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nw53

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19 years ago

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nw53

14 Posts

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13555

April 25th, 2007 00:00

Need input on linux

I'm looking to try linux for the first time, but there are so many makers of linux, which one is the best to run on my dell 1501 laptop. I need it to look and work like XP. 
 
Thanks 
  • Mr_bleu

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    Posted April 25th, 2007 00:00

    I like Ubuntu and find it's easy to use. It's working on my E1505. To get your wireless working, you'll need to go to System>administration>network . Then click on your wireless card and select properties. Clear the check in the box marked "enable roaming" and input your network connection name and your 26 digit wep key.
  • kayser

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    Posted April 25th, 2007 11:00

    I think you should try more than one distro. It's no good to find a distro that looks like Xp, Linux it's not Xp, it's different but not only in look'n'feel. Some distro is better for begginers (like Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandrake) and other is better for advanced users (like Debian, Slackware, Gentoo) but the advantage of GNU/Linux is the variety of distros. In Windows you can only about home and bussines user but without any customization but in Linux you can find a distro developed specific for a lot of tasks.

    So please, try one distro and if you don't like it, don't care, there is another suitable for you

    Of course there is a lot of live-cd's with linux so you can run directly from cd without any kind of installation on hard disk also capables to save changes on a single file on a windows partition. It's a good beginning to test linux (like knoppix or ubuntu-live).

    Hope it helps you, bye bye

    Message Edited by kayser on 04-25-2007 07:15 AM
  • Carlwill

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    Posted April 25th, 2007 12:00

    There is no answer for this question. This is like asking what is the best car made. Obviously Subaru is the correct answer but there is no better version of Linux as they're all basically the same except bundled with specific software to fit your needs. I think Debian is the best reason to use Linux. It's rock solid and does not hold your hand which lets you do more and also learn more in my opinion. People tend to favor Ubuntu which is what we deploy to all out Dell machines at work and they run nicely. I would suggest the following and try them all and see which was best for you: - Ubuntu/Kubuntu 7.04 www.ubuntu.com - Debian 4.0 www.debian.org - Fedora Core 6 www.fedora.redhat.com Good luck!
  • nw53

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    Posted April 25th, 2007 22:00

    Thanks for all the input.
     
    Now what is the diff beween Ubuntu and Kubuntu and is Ubuntu base on Debian??(I readed it somewhere)
  • kayser

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    Posted April 26th, 2007 09:00

    Hi, ubuntu and kubuntu are the same but in ubuntu the default window manager is gnome and in kubuntu are kde, but you can change it after install. Ubuntu are based on debian but it's not relationed because ubuntu are develped by a enterprise called canonical and debian are a community developed distribution. It is easyest to install ubuntu but if you wanna learn about linux try debian.
  • nw53

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    Posted April 27th, 2007 12:00

    Ok, I'm planing to try both ubuntu and debian, but first I need to know if they can install RPM files. I check on some software and found some sites have ether exe's or RPM's and some have both for linux, and a good web site to download software. If things go alright, I be saiding bye-bye to windows for good.
  • Carlwill

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    Posted April 27th, 2007 13:00

    No, Debian or K/Ubuntu can't use RPM files. However if you have an RPM file that is not available as a .deb file, you can install a program called "alien"

    $ sudo apt-get install alien

    This program will take a .RPM file and convert automatically to a .deb file for you. Let me show you how it works and its very simple. Please note I have already installed alien on my system.


    cwilliams@cwilliams:~/Desktop$ ls flexbackup-1.2.1-1.noarch.rpm

    cwilliams@cwilliams:~/Desktop$ sudo alien flexbackup-1.2.1-1.noarch.rpm flexbackup_1.2.1-2_all.deb generated

    cwilliams@cwilliams:~/Desktop$ ls flexbackup-1.2.1-1.noarch.rpm flexbackup_1.2.1-2_all.deb

    cwilliams@cwilliams:~/Desktop$ dpkg -i flexbackup_1.2.1-2_all.deb [/code]

    As you can see after I ran the alien command, I now have a new file on my desktop with a .deb extension. Then I run the last line command to install the new .deb file on my system. So basically you just installed an RPM on a Debian based system. However - Debian or Debian based systems have much better package managers than Redhat so I highly doubt that there is a .rpm file that is not a .deb file. Good luck!

    Message Edited by Carlwill on 04-27-2007 09:18 AM
  • speedstep

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    Posted April 27th, 2007 17:00

    Try live distros.
    Especially the free ones.

    I like Knoppix.

    If you are going to pay Linspire is a good LIVE distro as well as a good
    overall distro.
  • nw53

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    Posted April 27th, 2007 17:00


    Ok where do I get this program called "alien"??
  • Mr_bleu

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    Posted April 27th, 2007 22:00

    YOu can get alien by typing "sudo apt-get install alien" in a terminal window. It'll look just like carl typed. Linux is nice. I like all the community support.