Linux Distro for Notebook? - DPChallenge Forums

06/29/2006 12:03:24 PM · #26

Originally posted by tmhalling:

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
Woohoo.. I've got everything working now. DVD, wireless network (starting at boot now), everything. And for those of you that suggested Debian-based distros, you were right. Debian package management ROCKS!

How did you get the card working? Are you using NDIS wrapper? I am having a hell of a time with SimplyMepis - about to give and switch to Ubuntu.

I put my wired lan card into the machine and run an update after installing Ubuntu and afterwards was able to get the card to work with an additional program called Wifi Sniffer ( I believe).

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

06/29/2006 12:35:59 PM · #27

I am going to try this exact thing tonight. Hopefully I get the same results! My big PC is running, but I have an older notebook that I would like to run linux on.

DjFenzl

06/29/2006 12:41:58 PM · #28

I've switched 5 computers in my house over to Linux (including 2 laptops) and the only hardware problem I ran into is the wireless network card on my Dell actually (the newest computer I own).

I'm getting "new life" out of my old laptops since they are much faster now. :)

thegrandwazoo

Nikon D750

06/29/2006 12:53:44 PM · #29

It's funny how a true streamlined 32bit preemptive OS can make things faster. To bad MS don't get it. Long Live the GNU/GPL!

Message edited by author 2006-06-29 12:54:18.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 16-85 f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

06/29/2006 01:02:19 PM · #30

Anyone know if Adobe plans to support Linux or BSD now that it is writing Intel code for MacOS? It seems if they are putting money into "Universal Binaries" it would be relatively simple to port between one Unix-based OS (Mac) to another.

Message edited by author 2006-06-29 13:02:34.

DjFenzl

06/29/2006 01:07:55 PM · #31

Adobe has had a back and forth relationship with Linux for sometime now.

IMO once Vista is released you will see a lot of people checking out Linux (who wants to buy a whole new computer just to run MS new bloated OS) at which point many companies will start producing mre for Linux.

REally though it's the gaming industry that will decide when Linux is really taken seriously. If people could just play whatever game they wanted on Linux you'd have a huge amount of people much more willing and interested in makeing the switch.

In the meantime there are programs like WINE that can run MANY windows apps in Linux. I'm running photoshop CS2 in Linux with it :)

(although I honestly I haven't had much use for it yet)

talmy

Nikon D300s

06/29/2006 01:38:46 PM · #32

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

Not simple at all. The problem is the different windowing environments require completely different code. While it is true that a program written using the Unix X-Windows GUI will run under OS X, the "experience" is poor relative to that of a native Aqua application and would basically be suicide for a developer to use.

Message edited by author 2006-06-29 13:40:09.

06/29/2006 03:26:01 PM · #33

I'm Bored and I've read that the slackware-based distros are fast, so I'm downloading Vector Linux now. Gonna give that a try.

FWIW, I highly reccomend Ubuntu, very nice distro and I had hardly no troubles configuring it.

06/29/2006 03:42:46 PM · #34

Anyone used KateOS? Just curious. It has some of the imaging software on it standard.

Mattel Barbie Photo Designer Digital Camera

06/29/2006 04:22:37 PM · #35

Originally posted by boomtap:

Anyone used KateOS? Just curious. It has some of the imaging software on it standard.

I went an checked it out. Doesn't appear to come with any more graphics software than the other distros. It's got a cool looking desktop though :-)

Most distros will come packaged with Gimp, which is pretty much the Photoshop of the Open Source world. Cinepaint (formerly FilmGimp) is only a download away for most distros also. It's a "deep editing" 32-bit graphics editor. I haven't used it, but it was designed by big names in the CGI industry (Dreamworks and ILS to name a few).

So far I've used:
Madnriva (Mandrake), nice interface, kinda slow.
SuSE - I liked it too, but also kinda slow.
Ubuntu - quick, easy and well thought out.
Turbo Linux - fast! But a royal pain in the butt.

agenkin

Nikon MF Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AIS

06/29/2006 04:44:19 PM · #36

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

So far I've used:
Madnriva (Mandrake), nice interface, kinda slow.
SuSE - I liked it too, but also kinda slow.
Ubuntu - quick, easy and well thought out.
Turbo Linux - fast! But a royal pain in the butt.

Just curious: what exactly do you mean by slow/fast?

06/29/2006 05:03:59 PM · #37

Originally posted by agenkin:

Just curious: what exactly do you mean by slow/fast?

Nothing scientific by any means, just observations on how the computer interacts with me.

Since I'm using it as a desktop enviroment, I consider overall responsiveness of the computer as my measure of slow/fast. When I click, I like the computer to do what I want (load program, etc) as quickly as possible. Mandrake and Suse both are comparable, which doesn't suprise me since both are fairly bloated. Ubuntu and Turbo Linux both respond much faster.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

06/29/2006 08:40:57 PM · #38

For anyone following along. I've tried out Vector Linux (a Slackware based distro). It was speedy. By far the best performing distros (response-wise I've tried yet). Definitely beats the others in the amount of time it takes to completely load.

Issues:
Couldn't getmy keyboard functions to operate. So no screen or volume controls. I did get my jog wheel (scrollwheel) to work usng sjog.

Couldn't get my Belkin wireless adapter working at all.

Apple iPhone 5

06/29/2006 08:51:31 PM · #39

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

For anyone following along.

I'm following! - Saves me the effort of burning the distro CDs and finding out for myself... :)

LN13

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

06/29/2006 09:38:36 PM · #40

Anybody else notice that this is a "guys only" thread so far? Does anyone know any women that use Linux?

Apple iPhone 5

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

06/29/2006 09:39:19 PM · #41

Originally posted by larryslights:

Anybody else notice that this is a "guys only" thread so far? Does anyone know any women that use Linux?

Lara Croft?

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM II

06/29/2006 10:30:53 PM · #42

Originally posted by larryslights:

Anybody else notice that this is a "guys only" thread so far? Does anyone know any women that use Linux?

I believe saracat does.

cutlassdude70

Canon EOS-6D

06/30/2006 02:13:31 PM · #43

Hey, THAT's what this site has been missing! Linux-geek-photo-enthusiast chicks! :D *Drools...

06/30/2006 08:37:08 PM · #44

I am now running linux on an old compaq m300 pII 96meg of ram 300mhz, and it works super well. I could actually use this for something again! Xubuntu rules!

This message by the way was posted using this little pc.

06/30/2006 08:54:13 PM · #45

Sweet! Yup, running a non-super-bloated OS on older machines seems to do wonders for them. Congrats boomtap.

My 700mhz Sony Vaio loves Ubuntu. Still having trouble with WAP access to my network, so I switched to WEP 64-bit and seems to work well. I'll continue to play with the settings and see if I can get WAP running, but no big issue since I don't need a super-secure wireless net.

06/30/2006 09:02:15 PM · #46

Originally posted by boomtap:

Oh by the way, how do you like the Xfce desktop?

06/30/2006 10:56:24 PM · #47

I so far love it. I am completly new to linux, so installing other things like picasa and such has been my biggest challenge so far. I am used to being able to just double click install and be up and running. I am going to probably need to get a book or something. Once I find out how to do install, I might go linux on a couple other machines I have lying around. It is so easy on the resources. I could probably use to get all the media codecs too... But all in good time.

2 machines on linux now though!

Message edited by author 2006-06-30 23:05:36.

07/01/2006 10:34:42 AM · #48

Originally posted by boomtap:

Once I find out how to do install, I might go linux on a couple other machines I have lying around. It is so easy on the resources. I could probably use to get all the media codecs too... But all in good time.

2 machines on linux now though!

Installs are actually pretty easy if you find software packaged for Debian. You can tell by the .deb extension. It's a one click operation.