Showing off linux

[tommytabib]

Heres what im going to do: (other thread with more details)

I'm going to use an old computer with a spare 40gig hard drive to help me to show off linux to windows users (not necessarily to convert them, just to show them what im using). And i would like to know what distributions you think i should put on it. Also, the computer has only 256mb RAM and no graphics card - so big fancy distros are not preferred. And i would like them all to be relativly fast booting, at the moment windows xp takes a while to boot on this machine so i would like to show how much faster linux can boot - so light weight distros are good.

I want to put 7+ distributions on the 40gig hard drive and i want them each to be completly different, to show people the varity linux has as an OS. For instance i want one disto with KDE, one with XFCE, one with E17, ect.

So far im going to use slackware and elive, ive also been considering zenwalk. So what distro would you suggest and why?

Thanks

[Freston]

It seems to me you want to show off as many GUI's as possible. You might want to consider installing only one flavor of Linux and add a fair collection of GUI's to it. I don't know how, but you might be able to make some sort of startup menu asking which GUI to load. I don't know the mechanism behind such a menu, but I know it's possible.

I say this, not only to safe disk space you can then use for applications and other stuff, but also because I really don't think anyone would notice the difference between Slackware and Kubuntu from a GUI point of view (see sig ).

If however you want to show off as much as possible, I'd go with a Debian based distro. apt-get and it's broad selection of graphical front ends is just as impressive as Compiz/Beryl.

Anyway, if you don't follow my advice or only up to a point. Consider adding SymphonyOS. It's different.

[devils casper]

I agree with Freston. You should install single distro and as many DEs/Wms as you can. Its not a good idea to install all those in Production Machine though.

I have installed Kubuntu 7.04 ( KDE ) + Xfce, Gnome, Fluxbox, Fvwm and Fvwm-crystal in Test Machine. You will have an option at Login Screen to select any Session.

[bidi]

I think, if you want to show the three main DEs (GNOME, KDE, XFce), you could get a copy of Ubuntu then just apt-get kubuntu-desktop and xfce-desktop. Gnome and Kubuntu might be painfully slow with 256MB if you start trying to do too many things at the same time specially since Ubuntu installs a lot of useless things (I've experienced it before). You can then, optionally, install the WMs you want.

As was said before though, you don't really need to have different distros/partitions for each DE/WM.

Good luck.

[DalekClock]

Perhaps Linux Mint or Freespire, they've got proprietry multimedia codecs built in so you can show them that Linux can be used for entertainment as well as WWW.

[lw_charlie]

Why not just have some live cd distros on hand instead of loading up a bunch on the HDD? You could easily throw ubuntu, opensuse, knoppix, gentoo, etc. on without much trouble that way....

[devils casper]

Why not just have some live cd distros on hand instead of loading up a bunch on the HDD? You could easily throw ubuntu, opensuse, knoppix, gentoo, etc. on without much trouble that way....

There will be a performance lag when you use LiveCD on machine having 256MB RAM.

[tommytabib]

Well, i just downloaded freespire 2.0 (i saw it on distrowatch and it looks very nice). I know its not really a light weight distro but after having failed to install slackware, arch and debian im just going to stick with a slightly bloated (but user friendly) distro.

Plus i don't think freespire will take any longer to load than windows xp already does, so it shouldn't be that bad.

Anyway, if you don't follow my advice or only up to a point. Consider adding SymphonyOS. It's different.

SymphonyOS really is something different, looks really easy to use as well, i'll be sure to try it out when they put out a stable release.

[oz]

I think the best way to show off Linux is to put a copy of it on a CD or DVD and then simply give it to the other person. You can't do that with Windows (legally).

[dougp23]

Linux Mint.
PCLinuxOS 2007. I run it at work, and when someone comes in, I start spinning the "cube" that is the desktop and everytime, their jaws drop!!