Yet another new member...

[TLARbb]

Well, the forum software killed my first post, so I'll try again. But you are going to get the short version this time.

I'm a retired mechanical engineer from north Louisiana that spent my working years as plant engineer, maintenance manager, and plant manager in the plastics and wood products industries.

Years ago I dabbled around with Linux on 486 and Pentium I class machines, but the experience was somewhat mixed. Here in north Louisiana where I live internet service is somewhat of a crapshoot.

Having a bit of time on my hands and some older hardware with a P4 processor and 1gb RAM. I hope to get this hardware working with Linux before I buy a better machine. I will be here on occasion looking for advice, counsel, and help. I'm sure it will be an interesting journey.

First order of business is to pick up an appropriate Linux distribution. I am looking at Ubuntu 11.04. Is this a good choice?

Ed J

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

On that hardware, you should be able to run almost any modern distro.
Ubuntu should do pretty well with it.
Something you might want to do is download and burn several LiveCDs. That way, you can get a feel for the distro without having to do a full install every time.

Enjoy!

[MASONTX]

Welcome to the forum. As jayd suggested, go to distrowatch.com and download several of the top distros to try as a live cd. Ubuntu 11.04 is a good choice, but 11.04 is not long term support (if that matters to you), that is 10.04. Have fun and let us know if you run into any snags.

[TLARbb]

I have tried PCLinoxOS, Mint, and Ubuntu 10.4.3 and 11.04. Ubuntu 10.4.3 LTS did not recognize the wireless network card in my Toshiba laptop, but 11.04 and the others did. I am liking Ubuntu and Mint so far, but have not installed anything yet as I still have to get a wireless card for the Dell desktop I plan to use. If I am reasonably successful with it, I will also install on my main desktop (Dell XPS 410) in a dual boot set up.

I am sure I will have lots of questions as I go, but I try to limit my opportunites for failure before I do anything rather than just plunge in head first.

Ed