Learning Linux

[TheMenace]

Can anyone recommend the best version of Linux to install (preferrably free!)? I'm about to install it on my old laptop... just to see what all the fuss is about!

 

[Sparks]

For a desktop installation by a new user just to poke about?
Ubuntu. No question.

 

[TheMenace]

Thanks Sparks. I'll give it a whirl!

 

[mneylon]

Ubuntu rocks

Other option is Fedora.

What kind of spec is the laptop?

 

[TheMenace]

What kind of spec is the laptop?

It's a Dell Inspiron 5100, nearly 4 years old, Pentium 4 of some speed and description, 512MB RAM... falling apart at the seams but still running quickly enough with XP Pro at the moment.

 

[mneylon]

Sounds a bit like my old laptop
Installing Ubuntu on Dell latitude laptop
Ubuntu on Dell Inspiron 630m

 

[TheMenace]

Very helpful, thanks!

 

[mneylon]

If you need help let me know

I'm good at breaking computers in new and interesting ways !

 

[daviddoran]

Ubuntu also, it really is Linux for humans!

 

[TheMenace]

Cheers Michele. I'll download it overnight and give you a holler if I'm in need of any help! It looks straightforward enough though so I should be grand.

I'm getting excited by the prospect of using Linux now. Ubuntu certainly looks like it's well within my comfort zone. If it could prove to be a viable alternative to Windows, bearing in mind that I develop in .NET predominantly, then I'd certainly consider switching. Or maybe starting to code in PHP and/or Ruby on Rails full-time!

 

[daviddoran]

I nearly switched over to Ubuntu except I couldn't get my wireless card working under Linux. I even went to the trouble of compiling NSIutils and trying to get the drivers together but it just ended in a mess so it's XP for a while

 

[mneylon]

What kind of wireless card do you have?

 

[daviddoran]

It's a Belkin PCI 54Mbps Plus 802.11g

 

[mneylon]

Odd.

Do you have an ethernet card to get it up and running at all?

 

[daviddoran]

Yeah, I ran a cable in to apt-get the NSI code and linux headers.
The card isn't supported because it only has (as most do) Windows drivers written by the company. I looked up about the NSIWrapper utilities which emulate a windows environment for the drivers as far as I know but there was some error about the driver file being invalid and I don't have anywhere near enough experience with Linux to start debugging that!

 

[mneylon]

Hmm

You might be able to get it working if you use some of the "nonfree" stuff.

It's not overly complicated to do, though tbh using a proper wireless card helps

 

[daviddoran]

Proper wireless card?

 

[mneylon]

Hardware not software driven
The cisco ones work really well

 

[Cormac]

you can get a .exe for ubuntu (approx 600mb) which can be installed onto your windows system which in turn loads up linux!

I wouldn't trust it though. Running Linux.exe on a windows platform...that ain't right man!

 

[daviddoran]

Yeah, I have Edgy 6.06 and Dapper Drake 6.10 as CD ISOs and they can both run while you're running windows, run live from the CD or do a full install.
Its quite impressive for a single CD.