Which destrib for me?

[DeathONator]

I know this is asked alot. But I'm running Mandrake9.0 right now and I think it's time for an update. But to what? I am very much a linux newb... the comp will be folding 24/7, but I will also use it image editing/creating (GIMP), surfing the web, learning alot about linux, and who knows what else.

2100+ overclocked
ATI Radeon 7200 VIVO
256mb PC2100

If I'm gunna spend the time downloading it I wanna stick w/ it.

 

[Evnas]

I've grown fond of Fedora or SuSE lately.

Overclockix is also an option since it comes with F@H active by default

 

[Titan386]

What do / don't you like about Mandrake? What are you looking for in a distro?

These are questions I ask myself whenever I think of picking a new primary distro. There are very many, but if you look for specific things you like or don't like, it helps you pick out something you're more likely to enjoy.

 

[DeathONator]

I don't know what the others really have to offer but here are either reasons I wanna "upgrade," or things I don't like about mandrake which may be present in all linux destribs.

It's getting old (there's newer stuff out)
Been there done that
Pain to get new hardware to work
Some programs don't close right so I havta use Xkill.
Don't really like the way KDE organizes programs, but I could change that.
Boots kinda slow (not a biggy)
No good ATI drivers (just like all linux right?)
Would like something that shares files better w/ windows.

Things I like about it:
It comes w/ CANNON SMASH!!!!
Install is soo easy (not a requirement for what ever I upgrade to)

I dunno much of what I listed a new destrib probably won't help. But that's what I could come up w/.

 

[Evnas]

Would like something that shares files better w/ windows.

Thats one thing I like about SuSE is that it automatically mounts your Windows partitions (including NTFS) when you install it, so you dont have to edit the fstab to do it on boot

 

[Arkaine23]

For those interested in Overclockix's folding service. I can now offer it as a download for any distro. It's pretty simple to setup.

 

[DeathONator]

I guess it would be helpful to know the advantages/disadvantages or strengths/weeknesses of gentoo, suse, knoppix, debian, ect. That would help. Someone out there has got to have put one together. I'll google abit.

 

[{PMS}fishy]

For those interested in Overclockix's folding service. I can now offer it as a download for any distro. It's pretty simple to setup.

Can you set one up to run with Wine and the Windows Client?


Oh and maybe try gentoo, if you are looking for something to customize and be new.

Also if you like Mandrake, 10 RC1 is out for download if you want to give it a shot.

 

[Arkaine23]

Overclockix has that, but I can't make it run as a service at boot, unless the user's first configure their wine to use a tty driver instead of an xserver driver. (wine won't run in text mode by default) In most cases, you also have to make sure the lucinda console font is available for wine, otherwise you will see a bunch of garbage when running folding in wine.

But nevertheless, the winefolding script is present, provided you've already setup wine.

 

[DeathONator]

Yes whatever I download I must be able to setup wine on it. And it would be nice to be able to easily install a temp probe program.

 

[Evnas]

If you decide to go with Fedora, a very good FAQ that I stumbled upon is here: http://fedora.artoo.net/faq/

and an overall great source of info I've found is the www.linuxiso.org forums and www.justlinux.com

 

[DeathONator]

I guess I will get 3 distributions mailed to me from someone here on the forums, and try them out. Which 3 should I go for? I'm thinking about mandrake10, and... I dunno Suse? Gentoo? Knoppix? I dunno what do ya say?