suggestions for laptop

[zeng]

i'm a fairly noob linux user, but i need some advice

i have a spare laptop that i'm wanting to set up for someone to just use to play internet games (flash,shockwave,java) and surf the internet. i installed Mandriva 2008.0 and it runs kind of slow when using flash. the only thing i have as an add-on device is a Belkin Wireless G Notebook Card. what i'm needing is any suggestions of a Linux distro that would run smooth for what i'm wanting to do with it.

System Specs :

HP Pavilion ZE1230
# Processor: 1500 MHz AMD Athlon XP (bios says 1300MHz)
# RAM: 512 MB (VGA memory = 16MB <-shared)
# RAM Type: SDRAM
# Hard Drive: 20 GB Ultra ATA
# DVD-ROM: 16x CD-RW: 40x (read), 16x (write), 10x (rewrite)
# Belkin Wireless G pcmcia card


any help will be greatly appreciated
thank you.

[Freston]

Welcome to the forums!

With a machine like that most distro's can run satisfactory. Have a look at DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. to see if there is some distro that catches your attention.

I take it you got your wireless up and running??

Also note that most distro's require extra work to get more than basic touchpad functionality. Mandriva is one of the few that works 'out of the box'. (In my experience all touchpads work on all distro's, but lack functionality like click&drag, scroll and stuff like that... this is due to legal reasons)

[valan]

Also note that most distro's require extra work to get more than basic touchpad functionality. Mandriva is one of the few that works 'out of the box'. (In my experience all touchpads work on all distro's, but lack functionality like click&drag, scroll and stuff like that... this is due to legal reasons)

If a mainstream distro doesn't have this capability out of the box, it needs to get with the program. The functionality is and has been there, and without any legal issues.

[Freston]

Yes valan, I agree with you 100%

Alas we live in the Real World(TM) and the X.org license does not permit adding GPL code to it's configuration. This goes at the expense of functionality. So yes you can steer your mouse and click_by_tapping but you can't define borders, scroll, click&drag, disable_while_typing, set acceleration speed, set custom commands such as two_finger_tap == rightclick and that sort of thing. For that you need the driver. And most mainstream distro's don't.


Source


On the upside, installing the driver isn't that hard, it's well documented and it gives ya a chance to manually edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Ah yes! Good times!

[techieMoe]

Also note that most distro's require extra work to get more than basic touchpad functionality. Mandriva is one of the few that works 'out of the box'. (In my experience all touchpads work on all distro's, but lack functionality like click&drag, scroll and stuff like that... this is due to legal reasons)

My Dell Inspiron 1520 had out of the box touchpad functionality in Ubuntu 7.10. By that I mean I could move the cursor, tap to click and use the up/down and left/right scroll areas.

[Freston]

Well then, I stand corrected

I never had any form of auto-enabling on both my Fujitsu-Siemens and my Packard Hell on any distro, including but not limited to k/ubuntu 7.04...

...maybe it's just the synaptec driver then?? I thought it had to do with the GPL license rather then the code itself.


My new Zepto also had touchpad functionality out of the box, but I took it that was due to the payed-for distro I installed on it. Anyway, this is not an area where I mind being wrong at all. If both valan and techieMoe say so, then I will retract my statement and rejoice. Thanks you both for correcting me.

[zeng]

Welcome to the forums!
I take it you got your wireless up and running??

yes it took rebooting to get the ndiswrapper to act right under mandriva. the system still acted sluggish at times tho. my main problem was when you went to reboot or shutdown the kde logout menu would pop up and dim the screen but if you moved the mouse using the touch pad and lifted ur finger and tried to move it again it would "cancel" the log out/shutdown. i'm currently in the process of trying a couple other distros