Laptop OS
Tue, 2008-03-04 21:08 — stephenz
I would like to know what you think is the best OS for an IBM Thinkpad 600E? At the moment i am using KDE 3.3, but it does fail every once in a while and i cannot figure out how to get the WLAN up and running. So once i get it going, that will be my next question. Stephen
Laptop Distro
I installed ubuntu 9.04 on my Toshiba satellite L300 and worked out of the box. Also Have found most if not all distros with KDE 4.2 will work as well.
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A Linux distribution (also called GNU/Linux by some vendors and users) is a member of the family of Unix-like software distributions built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions (often called distros for short) consist of a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players and database applications.Thesis Help | Essay Service
sabayon linux seems to be a
sabayon linux seems to be a great distro for wireless/laptop use,
its gentoo based and comes with alot of preinstalled software to get
you up and running. the guys in #sabayon can be a little arogant at
times but they are always ready to help if you searched the forums
first for a solution.
ubuntu
hardy also is due to release at the end of the month, i dont know how
well their wireless is it has been rather poor in previous releases and
rather inconsistant.
opensuse even tho has had alot of bad
publicity lately due to the deals with novel and ms, still stands
strong as one of the most consistant and reliable distros on the
market. out of the box u can expect everything on your laptop
including wireless cards to be recognized and working.
which
is the best ? i would have to say gentoo, if you have the time to do
the min install, your os will be completely configured from the ground
up for your laptop and yours alone, gentoo's handbook is one of the
most well written guides on the net and irc/forum support really makes
changing to gentoo so much easier. once installed and updated you'll
find gentoo the most enjoyable distro on the market with its stablity
speed and customizable design.
Note: Gentoo is really directed at powerusers only, if you want to learn about gentoo then sabayon is the way to go.
Hey Stephenz,There are
Hey Stephenz,
There are several good distro's out there it does depend on experience and knowledge for e.g. compiling Gentoo can be difficult on a lappy
Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon is not bad easy to use and based on Debian and it finds most wireless cards especial one that need ndiswrapper's or windows drivers
Knoppix it is easy to use but some lappys really dont like it mainly to do with graphic cards but is a good beginners distro
If you want to look at the more formal (lack of a better way of describing it) Distro's Debian & Redhat
Now these aren't harder but they can do things there own way (especially Redhat) with Debian i would suggest Sarge (version 3.11 i think) is stable and its a nice distro with Redhat i would suggest Redhat as apposed to Fedora.
But it does depend on your skill level I started on Ubuntu then debian and now Redhat the easiest Ubuntu.
Hope this helps
Steve
Linux on Think Pad
Hi stephenz,which distro do you have a preference for? There are plenty of distros that will run on a TP 600, but I guess that is more of a preference on your part, than a technical issue. I would personally use openSuse, but that is just me. Go to this site for a good roundup of the various distros on a TP 600.What type of WLAN card are you having a problem with and which distro are you running it on? WLAN in Linux for some reason causes no end of problems and that is mostly due to the fact that the firmware is proprietary and not distributed for legal reasons. Your distros help pages should come in useful though.
Linux on Think Pad
The last comment had it right. But I would try a live CD version of what ever I was going try and install. If everything works then there's your answer for an easy install. Pretty much there are three basic cores to choose from. Debian based. redhat based and open bsd based. gentoo is great to experiment with because it sort of rebuilds part of itself every time you power up. This makes custom mods very easy to introduce. I would suggest giving Ubuntu a try.
Read about how to enable the multiverse package sources if your system doesn't have that setup in it. If you want to try a redhat derivative then you should look at mandriva. As far as getting an OS from a for profit outfit I would look real hard at Suse or linspire. Linspire has a free version with correspondingly reduced functionality called freespire.
Why go with a non-free Version? Linspire for example just gives in and pays for licensing for some of it's software. So in order to make a profit and keep going they have to charge for their OS. The pay for versions will have more stuff in it that some companies just won't give away. That stuff might be drivers or codecs that you personally almost can't get by without. Try a free one first thou. It's fun and Cheaper. If you get something that works for you don't just upgrade the kernal with blind faith. Wait a bit and check a few search engines to see if the upgrade disables some favorite software or kills particular machines. It's been known to happen. Usually gets fixed fairly fast.
dead machines don't get patched upgrades very well though.