Which distro

[Carlton]

Anyone tried a different distro than you usually run and want to recommend it?

 

I still like Sabayon because you just install it and away you go. Wireless, vid card and codecs work right out of the box.

[terry1966]

to be honest i haven't really tried any new distros for years, mint looks nice and i've used puppy 5.6 live cd for all of 5 minutes to help explain how it worked to someone.

 

must admit last time i tried sabyon, i liked the look of it but found it to be buggy compared to suse and hated the software management.

 

if i were to try any new distro's today mint would probably be on top of my list next to fedora or some lighter distro like puppy or lite.

 

saying that tho if i wanted a change i'd just install a different desktop on suse, maybe xfce or e17.

 

if i really wanted to punish myself i could even install mate as a desktop on suse.

(only joking looks very nice in mint.)

 

Edited March 22, 2014 by terry1966

[nigsy]

I'll second Mint.

 

I picked up an old Intel Atom netbook running windows 7 starter on 1gb RAM 4gb SSD for £30. Ran like a pig; installed Mint on it and it's now usable for basic surfing etc.

 

Thinking of putting a bigger ssd in it; but really don't wan't to spend to much; might just take it up to 80gb.

[iamgeorgeareu]

Nigsy, have you tried LXLE? It's very ight on resources, and would probably run great on that netbook. I installed it recently on an old gateway laptop that had previously been running mint. Mint ran a little sluggish on that old machine....LXLE runs noticeably smoother and is a fine distro. They pretty much include everything you would need right out of the box.

[nigsy]

Nigsy, have you tried LXLE? It's very ight on resources, and would probably run great on that netbook. I installed it recently on an old gateway laptop that had previously been running mint. Mint ran a little sluggish on that old machine....LXLE runs noticeably smoother and is a fine distro. They pretty much include everything you would need right out of the box.

 

Good shout.

May give it a go. Tried Ubuntu Netbook remix but really didn't like it.

[terry1966]

to be honest using lxle isn't really going to be any different than installing suse with the lxde desktop. (except for the obvious differences between ubuntu and suse of course.)

here's a link to the four lightest desktops you can easily install on suse :- http://l3net.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/four-lightweight-desktops-for-opensuse-13-1/

i've used suse with lxde and xfce desktops and have to agree with iamgeorgeareu, the lxde desktop is fast and definitely worth trying especially on older/slower pc's, be that as lxle or just as the lxde desktop with your distro of choice.

 

Edited March 22, 2014 by terry1966

[duanester]

Debian fan here!

 

You folks may want something finished out of the box, with no work needed.

 

It's a rock solid OS, once installed,an open source video driver handles well.

 

Everything works, quick and responsive.

 

Amazing enough, that slight learning curve is worth it.

[JustinP526]

I made an attempt to try Sabayon once, but it never fully installed on my machine. May have been a bad burn though on the DVD-R/W.

 

I may give Sabayon a try again someday though. So far been sticking with OpenSuSE as of lately.

 

Last of my motherboards is dead now, so can't do much until I can build a new system.

[Bruce]

I recommend main stream distributions, that offer a good desktop environment not designed for "tablets or touch screens" with easy access via package managers to as much software as possible.

 

Those in my opinion would be

 

OpenSuSE http://www.opensuse.org/en/

 

Fedora https://fedoraproject.org/

 

Linux Mint http://www.linuxmint.com/

[duanester]

Terry go get em mate

[terry1966]

anyone in the mood for testing distros might want to try this :- http://www.zdnet.com/hands-on-with-makulu-linux-5-xfce-the-most-fun-you-can-have-with-linux-7000027594/

 

auther was impressed by the sounds of it.

 

Edited March 28, 2014 by terry1966

[duanester]

I have a little Giada, quad core blah blah.....

 

I test all the good stuff, it works perfect, everything is flawless.

 

my main system has open SuSe of course.

[Y kawika]

Nigsy, have you tried LXLE? It's very ight on resources, and would probably run great on that netbook. I installed it recently on an old gateway laptop that had previously been running mint. Mint ran a little sluggish on that old machine....LXLE runs noticeably smoother and is a fine distro. They pretty much include everything you would need right out of the box.

Just dropped LXLE on an old Dell 8300 and really like it's performance.

Thank you for the info.

 

Y

[iamgeorgeareu]

Just dropped LXLE on an old Dell 8300 and really like it's performance.

Thank you for the info.

 

Y

 

your welcome. got a few old rigs laying around here that i've been meaning to plug in and install something on...i'm thinking lxle. i do like the look and feel of that distro.