[bigtomrodney]

Originally Posted by Overlap

No applications, no file explorer, just terminal and thats it. I am a bit shocked. I thought Linux would at least be able to match Win95 as a front end. I will try Ubuntu next....

I would imagine that was trouble with the graphics card. Mandriva should have gone straight to the KDE desktop. Sometimes you can boot with a safemode or 'vesa' option. You can try this option from the boot menu when installing.

At least with Ubuntu you'll be up and running on the livecd before you decide to install or not.

[techieMoe]

Originally Posted by Overlap

OK Three down now.
Mandriva installed fine but when installed there are no options to "DO" anything. No applications, no file explorer, just terminal and thats it. I am a bit shocked. I thought Linux would at least be able to match Win95 as a front end. I will try Ubuntu next....

There's something wrong with your install. Mandriva should have installed the GUI as well. I'd be very surprised if Ubuntu has this problem.

[Simpatico]

If you had good hardware detection with Mandriva, PCLinuxOS should work well. It is based on Mandriva, and it should make for an easy transition from Windows, too.

[Overlap]

Originally Posted by Simpatico

If you had good hardware detection with Mandriva, PCLinuxOS should work well. It is based on Mandriva, and it should make for an easy transition from Windows, too.

thanks. Just to clarify it brought up a GUI but there were just a couple of options. I don't think I'm asking to much of these distros - boot up, connect to the internet, use open office? ubuntu being downloaded and PCLinux!

[SeanGee]

Yes as has been said before the learning curve can be a bit steep but well worth the effort. I've been running Debian for a couple of years on a server which sits quietly in a corner and does what its supposed to (haven't even installed X). Unfortunately it hasn't done much for my Linux skills cos the last time I touched it was about a year ago (and that was to install an additional disk).

Last weekend I decided to give Linux a go on the desktop. I found a pretty good tutorial at The Perfect Desktop - Debian Etch (Debian 4.0) | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials which had me up and running in no time. Unfortunately I haven't got the wireless working on my laptop yet but the tutorial is aimed at those wanting to build a Vista replacement.

[Murderdoll]

Im also new to linux and busy moving our whole windows 2000 network structure, over to SUSE 10.2. So far my AMD 1ghz 366mb mem 40gig system is being used as an integrated filesharing server [one of my end-user's xp machines i had to remove off the windows server because it was too slow]

suse has this beautiful installation and administration tool called yast.
And the man:*.conf is such a beautiful little search method to learn those tricky command line configuration headaches. I recommend SUSE.

[Overlap]

Ubuntu also failed to install correctly. I am now trying PC Linux.
Seems I can get a Linux driver for both ATI graphics and also the pesky atheros wireless. It's how to install them that has completely alluded me so far. Of all the installs so far only Xandros has got up and running but I choose not to pursue as it took way longer to boot then even Vista. More than happy to do some tweaking but I do want the out of the box install to at least be half good first

[Overlap]

PC Linux - installs - takes you to a login screen but doesn't let you select username and password prior to that ... arrrggh I give up !
DOH - it's on the top left of the screen.

[Overlap]

Originally Posted by Overlap

PC Linux - installs - takes you to a login screen but doesn't let you select username and password prior to that ... arrrggh I give up !
DOH - it's on the top left of the screen.

no luck with PC Linux either. Won't install properly to the hard drive - grub error 17.. so 5 different Linux installs tried and not one of them can provide a turn key solution. to say I'm gutted would be an understatement as I now have to install vista...

[Simpatico]

Originally Posted by Overlap

PC Linux - installs - takes you to a login screen but doesn't let you select username and password prior to that ... arrrggh I give up !
DOH - it's on the top left of the screen.

So it is there? Sounds like good news, then.