Choosing A Linux Version

On the subject of distro's what windows esc.. distro would be good to put on old laptops we have here, most of them only have cd drives and 256mb ram.

If you don't know which version linux you want you probably want Ubuntu :)

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Originally Posted by Disease

On the subject of distro's what windows esc.. distro would be good to put on old laptops we have here, most of them only have cd drives and 256mb ram.

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Anything low resource without Gnome or KDE eg xubuntu, lubuntu, puppy linux, crunchbang, tinycore, DSL.

If you want to find out about any Distro try http://distrowatch.com/

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Originally Posted by KK20

I use debian. I learnt to use linux on debian, the main reason is that there is tons of info out there on debian, perhaps not as much on other distros (my friend prefers CentOS). Debian has a few quirks about it (get rid of the fecking network manager as soon as you can). But I have those documented so I can get a server up and running quite quickly.

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Network Manager is more desktop-targeted, especially notebooks.

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oh yes, clonezilla is your friend. Once you get something working CLONE IT (or tar your system). The amount of times ive changed "something" and wished I hadnt...

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That's what Joey's etckeeper is for.

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Originally Posted by somabc

Anything low resource without Gnome or KDE eg xubuntu, lubuntu, puppy linux, crunchbang, tinycore, DSL.

If you want to find out about any Distro try DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

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Needs to hve a proper desktop though, I assume those without gnome or KDE are non windows esc?

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Originally Posted by Disease

Needs to hve a proper desktop though

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I tend to use debian and XFCE for older machines. To set them up I do a minimal base install (laptop and standard system) then issue "apt-get install xfce" to install XFCE after the installation has finished. Doing this will leave you with a lightweight install of debian but you will then have to decide on the software you need (openoffice/abiword, vlc/rhythmbox etc).

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Originally Posted by Disease

Needs to hve a proper desktop though, I assume those without gnome or KDE are non windows esc?

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No they all have a proper desktop (or window manager if you will) eg. XFCE, LXDE, Enlightenment, Openbox

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Originally Posted by somabc

If you don't know which version linux you want you probably want Ubuntu :)

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+1 to that - I was going to suggest either opensuse or ubuntu ( ubuntu is based on debian from what I can gather )

Don't pick this one!

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Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) is everything a good Linux distribution isn't. Its developers have spent hours stuffing it with broken, ill-configured, outdated, and exploitable software that makes it vulnerable to attacks.

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Damn Vulnerable Linux - The most vulnerable and exploitable operating system ever!

Just to throw another thought in the works ... although you've asked for a Linux distro, it's always worth looking at the *BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) operating systems. FreeBSD (The FreeBSD Project) being a personal favorite. Ideal server platform, although less "out of the box" than many Linux distros.

Don't use Ubuntu on an old machine! I tried running it on a pc with 192MB RAM and it kept freezing.

Ubuntu does have a minimum recommendation of 512mb RAM, think of ubuntu as being on par with XP as far as specs required. Try xubuntu or Lubuntu (if you want out of box operations) or CrunchBang if you dont mind tweaking a little (as recommended about 5 posts up). Pretty much anything with KDE will need 512mb+ even then you will be swapping.