got tired of windows errors

[JamesJ]

We have a old laptop (dell inspiron 1300) at our work, today it gave me a corrupt file error and couldnt start up xp...tired of messing with it, I put ubuntu on it and so far so GREAT... I love mac products, so I figured linux wouldnt be too out of line for me...how many use linux as their primary operating sytem out there? any suggestions for me?

 

[Hall]

What do you use this laptop for ? Linux can be "cool" and different, but I still say it's "not ready for the desktop". And before anyone calls me anti-linux, I used it for almost 10 years...

You say this laptop is old, so it's possible that the hard drive is to blame for the corrupt file, not necessarily Windows.

 

[8bitbytes]

Sounds like the drive is developing bad spots on it. A fresh load will last for a little while...

 

[JamesJ]

actually The hard drive is going..it was dropped I am using this time to put linux on it to try it for a while ( I know I dont have much time before the drive goes kappooy)..also this is just a email and word and excel..so linux is perfect. Also Hall Good points on the not ready for desktop...this is just a play thing as I was REALLY frustrated with windows/this computer.

 

[8bitbytes]

actually The hard drive is going..it was dropped I am using this time to put linux on it to try it for a while ( I know I dont have much time before the drive goes kappooy)..also this is just a email and word and excel..so linux is perfect. Also Hall Good points on the not ready for desktop...this is just a play thing as I was REALLY frustrated with windows/this computer.

I've been pretty happy with Xandros on an older machine for doing the basics like letters, homework, email, and web browsing.

 

[JAG72]

I would put Linux on my laptop in an instant if I wanted to play around with it for everything I want to do. I personally don't have the time or ambition to play around when I get home from work.

Personally, I have always like the SuSE versions. If you want a distrubtion that is more desktop ready Novell has SLED (SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop). It is a pretty good distrubtion that has many of the typical bells and whistles already built in. OpenSuSE is also a good distro if you like being on more of a bleading edge for a distro.

 

[iwc5893]

I've played with Fedora, CentOS, and Ubuntu. Ubuntu seems to be more orientated to the novice Linux user, but I've had good luck with all three. BTW, Ubuntu is the only one I was able to get my wifi card to work with on my Vostro 1500 laptop.

 

[JamesJ]

I've played with Fedora, CentOS, and Ubuntu. Ubuntu seems to be more orientated to the novice Linux user, but I've had good luck with all three. BTW, Ubuntu is the only one I was able to get my wifi card to work with on my Vostro 1500 laptop.

ubuntu I had to download drivers and do a couple extra steps...which I didnt mind as I got to play around in terminal ( I do enjoy doing things "manually" sometimes)..its need to see how smooth this operating system is so far...

 

[navychop]

Can't seem to find much of Xandros anymore. Just some stuff from 2006, and a lot of "currently unavailable." I suppose they aren't looking for end user business anymore?

 

[Hall]

Can't seem to find much of Xandros anymore.

I don't know anything about Xandros, but in general, many Linux distros come and go... If someone raves about a new distro, I never tried them until they'd been around for a year or more. I was using Linux exclusively for a while, so I couldn't afford to join the "distro-of-the-month club".

 

[Jim S.]

actually The hard drive is going..it was dropped I am using this time to put linux on it to try it for a while ( I know I dont have much time before the drive goes kappooy.

I'm pretty sure there's at least one version of Linux that will boot from a flash drive.

 

[Matt Manos]

I have Ubuntu on our main desktop at the house. It's great with basic tasks but some specialized apps don't have a Linux equivalent. You can get some Windows apps to run in WINE, but they often act a little buggy. The main thing that my wife doesn't like is how Ubuntu doesn't created dated sub-folders when downloading jpgs from her camera. Of course, Excel 2007 on her Vista machine at work also makes her crazy.

Xandros no longer has a free version.

Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mint, and Mandriva are all easy to use and require nominal set up. Mint comes with most common codecs installed, which makes life a little easier. Mandriva has a parental control gui, which is nice for the kiddies.