Posted: 11/17/2010 6:01:38 PM EDT
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I have enough stuff around here to build an Intel Quad Core (Q9700) with 2gb of RAM.
I do not want to pay for another Windows License so I am thinking Linus is the way to go (Have always wanted to try it out anyway) My question is, what distro should I use? Box will mostly be used for a file server... Occasionally Open Office and web browsing. Thanks! |
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I use RedHat at work and have been using Fedora at home for about the past 6 years.
I tried Ubuntu recently and found it to be veeeeeeeeeery easy to setup and run. It's now the Family PC used for surfing, movies, youtube, openoffice (with default settings to save in microsoft formats .doc, .xls, .ppt, etc), chat, skype, and on and on........ These sites and Google were helpful to set it up the way I wanted: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/ http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Lucid Have fun.. Again, everything is trivial to setup and there's plenty of help out there if you need it here and there. |
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Ubuntu is great... There are other distros built on top of ubuntu - one that I have used is Mint (it's very easy to install, it comes preconfigured with a lot of desktop apps - of course you can also use it as a server).
You can kick the tires with a boot-from-CD version without even installing it... (ubuntu too) |
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Running on an old Dell laptop (Inspiron 1501) I've had NO problems with any function, wireless, video, etc. I imagine a desktop setup would be even easier. Hope you'll be ok with the hardware you got.
I believe Dell offers some of their systems with Linux (Ubuntu?) installed from the factory, so that may be one reason the hardware seems compatible. |
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http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
I've been really liking the recent Mint distros. |
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I agree with the above posters Mint 10 or Ubuntu. I prefer Mint. YMMV. Try them both with a live CD. I also run Lucid Puppy 5.1.1 off of a 4gb flash drive. Frankly I prefer Puppy over both Ubuntu or Mint. It's a small distro that act's like a big OS. I'm using now on my wife's laptop. The only drawback to Puppy I've found is Puppy doesn't do extended monitors very well. If I'm using one monitor or using someone else's computer I run Puppy. You can try it on a live CD or load it on a flash drive. http://puppylinuxnews.org/home/lucid-puppy-511-release/?category=home/lucid-puppy-511-release/ |
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Ubuntu is my favorite.
One thing they added in the 10.10 version, is a checkbox in the installer to automatically install the restricted extras. So if you check that all your media, flash, etc. work when you get to the desktop. If you miss that during the install just search for "restricted extras" in the software center. |
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Another vote for Ubuntu 10.10.
Working with Fedora 14 right now as well. Not impressed. It seems to leave a lot of stuff out of the base distro... Like gcc and libpcap that Ubunutu installs as default. Mint is ok. Haven't done anything extensive with it yet though. Interface looks clean. |
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http://ultimateedition.info/ scroll down the right side and you'll see the different versions listed. i'm posting from 2.7 which is based on ubuntu 10.04. 2.8 is based on 10.10. click on the version you're interested in and it'll take you to that page. from there you can find the download links, both 32 & 64 bit. you can also go to distrowatch.com to see lots of other linux flavors. |
