A Guide To Linux Flavours

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

All right, I will try Knoppix again, or Gnoppix, since I think I will like gnome better than KDE. I will just have to wait till I head back to my apartment(I am visiting the folks for the holidays).No, I am not a windows person, I use it mainly out of convenience because it runs the games and software I use, thats it. I still want to stab it in the eyes a lot.So, i would like to move to linux. My experiences using it have all been bad though. Video stuff doesn't work, and is impossible to fix easily without carefully and manually editing xfree86 config files...which would take too much time to be worth it(time spent reading all the man pages and web pages just to get an idea of what needs doing, instead of getting work done for instance). I have tried a couple of flavors, and all of them gave me crap. The one that did best was actually a version of knoppix way back in the day. So maybe I should go back to that and see what I can get going.That being said, what are your recommended HD partitions for linux? Also, which do you think is better, ReiserFS or ext3, or something different?

[qwijibow 0]

Definatly ReiserFS.ext3 is just a journalling version of ext2, its a very old filesystem, i like reiserFS, ive not noticed much of a speed difference, but i rarely run porgrams with high disk i/o. but benchmarks seem to surgest its time to put ext3 to rest :Das for partitons, i only use 2 partiton's Root and Swap. but i have a very small hard disk (6 gigs)when i get my new 40Gig disk, i will probably have a dedicated /home/ partiton./boot partitons, that some distro's surgest putting in are almost totally pointless.the only good use for a boot partiton, is if you want to have multiple root partitons for different distro's but a common kernel / common grub config.or if you were planning on encrypting the home parttion... also almost totally pointless.im curiouse.. what graphics adapter do you have ?once on redhat 9 i had to edit the Xorg config file to change the default screen resolution, but i didnt have to read anything for that

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

I am using a different graphics adapter than I was at the time that happened. I currently run on a Radeon 9600XT. So, the partitions I should have are//swap/homeright?also, how big should the different partitions be? Some distros do it automatically, but I might as well learn while Im talking about this.

[qwijibow 0]

the only advantage of using a seperate /home partiton is that you can change distro's or do complete forat and reinstall without losing yor data or having to backup.anyways... the rule of thumb is to have twice as much swap as RAM...however i have half a gig or ram, and my swap partiton is never needed.sio i dont want to waste 1gig disk.i have 512 megs of swap, but only so i can suspend to swap, and get ultra fash power on's (no need to boot)as for the /home partiton... ive explained the advantage, now the disadvantage...changing partiton sizes is anoying... and takes a few minutes, plus you will need a rescue cd (knoppix) because you cant resize a mounted partiton.so you want to avoid a home partiton that is too small, and you will fill up..however, if you make your home partiton too big, you are wasting root partiton size, which is used fr application install'sHow much personal data / Mp3's / work / ripped DVD / movie / saved emails space do you need ?use all the rest of the free space as / (root partiton)oh, and before you jump into this... are you planning on gaming ?check to see if there is a linux driver for your card (from ATI, not an open source driver)i know ATI support linux... but the drivers are not as easy to install as Nvidia's

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

No, i am not planning on Gaming. I intend to keep a 40GB windows install for gaming/stuff that I need windows for(like photoshop, until I can get that running perfectly under wine).I think I will just go for / and /swap. I use a ton of personal data, but I also tend to install lots of stuff, and I don't like the idea of figuring out how much of each I intend to do. So, since I will be running linux(and therefore shouldn't NEED to worry about massive system failure) I will just use those partitions. Well, maybe another partition called /backup for things I want to have backed up just-in-case(thats what my D:\ drive was for in windows).

[wwheeler 0]

I use mandrake and redhat on two of my machines....I am really just getting into the linux area, so it is all new to me, and I am trying to lear about it.but I am really happy with Mandrake 10.0 Community, and Red Hat (somenumber) I can't remeber)I am just too new to get anything done with them...

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

I also am downloading a copy of mandrake, in case ubuntu/gnoppix doesn't work out. Here is to hoping.

[coder2000 0]

I like gentoo. Mostly for the ability of having an os optimized for your computer. Most operating systems are compiled so they will run on a wide variety of machines while with portage you can get software that will run only on your machine making it work that much better. Sure it takes longer because you have to compile it but I think the results are worth it. Fedora Core 3 or Mandrake 10 are good distrobutions as well they provide easy to use installation interfaces that allow newbies to linux to install and start using it without much hassle similar to windows.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

except both Fedora and Mandrake use RPM based stuff, which puts you in dependency hell. Portage and Apt-get get around this problem.

[coder2000 0]

half the reason why I prefer Gentoo but I was talking about their usability for newbs.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

well yeah, but when I first tried linux, I tried redhat and the dependency BS just got annoying and I decided that(since I knew how to keep my windows box secure/virus free) it wasn't worth it at the time. Redhat and mandrake have both improved significantly over the last few years, so things may be much better.

[qwijibow 0]

half the reason why I prefer Gentoo but I was talking about their usability for newbs.

dont get me wrong.. i love gentoo, been using it for years.. but ive recently migrated to the AMD64 platform...

No newb could have done what i had to do to create a fully 64bit OS with my hardware.

the 64bit gentoo boot cd refused to boot because of a buggy IDE-CD driver losing the interupt. however a simple fix for this is to use scsi emulation on the ide device, but that cnanges the hardware address, and the boot cd thinks its own cdrom has vanished of the face of the earch.

you can only compile and run 64bit binary's on a 64bit OS, so i couldnt install entoo from my 32bit Knoppix.

i had to build a 32bit stage3 partiton, rip the kernel and initrd and he drivers from the 64bit install cd, boot the 64bit Kenrnel into a 32bit root partiton with 32bit emulation, then chroot into my desired 64bit stage1, then install from there.

the bad thing about linux.. if it goes wrong, and you dont know what you are doing, you are screwed...

the good thing, if it goes wrong, and your a bit of a computer nerd haXor Zero cool, Cerial Killer (as in fruit loops, but he does know stuff) Acid Burn, Crash Override... then you can rpobably fix it.

and when tempting fate with the latest hardware, and a DIY distro like Gentoo, you are just asking for trouble.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

What I would love to be a part of is an effort to make linux user friendly and not have these issues. Then I could just use linux without ever worrying about the BS. Not only that, but sprucing up linux would make it more attractive to both customers(for use) and corporations(more customers but also in order to make it user friendly it would need a more standardized GUI and human interface guidelines, which would make writing software easier as well).Sadly, I don't know of anywhere that I could work that would pay me to help with this(the best solution) nor of any online attempt to make it happen that is real(which would still be pretty cool).Oh yeah, 200th post!!