[FredJones]

I admit to being a pig--slovenly, spoiled and LAZY. I admit it.

Therefore I want a Linux that will install itself and the software I need easily and then JUST WORK.

I started with Ubuntu 7, but was sort of chunky (the Gnome GUI that is) and icons/text too big and anyway Ubuntu 8 is now released. Nice installer, however.

Ubuntu 8 then failed me--seems to have a bug which I posted about in the forums (that Xorg ate half my CPU) and didn't find a solution for it just yet. also it seemed slow overall. Installer is good but it was VERY hard to click on my physical location on the map--I think there's a bug in there too.

Debian's Gnome was ugly (really ugly) and Firefox is Iceweasel (OK, this may be extending to other Linuxes I heard) and nvidia i had trouble installing so I think i used something else for video. Overall, I didn't like it. I will note that the installer is fine and as a plus, allowed me to setup LAMP during installation.

PCLinuxOS was also a bit ugly and it wouldnt' pick up my ethernet connection (and I tried rebooting the router and rebooting the PC) and certain windows opened up (brand new default system) with the OK/Cancel buttons UNDER the task bar at the bottom--that's pretty stupid/ugly. I also had to run the installer 3 times before it would work.

OpenSUSE I now tried. The installer is pretty. And offers even more package selection abilities than any of the others, including LAMP. The downloading of packages was a bit slow, however.

Installing a Windows EXE on Wine which worked on the other Linuxes logged me out of OpenSUSE however. Two different EXEs in fact. They both worked after installation (and logging in again) but they don't go into the K menu, which would be a BIG help. Resizing a Wine window is a bit bizarre--it responds by redrawing the window contents VERY slowly.

Also odd that apache and mysql weren't started automatically--I had asked for a Web Server setup. Also odd that some windows popup with the bottom 15 pixels under the KDE task bar.

OK, that's it for today--tomorrow I will figure out how to get these services going automatically and I will continue with OpenSUSE--so far it seems pretty good for me.

Thanks.

[technossomy]

I have never heard of people who pick the right distribution the first time around. Your CD burner will do a lot of burning before one confidently stays with a distribution. Some even have multiple distributions at hand, using some more than others.

[FredJones]

Originally Posted by technossomy

I have never heard of people who pick the right distribution the first time around. Your CD burner will do a lot of burning before one confidently stays with a distribution. Some even have multiple distributions at hand, using some more than others.

Interesting to hear that. I dropped OpenSUSE in fact a few days later and returned to Windows 2K so I could get some work done. I am approaching being ready again to try to switch to Linux. Dual boot isn't for me because I detest rebooting in the middle of my work day. I am trying to decide whether to install Ubuntu or LinuxMint now. Virtual machines also are limited because the experience is not the same as a native install.

Thanks for writing.