Linux Newbie

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I am entering the wonderful world of Linux. I am a little bit Savy with computers, but venturing on to learn more about programming and security. My first question to all of you is what version of Linux works best with my Laptop? Its an Inspiron 1720.



Intel Core(TM) 2 DUO T8300 2.4 GHZ.

4.00 GB ram.

8600 GT Nvidia



I appreciate your help and advice. Thank you



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[Rubberman]

I've had good luck with Ubuntu on my Latitude D600 and D630 laptops. Also, with the 8600GT nvidia graphics hardware, you will want to install the nVidia proprietary driver after you get Ubuntu working. You can find it on the nVidia web site. In any case, to get full use out of your 4GB of RAM, you can install the x86_64 (64-bit) version instead of the 32bit version, though I haven't tried that on my laptop yet.

[jmadero]

I'd say Ubuntu is a good start with a Dell machine. As for the RAM...I've had this talk with others and I still recommend the 32bit unless you really are pushing your computer hard. You'll get 3 gigs of use I believe, personally I think there is at least a year before 64 bit is up to my standards (software crashing is just annoying and having to "trick" 32bit to work isn't my thing). I'm waiting until the majority of my software has a 64 bit version before switching over.

For Ubuntu getting nvidia to work is really easy, you go to System -> administration -> hardware drivers, there will be a little list of software, go to the nvidia 180 driver and click "activate", that's it....restart and you'll have your graphics up and running.

The only problem with this is if you have a Broadcom chipset for wireless and you don't hard wire, if this is the case private message me and I have a short script/package that will auto install the wireless for you (comes with the driver and everything).

[Shutdown]

You know, I get the sense that Ubuntu is more consumer friendly linux than my CentOS that I am using? Is that fair to say?

I know that my CentOS 5.3 is a stripped down version of Redhat Enterprise, which IMO, pretty much means that I am using an OS that is meant to be in datacenter/server type of environment with certain consumer features that are not available unlike Ubuntu, is that right?

I have a PC that I would like to blow out, it's a Dual Core 2.4ghz /4gigs RAM and I would LOVE to put CentOS on it, but the problem is that I don't know what wireless card would work for CentOS. I didn't mean to hijack this thread but I have tried reading up on wireless cards (intel/atheros/NDIS_wrapper/madwifi) and I just don't get it.

I don't have a wireless card now, so I want to be able to go out and buy a new one (PCI) that I know will work.

[Rubberman]

You are correct in that CentOS is the community (free) version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is very reliable, but doesn't support all the wireless cards that Ubuntu does. I've been running it (64bit, now v5.3) on my workstation (dual quad-core xeon chips w/ 8gb ram, and about 8tb of disc) for over a year and a half without any problems. It handles my webcam just fine, but my network connections are gigabit ethernet, not wireless.

I also run Ubuntu 9.04 (32bit) on my Dell D630 laptop (core 2 duo, 4gb ram, 250gb disc) and it has also been very reliable. All the wireless (802.11g and bluetooth) worked "out-of-the-box", as does my webcam (same one as I use on my workstation), so I can skype with it just fine.

So, for new laptop hardware, like the Dell Inspiron, I would recommend something like Ubuntu. You can try the 64bit version and if that has problems, then try the 32bit one. I've had no problems running 32bit software on my CentOS system, including a number of Windows applications under Wine. In fact, I run 32bit Firefox because the 64bit one doesn't handle flash video very well yet.

[Rubberman]

BTW, CentOS isn't a "stripped down version" of RHEL. It IS RHEL, but with the logos and such replaced. It will do everything RHEL will, and while I read once that Red Hat was going to provide paid support for CentOS users, I haven't yet been able to get that confirmed from Red Hat. There may be some Red Hat proprietary applications that CentOS doesn't provide, but I'm not aware of any.

[Shutdown]

You are correct in that CentOS is the community (free) version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is very reliable, but doesn't support all the wireless cards that Ubuntu does. I've been running it (64bit, now v5.3) on my workstation (dual quad-core xeon chips w/ 8gb ram, and about 8tb of disc) for over a year and a half without any problems. It handles my webcam just fine, but my network connections are gigabit ethernet, not wireless.

I also run Ubuntu 9.04 (32bit) on my Dell D630 laptop (core 2 duo, 4gb ram, 250gb disc) and it has also been very reliable. All the wireless (802.11g and bluetooth) worked "out-of-the-box", as does my webcam (same one as I use on my workstation), so I can skype with it just fine.

So, for new laptop hardware, like the Dell Inspiron, I would recommend something like Ubuntu. You can try the 64bit version and if that has problems, then try the 32bit one. I've had no problems running 32bit software on my CentOS system, including a number of Windows applications under Wine. In fact, I run 32bit Firefox because the 64bit one doesn't handle flash video very well yet.

Thanks for the info. I'd like to stick with one distribution so that I can be really good at it. Because Redhat has the industry support, I decided to go with CentOS. It does make sense, I think the cycle for hardware support is much slower for the very reason that it's meant to be a server/reliability based. While Ubuntu can have the latest and greatest because of the way it is used by your average Joe. Not to take anything away from Ubuntu, I'm sure it can do practically everything CentOS can do, but you know what I mean...

I feel like I am on a mission for a wireless card that supports CentOS, or vice versa. LOL, I was hoping when you said you were running CentOS, that you had wireless working so that I can go out and buy the same wireless card you had! Oh well...

[Rubberman]

My wireless card for the laptop is the builtin PCI one from Dell, factory installed. My bluetooth card is also, but I installed it after I got the system, though it is a USB device (internally installed). The newer kernel used by Ubuntu has more wireless support built in which is why it is preferable for laptops. In any case, you can install CentOS and see if you can get the wireless working - folks here will help as much as we can. Do some web searching for wireless cards that are known to work with RHEL/CentOS. There are a number of them. If worse comes to worst, you can always remove CentOS and go with Ubuntu and run CentOS in a virtual machine under Ubuntu in order to learn how to use RHEL systems.

[Shutdown]

My wireless card for the laptop is the builtin PCI one from Dell, factory installed. My bluetooth card is also, but I installed it after I got the system, though it is a USB device (internally installed). The newer kernel used by Ubuntu has more wireless support built in which is why it is preferable for laptops. In any case, you can install CentOS and see if you can get the wireless working - folks here will help as much as we can. Do some web searching for wireless cards that are known to work with RHEL/CentOS. There are a number of them. If worse comes to worst, you can always remove CentOS and go with Ubuntu and run CentOS in a virtual machine under Ubuntu in order to learn how to use RHEL systems.

Thanks, that's exactly what I'm trying to do now. Instead of getting a card and then hectically Googling how to make it work for CentOS, I'm trying to find others that are using CentOS and have successfully configured a wireless card with it, then I will go out and buy that card.

There are some I think I can get. I am using CentOS right now under VMware but I have a spare PC that I want to use it for because I don't like the way VMware does things with the OS so I don't get a true use out of it.

It seems though that I can't escape Ubuntu as it seems almost everyone is using this type of dist. for home use...it looks really "fun".

[Rubberman]

I am a professional consulting software engineer and member of the IEEE (Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers) with about 25 years of software engineering experience. Both of these systems have their place. I use RHEL on my main workstation because it also does duty as a server for my home office. I use Ubuntu on my laptop for travel because it is a better fit for that purpose. Besides the wifi and bluetooth, it also works well with my Sprint broadband USB wireless modem. All of these things can work with CentOS, but they are harder to configure and get working. With Ubuntu, they all worked without any configuration or software/driver installation at all - I was truly amazed, since it was an order of magnitude easier to get them all working on Ubuntu than on Windows XP. All my other software that I need works equally well on either system, though the jobs that take a lot of physical memory in order to run efficiently I run on the 64bit workstation.

Which is the right one for you - that you have to decide based upon your real needs. Like I said, if you really need to run CentOS on a laptop, perhaps because you want to learn enough to pass the RHCE exam for instance, then a virtual machine is a viable option. I do prefer VirtualBox over VMware workstation, mostly because it is easier to use and cheaper (free). I run a number of 32bit and 64bit operating systems under it on my CentOS system including XP, various versions of Linux, Solaris x86, and others. I've even done kernel driver development for Solaris that way.