The best Linux

marro255

Member

​

Joined

Jul 24, 2005

Location

Chicago, IL

• Jul 26, 2005

• #1

I am new the the linux scene and just bought a new PC so I would like to run Linux on my old one. Which version has the best compatibility and such. I have 2 SATA RAID 0 hard drives in my old PC so I would like compatibility with those if possible. I guess what Im wondering is how I decide on which Linux to get, Ive been looking at Fedora but I really have no clue.

 

ToastedToad

Member

​

Joined

Aug 4, 2004

Location

Sequim WA

• Jul 26, 2005

• #2

Not meaning to be rude, but have you used the search function. There are at least 20 posts on this forum alone that will answer your question.

If you have and didn't find anything let me know and I'll give you a list of links.

 

m3x1c4nj3w

Disabled

Joined

Jan 28, 2005

Location

Cupertino, California

• Jul 26, 2005

• #3

Gentoo

 

Vertical_Zer0

Member

​

Joined

Aug 22, 2002

Location

USA

• Jul 26, 2005

• #4

Since you're new, I would go with one of the following: your original plan (Fedora), Yoper, or Xandros. Yoper is the most difficult of the three to install; but it's probably the most powerful. Fedora is really easy to install, but after a while you'll find that it's a bit of a pain to install certain software which requires thousands of prerequisite software (which, in turn, has their own list of prereqs - it's called dependency hell). When you get good at Fedora, or at least used to it, move on and try Yoper, Debian, or even Gentoo.

 

OP

marro255

Member

​

Joined

Jul 24, 2005

Location

Chicago, IL

• Jul 26, 2005

• Thread Starter
• #5

K Ive done a little searching but still have ?s, Has anyone installed Linux on a SATA RAID 0 config? Any problems with it or should it run smooth? I do have a 5GB HD lying around should I maybe install that and run it with the other two RAIDed? Thats really my main concern, I am working on DLing Fedora right now.

 

MRD

Senior Member

​

Joined

Feb 14, 2003

• Jul 26, 2005

• #6

Personally, I would use anything but Fedora. RPM distros are very frustrating to use, even for experienced users, because of the horrible package management. Easy to install, but hard to install software later.

If you want incredibly easy to work with, try Xandros. If you want the most powerful, customizable, and fastest, try gentoo... but the install is VERY hard for a linux newbie. Knoppix is also a great system, boots off a livecd, very easy to use, and you can install it on th hd.

Avoid rpms, or you will hate linux.

 

Vertical_Zer0

Member

​

Joined

Aug 22, 2002

Location

USA

• Jul 26, 2005

• #7

I have no experience with RAID installs, but from what I've heard it's a bit harder than normal installs. I would suggest that you try installing on a single hard drive first to get the hang of it.

 

OP

marro255

Member

​

Joined

Jul 24, 2005

Location

Chicago, IL

• Jul 26, 2005

• Thread Starter
• #8

I think I will try Fedora first just to get on the linux scene. After Im comforatable I will try a different one. Maybe Ill take 1 HDD out and just run 1 SATA, that should be ok right? Or does it need to be IDE?

 

MRD

Senior Member

​

Joined

Feb 14, 2003

• Jul 26, 2005

• #9

Just make sure that you understand that if you cannot get software to install in it, it's not a weakness of linux, it's a weakness of Fedora. So don't get too down on linux when it takes you 5 12 hour days to install a dvd player. =)

 

OP

marro255

Member

​

Joined

Jul 24, 2005

Location

Chicago, IL

• Jul 26, 2005

• Thread Starter
• #10

I thought DVD players dont need drivers

 

m3x1c4nj3w

Disabled

Joined

Jan 28, 2005

Location

Cupertino, California

• Jul 26, 2005

• #11

Xandros is very good for noobs to learn linux. Easier than a Windows installation.

 

OP

marro255

Member

​

Joined

Jul 24, 2005

Location

Chicago, IL

• Jul 26, 2005

• Thread Starter
• #12

Gonna go with Red Hat 9 after talking with a friend, seems fedora has terrible SATA support, my only question is will RedHat 9 work on my AMD 64?? I assume it would but fedora had ISOs specifically for 64 bit users where red hat 9 does not.

 

MRD

Senior Member

​

Joined

Feb 14, 2003

• Jul 26, 2005

• #13

I thought DVD players dont need drivers

Click to expand...

I'm not talking about the hardware or the drivers. I'm talking about programs that would play dvd's. It was just an example. Any software program is extremely difficult to install in an rpm based distro and can take days of hunting down stuff on the web and trying to solve endless cyclic dependencies.

 

Flamed_Chip

Member

​

Joined

Dec 3, 2001

Location

Yorkshire, UK

• Jul 26, 2005

• #14

I'd recommend using Ubuntu/Kubuntu or Xandros OCE for your first install. I'd recommend against using RH9 as it is now and old and unsupported distro that will use an old kernel and old packages.

 

OP

marro255

Member

​

Joined

Jul 24, 2005

Location

Chicago, IL

• Jul 26, 2005

• Thread Starter
• #15

OH, Gotcha

 

OSGentoo

Member

​

Joined

Apr 7, 2005

Location

Wisconsin

• Jul 26, 2005

• #16

if you are going to use an rpm based distro.... Suse is IMO by far the most user friendly of the ones i have seen and used... which is a lot. (and there is an amd64 version)

if you are feeling daring... you could install Vlos.... which is essentially Gentoo with a nice gui installer and a graphical package manager, this is in my opinion an awesome choice and... you will grow to love linux with this because of the super slick package management.