Detlef Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 I would like to install Linux on an aging PC (no double boot, just get rid of the evil MS Win). Red Hat, Suse? My head is spinning, which (free) Linux should I install for most ease in configuring for web browsing and StarOffice use? --Detlef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Probably better answered by someone like Rob Boudrie, but neither Redhat (definitely) or Novell SUSE (apparently) are free, unless in the case of Redhat 9, you find an old copy on a ftp site somewhere. [update: Redhat 9 is still on the Redhat ftp site and appears to be everywhere else on mirror sites still, as well.] Redhat's free offering is called Fedora now, and I'm not sure how much stuff comes with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 My Linux specialist friends like Debian, but that may be just a personal preference... YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Boudrie Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Fedora is a pretty decent system, and includes all the basics - Xfree86, Apache, Perl, C/C++, Mysql, PHP, Apache, emacs, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Some friends jumped to Slackware when RedHat went $$$. At least one guy I know is using it at home so he doesn't have to use a windows machine. He is enrolled in a online MS program that uses all win apps and he is able to work off his slack machine. He also has a bunch of machines running it in a test lab. Slack is a bit more geeky than RedHat. Still "free" AFAIK. Check out http://www.slackware.org/ The distros have gotten so large that they are no longer available as downloadable iso files. You have to use BitTorrent to get them. Or, you can pay for the CD version. Still free, for a small fee. Later, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bberkley Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 My personal preference is Debian. I've been a Debian user for almost 7 years. I started with RedHat, and my recent experience with RedHat Enterprise for a project at work was ok. A friend at work uses Gentoo, others use Slackware. I like Debian, and am not inclined to change distros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robomanusa Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 which (free) Linux should I install for most ease in configuring for web browsing and StarOffice use?--Detlef Since you put it like that, best bet would be Redhat or I hate to say it Mandrake, you need to stick with something rpm based to keep you from having to compile and install everything from source....alot also depends on the hardware your aging machine has as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bberkley Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 which (free) Linux should I install for most ease in configuring for web browsing and StarOffice use?--Detlef Since you put it like that, best bet would be Redhat or I hate to say it Mandrake, you need to stick with something rpm based to keep you from having to compile and install everything from source....alot also depends on the hardware your aging machine has as well. Thats not true. You can pretty much install most all the distros without having to compile anything. And compiling an app on debian is as simple as "apt-get source -b packagename" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robomanusa Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 which (free) Linux should I install for most ease in configuring for web browsing and StarOffice use?--Detlef Since you put it like that, best bet would be Redhat or I hate to say it Mandrake, you need to stick with something rpm based to keep you from having to compile and install everything from source....alot also depends on the hardware your aging machine has as well. Thats not true. You can pretty much install most all the distros without having to compile anything. And compiling an app on debian is as simple as "apt-get source -b packagename" I wasnt refering to compiling to get linux installed....apt-get and dselect can be discouraging to new users and can sometimes take a while to grasp, likewise I dont have much experience with the debian packaging system or debian, I strictly use Redhat 7.1 - 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bberkley Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 I don't care much for dselect. Mandrake has a nice setup for updating RPMs. Debian has some mini-CD distros around 50mb or so for doing minimal installs. Detlef, you might try Gnoppix or Knoppix live cds, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg G Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Asking which linux distro is like asking which religion, you will find many and varied replies, really depends on what you want to use it for... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Boy, he's right about that...! As many flavors as Baskin-Robbins! We've actually been occasionally installing Ubuntu on some of our giveaway computers at the recycling center....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoNsTeR Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 It's all good. Mandrake, SuSE, or Fedora are probably the best bets if you're new. I just converted to Slackware, but it's a little more old-school Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmccrock Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 As a Linux novice, I tried Knoppix, which, as distributed boots only from CD. Good choice for a novice. You can definitely put persistent data and configurations on the hard drive, and, supposedly, it can be made to boot from a hard drive. Worked on both an older PC and laptop (~2000). It was much smoother than Fedora, which did not find all the hardware, and had to be reinstalled with different options a few times to get it running right. When the OS cannot find the network card, it is hard to get updates, etc. A former coworker recommended Suse. Combination of ease-of-use and stability and similarity to other Linuxes (Lini?), which he claimed Red Hat/Fedora lacks. I suspect there are are old, pre-Novell distros somewhere. I may try that, too. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwmiket Posted February 7, 2005 Share Posted February 7, 2005 I just loaded the newest Novell/Suse Linux desktop on my laptop. It runs SMOOTH. I was running Red Hat 9 ( whatever was last before Fedora) and this one is the cats meow. I highly recommend checking it out. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detlef Posted February 26, 2005 Author Share Posted February 26, 2005 Is the Novell SUSE stuff still free? Well, I tried fedora and it works nicely, with the one exception that I mostly installed the thing for, INTERNET access! Ethernet interface always FAILS during boot, and the settings that I deem reasonable (DHCP, dynamic IP address) don't work. Any input? But this may be worth a separate thread... --Detlef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robomanusa Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 Is the Novell SUSE stuff still free?Well, I tried fedora and it works nicely, with the one exception that I mostly installed the thing for, INTERNET access! Ethernet interface always FAILS during boot, and the settings that I deem reasonable (DHCP, dynamic IP address) don't work. Any input? But this may be worth a separate thread... --Detlef what are the contents of the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmccrock Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 Ethernet interface always FAILS during boot, and the settings that I deem reasonable (DHCP, dynamic IP address) don't work. Ethernet was the hardware Fedora would not recognize for me. It took numerous re-boots with different settings to get it to work. As for Suse downloads, googling "free suse linux downloads" will bet some good hits. Right now I do not have the time to mess with another install, but let us know Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardschennberg Posted February 27, 2005 Share Posted February 27, 2005 Xandros is a Linux distribution designed for home/desktop use. Version 3 was recently released. I just added Xandros as a Favorite Link on Schennberg.com Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detlef Posted February 28, 2005 Author Share Posted February 28, 2005 Lee, any hints on what you changed to finally get fedora to work your ethernet? roboman, this is what's in that file: Device=eth0 Bootpr0t0=dhcp Onboot=yes Type=ethernet Userctl=no Peerdns=yes Ipv6init=no ???? I use the cable co.'s internet facility (DHCP, dynamic IP address, all works fine when I connect my MS Win box). The error message is something like *cannot determine IP information for eth0* Thanks, Detlef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robomanusa Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 DEVICE=eth0 BOOTPROTO=dhcp ONBOOT=yes that is usually enough, make a backup copy of what you got now and edit the original to just those 3 lines above and reboot or restart the network with this command and see what happens /etc/init.d/network restart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmccrock Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Detlef, My problem was more like "cannot find eth0" which it found during install but could not find during reboot. It could find eth1 but could not connect to eth1 in any way. Everything worked in Windows. At the time, my Internet connection was ethernet to wireless bridge, connecting to the router in the RV Park which was, at that time, my domicile. ("Have RV ... can work contracts anywhere ... and reload on the road"). Sorry not to be more help. I think when the Fedora configuration utility figured out what the hardware was, it got better. It was more of a "wrong driver" problem. By the way, my ethernet is on the motherboard; a Realtek RTL8169/8110 Gigabit chip. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detlef Posted February 28, 2005 Author Share Posted February 28, 2005 thanks, that's not my problem. During boot it says *initializing eth0.....FAILED*. The 3-line fix to the file in roboman's suggestion didn't help. What should go under *Route* (mine has no entry there)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robomanusa Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 what chipset does your network card use? also run lsmod and post the contents should see something along the lines of my output here [root@robomansworld root]# lsmod Module Size Used by Not tainted autofs 11780 0 (autoclean) (unused) 8139too 17088 1 mii 3976 0 [8139too] ide-cd 32064 0 (autoclean) cdrom 31936 0 (autoclean) [ide-cd] usb-uhci 24356 0 (unused) usbcore 73504 1 [usb-uhci] ext3 65280 3 jbd 47468 3 [ext3] [root@robomansworld root]# Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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