Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : looking for a distro for my laptop with the inside criteria


belsonc
06-07-2005, 08:09 PM
Ok, here we go... the specs on my laptop are below, and I want to be able to use it as a travel laptop - so that I don't have to take my good one with me. I want to be able to write, listen to music (including some wma files), code, and watch movies - and use my flash drive. The reason why I added in that last part is because the drive works wonderfully in Ubuntu, but freezes, say, Libranet when I try to mount it. However, after upgrading my Ubuntu installation entirely, installing everything I can find, I still can't get a project to generate in anjuta without some sort of an error message. I don't remember if Suse mounted the flash drive properly or if it had the same problem as Libranet, but I know I was able to program and write on it, and I have access to a high speed connection for that laptop, so I can always install mplayer or xmms or whatever it doesn't always come with. Slackware has a lovely little coding program known as KDevelop which works nicely (insert kde/gnome flamefest here), but won't go 1024x768 on my laptop - which Ubuntu and Suse do just fine.

Is most of this stuff changeable? Yes, I know it is - for example, I just have to add a couple of lines to my x config file to fix the 1024x768 problem - but when I see that something works so nicely and easily for me without configuring at all... am I being idealistic for wanting something that Just Works? Or am I just lazy? :)

happybunny
06-07-2005, 09:37 PM
i have a dell l400, P3 700mhz with 256 megs of RAM and it rocks debian like noones business.

I use wireless pcmcia, external cdRW/dvd, 256meg usb key, usb mouse and it is currently my favorite little toy!

I run xfce4 but gnome works fine when needed....opera, openoffice, naim, irssi, xine, mplayer, mp3blaster, k3b....its all there! And i think the thing weighs less than 2 pounds.

The debian install was a breeze, plus if you know ubuntu, you (almost) know debian.

So i say try debian....it is small, fast and apt-get will make you sooo happy!

belsonc
06-07-2005, 09:42 PM
boy, talk about your lightweight distros...




/me hides

DimGR
06-08-2005, 04:40 AM
damn small linux makes old machines go fast:)

psych-major
06-08-2005, 12:28 PM
I see you already use slack on the "good" laptop. I use slack on my Dell D800 and it really rocks. I even have my D-Link Atheros-based wifi card working via the madwifi drivers.

Anyway, for your setup, you could look at doing a slack install, but to keep it light use xfce as your desktop environment.

Also, with the amount of memory you have, you could run the SLAX Popcorn Edition (http://ftp.sh.cvut.cz/MIRRORS/slax/SLAX-5.0.x/special-editions/slax-popcorn-5.0.5.iso) live cd. It has Firefox, Thunderbird, xmms, and mplayer all precompiled. It fits on a mini CD, you can run the whole thing from memory and eject the CD, thereby freeing up the drive, and it not only allows the use of your flash drive, but also saves config and personal information there. Since this is for traveling, if something were to happen to your laptop, as long as you have your flash drive and a copy of the SLAX cd, you're good-to-go!

And, for just coding and Mp3 listening, forget the desktop, go console only and use vi and mpg123! OK, that's not realistic, but it is definitely 'old skool!"