Easy Linux Distro? Anywhere?

[Dr. Shim]

Is there a Linux distro that will install like a charm on an HP computer?

I'm tired of fighting for "incompatible" hardware. There has got to be a distro out there that can install without me having to set up hardware! Please, if you know of any, just post it here!

Anything will do! ANYTHING!! AARH! :mad:

[X_console]

Well, what distros have you tried, and what hardware do you have?

[scanez]

Search the forums for "which distro", "newbie distro", "easy distro". It'll come up with so many results it's not even funny. Also check out the Which Distro NHF on this site.

SC

[teeitup]

http://www.hp.com/products1/linux/

Couldn't hurt.

[Dr. Shim]

Hewlett Packard Pavilion 9694c

VT82C686A Soundcard (built into the ASUS mobo)

nVIDIA TNT2 Pro
Athlon 800mhz
Monitor, mouse, keyboard ;)


I've tried Redhat 7.1 and Mandrake 8.0. The latter took my soundcard, but not my video, so I got redhat. Took my video, but not my soundcard. Niether took my LAN, i had to screw around with it for a while.

[Dr. Shim]

I just want to add that I'm not asking "What is the best Linux Distro?", for I have asked that already, and I don't want to start the mayham again!!


Just a plain question, "What Linux distro is best fit for my system?".

Something easy to use. :rolleyes:

[X_console]

What network card are you using?

If Mandrake detected your sound card, you should have checked to see what module it used, and what parameters it passed to the module. Same thing with RedHat.

Sound driver: http://lhd.datapower.com/db/dispproduct.php3?DISP?2227#drivers

Video driver: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=linux

In most cases you just load these as modules, but check the documentation anyway.

[Dr. Shim]

Thanks a whole lot. Anybody else got some suggestions about a good distro? :D

[bdg1983]

Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 3.1

And don't listen to others here that form a opinion on it that have never tried it themselves.

Certain hardware will work better with certain distros and certain distros will work better with certain hardware. :)

If you have a high speed connection, then try whatever distro you can.

[bdg1983]

http://www.caldera.com/download/

[Dr. Shim]

Is it easy to use? :rolleyes:

[bdg1983]

Same as any other distro.

3.1 comes with kernel 2.4.2, X4.02 and KDE 2.1 though I've upgraded mine to 2.4.13, X4.1 and KDE 2.2.1.

Caldera has released a 3.1.1 beta version which I just installed on one of my work pc's yesterday. All went perfect. Install, booting everything. The beta release has X4.1, KDE 2.2.1 and the 2.4.9 or 10 kernel.

Get the 3.1 iso and the supplemental iso image.

Since Caldera is geared more towards businesses so it has to be stable and well tested. Just read this.

Caldera uses professional release procedures that assure that when any of the programs are recompiled that the source code (the ``binaries") are compatible with the libraries and the compiler that
are supplied. This process is known as ``self-hosting".

It is the extra care used by professional software developers that means so much to developers using Linux. Red Hat ``self-hosts" about 30 packages -- of the hundreds that they include in their ``distribution".
Selfhosting is a feature to be of interest to more than developers, however. Smart Reseller (now Smart Partner) magazine ran benchmarks of Red Hat, Caldera, SuSE, and Windows NT (See Jan 25, 1999 issue). Those benchmarks found that Caldera ran
250% faster than NT in the file I/O tests. When measuring these operating systems as Web servers, it found that Caldera ran 50% faster than any other system, including Red Hat. Here is how they
explained the performance differences between Linuxes: ``Those results also point out the vast differences that compilation can have in performance. The source code may be the same, but the quality of the binary code, the executable, varies significantly,
depending upon how well the source code was compiled." That points directly to Caldera's ``self-hosting" as the reason for its performance. *

[Dr. Shim]

Cool. Is it good for games too?

Anybody else got anything to say? :D :D

[bdg1983]

There are games included though I never play any of them. Other games should install just like any other distro.

[Dave Anderson]

MANDRAKE

[X_console]

Some games will work. Games like Quake and Unreal will work. Other games won't. Game support isn't very good in Linux.

[Jomboni]

Give Redhat 7.2 a shot.

I've heard lots of complaints about bugs, but I haven't had any problems with it (at least no problems that weren't my fault.)

Maybe I got lucky... but then, maybe you'll be lucky too!

[Okie]

i will say that as a Windoze dummy i have had pretty good luck with Redhat 7.1, the current version is 7.2 so you may want to give Redhat 7.2 a try...

Mandrake & Suse are both quite user friendly too...

[Dr. Shim]

Alright. I'll give RH a try once again.

[nfallon]

Mandrake 8.1 recognizes everything but the mouse wheel. I've had it on 4 different HP models.

Neil

[Eroberer]

Mandrake 8.1, RH7.2, and SuSE7.3 should have the latest drivers if you don't feel like installing them yourself. For both of these MDK and RH releases I had to install my video drivers, though.

I was wondering if anyone here would comment on the "off-brand" Linux distros. I don't know what else to call them. I never hear anything about them. WinLinux, TurboLinux, Lindows....I don't even remember the names. :p They may be more compatible.

I think if you're going to use Linux you're supposed to try out every distro anyway. Good luck!