steppenwolf1984

Never got far with Gnome...KDE all the way. Stable? Very, in my experience...tho i cant call gnome unstable since i cant get into the way things are laid out in the gnome environment.

Kaffeine, without a doubt....(meaning a xine frontend, but not ANY ole xine front end, oh no no....)

Thanks for all the feedback....still looking around but Im thinking I'll devote half of a new system to Fedora, or a bit more, and half to Suse for easy, newb configuration and flashy lil lizards and stuff. If I got redhat9 zipping along, i should eventually be able to do it on Fedora. I may get a laptop so, the Suse will be good PR for shoulder surfers. Getting it without XP saves a bucket of cash! Given my limited experience, the coment about working up to pure Deb or Slack makes sense...Looking forward to reinstalling Mdk 10 again tonight...heheh....made a bit of a mess with an Nvidia driver and lost all open GL functions. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......

I'm seriously thinking of investing in a second computer. My box at home is a Mandrake10.1 and XP dual boot, with a caseload of live cds and other distro cds that ive had varying degrees of success and frustration with. Im thinking of getting another box to install more and learn more and have at least one place to thoroughly trash my setup and start over. Because of the availability here of books and software for Fedora and RedHat, Im thinking theres something Im missing about Fedora. Every time I install it , it stays up for about an hour and a half and its back to MDK. Am I missing something? My impression is that FC3 is bulky, awkward and slow, with limited media function out of box. But I heard Arctic say in one of these boards that Fedora is an intermediate level distro. My first installed OS was RedHat 9 and I remember I finally had gotten it running fast and smooth. But given the mandriva experience, its hard to go back to what it took to get the system that smooth. Any advice on the whole RedHat distro/ Fedora experience these days? Its either that or Suse 9.2 which is - dare I say it? - too user friendly and non-threatening. I used it for a while when my XP crashed and I had lots of freelance work due. The main reason for the FC thought is that its the easiest to find cds, piles of books and stuff for, not to mention all the software I already have which is mostly redhat from 7 on up. Would love to hear some pros to beat down all my cons for my previous limited Fedora exploits

Could you? Pleeeaaaze?

That was eerie...posting a response and being referenced to an earlier post. It feels so ... serendipitous, yet so...postmodern...

Heres another, tho it may be old....just found it. Wonder if the guys running Mandy? Humor What your choice of Linux distribution says about you Saturday October 30, 2004 (02:00 PM GMT) By: Joe Barr Many Linux newbies -- or wanna-be newbies -- get hung up over the choice of their initial distribution. We here at NewsForge have put a lot of thought into this, and have decided to share our best thinking on the subject in order to help ease you newbies out of the monopoly spread into the Linux world. The most important thing for newbies to consider is this: what does your choice of distributions say about you? Updated to include Slackware. To that end, we have created this brief list of observations of the users of specific distributions, highlighting their most notable traits, in order that you can weigh this important aspect of distribution selection in your final, initial decision. Debian This distribution is popular with those who always count in binary, and are politically correct in a free software kind of way. Many are suspected of having been nursed on a TTY. Debian users take pride in the fact that their distribution is always several releases behind the latest version of the kernel, but makes up for that by being more difficult to install and use. Gentoo If John Wayne had been a Linux user, he would have used Gentoo. Gentoo users are pioneers, people who like to live close to the metal, and don't mind hurting themselves on sharp objects. Some feel that Gentoo users are simply lazy louts who always want to have a ready excuse for why they are not doing constructive things with their computer, other than compiling or recompiling the latest kernel, app, or hapless passerby. The official Gentoo motto is, "If it moves, compile it." Knoppix Knoppix users are pushy and aggressive. It's not at all unusual for them to hand you a CD and tell you to boot from it. Mainly, they like to stare at the console during the boot process while its sniffers check out the current hardware and network configuration. While this is a flashy and very useful distribution, it never seems to stick around on the systems it is used on as long as the other distributions. Don't trust Knoppix users in matters of the heart. Linspire This distribution is popular with the timid and the meek. Often this includes those straying away from Windows for the very first time. With a womb-to-grave GUI interface, which can download and install software packages with a single click, Linspire provides its users more ease of use than they deserve. When you think of Linspire users, think of a princess whose culinary repertoire is limited to making reservations. Mandrake Mandrake users are suave and sophisticated. They prefer to focus on a polished desktop environment rather than just serving others. It's also said that they enjoy sipping -- but only late in the year -- the new crop of Beaujolais each year. Red Hat users say that Mandrake users don't love freedom. Mandrakians insist it is only freedom fries they hold in disdain. MEPIS This newbie distribution attracts people who can't decide whether they'd rather have Knoppix-like LiveCD ability or Linspire's easy install and GUI-all-the-way interface: It has both. MEPIS is also totally the distro of choice for people who like to hum John Denver's song, "Country Roads," under their breath, because it's the only one headquartered in West Virginia. Go Mountaineers! Red Hat Red Hat is not synonymous with Linux, but many of its users believe that it is. Long the king of the Linux street, Red Hat is most popular with middle-of-the-road types who always end up following along with the crowd, even when everyone in the crowd is wearing a silly hat. Red Hat is very strict about the licensing of the apps it includes with the distribution, but doesn't seem to mind abandoning customers who are not large corporations. Updated: Thanks to Joshua H. for this lightly edited synopsis of Slackware and Slackware users. Slackware This distribution is for those that don't care for the overhead of configuration interfaces, and have a great appetite for raw text files. No need for dependency checks, since they always know what they are doing. Especially important to Slackware users are the bragging rights of using the oldest distribution still in development. Plus the fact that it has been supported by the same diety all that time, Patrick J. Volkerding. Newbies should be cautious around Slackware users, because they will cut you none. SUSE If you like beer, horns, or green eggs, you'll like SUSE. The recent acquisition of SUSE by Novell is similar to Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers adopting the West Coast offense. SUSE users like a clean, well-lighted desktop, and are far less concerned about where things are kept in the filesystem than they ought to be.

Warning: This advice may be counterproductive.... I was so glad I got MP3 and DVD right "out of the box" that I didnt check for simple cd audio. (Out of the box is actually a download version). Finally started tackling the no audio for cds, although KsCD listed tracks and Amarok seemed to show volume....no sound. I did all the stuff (almost) that people advised, nothing. Returned constantly to MMC to check boxes and try Alsa, Open, autodetect.....then gave up. Yesterday I tried audio cds on Totem Media Player. Pointed it to the CD mount. Suddenly , there is sound...on Totem. My theory? load up on the media players and one of them will probably grok your media. This is far from a canonical and intelligent approach to problem solving however. Go with the pros advice, and if all else fails? improvise maniacally...

Well, it seems theres a mild hysteria brewing on the trademark linux issue in Australia. People ranting about hypocrisy and open sauce (sic). Seems people are confusing a copyright with a patent...which the FSF, and I assume Linus as well, are fervently opposed to. Lots of screaming about Linux now costing money (in reality it costs money if you make and sell your product in profit making mode and use the name LINUX on it) although you can still run the system, change the system, etc....just dont call it Linux unless you want to pay a registration fee. If you are liable to pay such a fee.... Mad Dog Hall is trying to issue statements to chill people out. Major point? If Linus and co. dont get trademark protection, which costs lawyer and court fees; we might see a MacroShaft Linux any day. I will sacrifice my first borne male son to prevent that happening. You wanna make a buck with the L word? Fork over the greens..... Anybody else watching this little drama unfold?

I see an addiction coming on....thanks for the list, norm... Loaded up the Puppy, and at first thought, no comparison to DSL....but its got AbiWord, Mozilla...its fast and loads a file immediately onto a FAT (or Ext 2 or 3) file to save desktop, changes , docs....comes with an Unleashed Cd....and you configure it a whole lot within the context of a 60MB distro. If only it looked as good as DSL. Intstead it opts for a fvvwm desktop for supposedly nostalgic reasons?! Anyone nostalgic for Windows 95??? Gag. But you can switch to JWM. Two great minis IMHO...This is going to be the start of something obssessive, i can see it now...LOL

Adding them to my list...thanks SoulSe...any word on Feather Linux? That one might break the 100MB barrier, I forget...

Why Linux? Why not... I got a Knoppix live cd with a magazine and was intrigued, but everything I needed at the time I was running on XP and didnt know what to make of all the apps on Knoppix. Then an article or two, a bit more name recognition...but the other boot dropped with Gates announcement about pulling support in the summer of 05 for "pirated" copies. On the same page of the newspaper was an item about Sun going open source. I was gobsmacked. Here was MS threatening to nail everyone who wouldnt shell out the bucks cause their box came with an OS which happened to be windows....(installed in some back room of a third world computer outlet from the same cracked cd) and hell, we didnt know any better when we got our first box, did we? It was the Gates announcement, implying he had most of us by the balls , when I decided very consciously to know another way. Free as in free beer is the least of it. I can make it through a whole day these days without having to resort to cracked goods and can give this Linux stuff away without an activation number or some other nonsense. And I hope it is the future, cause Vista just dropped out of the sky and a lot of people have some choices to make. And true to his word, MS stopped supporting 2/3s of the XP boxes in the world ...(but didnt cut SECURITY updates?! well, he may be dumb but he aint stupid....Why Linux? Choice , freedom, security, community and of course...why the hell not?

I dont feel so bad now. Like some have said above , it gradually gets easier to configure and install from tarballs. I used to manage getting zero to work, then one or two simple ones. Now -and often by accident- i manage to do the right things with the right spelling in the right order and voila!... I still think its half the fun of linux...but dont quote that back at me when im ranting over my latest screwup. The best thing about configuring and installing packages is how good you feel when you stop. When you stop, and it worked... Im keyboard oriented and just discovered cutting and pasting works on command line for all those long path and package names (in addition to tab complete) which I guess ages me somewhat compared to a generation raised on mice. Or is it by mice :P ? Hang in there...

Dont feel so bad, that undeclared cout keep me going for weeks! I was using a rather useful tutorial.....when in doubt, learn python i always say.... :P

well, if memory serves... alias javac = /usr/java etc... then saved the change and exited..... Im sure its missing something... im at the stage of newbness where I can accidentally install and compile and configure on command line but cant tell you how I did it. In this past week I accidentally installed Java DK, Lost Labyrinth to another place which requires me to cd to its directory , then it messes up my resolution when i exit, made three coasters trying to burn a DSL iso (thank god for K2b....death to XP!) and...you get the idea. Btw...sometimes the tab complete works and sometimes the cursor just blinks and nothing completes...but now Im cutting and pasting paths more than I used to. Feels like cheating...:-)

You might want to experiment with another mini distro. Puppy. Based on Debian, without the knoppix technology found on DSL. Im trying it our tonite, will let you know if it compares to DSL....which really rocks for a 50mb OS! [copy of preceding post removed by spinynorman - please use 'add reply' button]

Just a quick congrats on loading up DSL. Tried it out last night and was impressed. From the docs I read, which aint much, it seems that finding DSL specific info may be more helpful. Its based on knoppix but installs as a deb. With some great additional options like frugal install etc. Keep hacking away at it.....and remember to keep us posted .... :P

Just downloaded the ISO for DSL (Damn Small Linux) 1.4 and was so impressed by the little bugger I was driven to post this. Is it just me, or are there others out there developing a fetish for small linux distros? From the one or two floppy deals like Floppix and Basic to the wave of - lets say under 100MB distros like DSL, Puppy, and so on, I m developing an odd collection of odd little but very functional distros. Tonite its Puppy night. I just hope I can get the ISO to burn into a live cd. After hours of trial and error using Nero, I managed after about an hour under Mdk 10's K3b. Let me see if I got this right....you have what Windows sees as a winRAR package but what Linux reads as an iso image. In K3b you click on it till it shows you the files inside such as boot, vmlinuz....and burn? Thats how I got the DSL up last nite. I think. Reading pages of burning iso images has just left me with more ways to get it wrong it seems. Any tips on a one two three approach using K3b would be appreciated. Btw, the DSL, and Puppy come with some great features for install, update, apt-get, flash boot etc. Check em out....

I thought I had edited and added the alias to .bashrc, but then nothing happened afterwards. alias javac=/usr/java......etc, etc. edited onto the end of the .bashrc script. Is there a simpler way, or another way of making an alias permanent or making another simpler link to javac? I saw a similar post recently but cant remember where about having to set the path for javac. PS I figure the rate at which Linux moves forward, I ll probably be new till Im dead, and with my luck Heaven will be running Solaris...

The good news is, I 'accidentally' installed the JDK package from an rpm bin. Woot. Now that its all unpacked and in place though, Im having a helluva time bringing up javac on command line. I have to type the whole /user/java/jdk.....followed with version numbers then /bin. then javac. An alias works. For one session. When I edited the .bashrc script to include the alias , nothing happened. A tip in one of the docs said to add it to the end of the bash startup script. Nothing. Apart from being new, am I that far off from getting a simple javac command to invoke the compiler? Is there an easier way to either call up the javac compiler or to shorten the path/command needed to do so? Btw, being new is fun. You have no idea if you have any idea of what youre supposed to have an idea about. Or not... [moved from Software by spinynorman]

Heard some solid raves about Xandros, and Mepis as well but havent tried them. I still have install problems with Ubuntu . My first Linux experience was Knoppix which was stuffed with packages , two or three pkgs for each function, and thats one of the things that brought me to Linux. I like choices and I like to install alot on my system instead of waiting till I need to. Only yesterday I discovered what IDLE was all about as I started looking into Python. From Knoppix it was Red Hat, then Mandy. I would reccommend Mandrake to any beginner willing to get their hands a little dirty rather than just point and click. Keep windows up for that. Ive heard that Mepis is so much better than the noob- friendly point and click book can point out. Mepis is making waves at the moment. I know that after Mdk its hard to go back to something like FC or Red Hat....too slow and awkward. SUse is also a user friendly distro Ive tried but the download has practically no media support because of copyrights , patents etc. Cant see any drawbacks to a new user going to Mandriva tho... I hope that was helpful....

I wish I could get past the Ubuntu installer but it seems to hang up over my lack of any network or internet connection. Furthest I got was to a command line when startx or the longer phrase in their install guide (i forgot it now) still produced no X, and no gui. Mandy always installs without a hitch unless I chose packages individually. So its hard to comment on the Ubuntu, save to say that the Live Cd seems a bit barren next to a Mandrake 10.1 (naturally, its a live eval) but for KDE users there is a Kubuntu release which revolves around KDE. For me? nothing beats the speed of the i586 + architecture of Mdk.

I agree, but I personally wouldnt say that Mandriva doesnt have the linux feel...what started my post in the first place was that the website, the home page doesnt. Which is kinda of a shame given how great the distro is. Maybe if enough users point out that the marketing side needs a tweaking...For me, the actual distro is an all around winner whether for newbies coming from windows or command line hackers. It automatically installs so many apps that I am still discovering. What lacks the community or linux feel is that the promotional side tends to link you towards shopping cart sites and not at all toward community sites....at least in comparison with some other distros. Maybe its the cold blue vs the warm brown ububntu, but then kubuntu is blue as well. I like blue, but Im not too crazy about shopping carts, LOL.

Thanks, it would explain why googling it had no results. The Wikipedia list helps for background though...

Just a quick and hopefully easy question....Im writing a piece on distros and Mandriva in particular and can't find any "codename" for Mandy10 onward. Has this been stopped in favor of just using beta...(release name here)? Usually I notice a name on bootup like Shrike for RH9, or Warty for Ubuntu...come to think of it, i havent seen one for my mandrake 10.1. Any one know?