Operating system recommendations for my hp computer please!

[cousinlucky]

I tried to use f-stop for the first time to resize a picture for my website and my computer froze up. I had to unplug it to get it working again. I then got rid of F-spot so it would not freeze up again. Later on I figured it must have had something to do with Ubuntu not recognizing my Via graphics card. I like Ubuntu but I am not in a position to be buying another computer so maybe I need to think about installing another linux distro that is compatible to my old hp machine.

I am using a hp pavilion a532x computer that has 512MB memory and a 160GB hard drive. As LinuxForum members know I can not deal with a difficult distro or a lot of terminal commands.

Does anyone have any os suggestions, please?

[rokytnji]

I would say try Linux Mint 6. I run Mint Gnome on shop desktop. Mint Fluxbox on Laptop. Could be worth a try Cuz. I don't run any rpm distros, so maybe you could take a stab at Fedora , I don;t know though.

[rokytnji]

Before you jump off the deep end though have you looked through this for a better app maybe?

The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux. (Official site of the table)

[oz]

Alphabetically speaking, Fedora, Mandriva, Mepis, Mint, Opensuse, PCLinuxOS, and Ubuntu are all considered to be some of the easier distros for new Linux users.

[MikeTbob]

I would say try Linux Mint 6. I run Mint Gnome on shop desktop. Mint Fluxbox on Laptop. Could be worth a try Cuz. I don't run any rpm distros, so maybe you could take a stab at Fedora , I don;t know though.

I agree with Linux Mint, nice solid distro in my opinion.
cousinlucky, you don't normally need to pull the plug on Linux to stop a program that's gone haywire on you. You can use the terminal (which I know you dislike) or you can install a program called Xkill, it may already be installed. With Xkill installed, the next time a program locks up you can simply press Ctrl+alt+esc and click on the offending program to watch it die a quick and silent death, leaving your desktop still running.

[cousinlucky]

MikeTBob when I say my computer froze up it completely froze up. There was no cursor arrow so i could not click anything; even pushing the start/stop button had no effect. The only thing that I could do was to pull the plug.

[cousinlucky]

Alphabetically speaking, Fedora, Mandriva, Mepis, Mint, Opensuse, PCLinuxOS, and Ubuntu are all considered to be some of the easier distros for new Linux users.

Thanks Ozar !! I have already decided that I do not want to experience any more suse headaches. How do I find out if the other distros will recognize my graphics card?

[jayd512]

Hiya, Lucky!

Fedora does a pretty good job with graphics cards. And you could run the LiveCD version to see if there's any problems beforehand.

[cousinlucky]

Thanks for the help gentlemen; Ubuntu is a great distro but on my machine it is driving me up a wall!!

[D-cat]

I forgot, which via chip do you have? You might have some luck trying the "openchrome" driver?