Which distro for my new computer?

[miggols99]

I'm going to be building a new computer, just for general browsing, word processing etc. Just need to choose the right distro for it. I would prefer KDE if possible, and for it to work well out of the box. I'd also like to be 64bit (so no Mandriva or PCLinuxOS) because I prefer to be "on the edge". It has an annoying wireless card (broadcom based), and no wired connection, so I won't be able to download firmware or anything from the restricted drivers manager in Kubuntu (but I can use ndiswrapper/bcm43xx-fwcutter to gain internet access). I don't mind 6 month releases like Ubuntu, and I'd like the package management to be decent (apt, pacman..is rpm ok?).

(By the way, I want KDE because my dad wants me to teach him a bit about Linux and I think KDE would be best for him, and I'm better with it as well ;))

I don't mind KDE 4 either, as 4.1 has been getting more and more stable by the day.

[Sef]

Check out Kubuntu (http://kubuntu.com).

[miggols99]

Is the KDE4 version of it any good? Especially the KDE 4.1 beta?

[magnus0]

Is the KDE4 version of it any good? Especially the KDE 4.1 beta?

You should wait for KDE 4's final release, which will be 29th July. Meanwhile, use KDE 3.

But why not try this: http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

[Sef]

You should wait for KDE 4's final release, which will be 29th July. Meanwhile, use KDE 3.

But why not try this: http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

KDE 4.1 will be on that date. It is not the final release.

KDE 4.0 has improved a lot since it was released.


As for Zegenie's site, it is a good site.

[miggols99]

Zegenie's site gave me Fedora, then openSUSE at the top. How is Fedora with KDE? Does it have loads and loads of Gnome apps installed with it (that's what I saw last time I looked..) if so I don't think I'll try it.

openSUSE 11 is apparently very very nice, and the KDE 4 one is quite stable. And it's due to release in 4 days. Also the package management has improved a lot and is a lot faster :) Last time I tried suse the package management was so slooow.

[magnus0]

Zegenie's site gave me Fedora, then openSUSE at the top. How is Fedora with KDE? Does it have loads and loads of Gnome apps installed with it (that's what I saw last time I looked..) if so I don't think I'll try it.

openSUSE 11 is apparently very very nice, and the KDE 4 one is quite stable. And it's due to release in 4 days. Also the package management has improved a lot and is a lot faster :) Last time I tried suse the package management was so slooow.


In Fedora, you can choose between KDE and Gnome, I think.

[mips]

I would prefer KDE if possible, and for it to work well out of the box.

If not for the out of the box part I would have recommend Arch 64 + KDEmod v3 or v4. But I suspect you probably don't want to build your own.

I heard some nice things about opensuse but not so many nice things about their package manager.

[chucky chuckaluck]

i've been playing with kdemod4. it's fun and quite promising, but it's a mess.

[Midwest-Linux]

I would suggest just going with Kubuntu.

[danbuter]

OpenSUSE, especially if you can't update.

[issih]

Well you have a few major distributions you can look at that are all pretty shiny and new right now.

Kubuntu Hardy Heron is only a moth or so old

Fedora 9 is a teeny bit younger

OpenSuse is about to release its new one

Any of those will probably do you nicely, although there is a chance of teething troubles from any of them As to whether any of them is likely to make your wireless work out of the box, I recommend making a nice stack of live cds and seeing if any of them work nicely :)

abuse the power of the internet, its what its there for after all

[RS3York]

openSUSE 11.

oS11 has the best KDE 4.0.x availble out of the box. If you download the DVD you'll also be able to use KDE 3.5.9 if you want.

That way you and your father can try both (and even Gnome & XFCE) from the same install medium and even have them installed concurrently.

The DVD will also provide you with more packages, something that will be useful should you not have internet access.

[miggols99]

I didn't say I won't have internet access, I said that the wireless card is annoying to set up (in Arch I had to use ndiswrapper)...does openSUSE 11 include ndiswrapper or bcm43xx-fwcutter that will work with my broadcom based wireless card? I guess I could transfer stuff like drivers/packages if I have to..

[miggols99]

Well the openSUSE 11 KDE version didn't work because the wireless is really not working at all really. Ubuntu doesn't boot and stays on a black screen for ages...are there any other distro recommendations?

[voteforpedro36]

Debian and KDE. It's not going to be that difficult to install KDE at the beginning (I think you can select which one you want, or if you want one at all), and I had no trouble with the same wireless card as you have.