Which Linux Distro

[FrederikNeertoft]

Hello everyone. I'm currently bored and tired of using Win7 so I thought I'd give Linux a try again. I used to use Ubuntu on my laptop a couple of years back and really liked it.

However, I'd like to know how capable my system is with running Linux:
ATI Radeon HD5850
AMD Phenom II X4 965 3,40GHz
4GB DD3 Ram

Are there any compability issues with ATI cards nowadays? I'm mainly using my computer for watching movies, listening to music, browsing the net and gaming.
Which Linux system would fit the best in my place?

Thanks in forward,
Fred

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
Check this link, it has lots of good info on getting started and includes a few words about which distro you should try. Pay special attention to the distro quizes. Let us know how it goes.
Your system seems more than capable of running Linux but you may or may not have a problem with the video drivers. Sometimes it's a piece of cake and other times, not so much cake.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/new...e-posting.html

[FrederikNeertoft]

Thanks for the fast reply Mike. I took the distro quiz and decided to try Ubuntu 10.04 64-Bit.

Hopefully I won't have a problem with the video drivers!

[MASONTX]

Welcome back!

[rasmith3530]

I am currently using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and am quite happy with it. I've also used a number of Ubuntu and Debian-based derivatives, my favorites being Lubuntu and #!CrunchBang. They are both lightweight distros that are pretty fast but require some advanced knowledge of how Linux works, under the hood.

From my experience, I've found ATI graphics cards to be the least *NIX-friendly. ATI code is closed, so drivers must be reverse-engineered which is not an exact science. It is sad that ATI chooses not to support Linux, and for that reason, I usually try to steer clear of machines with their graphics boards.

Although I am running a Core 2 Duo CPU, and have 4GB of DDR2 RAM, I decided to run the 32bit edition of the OS on my latest build, a dual boot ThinkPad. I went this route because it still seems to be the case that there is better software support for 32bit than 64, although 64bit is getting better with every day.

Good luck, and welcome back to the Linux community.

[oz]

I took the distro quiz and decided to try Ubuntu 10.04 64-Bit.

Hopefully I won't have a problem with the video drivers!

Hello and welcome aboard!

Any of the top 5 or 6 distributions found in the hits ranking chart over at DistroWatch.com will usually be a good place to start and for a number of years now, Ubuntu has been residing at the top of that chart. ATI cards used to give Linux users lots of trouble but I think they must be getting better because I don't read nearly as many complaints about them these days.

Hope you'll have fun and find that you can be productive with your return to Linux.