BF2S Forums Which Linux Distribution Is Best

if you are just starting out with linux, i would suggest ubuntu since it is supposed to be more friendly to beginners.  in the past i have used red hat (long time ago) and suse within past few years.  suse looked way more polished than red hat.  in fact, i use suse64 at work and it's pretty good. 

my experience with linux at home has been more just tooling around and playing with it - not for anything serious.  honestly i just want something that works when i'm doing the things that you mention and don't have the time to mess around with loading packages and all that crap.  that's my one big beef with stuff like red hat and suse in that you download an application but then it has so many dependencies to install.  yuck!  i just want the whole shebang to be loaded all at once by the package manager.  maybe it does that already but i just didn't have the patience to work with it.  doing this manually was a real pain.

rammunition wrote:

jsnipy wrote:

I'm partial to Fedora, but a lot of people swear by Ubuntu because of how easy is it is to work with.

yeah, ubuntu is more popular but just wondering what the best is for my needs. Is Fedora good for gaming (such as COD4, CSS etc) and graphics modelling???

No Linux distro is as good for gaming as XP/Vista is. You should dual boot xp/vista and a linux distro.

Another Question, is Linux an OEM OS?????

rammunition wrote:

aimless wrote:

rammunition wrote:

yeah, ubuntu is more popular but just wondering what the best is for my needs. Is Fedora good for gaming (such as COD4, CSS etc) and graphics modelling???

No Linux distro is as good for gaming as XP/Vista is. You should dual boot xp/vista and a linux distro.

How do i dual-boot???


i might use Linux for work/internet and XP/Vista for gaming

I w getill Ubuntu first as a learning curb and get Fedora after i learn more about the use of linux

most of these distributions have a boot manager called either LILO or GRUB.  this enables you to pick what OS you want to boot upon boot up.  the screen shows up right after BIOS upon loadup.  you select the OS you want and then it runs that OS.  what happens is that the boot manager updates the MBR (master boot record) on your hard drive. 

now, if there is a problem installing LILO or GRUB, then you will have to update MBR or you can't boot ANY of your OSs.  do NOT uninstall your OS if this happens.  rather, you can update the MBR to get rid of LILO/GRUB and then you at least can get back to windows.  i say this because i have had this happen to me before.  i suggest not doing LILO/GRUB on your HD, but rather make a boot diskette or DVD/CD.  that way when you want to use linux, you can put the removable media in and then it will run the boot manager from the media.

others don't seem to have problems with these boot managers.  i guess i'm just unlucky.  i'm not trying to scare you - just telling what happened to me.

also:  if you go this route, consider getting a separate HD - they are cheap nowadays.  that way you don't have to go through the headache of repartitioning your HD.

Last edited by CaptainSpaulding71 (2008-07-04 12:22:00)

weerdfoo1 wrote:

rammunition wrote:

aimless wrote:

No Linux distro is as good for gaming as XP/Vista is. You should dual boot xp/vista and a linux distro.

How do i dual-boot???


i might use Linux for work/internet and XP/Vista for gaming

I will get Ubuntu first as a learning curb and get Fedora after i learn more about the use of linux

To dual boot first install the windows to half the hard drive, or whatever size you want it to be, after that install linux.
If you want windows to boot first by default, you'll have to edit the grub menu or lilo, depending on what the linux distro uses to boot the kernel.

I can go more in detail if you want me to, I have my laptop dual booting between vista and fedora, and my desktop between xp and fedora.

As for the gaming, you'll might want to try using wine.  I forgot the website, it should be something like www.winehq.com, but i'm not sure.

So do i have to reinstall Windows XP as its installed on the 250GB HD?
Or can i partition and install ubuntu like that???

weerdfoo1 wrote:

So do i have to reinstall Windows XP as its installed on the 250GB HD?
Or can i partition and install ubuntu like that???

As far as I know, there is no way of re-adjusting the partition size for the NTFS XP uses, so yeah, you might have to reformat unless you decide to use a live version of linux, in which case you wouldn't be able to install anything under linux because it would over write anything XP on the hard drive.

might just us "Wubi"

http://wubi-installer.org/

seems to be the easiest way to install Ubuntu

Seeing how little you seem to know about computers, and even Windows, I'd tip you not to get Linux. Even in Ubuntu, you gotta learn how to handle the command line. Stick to Windows, chances are that you'll install Ubuntu, try to run an exe, go wtf lol, and then uninstall it.

Freezer7Pro wrote:

Seeing how little you seem to know about computers, and even Windows, I'd tip you not to get Linux. Even in Ubuntu, you gotta learn how to handle the command line. Stick to Windows, chances are that you'll install Ubuntu, try to run an exe, go wtf lol, and then uninstall it.

lol, maybe so, but im learning about computers more, hardware wise i know the basics at least, software nil

rammunition wrote:

Freezer7Pro wrote:

Seeing how little you seem to know about computers, and even Windows, I'd tip you not to get Linux. Even in Ubuntu, you gotta learn how to handle the command line. Stick to Windows, chances are that you'll install Ubuntu, try to run an exe, go wtf lol, and then uninstall it.

lol, maybe so, but im learning about computers more, hardware wise i know the basics at least, software nil

If you try Ubuntu you don't even have to install it if you don't want to, you just insert the CD, wait couple minutes till it loads up and use it with all features. http://www.ubuntu.com/

Edit: It runs from the CD if you want me to simplify.

Last edited by .Sup (2008-07-04 12:55:43)

.Sup wrote:

rammunition wrote:

Freezer7Pro wrote:

Seeing how little you seem to know about computers, and even Windows, I'd tip you not to get Linux. Even in Ubuntu, you gotta learn how to handle the command line. Stick to Windows, chances are that you'll install Ubuntu, try to run an exe, go wtf lol, and then uninstall it.

lol, maybe so, but im learning about computers more, hardware wise i know the basics at least, software nil

If you try Ubuntu you don't even have to install it if you don't want to, you just insert the CD, wait couple minutes till it loads up and use it with all features. http://www.ubuntu.com/

Edit: It runs from the CD if you want me to simplify.

Free Ubuntu on CD, Free!!!!

how nice of them, i am the type that likes to fiddle with things, and i think thats what im doing to do with Ubuntu, fiddle and learn. I have learnt lots about computer hardware that way and bits of XP

.Sup wrote:

rammunition wrote:

.Sup wrote:

If you try Ubuntu you don't even have to install it if you don't want to, you just insert the CD, wait couple minutes till it loads up and use it with all features. http://www.ubuntu.com/

Edit: It runs from the CD if you want me to simplify.

Free Ubuntu on CD, Free!!!!

how nice of them, i am the type that likes to fiddle with things, and i think thats what im doing to do with Ubuntu, fiddle and learn. I have learnt lots about computer hardware that way and bits of XP

Download and burn it on CD or even order it if you like and you're set to go.

gonna order to save my own CD's as i am very tight

rammunition wrote:

which should i order

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition

or

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition 64 bit

taking in mind my current OS is XP 32 bit

Since this is your first time using Ubuntu I'd say 32 bit. If you will like it order the 64bit later.