:


> noh, ubuntu is not the best!!!


Are you sure about that?
Is Software Center a part of the other distros you are talkinga about, which makes installing apps a breeze as well s secure, especially for a newbie? From my experience Ubuntu have got the largest support on forums. And oh, btw, Steam is available on ONLY Ubuntu as of now!

So, yeah. Did I say, "IN YOUR FACE?" 



doomgiver said:


> protip : get rid of the unity interface, as soon as possible. its nothing but a nightmare to navigate.



Couldn't agree more on that though! GNOME FTW! Awesome interface with added support of countless extensions makes customizing it easy and fun.


----------



## Naxal (Jan 17, 2013)

Vyom said:


> Of course you can, but I will reiterate:
> *"... this kind of Virtualized environment doesn't do justice to the experience of Linux for a newbie. So better stay away from it!"*



Should I take the live Disc approach ??

Since I dont have any spare HDD or extra partition in my present disc to install Linux on and I am not going to take risk of partitioning a data filled disc 

Will live disc be a better option compare to Virtual installation ? As I read in the link of live linux that it also some what virtualize the setup


----------



## doomgiver (Jan 17, 2013)

get on irc, tujhe dekh lunga xD

oh yeah. gnome 3 rocks. i have absolutely no idea why canonical insists on unity.
i gave up on ubuntu as soon as they picked unity as the default interface 

however, im using awesome atm (its winters, i wear gloves, so touchpad does not work. awesome is faster than using a mouse )

the only good thing about ubuntu is that it includes a *lot* of packages by default. even those that we dont usually need : example, it even has dialup modem drivers, lol.

dude, live disc means that your HDD wont be used at all for installing.
virualizing is completely different than a live disc.

i suggest you try out the live disc, and if you like it, install it on a pen drive of 8 GB size. (yes, you can use the usb drive as a hard disk and install a fully functional ubuntu in it.)


----------



## Naxal (Jan 17, 2013)

> dude, live disc means that your HDD wont be used at all for installing.
> virualizing is completely different than a live disc.
> 
> i suggest you try out the live disc, and if you like it, install it on a pen drive of 8 GB size. (yes, you can use the usb drive as a hard disk and install a fully functional ubuntu in it.)



I am not sure, but I read in the FAQ that LiveLinux is actually Virtualizing it ???



> *www.linuxliveusb.com/en/help/faq/virtualization/70-what-is-virtualization


----------



## Vyom (Jan 17, 2013)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*



doomgiver said:


> however, im using awesome atm (its winters, i wear gloves, so touchpad does not work. awesome is faster than using a mouse )



If "awesome" is the thing which makes you less reliant on mouse, I am all up to give it a try. I am a touch typist. Rarely want to use mouse.



doomgiver said:


> get on irc, tujhe dekh lunga xD



Those days are gone pal. IRC is not for me.



Naxal said:


> I am not sure, but I read in the FAQ that LiveLinux is actually Virtualizing it ???



Running Linux from a Live disk by booting from it gives you the exact same environment that you get in case you install it. That is when Live Linux is running it is the sole OS that would be running on your system at that point of time. Which means all the resources of the PC will be available to Linux.

Whereas, running Linux on a Virtual Machine (Virtualization) requires you to use Windows as the host OS and resources of your PC are shared among Windows and to the virtual linux. Which effectively translates to the fact that, lets say Linux would get only a fraction of the RAM from the total you have. There by hindering the performance of Linux.

And yes you can use your pen drive to run the linux in live mode. Just make sure you allocate enough Persistance memory as explained by me in previous post.


----------



## Naxal (Jan 17, 2013)

> Whereas, running Linux on a Virtual Machine (Virtualization) requires you to use Windows as the host OS and resources of your PC are shared among Windows and to the virtual linux. Which effectively translates to the fact that, lets say Linux would get only a fraction of the RAM from the total you have. There by hindering the performance of Linux.



Having a C2Q and 8 GB, so I can spare few of Gigs there 

Anyway, I completed the huge download of 700 MB, and decided to give it run in Vmware

Immediately I am stuck.

I cant install VMWare tools. I double clicked, nothing happened, vmware help said run via terminal. After searching a bit, I opened terminal, but I am totally lost in the way Ubuntu file system is arranged.

Some of the known DOS command seems to be working like _cd, dir_ and such but is there any guide for layout as where is what ??


----------



## Vyom (Jan 17, 2013)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*



Naxal said:


> Having a C2Q and 8 GB, so I can spare few of Gigs there
> 
> Anyway, I completed the huge download of 700 MB, and decided to give it run in Vmware
> 
> ...



RAM was just an example. Virtual Ubuntu will also share other things like processor and graphics memory. 

And there are countless number of basic lessons available on net where you can get started with Ubuntu. Like: this vid: Getting Started | Ubuntu Basics - YouTube.
Forget the video, it sucked 

Just get this manual from official site: Ubuntu Manual - Home

PS: Not going to spoon feed you more. If you going to try Ubuntu, you better start discovering stuff on your own! :/
Godspeed.


----------



## Naxal (Jan 17, 2013)

> PS: Not going to spoon feed you more. If you going to try Ubuntu, you better start discovering stuff on your own! :/
> Godspeed.





Where is Root user ??

I am trying to run command *./vmware-install.pl* in terminal however its aborting saying it needs root user . I dont see any ROOT user in login screen and my user a/c i guess the only a/c after install ??


----------



## Vyom (Jan 17, 2013)

Naxal said:


> Where is Root user ??
> 
> I am trying to run command *./vmware-install.pl* in terminal however its aborting saying it needs root user . I dont see any ROOT user in login screen and my user a/c i guess the only a/c after install ??



Try prepending sudo to the commands where you need root access. It's equivalent to "Run as Administrator" in Windows. 

So much so for my "Not spoon-feeding" decision! X_x


----------



## thinkjamil (Jan 27, 2013)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*

I'm thinking of switching to dual boot instead of virtual using machines on windows 7, so I shrunk a partition to create a 20 free space.

 That's the maximum space I want to invest on GNU/linux. 
Machine Specs: i5 2nd, 4GB ram, radeon 6490M. 

Can anyone suggest me a suitable distro ? I will basically need gcc , mysql and dev stuffs and chromium. And Gnome 3.4 or higher is preferred. Speed and NTFS compatibility is a must. I have tried ubuntu 12.10(i386) in wubi but install process goes unresponsive @"kernel_thread_helper" which is quite a famous problem for ubuntu. Now I have DVDs of openSUSE12.2 and MINT 14(cinamon)(64). Mint also has a wubi derived installed which also crashed while installing.

If fedora is better for the purpose ,let me know with supporting arguments. I'll get which ever is better 

And one more thing, If I ever feel like removing the GNU/linux , how should I start to finish without effecting windows 7(for gaming,and everything )?

usr level : beginner -->intermediate


----------



## thinkjamil (Jan 28, 2013)

Okay..I'm not waiting around going for fedora 18.


----------



## krishnandu.sarkar (Jan 28, 2013)

thinkjamil said:


> I'm thinking of switching to dual boot instead of virtual using machines on windows 7, so I shrunk a partition to create a 20 free space.
> 
> That's the maximum space I want to invest on GNU/linux.
> Machine Specs: i5 2nd, 4GB ram, radeon 6490M.
> ...



You can consider Linux Mint, Fedoa and Arch.

Linux Mint - Generally for beginners. But stick to ot of you like apt-get.

Fedora - Generally considered for Developmemt and stability.

Arch - Considered by geeks, and for cutting edge technology. But stay away from it if you are into developmemt.


----------



## thinkjamil (Jan 29, 2013)

thanks

BTW, Which one of em has a better repository? one that is huge and maintained well...I'm using fedora but i"m open for a change.


----------



## krishnandu.sarkar (Jan 29, 2013)

All 3 are maintained well. Both Fedora and Arch have 3rd Party Repo.


----------



## thinkjamil (Jan 29, 2013)

3rd part repo for fedora details please?


----------



## krishnandu.sarkar (Jan 29, 2013)

EPEL - FedoraProject

RPM Fusion - RPM Fusion

For more Google please.


----------



## thinkjamil (Feb 1, 2013)

Its funny and may be stupid , but I want to replace fedora 18 with openSuse 12.2 without disturbing my windows installation. How should I proceed? I used LVM partition for fedora.


----------



## Chaitanya (Feb 1, 2013)

Well among Mint, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE which is better considering performance


----------



## thinkjamil (Feb 1, 2013)

My problem is solved. Just put the openSUSE 12.2 64 DVD onto drive and booted to install. Now running openSUSE and windows 7.


----------



## Theodre (Feb 5, 2013)

Chaitanya said:


> Well among Mint, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE which is better considering performance



Opensuse was 12.1 was said to be the best by Digit  If you are a beginner Go for ubuntu (not linux mint!! because it will spoil you)  

1. Install ubuntu
2. Open the ubuntu software centre
3. Install the gnome-shell (search for it in the ubuntu software centre  )

If you use the unity desktop environment, you will hate ubuntu and maybe linux


----------



## mitraark (Apr 6, 2013)

Hello.

I want to install a linux distro, along with my Windows 7, on an NTFS partition ( i did this before, installed Ubuntu 11.04 on a 30 GB NTFS partition, but i'm unable to do it now with 12.10, or maybe i just forgot how i did it )

I was going to go for Fedora ( haven't used it yet )

I will use Linux to run C++ programs and maybe tinker arounnd a bit to learn ( you can assume I know almost nothing about Linux atm but i'll grasp quickly )


----------



## papul1993 (Apr 6, 2013)

Linux Mint


----------



## Empirial (Apr 7, 2013)

Guys, Is this BackBox a free OS just like Ubuntu & BackTrack?


----------



## Renny (Apr 9, 2013)

OpenSuse 12.3..KDE>>Gnome


----------



## Desmond (Apr 9, 2013)

I suggest you try Knoppix live CD distro first. It has a hell of a lot of apps and runs off the disc. Good to get acquainted with Linux before moving to a more hardcore distro.


----------



## Desmond (Apr 9, 2013)

Ps: I am not sure if its still in distribution.


----------



## funkysourav (Apr 9, 2013)

mitraark said:


> Hello.
> 
> I want to install a linux distro, along with my Windows 7, on an NTFS partition ( i did this before, installed Ubuntu 11.04 on a 30 GB NTFS partition, but i'm unable to do it now with 12.10, or maybe i just forgot how i did it )
> 
> ...


You can use Wubi to install Ubuntu/Lubuntu on your existing NTFS partition
Download Ubuntu Desktop | Ubuntu

Ubuntu/Xubuntu 12.10 has a bug that prevents it from getting installed in some machines
My Laptop used to run Xubuntu 11 dual booted with Windows 7 ,
when i tried to install Xubuntu, the installation froze midway (same with Ubuntu 12.10)
However Lubuntu 12.10 installs as it should without any hitch. You should try Lubuntu (It is just Ubuntu + LXDE - Gnome 3)

for best possible experience, do not install it on an NTFS partition
Create a 6 GB + 1GB Free space from your HDD,
During installation format the 6gb one as EXT4 and 1GB as Swap space.


----------



## Empirial (Apr 13, 2013)

Empirial said:


> Guys, Is this BackBox a free OS just like Ubuntu & BackTrack?



Please Reply


----------



## Minion (Apr 13, 2013)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*



thinkjamil said:


> thanks
> 
> BTW, Which one of em has a better repository? one that is huge and maintained well...I'm using fedora but i"m open for a change.



Ubuntu is easy to use or you can try linux mint.



Chaitanya said:


> Well among Mint, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE which is better considering performance



OpenSuse is better considering performance but ubuntu and mint are easier to use.


----------



## Theodre (Jun 6, 2013)

Empirial said:


> Please Reply



Backbox is a linux based on ubuntu nd is mainly focussed on providing pen-testing, incident response, computer forensics etx kind of thing and it is not for a regular i think.... You are better off with Linux mint if you are a beginner dude


----------



## Chaitanya (Jun 7, 2013)

NikiNfOuR said:


> Linux mint if you are a beginner dude



Long time for reply BTW..
Mint is sure to spoil Linux Experience & make you lazy enough 
One may try out Open SUSE or Ubuntu


----------



## digit.sh (Jun 7, 2013)

> Long time for reply BTW..
> Mint is sure to spoil Linux Experience & make you lazy enough
> One may try out Open SUSE or Ubuntu



^ArchLinux is the best. No competition. Next is Debian. Crunchbang(Debian based) or Archbang(Archlinux based) for less capable hardware. OpenSuse is bloated and too complex, Ubuntu sucks big time(and so do distros derived from it).


----------



## Chaitanya (Jun 8, 2013)

digit.sh said:


> ^ArchLinux is the best. No competition. Next is Debian. Crunchbang(Debian based) or Archbang(Archlinux based) for less capable hardware. OpenSuse is bloated and too complex, Ubuntu sucks big time(and so do distros derived from it).



well get the linux kernel & edit yourself for best experience then...


----------



## hari1 (Jun 8, 2013)

What's your opinion about Zorin OS?


----------



## chris (Jul 24, 2013)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*



ssk_the_gr8 said:


> you can say it's advanced... go with ubuntu... if there are any issues , there's a big community which will help you out....



Ubuntu is better. I used Mint, i like it, it is more like Windows. But i feel like it is better to go with Ubuntu as they have bigger user base.

I was trying to move to Linux. So installed Ubuntu 13.04 64 bit, but Team Forress 2 have lot of lag. So i installed xubuntu (with apt), TF2 still won't run properly. At last i  installed MATE (again with apt-get), that worked slightly better. Then i deleted everything installed Mint Maya with Cinnamon. It looks good, but again TF2 won't run properly. So i reinstalled Ubuntu as it is easy to get support.

Now my Tv Tuner AVerTV Volar GO  won't work in Ubuntu. They used to support older version of ubuntu, i don't want to go Back to older ubuntu.

So i am back in Windows 7 now.

I got some windows application working almost find with Ubuntu + wine. But a quick google search found wine do not support USB deives, if not i could have installed TV Tuner card in wine.

Also my ATI graphics card have very bad performance (with xorg-edgers). Even minecraft lag too much. But TF2 improved a lot, it become playable.

Hope one day there will be more hardware support.. best thing that can do is allow installing windows drivers with some magic


----------



## ico (Jul 24, 2013)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*

^ are you using AMD Catalyst with your AMD card?


----------



## chris (Jul 24, 2013)

*Re: Which Linux to go for a beginner?*



ico said:


> ^ are you using AMD Catalyst with your AMD card?



Yes, default opensource driver won't even able to play minecraft in full screen, TF2, i get some error with open source driver, won't even start. I changed to fglrx and fglrx-updates, thet improved the graphics performance. I run glmark2 benchmark with each driver, opensource had some 1000, with fglrx-installer-13, i had some 1800 rating (for exact value, i need to boot to ubuntu, i am on Win 7 now).  Then installed fglrx-installer-13, that made me play TF2 with less tag.

Previously i have installed AMD Catalist from source. But that won't made much difference. AMD recently made the catalist opensource, i think fglrx-installer-13 is open source driver.

When installing driver for AVerTV Volar Go, i get error


```
videobuf-dvb.h:1:20: fatal error: dvbdev.h: No such file or directory
```

I think this file is part for kernel, installed kernel-headers, but this file is not available.


----------



## ico (Jul 25, 2013)

^ fglrx is not open source. AMD has two drivers - Catalyst (fglrx) and the open source driver.

I always install fglrx by downloading from ZIP file AMD's website - *support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx (I guess you did the same):

Open terminal:

```
sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++6 dkms libqtgui4 wget execstack libelfg0 dh-modaliases linux-headers-generic xserver-xorg-core libgcc1 lib32gcc1 libc6-i386
```

Then..I'll extract the ZIP file and I'll get a .run file. Let's say amddriver.run

I'll go to the folder where it is there:


```
sudo ./amddriver.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/precise
```

Around 3 .deb packages will be created.

Then I'll install those:


```
sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb
```

Then generate the xorg.conf file.


```
sudo aticonfig --initial
```


----------



## Chaitanya (Sep 30, 2013)

Any way of making myself more comfortable with Linux environment ?? 
( I mean things must look more like english. 
for instance I tried installing mobile partner for my Huawei E303C & miserably failed to do so
Also a Display driver is must because by default Linux runs both IGP & discrete card(HP Pavilion G6-2005ax) generating a handsome amount of heat  )

Pls don't suggest to use it already because i don't have a good internet conn. & installing apps the other way is pain in @$$..


----------



## siddharthx64 (Dec 18, 2013)

Chaitanya said:


> Any way of making myself more comfortable with Linux environment ??
> ( I mean things must look more like english.
> for instance I tried installing mobile partner for my Huawei E303C & miserably failed to do so



Hardware compatibility issues are a dime a dozen, but that does not mean they have to be a giant pain in the a$$. All you need to do is look for others with the same problem in forums such as this one. After all,its highly unlikely that you are the first person to have a particular device and try to run it on Linux. Learn from the experiences of others. Believe me, things will start looking more like English _as soon as you start looking more into it._



Chaitanya said:


> Also a Display driver is must because by default Linux runs both IGP & discrete card(HP Pavilion G6-2005ax) generating a handsome amount of heat )



I believe your problem is the fact that nVidia refused to release it's Optimus Technology drivers to Linux. This too, can be resolved by using a particularly clever piece of technology called Bumblebee. Linus's middle finger towards nVidia is so very justified now.



Chaitanya said:


> Pls don't suggest to use it already because i don't have a good internet conn. & installing apps the other way is pain in @$$..



Everyone starts at the beginning, and everyone finds it somewhat difficult to use. (Maybe because of being accustomed to Windows?). Nonetheless, learning Linux is really not Rocket Science, and you really can master it, if you remain interested. I would suggest things like Books, training videos (freely available on YouTube) and a million other sites where you can learn without having to spend a penny, but imho, the greatest teacher I ever had when learning to use GNU/Linux OSes was the experience of trying, falling and scraping my knee. A lot of frustration will come, but, along with it, a lot of elation too will follow, everytime you manage to figure it out. No Pain, No Gain seems to be too cliched here, but I'll say it anyway. . . . -> No amount of books and videos will ever come close to teaching you the ropes as experience itself can.


----------



## chris (Dec 18, 2013)

siddharthx64 said:


> I believe your problem is the fact that nVidia refused to release it's Optimus Technology drivers to Linux. This too, can be resolved by using a particularly clever piece of technology called Bumblebee. Linus's middle finger towards nVidia is so very justified now.



I think this helped. Now it is said NVIDIA have better linux support. 

SteamOS - this will make linux popular. 

Now SteamOS/SteamBox ship with NVIDIA GPU. Soon there will be Intel and AMD GPU support.

[YOUTUBE]xVkas2E3NAg[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]TA-ILjyAMEI[/YOUTUBE]


----------



## Desmond (Dec 19, 2013)

Actually StreamOS is nothing but Stream on Debian. So, installing StreamOS just for the sake of the name makes no sense.


----------



## Chetan1991 (Jan 6, 2014)

Which is the best and stable distro for web development and design, and perhaps also android development? I recently installed Mint 16 but it had problems out of box (display shutting down on dimming screen, no support for wlan card.)


----------



## chris (Jan 6, 2014)

Chetan1991 said:


> Which is the best and stable distro for web development and design, and perhaps also android development? I recently installed Mint 16 but it had problems out of box (display shutting down on dimming screen, no support for wlan card.)



Try ubuntu. For WLAN, can you post result of



> rfkill list
> lshw -C network



I got it workong before, this is because the wlan card driver is listed in modprobe blacklist.


----------



## Shah (May 22, 2014)

Which distro has the fastest boot-time and light-weight? Main usage will be reading PDF files, watching videos (both online streaming and offline videos) and some IM chatting. Important criteria is that It should start up within a few seconds.


----------



## SaiyanGoku (May 22, 2014)

^puppy linux


----------



## Shah (May 22, 2014)

Thanks. Will tell my friend about it. Let me also know, If there are any other distros.


----------



## prudhivisekhar (Aug 21, 2014)

Try Elementary OS


----------



## kamikaz (Aug 28, 2014)

[MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] I think open source drivers are more powerful for your device ,you will probably have to try it ,if you are used Ubuntu based distros try oibaf PPA its got the the latest mesa ,and also get hold of the latest kernel anything above 3.13 is good as they have improved performance for ati cards ,you can also try an arch based distro like manjaro xfce ,which is quite stable and also has latest drivers (not as new as arch ,it lags behind it by a bit ) ,perhaps you should google a bit more to get the optimum option ! If you want to go the proprietary way get the latest beta from AMD

In fact I would like everyone here to try manjaro Linux ,for an arch based distro ,its quite stable ,in fact I'm using it on my lap now and using MPV player I'm getting 1080 playback quite smooth (including hi10 1080p anime) and during browsing pages loads quite fast too (this could just be an illusion,still)


----------



## chris (Aug 28, 2014)

kamikaz said:


> [MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] I think open source drivers are more powerful for your device ,you will probably have to try it ,if you are used Ubuntu based distros try oibaf PPA its got the the latest mesa ,and also get hold of the latest kernel anything above 3.13 is good as they have improved performance for ati cards ,you can also try an arch based distro like manjaro xfce ,which is quite stable and also has latest drivers (not as new as arch ,it lags behind it by a bit ) ,perhaps you should google a bit more to get the optimum option ! If you want to go the proprietary way get the latest beta from AMD
> 
> In fact I would like everyone here to try manjaro Linux ,for an arch based distro ,its quite stable ,in fact I'm using it on my lap now and using MPV player I'm getting 1080 playback quite smooth (including hi10 1080p anime) and during browsing pages loads quite fast too (this could just be an illusion,still)



I changed from catalyst to open source. Now it performs much better than before. I can play games like TF2, Civ 5 with out much problem. I read about oibaf PPA, but for now i will stay with stable drivers as i read some times it can get unstable as it is bleeding edge. I do plan to get a NVIDIA card soon, may be after GTX 800 released or after Borderlands release on October 14, that is said to be available in Linux too.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As for other Linux, i normally hate wasting space at top of application window (title bar + menu bar). Ubuntu is the only dstro that save that space.

*i.imgur.com/hqdQjisl.png

No space waste.. i hate seeing applications waste top space when i was using Mint 17 chinnamon few months ago (that failed to switch me from windows). After using Ubuntu terminal, i start hating windows command prompt, that can't even re-size properly


----------



## kamikaz (Aug 28, 2014)

[MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] I'm pretty sure you are missing out by not updating to latest kernel and oibaf and you can also check xorg edgers , if things go broke you still can revert it ,quite a few people are using it ,I have a 4670myslef and i was on a lookout for the best option and found these info !,
Regarding wastage of menu bar and all that ,that depends on the display manager ,its not a distro specific thing 

The only gripe I currently have is none of the media players cannot still have subs on black borders ,during playback ,of videos
Does anyone here know any solution ,I'm yet to find one


----------



## chris (Aug 29, 2014)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*



kamikaz said:


> [MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] I'm pretty sure you are missing out by not updating to latest kernel and oibaf and you can also check xorg edgers , if things go broke you still can revert it ,quite a few people are using it ,I have a 4670myslef and i was on a lookout for the best option and found these info !,



I don't get reply notification for your post. But i come here to get link to oibaf, going to try it now 

xorg edgers, do they support AMD.. don't have any updated fglrx driver (i know we are not looking for that), better go with oibaf ppa ?

Running these now


```
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
```

I will post glmark2 result after doing this. Ubuntu also give latest kernel, i will try it. Hope that won't break anything 

Edit:

Downloading and installing 140 MB of files


```
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libllvm3.4:i386
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  lxc-docker-1.1.2
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  i965-va-driver libedit2:i386 libllvm3.5 libllvm3.5:i386
  linux-headers-3.13.0-35 linux-headers-3.13.0-35-generic lxc-docker-1.2.0
  va-driver-all vdpau-va-driver
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libc-bin libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6:i386 libc6-dbg libc6-dev libc6-i386
  libdrm-dev libdrm-intel1 libdrm-intel1:i386 libdrm-nouveau2
  libdrm-nouveau2:i386 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm-radeon1:i386 libdrm2 libdrm2:i386
  libegl1-mesa libegl1-mesa:i386 libegl1-mesa-drivers
  libegl1-mesa-drivers:i386 libgbm1 libgbm1:i386 libgl1-mesa-dev
  libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
  libglamor0 libglapi-mesa libglapi-mesa:i386 libgles2-mesa libgles2-mesa:i386
  libopenvg1-mesa libopenvg1-mesa:i386 libosmesa6 libosmesa6:i386 libva-dev
  libva-drm1 libva-egl1 libva-glx1 libva-tpi1 libva-wayland1 libva-x11-1
  libva1 libvdpau-dev libvdpau1 libwayland-egl1-mesa libwayland-egl1-mesa:i386
  libxatracker2 linux-firmware linux-headers-generic linux-libc-dev lxc-docker
  mesa-common-dev mesa-utils multiarch-support vainfo xserver-xorg-video-ati
  xserver-xorg-video-glamoregl xserver-xorg-video-intel
  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-radeon
62 upgraded, 9 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 92.0 MB of archives.
After this operation, 140 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
```

- - - Updated - - -

That crashed my system 

Now i have no Unity side bar or Dash. Atl+Tab not working, if an app go background, getting it back is very diffcult as the switcher itself missing. Some yellow color shows up in my screen when i try to switch tab.


```
$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD REDWOOD
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 10.4.0-devel (git-4ca203f 2014-08-28 trusty-oibaf-ppa)
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 10.4.0-devel (git-4ca203f 2014-08-28 trusty-oibaf-ppa)
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 10.4.0-devel (git-4ca203f 2014-08-28 trusty-oibaf-ppa)
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.0
OpenGL ES profile extensions:
$ 
$ uname -r
3.13.0-34-generic
$
```

PPA purge not working


```
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
Updating packages lists
PPA to be removed: oibaf graphics-drivers
Warning:  Could not find package list for PPA: oibaf graphics-drivers
$
```

*i.imgur.com/qu51HV6l.jpg

That yellow thing, not sure what it is.. it comes up instead of unity dash, top bar, etc... ATL+tab make it change, some times go away completely.

I have AMD catalyst on my PC, i tried to install it as PPA-purge not working, but it also fail to install deb files as some missing dependency. I will try it again.

Any idea how to get it back to normal ?


----------



## kamikaz (Aug 29, 2014)

Err this is a mess what driver were you on before updating ? Catalyst or open source ? Right now I'm on mobile ,ill try to help you once I get back on to a PC mind you ,I'm no pro ,but you learn a lot when things go wrong ,be patient ,try purging all drivers and thenupdate your kernel ,its easy to fall back if you have kernel issues ,so install the latest one , and second install another display manager beside unity ,like xfce or mate to check whether the drivers are causing problems with them  and  last install oibaf ..let's make this thing work on your PC !

Update       [MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] whats the status have you managed to find a fix? what drivers do you have currently installed?
ermm did you restart pc after installing oibaf? try installing the latest kernel something like 3.14 or above the latest stable one is 3.16

you should try oibafs thread in phoronix 

*help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/AMD this thread may help , im looking for solutions if i find any ill update here

btw you will be able to remove oibaf ppa by going into synaptic package manager and deleting it from repositories and then do an update and then try to install the catalyst driver as mentioned in the above thread (get it from the amd site , the latest beta , while getting the latest driver make sure it is compatible with system like the XOrg and Kernel ,downgrade if necessary)

Update 2
lol    [MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] you have posted this around all forums !! havent you ! (or its someone with the exact problem)!! just saw a similar post on phoronix seems the ppa will be updated soon ,this seems like a regression as mentioned here
Updated and Optimized Ubuntu Free Graphics Drivers - Page 130

hope your problem is fixed ! 
Do try the latest kernel !


----------



## chris (Aug 29, 2014)

Lol, it was me. I got mad 

After installing, i rebooted, and went to another room. PC never come back.. so i had to cold boot.

Then... it come back with unity dead.

After all the posts, i started reading last part of phoronix thread found that everyone else having this problem and is caused by messa.

I can't get ppa-purge to work. I was using Open Source driver before, had AMD driver downloaded, so i just installed it, had some missing dependency problem, that i fixed by making .deb package, then manually installing as it show what is mising. My first install was automated, that failed.. so  i rebooted into failed unity mess.

I was checking my packages found i still have oibf packages, so i manually created .list file in /etc/apt folder. Then ppa-purge worked.

I am still in Catalist beta.


```
$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 5670
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.3.12967 Core Profile Context 14.20
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.40
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 4.4.12967 Compatibility Profile Context 14.20
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.40
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile
OpenGL extensions:
$
```

I need to play some TF2 before switching back to open source driver.

glmark2 scores

Catalyst = 1488 
Ubuntu Open souurce = 1306 
oibaf buggy ppa = 1248

But it won't tell much as.. too many variable. So going to play TF2 now 

Previously i have multiple Catalyst (one from ubuntu repo, one from amd site), that caused performance problems.

[ubuntu] Display problem AMD HD 5670

I  am not sure if that was cuased by the multiple driver or catalist itself, anyway open source driver solved the problem. Today i don't see any such problem. Let see how games work before switching to Open Source driver.

I want to try latest kernel, but that won't work with catalyst, so first i need to switch to open source, i will do after taking some rest. I don't want to try oibaf again, as they update frequently and i don't want to waste bandwidth and deal with problems like this everyday 

*EDIT 1*

Played TF2, i think it plays almost same or better than Open Source driver, Got 150+ FPS most of the time. Lowest i found was ~60 during game end for a small time, that won't affect performance. I read Catalyst have better 3D performance, but Open Source have better 2D. Will better 2D performance help any  way as most games are 3D ?

*EDIT 2*

Now i understand the need for 2D performance. My previous display problem is back (garbled display)... Reverting to Open Source shortly.


----------



## kamikaz (Aug 30, 2014)

Good for you


----------



## chris (Aug 30, 2014)

Downloading Manjaro XFCE 64-bit to try on a virtual machine.  This is rolling release, so you keep getting latest stable software ? I don't want to go with unstable PPA like oibaf deal with problems. If i am using Manjaro, still need oibaf  ?


----------



## kamikaz (Aug 30, 2014)

No oibaf is for Ubuntu, manjaro is based on arch ,but they lag like 2 weeks behind arch main repository(which is quite the bleeding edge) ,so that the system remains stable ,and with almost the latest drivers  the thing with arch is they have a superb wiki and before you post anything you should definitely search the wiki,also manjaro community is nice too,you can even switch kernels ,from settings ,its quite different from Ubuntu and if you aren't familiar with arch you might be up for some reading ,xfce comes with steam client BTW
I'm still learning it ,let me know how it goes for you


----------



## chris (Aug 30, 2014)

Thanks for the info. I installed on a remote KVM virtual machine, that was very slow to respond. I will try to setup a local VM, will take some time to download ISO. For now i installed kernal 3.14 on ubuntu. glmark2 show slightly increased score (~10), nothing much.


----------



## gameranand (Sep 2, 2014)

I tried to play DOTA 2 from Ubuntu but had bitter experience. So much Lag and all.


----------



## kamikaz (Sep 2, 2014)

hmm [MENTION=94364]chris[/MENTION] check this Gears on Gallium this is a bleeding edge distro based on suse, idont have much info besides that
Direct3D 9 Support Stands A Chance Of Being Added To Mesa - Page 5
this is a thread which talks about gallium nine and Has ppa for gallium based mesa , it helps to improve fps when you are using wine to play the game 

Im trying to install similar one on my manjaro linux  [MENTION=73844]gameranand[/MENTION] whats your spec mate? things have improved a lot from past..


----------



## gameranand (Sep 2, 2014)

Intel Core i7 3770K
Asus Maximus V Formula
Corsair Vengeance 2133MHz 4GB *2
Sapphire HD7870 GHz Edition *2 Crossfire Setup
Corsair HX850
Cooler Master Storm Trooper ATX
BenQ G2420HD

Its more than enough to Run DOTA at highest settings AFAIK.


----------



## kamikaz (Sep 2, 2014)

LOl yeah it is, im not much sure ,how to set that system up..with crossfire and all, all i can say is things have improved a lot   [MENTION=73844]gameranand[/MENTION]
check this benchmarks [Phoronix] 20-Way Radeon Comparison With Open-Source Graphics For Steam On Linux Gaming

the default drivers on ubuntu wont necessarily give the best performance imo,perhaps you have to try alternatives


----------



## gameranand (Sep 2, 2014)

kamikaz said:


> LOl yeah it is, im not much sure ,how to set that system up..with crossfire and all, all i can say is things have improved a lot   [MENTION=73844]gameranand[/MENTION]
> check this benchmarks [Phoronix] 20-Way Radeon Comparison With Open-Source Graphics For Steam On Linux Gaming
> 
> the default drivers on ubuntu wont necessarily give the best performance imo,perhaps you have to try alternatives



I did tried the alternatives.


----------



## chris (Sep 4, 2014)

I am now back to stock ubuntu. I don't want to living in edge for little performance boost. I hope they will back port good stuff to ubuntu.

I remember the days when i watch a youtube video on ubuntu and want to switch to windows due to poor performance, now it is much better.

And.. good news. Borderlands 2 is now available on my Linux Steam Library, expect it to be available very soon 

*i.imgur.com/VAm58dr.png

Not yet downloaded, i need to get a backup from WIndows, restore on ubuntu, then download rest, i may wait some time until it get ready.


----------



## kamikaz (Sep 4, 2014)

Well you can still keep Ubuntu and install another OS for experimentation


----------



## abhigeek (Oct 7, 2014)

I'm trying to dual boot windows  and ubuntu.
I read guides for dual booting, but none of them are trying to explain the reason behind.

1. In windows there are drive partition, so if windows fails, it doesn't effect another partitions.
But how this is implemented in ubuntu to keep data safe?

2. During installation, in choosing the mount point, which one i should choose? 
So, that files i create in ubuntu (via open office etc), will be safe , in case ubuntu crash

3. What is use of swap in linux?... And do i really need of swap? as i have 2 gb ram..

4. What is bootloader? and diff of this in ubuntu and windows.


----------



## sling-shot (Oct 7, 2014)

Bootloader is the most basic of user installed software that runs first. It is present in the first sector of your boot partition or hard drive. 

Swap is a special partition and is used as an extended part of your RAM. It gets used when RAM is near full. With 2GB of RAM it is possible that you might get to use it if you run memory intensive applications. Keep it at around 1.5 times of your RAM. Unlike Windows Linux also uses this as hibernation / disk sleep storage.

A simple and effective setup for Linux is to have a sufficiently large root or OS partition as all of your installed applications also go here usually (say 50+ GB), a home partition where all of your user data is kept (size depends on your preference at least 20 GB is reasonable) and finally the SWAP partition. You could have any number of other partitions for data storage as you like.

So if you follow the strategy above your data will be quite safe.


----------



## Chetan1991 (Oct 7, 2014)

I want to setup a linux distro for web development and some android app development. 

Which one should I go for? *Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / Mint or CentOS 7?*

I am taking this step because after a year or more Windows installation becomes slow and erratic even if you manage startup processes, keep it virus free etc. 

I would like to have an OS that is stable for some time, compatible with my 4 year old laptop, and doesn't has problems with its ATI mR 5450 GPU. It also needs to have a nice "package management" system to easily allow installation and uninstallation of software.


----------



## prudhivisekhar (Oct 8, 2014)

For android app development, go for ubuntu. You can get help from xda developer forum. Search in xda forum.


----------



## kamikaz (Oct 8, 2014)

Ubuntu /ubuntu based distros (mint) should do it for you


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Oct 8, 2014)

+1 to Linux Mint, you won't need to install codecs, etc for mp3 support (ubuntu by default doesn't supports mp3 playback  )


----------



## Chetan1991 (Oct 9, 2014)

I was considering CentOS since its "everything" DVD iso comes with lots of programs such as LAMP package built in, and it is known for its stability, whereas some older versions of Ubuntu I've used to drain my laptop's battery very quickly, among other glitches, probably due to incompatibility with the GPU. Has anyone personally tried these distros on a machine with an AMD GPU?


----------



## kamikaz (Oct 10, 2014)

Well your listed card, 5450, should work just fine with open source drivers ! And I also recommend the latest kernels for better performance on amd gpu and the latest open source drivers, the default Ubuntu repository has drivers which lag behind a bit 
On the proprietary side amd still had support for 5xxx series, I think 
But I don't have much experience using them or their compatibility but you are better off with open source ones 
You can always make a live USB and see how the distro performs on your system
Well if you look around you might be able to find a Ubuntu based distro with all those apps built in, distrowatch.com is a good place to look at distros and reviews 
But I think it's better to start of with a basic system and add what you want to it, installing software isn't that hard!


----------



## ankush28 (Nov 13, 2014)

SaiyanGoku said:


> +1 to Linux Mint, you won't need to install codecs, etc for mp3 support (ubuntu by default doesn't supports mp3 playback  )


sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras is all you need. Switching to mint for such small reason is not good idea. Plus for development purposes Ubuntu is better than mint.


Chetan1991 said:


> I want to setup a linux distro for web development and some android app development.
> 
> Which one should I go for? *Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / Mint or CentOS 7?*
> 
> ...


Ubuntu 14.04 w/o any doubts. 
Ubuntu has better support for mtp, adb and some other android development related stuff. 
Easy insallation/uninstallation - Synaptic package manager! Period. 
If laptop is really low powered than try - *ubuntu-mate.org/


----------



## Shah (Nov 27, 2014)

I need suggestion for a linux distro that supports D-Link DWA 123 B1 wireless adapter. I was previously using Ubuntu but had to switch to Windows 8 as it didn't support DWA-123 B1 thus no internet connectivity.

Also, I have already tried all the workarounds to make it work on Ubuntu. But, none of them worked. After that I had even tried Kali Linux and Puppy Linux, they never recognized the device.

Any linux distro will do as far as the boot time is good. The system will be used only for web development on LAMP. At present I use Notepad++ on Windows. So, I also need suggestion for an alternative to it. Even if not for all the features of N++, I need syntax highlighting and multitab support.


----------



## abhigeek (Mar 30, 2015)

I have lenovo flex 2 touch screen laptop.
I want to dual boot linux(for coding) with windows 8.1.

I'm trying to find linux os for touch screen laptop.
OS which support all touch features i.e multi-touch etc.


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Mar 30, 2015)

abhigeek said:


> I have lenovo flex 2 touch screen laptop.
> I want to dual boot linux(for coding) with windows 8.1.
> 
> I'm trying to find linux os for touch screen laptop.
> OS which support all touch features i.e multi-touch etc.



Try

ReleaseNote 4.4-RC1 - Android-x86 - Porting Android to x86


----------



## abhigeek (Mar 30, 2015)

I don't want to install android on my laptop.
I'm learning Linux administration, thats why I need a linux os with multitouch support.


----------



## sling-shot (Mar 30, 2015)

An Enlightenment desktop based distro might be suitable for you for eg. Bodhi Linux. I am not totally sure yet. The newer KDE is supposed to support touch too eg. KaOS.


----------



## ankush28 (Apr 6, 2015)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*



abhigeek said:


> I don't want to install android on my laptop.
> I'm learning Linux administration, thats why I need a linux os with multitouch support.



CentOS 7.0 or Fedora 21  with (Gnome 3.10+ or KDE 5+)

- - - Updated - - -



Shah said:


> I need suggestion for a linux distro that supports D-Link DWA 123 B1 wireless adapter. I was previously using Ubuntu but had to switch to Windows 8 as it didn't support DWA-123 B1 thus no internet connectivity.
> 
> Also, I have already tried all the workarounds to make it work on Ubuntu. But, none of them worked. After that I had even tried Kali Linux and Puppy Linux, they never recognized the device.
> 
> Any linux distro will do as far as the boot time is good. The system will be used only for web development on LAMP. At present I use Notepad++ on Windows. So, I also need suggestion for an alternative to it. Even if not for all the features of N++, I need syntax highlighting and multitab support.



Sublime text - not just alternative, far superior that N++. Available on all three platforms.

For wireless adapters you can try your luvk with newer kernels.  Also googling might help.


----------



## spxx (Apr 14, 2015)

abhigeek said:


> I don't want to install android on my laptop.
> I'm learning Linux administration, thats why I need a linux os with multitouch support.



 huhh know this a old post but have to correct this , android IS linux !!!! android as a OS is based on a linux kernel , and from there different OS's branch out like , deb, Ubuntu, centos , tails etc ...   including android, it is just that as a OS it is currently optimized for mobile , tab and touch screens.


----------



## kkn13 (Apr 30, 2015)

actually android is a "mini" Linux of sorts,not recommended in his case imho


----------



## ankush28 (May 1, 2015)

spxx said:


> huhh know this a old post but have to correct this , android IS linux !!!! android as a OS is based on a linux kernel , and from there different OS's branch out like , deb, Ubuntu, centos , tails etc ...   including android, it is just that as a OS it is currently optimized for mobile , tab and touch screens.



Do you know what is linux administration? Let me google that for you

Perfect operating systems for linux administrations are - Red Hat EL(paid), CentOS (basically free version of Red hat EL)

BTW @abhigeek linux sysadmins spend most of thier time in command line environment why you need multitouch support?


----------



## clmlbx (May 5, 2015)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*



ankush28 said:


> Sublime text - not just alternative, far superior that N++. Available on all three platforms.



use Brackets much better then sublime. have used both.

well anyway. I want to learn linux how to operate and administer simple day to day tasks.. From which Distro I should start..

Well I have decided to start with Cent os.. Is that right choice?


----------



## kkn13 (May 5, 2015)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*



clmlbx said:


> use Brackets much better then sublime. have used both.
> 
> well anyway. I want to learn linux how to operate and administer simple day to day tasks.. From which Distro I should start..
> 
> Well I have decided to start with Cent os.. Is that right choice?



try Kali Linux 
youll have the most advanced Linux tools at your fingertips


----------



## ankush28 (May 9, 2015)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*



clmlbx said:


> use Brackets much better then sublime. have used both.
> 
> well anyway. I want to learn linux how to operate and administer simple day to day tasks.. From which Distro I should start..
> 
> Well I have decided to start with Cent os.. Is that right choice?


For simple day to day task any popular distro is enough. Like Ubuntu, linux mint, Fedora... I thought you wanted to learn administation for "enterprise" work. CentOS will work too however. It's super stable and easy to learn.


----------



## fz8975 (Jun 10, 2015)

I am using Ubuntu(14 LTS ) on a system with these specs
Intel dual core 3GHz
2GB RAM 
Intel 945 onboard gfx

Often it runs too slow...

Please suggest a flavour that will run smooth and is also secure

Is chromebook OS a good choice ? (I've never installed it)


----------



## sling-shot (Jun 10, 2015)

PCLinuxOS will be a good choice.


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Jun 10, 2015)

fz8975 said:


> I am using Ubuntu(14 LTS ) on a system with these specs
> Intel dual core 3GHz
> 2GB RAM
> Intel 945 onboard gfx
> ...



Ubuntu KDE/LXDE or Linux Mint (Mate)

Or you can just switch the desktop environment to above mentioned ones without doing a complete install.


----------



## kkn13 (Jun 10, 2015)

fz8975 said:


> I am using Ubuntu(14 LTS ) on a system with these specs
> Intel dual core 3GHz
> 2GB RAM
> Intel 945 onboard gfx
> ...



Im guessing its a pentium D 1st gen or a pentium 4 531 HT
Well I have a similar config in my old pc with a pentium 4 531 3ghz HT , Windows 7 runs extremely smooth on mine ,even smoother than xp and Ubuntu
Elementary OS is also extremely smooth if you want Linux


----------



## kamikaz (Jun 16, 2015)

fz8975 said:


> I am using Ubuntu(14 LTS ) on a system with these specs
> Intel dual core 3GHz
> 2GB RAM
> Intel 945 onboard gfx
> ...



try manjaro linux or antergos , both are arch based, but fret not they have been rock solid for me 
manjaro is the hassle free of the lot , as it ran without a problem from get go, i used the xfce 
antergos on the other hand lets you pick what all programs and window manager at the time of install (it needs an active internet connection)

antergos is my current OS , working like a champ on a 2k7 laptop ,ancient core2duo with 2gb ram and 945gm intel gpu,
compared to win7 which i dual boot, browsing ,which is what i mainly use this for, is smooth with plenty of tabs open

the only gripe i still have with linux is with video playback, it still doenst offer the quality u can get from win 7 , like video rendrer options , subtitle in black bars ,
and video tearing


----------



## Tech_Wiz (Oct 9, 2015)

I Tried Installing Ubuntu & Debian on My Desktop. Config is in Signature.. None of the two was able to detect the 960 and Ended up with Black boot screens and other BS like that. 

Is there any linux which has support for 960? 

I am not so good with Terminal and stuff so updating driver through that etc I tried but didnt work.


----------



## thetechfreak (Oct 10, 2015)

[MENTION=28803]Tech_Wiz[/MENTION] so installing without the 960 plugged works fine? 
Give these drivers a go once & see if they work: NVIDIA DRIVERS Linux x64 (AMD64/EM64T) Display Driver


----------



## Tech_Wiz (Oct 10, 2015)

*Re: All &quot;which distro should I choose?&quot; queries here.*

Linux was working fine with earlier 560... Changed it to 960 and all hell broke loose.

- - - Updated - - -

Looking for something that will take care of this issue in installation itself. New Install gets stuck at black screens.


----------



## Zangetsu (Nov 7, 2015)

Q : Which Linux OS is best for booting from USB ?
best means fast,small & lightweight

Q : Can Ubuntu OS work from USB drive?


----------



## Theodre (Feb 10, 2016)

Zangetsu said:


> Q : Which Linux OS is best for booting from USB ?
> best means fast,small & lightweight
> 
> Q : Can Ubuntu OS work from USB drive?




Q1 Ans:Puppy linux is said to be one of the smallest, fastest and lightest linux(I have actually never used it though). Lubuntu and LXLE are also lightweight os's. Both of these os's use LXDE desktop environment which is suppose to be small,light and fast. These os's should also work from your USB drive.
Q2 Ans: Yes, Ubuntu should work from your USB drive.

If you could tell me your use case, i may be able to help you more 

PS: Damn, that was an ooolldd post! Hmmm.. Love to wake this thread up from the dead though!!


----------



## TechnoBOY (Feb 12, 2016)

NikiNfOuR said:


> Q1 Ans:Puppy linux is said to be one of the smallest, fastest and lightest linux(I have actually never used it though). Lubuntu and LXLE are also lightweight os's. Both of these os's use LXDE desktop environment which is suppose to be small,light and fast. These os's should also work from your USB drive.
> Q2 Ans: Yes, Ubuntu should work from your USB drive.
> 
> If you could tell me your use case, i may be able to help you more
> ...


I tried to duel boot my Lap with win and Ubuntu but some where in the middle it broke up(power failure some thing dont rem..) and wasn't able to duel boot.Then installed ubuntu after some week i was able to notice there was 180gb used,there is no way i used that after the installation ..... 
so What should i do now?


----------



## Theodre (Feb 12, 2016)

TechnoBOY said:


> I tried to duel boot my Lap with win and Ubuntu but some where in the middle it broke up(power failure some thing dont rem..) and wasn't able to duel boot.Then installed ubuntu after some week i was able to notice there was 180gb used,there is no way i used that after the installation .....
> so What should i do now?



So did you notice a 180gb idle partition while you installed Ubuntu?


----------



## TechnoBOY (Feb 13, 2016)

NikiNfOuR said:


> So did you notice a 180gb idle partition while you installed Ubuntu?


nope,so old data's are still there?

PS:now i have duel booted by partition ,that was the time i noticed


----------



## Theodre (Feb 13, 2016)

TechnoBOY said:


> nope,so old data's are still there?
> 
> PS:now i have duel booted by partition ,that was the time i noticed



Hey before anything, may i know which version of Ubuntu you are using?
Because, for old versions, this seems to have been a problem and what i fumbled upon online is -> HOWTO: Recover Lost Disk Space
But this looks like an old issue. Also check your Trash and try and empty it and lemme know if you are not able to empty the trash.


----------



## TechnoBOY (Feb 13, 2016)

NikiNfOuR said:


> Hey before anything, may i know which version of Ubuntu you are using?
> Because, for old versions, this seems to have been a problem and what i fumbled upon online is -> HOWTO: Recover Lost Disk Space
> But this looks like an old issue. Also check your Trash and try and empty it and lemme know if you are not able to empty the trash.


14.04 LTS.Yes not able to delete a folder from Trash but its empty folder ..
Is there any way to sort folder by size


----------



## Theodre (Feb 13, 2016)

TechnoBOY said:


> 14.04 LTS.Yes not able to delete a folder from Trash but its empty folder ..
> Is there any way to sort folder by size



Try the below command in the terminal and find what is actually accumulating your disc space:

```
gksudo baobab
```

You should be able to find something fishy.


----------



## TechnoBOY (Feb 14, 2016)

NikiNfOuR said:


> Try the below command in the terminal and find what is actually accumulating your disc space:
> 
> ```
> gksudo baobab
> ...


Exactly what im looking for......Thanks a lot man!


----------



## Theodre (Feb 14, 2016)

TechnoBOY said:


> Exactly what im looking for......Thanks a lot man!



Glad I could help


----------



## TechnoBOY (Feb 17, 2016)

NikiNfOuR said:


> Glad I could help


OT:Any good tutorial on kali/pen testing ?


----------



## Theodre (Feb 22, 2016)

TechnoBOY said:


> OT:Any good tutorial on kali/pen testing ?



Err. Yeah, that will be off-topic bro  But why don't you check  out Cybrary - Free Online Cyber Security Training, Forever | Learn and Find Jobs.


----------



## TechnoBOY (Feb 23, 2016)

NikiNfOuR said:


> Err. Yeah, that will be off-topic bro  But why don't you check  out Cybrary - Free Online Cyber Security Training, Forever | Learn and Find Jobs.


Will try it out man! 

Sent from my SM-G7102 using Tapatalk


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Oct 12, 2020)

Which 32 bit distro should I choose as a replacement for windows 7 for a Lenovo R61 with 1GB ram and Core 2 Duo T7100 processor?

Primary requirements are for learning use by kids (my cousins) and offline movies/anime (storage is not an issue). Ram upgrade is out of question as I can't find DDR2 modules to test locally but might do it if I find them.


----------



## kg11sgbg (Oct 12, 2020)

SaiyanGoku said:


> Which 32 bit distro should I choose as a replacement for windows 7 for a Lenovo R61 with 1GB ram and Core 2 Duo T7100 processor?
> 
> Primary requirements are for learning use by kids (my cousins) and offline movies/anime (storage is not an issue). Ram upgrade is out of question as I can't find DDR2 modules to test locally but might do it if I find them.


It is hard to find 32-bit Linux OS distros currently,now.


----------



## Desmond (Oct 12, 2020)

SaiyanGoku said:


> Which 32 bit distro should I choose as a replacement for windows 7 for a Lenovo R61 with 1GB ram and Core 2 Duo T7100 processor?
> 
> Primary requirements are for learning use by kids (my cousins) and offline movies/anime (storage is not an issue). Ram upgrade is out of question as I can't find DDR2 modules to test locally but might do it if I find them.


I think Debian is what you want. They still give i386 images: Downloading Debian CD/DVD images via HTTP/FTP


----------



## thetechfreak (Oct 12, 2020)

Desmond David said:


> I think Debian is what you want. They still give i386 images: Downloading Debian CD/DVD images via HTTP/FTP


Remember though nowadays all packages are not available under 32 bits. Although the most popular day to day ones are probably going to be available.

*ubuntu.com/blog/statement-on-32-bit-i386-packages-for-ubuntu-19-10-and-20-04-lts
Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk


----------



## Desmond (Oct 12, 2020)

thetechfreak said:


> Remember though nowadays all packages are not available under 32 bits. Although the most popular day to day ones are probably going to be available.
> 
> *ubuntu.com/blog/statement-on-32-bit-i386-packages-for-ubuntu-19-10-and-20-04-lts
> Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk


I am sure if Debian provides a 32 bit distro, they will have 32 bit packages as well. But yeah, I don't know how old they will be. Only way to check is to try.


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Oct 13, 2020)

thetechfreak said:


> Remember though nowadays all packages are not available under 32 bits. Although the most popular day to day ones are probably going to be available.
> 
> *ubuntu.com/blog/statement-on-32-bit-i386-packages-for-ubuntu-19-10-and-20-04-lts
> Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk


The entire OS setup is supposed to be standalone, without needing any large size updates. They don't have a broadband connection. Maybe i'll try Lubuntu, Zorin Lite and MX Linux to see which one runs better on a similar VM.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


----------



## Desmond (Oct 13, 2020)

Lubuntu only 18.04 is available for 32 bit, 20.04 is only 64 bit. Perhaps your best bet is using MX since it's based on Debian and also has 32 bit ISOs. Don't know about Zorin lite, but isn't Zorin a paid distro?


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Oct 13, 2020)

Desmond David said:


> Lubuntu only 18.04 is available for 32 bit, 20.04 is only 64 bit. Perhaps your best bet is using MX since it's based on Debian and also has 32 bit ISOs. Don't know about Zorin lite, but isn't Zorin a paid distro?


No, they have free options as well. Added themes and other customization options are available in paid version.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


----------



## Extreme Gamer (Oct 13, 2020)

SaiyanGoku said:


> Which 32 bit distro should I choose as a replacement for windows 7 for a Lenovo R61 with 1GB ram and Core 2 Duo T7100 processor?
> 
> Primary requirements are for learning use by kids (my cousins) and offline movies/anime (storage is not an issue). Ram upgrade is out of question as I can't find DDR2 modules to test locally but might do it if I find them.


The T7100 processor is an x86_64 processor. Just install a 64-bit distribution that you like and you will be fine.


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Oct 13, 2020)

Extreme Gamer said:


> The T7100 processor is an x86_64 processor. Just install a 64-bit distribution that you like and you will be fine.


I would've but ram is 1 GB DDR2 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


----------



## Desmond (Oct 13, 2020)

SaiyanGoku said:


> 1 GB DDR2


Sufficient to run simple desktop environments like XFCE or LXDE. You can go even lighter with Openbox or i3 but then it would not be very user friendly.


----------



## Extreme Gamer (Oct 13, 2020)

SaiyanGoku said:


> I would've but ram is 1 GB DDR2
> 
> Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


That does not matter at all. Simply having more theoretical addressable space does not mean that the system will allocate resources more inefficiently. The formal logic of the code does not change.

To put it in very oversimplified terms, a 64-bit OS simply uses 64-bit numbers to assign addresses to each memory unit (virtual address in OS, register in hardware). Meanwhile a 32-bit OS will have registers assigned 32 bit addresses. All this does is increase or decrease the total _addressable_ space. Again, this explanation is very oversimplified and there are more nuances in real hardware (i.e. x86_64), but none that matter to you as a user.


----------



## RumbaMon19 (Oct 13, 2020)

I need a touch friendly distro, which can either run apk or run some decent browser. I have a windows tab with celeron N400, 4GB ram, Touch screen too. I tried Phoenix and remix OS, but they seemed to halt during boot and only that hiphen or dash appeared while booting. Any suggestions which is light is welcome.


----------



## Desmond (Oct 13, 2020)

RumbaMon19 said:


> windows tab with celeron N400, 4GB ram, Touch screen too


Specific model? I am not sure if there is any distro for that.


----------



## RumbaMon19 (Oct 13, 2020)

Desmond David said:


> Specific model? I am not sure if there is any distro for that.



Lenovo D3330. Convertible tablet with celeron N400, 4GB ram, 64GB EMMC rest info here here


----------



## sling-shot (Oct 13, 2020)

Enlightenment desktop is probably the most touch friendly. So Bodhi Linux may be the one for you. 

Or you could try the KDE Plasma Mobile (no personal experience)


----------



## Desmond (Oct 13, 2020)

RumbaMon19 said:


> Lenovo D3330. Convertible tablet with celeron N400, 4GB ram, 64GB EMMC rest info here here


D330 you mean? This guy managed to install Ubuntu on it apparently: Ubuntu on the Lenovo D330 – rojtberg.net


----------



## RumbaMon19 (Oct 13, 2020)

sling-shot said:


> Enlightenment desktop is probably the most touch friendly. So Bodhi Linux may be the one for you.
> 
> Or you could try the KDE Plasma Mobile (no personal experience)



Ok, I will give it a shot



Desmond David said:


> D330 you mean? This guy managed to install Ubuntu on it apparently: Ubuntu on the Lenovo D330 – rojtberg.net




Something like android or chromeos, Only required for Google meet, and should be user friendly as it has to be used by a kid...8yr old


----------



## SaiyanGoku (Oct 24, 2020)

Desmond David said:


> Sufficient to run simple desktop environments like XFCE or LXDE. You can go even lighter with Openbox or i3 but then it would not be very user friendly.


Update for distro search: The school requires windows machine (like every other institute  ). On the up side, found 2 * 2GB DDR2 modules and would try to create an extremely light windows 10 ltsc image for that laptop over this weekend.


----------



## Extreme Gamer (Oct 24, 2020)

SaiyanGoku said:


> Update for distro search: The school requires windows machine (like every other institute  ). On the up side, found 2 * 2GB DDR2 modules and would try to create an extremely light windows 10 ltsc image for that laptop over this weekend.


Why does the school _require_ windows machine?


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## SaiyanGoku (Oct 24, 2020)

Extreme Gamer said:


> Why does the school _require_ windows machine?


Probably because they don't know about anything else, blame the curriculum. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, I don't want to waste my time arguing with the parents or school teachers.


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## Extreme Gamer (Oct 24, 2020)

What I'm confused about is are they using any specific software that obligates the use of Windows?


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## SaiyanGoku (Oct 24, 2020)

Extreme Gamer said:


> What I'm confused about is are they using any specific software that obligates the use of Windows?


I'm not aware of any such software but they just want to follow the school books. 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


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## RumbaMon19 (Nov 18, 2020)

I have ryzen 5 3500U APU on my laptop, I need a distro which has proper drivers, for the chipset, I tried elementary OS which lagged and didnt function smooth I moved to majaro, did function OK, but couldnt handle more than 2 apps, and the CPU temps were high always. Even when CPU usage was 10%, Fans were blowing loud, Here windows is more stable, as it can easily handle 3-4 apps, without that issue. Also linux consumed more battery power, giving me only 1 hour SOT compared to 4.5Hours on windows.

From what it seems it is an driver issue, So anyone knows any good distro which will be able to run properly, and not just eat resources? 
_
Specs:-
Ryzen 3500U
8GB ram
1TB HDD

*Thanks in Advance*_


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## Desmond (Nov 18, 2020)

Weird. What other distros have you tried other than Elementary? Also, have you checked to see whether hardware accerleration was actually enabled? You can check this by seeing which driver is installed. If the `mesa` package is installed, it includes the `amdgpu` driver that should work.


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## thetechfreak (Nov 18, 2020)

Desmond David said:


> Weird. What other distros have you tried other than Elementary? Also, have you checked to see whether hardware accerleration was actually enabled? You can check this by seeing which driver is installed. If the `mesa` package is installed, it includes the `amdgpu` driver that should work.


I do belive the cpu underclocking is slightly worse in Linux distros compared to Windows. Don't have any hard data but my earlier laptops battery used to drain slightly quicker on *Nix

Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk


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## RumbaMon19 (Nov 18, 2020)

Desmond David said:


> Weird. What other distros have you tried other than Elementary? Also, have you checked to see whether hardware accerleration was actually enabled? You can check this by seeing which driver is installed. If the `mesa` package is installed, it includes the `amdgpu` driver that should work.



I tried Manjaro, Even Ubuntu. But these were not able to do my work.

It does have that amdgpu thing, but it is consuming too much power. As i said before, the fan keeps blowing at high speed, even when nothing is open. cpu usage is around 10%, and the temps are in the range 55-65. It reaches 70 degrees with youtube. 

On windows, the fan is silent, cpu usage around 20-25, and everything works flawlessly with battery life of about 4.5hrs.


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## Desmond (Nov 18, 2020)

As per this: Ryzen - ArchWiki you may have to set power profile settings. Also, run `htop` and check which process is consuming the most CPU.


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## sling-shot (Nov 18, 2020)

I used to have similar issues long back with PCLinuxOS. It was an issue of CPU governer or something. Basically CPU was always running at maximum speed. Setting it to balanced mode worked.


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## Desmond (Nov 18, 2020)

sling-shot said:


> It was an issue of CPU governer or something


Oh yeah, this is also possible. IIRC CPU governor is almost always set to balanced by default in most distros.


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## TheSloth (Nov 18, 2020)

RumbaMon19 said:


> I have ryzen 5 3500U APU on my laptop, I need a distro which has proper drivers, for the chipset, I tried elementary OS which lagged and didnt function smooth I moved to majaro, did function OK, but couldnt handle more than 2 apps, and the CPU temps were high always. Even when CPU usage was 10%, Fans were blowing loud, Here windows is more stable, as it can easily handle 3-4 apps, without that issue. Also linux consumed more battery power, giving me only 1 hour SOT compared to 4.5Hours on windows.
> 
> From what it seems it is an driver issue, So anyone knows any good distro which will be able to run properly, and not just eat resources?
> 
> ...


When I installed Ubuntu first time in my laptop with GT650M, I had to set to it use inbuilt Intel's GPU because it was using GT650M my default and causing more fan noise and high battery usage. Did you check if something similar is happening in your case too?


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## RumbaMon19 (Nov 19, 2020)

Desmond David said:


> As per this: Ryzen - ArchWiki you may have to set power profile settings. Also, run `htop` and check which process is consuming the most CPU.



I will try it, as if now I am on windows, but will install linux in a day or two.



sling-shot said:


> I used to have similar issues long back with PCLinuxOS. It was an issue of CPU governer or something. Basically CPU was always running at maximum speed. Setting it to balanced mode worked.



I do remember doing it, But still, the CPU usage was till 10% and it was heating like 75-85%.



TheSloth said:


> When I installed Ubuntu first time in my laptop with GT650M, I had to set to it use inbuilt Intel's GPU because it was using GT650M my default and causing more fan noise and high battery usage. Did you check if something similar is happening in your case too?



It is probably not that, Because I dont have a dGPU, my iGPU seems to work fine.


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## RumbaMon19 (Dec 22, 2020)

I installed Enso,(Also featured in this month's digit) and the overheating problem has gone now. It is based on Ubuntu 20.04 and hence has latest drivers. The usage is 4-10% on idle and 50-60% while in meetings or browsing etc. Battery life also improved, So ultimately, it was a driver problem.

Also, I benchmarked my pc on both Linux and windows, this time it was much better. Windows scored 853 on single core and 2635 on multi core whereas Ubuntu gave me 869 on single core and 2790 on multi core. I used geekbench here.


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## Desmond (Dec 22, 2020)

What's Enso?


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## RumbaMon19 (Dec 22, 2020)

Desmond David said:


> What's Enso?



*enso-os.site/
It is a custom version of xubuntu, but has gala window manager from elementary os and is lighter on resources. Again as it is based in ubuntu, so most things work that way...


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## msankadi (Dec 23, 2020)

RumbaMon19 said:


> I installed Enso,(Also featured in this month's digit) and the overheating problem has gone now. It is based on Ubuntu 20.04 and hence has latest drivers. The usage is 4-10% on idle and 50-60% while in meetings or browsing etc. Battery life also improved, So ultimately, it was a driver problem.
> 
> Also, I benchmarked my pc on both Linux and windows, this time it was much better. Windows scored 853 on single core and 2635 on multi core whereas Ubuntu gave me 869 on single core and 2790 on multi core. I used geekbench here.


Hi

Can you share the ideal ram usage? Would it be good for a very old laptop I think 3rd gen i3

Sent from my RMX2081 using Tapatalk


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## thetechfreak (Dec 23, 2020)

msankadi said:


> Hi
> 
> Can you share the ideal ram usage? Would it be good for a very old laptop I think 3rd gen i3
> 
> Sent from my RMX2081 using Tapatalk


Shouldn't be more than 1.5GB when on idle/not doing anything. 

Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk


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## msankadi (Dec 23, 2020)

thetechfreak said:


> Shouldn't be more than 1.5GB when on idle/not doing anything.
> 
> Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk


Thanks quite heavy then might not work well on my laptop ... Pop!_os which itself is quite heavy is consuming about 800-1000 mb on idle 

Sent from my RMX2081 using Tapatalk


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## RumbaMon19 (Dec 23, 2020)

msankadi said:


> Hi
> 
> Can you share the ideal ram usage? Would it be good for a very old laptop I think 3rd gen i3
> 
> Sent from my RMX2081 using Tapatalk



on bootup, with nothing running, 980mb
While browsing and meeting it is 1.6GB

You can use gentoo(600mb on idle) or slax(450mb) or q4os as these have lowest footprint.


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## msankadi (Dec 23, 2020)

Thanks have never tried q4os that sounds interesting... Wil give it a try after pop 

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## thetechfreak (Dec 23, 2020)

msankadi said:


> Thanks quite heavy then might not work well on my laptop ... Pop!_os which itself is quite heavy is consuming about 800-1000 mb on idle
> 
> Sent from my RMX2081 using Tapatalk


Yeah, Operating systems using Gnome are notoriously heavy these days. Even Ubuntu and others. 

Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk


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## RumbaMon19 (Dec 26, 2020)

RumbaMon19 said:


> *enso-os.site/
> It is a custom version of xubuntu, but has gala window manager from elementary os and is lighter on resources. Again as it is based in ubuntu, so most things work that way...



Here is an update,

I installed macOS High Sierra on QEMU KVM. I allocated it 4GB ram and 4cores. Ran geekbench on it, and found that it scored more than Ubuntu running as host. 
I used geekbench 4 as Geekbench 5 aint compatible with High Sierra.
Ubuntu scored 2676 Single core and 8484 on multi core, while macOS scored 3763 single-core and 9341 on multi core.

I am surprised how it, being virtualised, was able to beat a normal machine, even though what I assigned to guest OS was half of host. 

Here is the Ubuntu score ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. VivoBook_ASUSLaptop X509DA_M509DA  - Geekbench Browser
and here is the macos score  iMac10,1  - Geekbench Browser

But there are a few limitations like the video memory cant be extended beyond 3MB. The internet speed is slow on it due to lack of proper adapter. But still, that score is really high.


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## ico (Dec 26, 2020)

RumbaMon19 said:


> Here is an update,
> 
> I installed macOS High Sierra on QEMU KVM. I allocated it 4GB ram and 4cores. Ran geekbench on it, and found that it scored more than Ubuntu running as host.
> I used geekbench 4 as Geekbench 5 aint compatible with High Sierra.
> ...


Can you run something like Cinebench??


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## RumbaMon19 (Dec 26, 2020)

ico said:


> Can you run something like Cinebench??



Cinebench will be difficult to do with just 3mb vram. I need to passthrough my gpu and then run it.


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## thetechfreak (Dec 27, 2020)

RumbaMon19 said:


> Here is an update,
> 
> I installed macOS High Sierra on QEMU KVM. I allocated it 4GB ram and 4cores. Ran geekbench on it, and found that it scored more than Ubuntu running as host.
> I used geekbench 4 as Geekbench 5 aint compatible with High Sierra.
> ...


Any way you can run it with more RAM or something? Or does the specs have to be identical to real Mac machines? 

Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk


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## RumbaMon19 (Dec 27, 2020)

thetechfreak said:


> Any way you can run it with more RAM or something? Or does the specs have to be identical to real Mac machines?
> 
> Sent from my vivo 1807 using Tapatalk



Basically, I am running it over a laptop which does not have dGPU. If it had one, I had directly passthroughed it and use it that way. So would have got 2gb gram easily.

But I am thinking to run this on another machine with dGPU so it will work there.


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## RumbaMon19 (Dec 29, 2020)

Its been 2-3 weeks i installed ubuntu, and I am facing some issues, The window pop ups leave there left overs. For better explanation I am leaving a video recording and Screenshot of the problem. From what I see, it is related to gfx drivers.
OS:- Ubuntu 20.04
Kernel: x86_64 Linux 5.7.1-050701-generic
Desktop Environment: Xfce
Window Manager: Gala
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx @ 8x 2.1GHz
GPU: AMD RAVEN (DRM 3.37.0, 5.7.1-050701-generic, LLVM 10.0.0)
(These values are taken as is)




*Below is a video of error*



https://imgur.com/a/sshrvc9


Update (19/1/2022):- It got fixed by changing the refresh rate from 50hz to 60hz.


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