Playing around with Linux
Jan 8th, 2008 by Don Ray
It has been a while since I posted anything on Linux. This is partly because I broke my secondary PC and only got it running again on my return from Panama City.
I had decided to clean up some of the cabling in that PC and when I had moved the hard drive to make cabling easier, I broke a pin off the disk, where the cable attaches. You know the old saying, haste makes waste, and I was doing things too quickly.
Since I put in my new drive, I have been playing with several Linux distributions. I didn’t do this because I am dissatisfied with UBUNTU, just because it was something I wanted to do.
If you look at DistroWatch.com, you can see a table on the right of the distributions and this site’s page hit rating. You can see that UBUNTU is number two. It made me wonder about PCLinuxOS, which had the most hits.
Linux has two large desktop followings, KDE and Gnome.
UBUNTU is a gnome desktop environment, but there is KUBUNTU, which is a KDE desktop environment.
No matter which of these desktops you use, you can install applications that run in the other environment. This is what I am doing. I use UBUNTU, but I am using Kontact (a KDE application, similar to Microsoft Outlook).
I downloaded both the PCLinuxOS gnome and KDE systems. I found neither to be better than the comparable UBUNTU systems. In fact, I had a few problems with sound, that I have not had with UBUNTU.
I tried out Debian, which is the foundation for UBUNTU. It obviously looked the same as what I am used to, but it isn’t as easy for a non Linux expert as UBUNTU.
I tried one, I had not heard of, called Sabayon. It was a pretty flashy system, but I also had sound problems with it.
Currently, I have Linux Mint installed. This is a derivative of UBUNTU. I am pretty impressed with this distribution. Everything worked following the install. Originally, it was created to make installations easier than UBUNTU, by taking care of all codecs that are necessary for music and videos. With 7.10 of UBUNTU, I am not sure it is as beneficial, but they did another thing that I really like. While it is Gnome based they organized the desktop much more similar to that of Windows, which would make converting from Windows to Linux less of a learning process.
I like the way you access all applications. It is very clean. In fact, I like it well enough, that if they had a 64bit distribution, I would consider replacing my UBUNTU main system with it. The 64bit distribution, is coming, but not here yet. If you only care about a 32but system, you might consider it.
Another thing I like is improved desktop space. UBUNTU and other Gnome desktops have two rows of space taken for application launch and one for open tasks. Linux Mint only has one and that is to display open tasks.
It also has a software portal, which was interesting and looks like it would be helpful.
If you have an old PC, and you want to try Linux, the two easiest, I have found are UBUNTO and Linux Mint. If you have a newer PC and have found that it is going to be costly to upgrade to Vista, this might also me worth trying. I love my Linus systems, and would never go back to M$.
Living in Panama, you get used to looking for a cheaper solutions. I have better firewall protection, the software is free and actively supported and I don’t have to spend a fortune on anti-virus and spyware software. What’s not to like?
You did a good job of illustrated one of the best things about Linux, choice. Thank you.
Hi Richard. There plenty of choices and each of the systems have their advocates. Besides have plenty of choices, the price is right. $0.00.
I wonder if the day will dawn when you buy a new computer and plug it in and turn it on and go on the internet and it seeks out an operating system, capture it and it then allows you to run on that. Nothing to buy ever again.
Abraham Lincoln
Not if Microsoft and Apple have their way.
Don Ray,
As Richard Chapman mentioned, choice is a key plus of Linux. I assume you know that you can change Gnome to have one panel or up to four (one on each side as well as top and bottom). I just looked at my KDE system, and I can have four (from 12 locations) panels. Presumably Linux Mint made the design decision to make itself look more like Windows.
Abe’s world would be really interesting, but I agree that M$ and Appl€ wouldn’t like the idea.
Hi Tuxi,
Thanks for leaving a comment. I will revisit Linux Mint when the release the 64-bit version.
I tried to load Ubuntu and Xubuntu to Omnibook 6000 Hp laptop - old one - but Xubuntu did not start and Ubuntu started, but not to the end.
??
I wonder, has laptops 32 or 64 -bits?
I saw in Internet, that people had Linux in this kind laptops, but what version could be best to try.
I put also Ubuntu to my old PC, but I did not get Firefox to accept Internet even all signs showed there is connection. I should click something, I know, but what
This one is beside Vista in my new PC, I hate Vista. It did not accept my printer or scanner and it is always saying “surro. . . . filed” Vista is looking after a solution - grrr!!
My printer and scanner are Hp, do you think Linux will accept them?
Should I take Mint.
Can you explain, are 64-bit always in old PC, and 32-bit in new PC .
Sorry, I am troubling you!
If it is an old PC, it will be a 32bit PC.
Sounds like you are trying the right distributions. Can you give me the make and model and hardware configuration of the laptop and I will do some research.
HP printers are better supported than other brands
[...] months of looking at various Linux distributions, I have switched from UBUNTU to Linux Mint. I had mentioned it in the past and I finally decided it was worth the effort to make the move. Actually, the move was very easy. I [...]