OpenSourceRules
January 15th, 2009, 08:44 AM
I use my laptop as a lab (testing ground) because the desktops have been used by my family members. (And I have almost nothing there.)
First point: My laptop is pretty old, with 512M ram (DDR2) and 1.5GZ and 80G hard drive (funny, Ubuntu is the only one capable of using the whole 80G.) It says "designed for Windows XP", but it was pretty sluggish with
Open Office, Google IME, Adobe Creative Suite, and Avast! antivirus (and other antispyware) installed. Plus one point: It was running the old file system: FAT 32.
Pirated copies of Photoshop are ubiquitous in China. (To me, GIMP is much more stable and less hungry on resources.)
So I decided to get rid of Windows once and for all. (There was one point I tried getting a fresh Windows XP on it; than, no drivers at all for the laptop.) Than again, I quit gaming altogether, so I hardly have any needs for Windows.
Let me state my basic software requirements: 1)Word Processor/Office Suite
2)Graphic manipulator or scanning software) 3)Chinese input
4)Multimedia.
I have tried at least 7 Distros: 1)ASPLinux, 2)Red Flag Linux (That lasts a while) 3)Fedora Linux 4)Puppy Linux 5)DreamLinux 6)Opensuse 7)Ubuntu
Only Fedora Linux, Red Flag Linux and Ubuntu fit my basic needs, so I would only discuss these 3.
1)Fedora Linux: It is the longest lasting term, and I used both Fedora 9 and Fedora 10. To me, Fedora 9 seems even more stable in graphic and multimedia support. Fedora comes in a DVD, so the initial installation is quite big. It is highly customizable, and there are loads of good wallpapers (both for KDE and Gnome; but I hardly tried KDE Fedora.) I still prefer Gnome because it has a cleaner meanu.
2)Red Flag Linux: I used it for a while because it is very fast to reinstall and requires minimum update. It is quite fast, but the stability is quite questionable. It also comes with all the proprietary codecs.
3)Ubuntu: It is the only system that fully utilize my hard drive space (doesn't mean I am going to fill it.) It is faster than anything I tried and is much stabler. (Firefox loads way faster than it does in Fedora.)
As far as practicality is concerned, I may very well stick to Ubuntu. As far as Windows for laptops, the recovery disks come with very specific drivers. (Than again, why uses Windows if it is so sluggish and unstable?)
First point: My laptop is pretty old, with 512M ram (DDR2) and 1.5GZ and 80G hard drive (funny, Ubuntu is the only one capable of using the whole 80G.) It says "designed for Windows XP", but it was pretty sluggish with
Open Office, Google IME, Adobe Creative Suite, and Avast! antivirus (and other antispyware) installed. Plus one point: It was running the old file system: FAT 32.
Pirated copies of Photoshop are ubiquitous in China. (To me, GIMP is much more stable and less hungry on resources.)
So I decided to get rid of Windows once and for all. (There was one point I tried getting a fresh Windows XP on it; than, no drivers at all for the laptop.) Than again, I quit gaming altogether, so I hardly have any needs for Windows.
Let me state my basic software requirements: 1)Word Processor/Office Suite
2)Graphic manipulator or scanning software) 3)Chinese input
4)Multimedia.
I have tried at least 7 Distros: 1)ASPLinux, 2)Red Flag Linux (That lasts a while) 3)Fedora Linux 4)Puppy Linux 5)DreamLinux 6)Opensuse 7)Ubuntu
Only Fedora Linux, Red Flag Linux and Ubuntu fit my basic needs, so I would only discuss these 3.
1)Fedora Linux: It is the longest lasting term, and I used both Fedora 9 and Fedora 10. To me, Fedora 9 seems even more stable in graphic and multimedia support. Fedora comes in a DVD, so the initial installation is quite big. It is highly customizable, and there are loads of good wallpapers (both for KDE and Gnome; but I hardly tried KDE Fedora.) I still prefer Gnome because it has a cleaner meanu.
2)Red Flag Linux: I used it for a while because it is very fast to reinstall and requires minimum update. It is quite fast, but the stability is quite questionable. It also comes with all the proprietary codecs.
3)Ubuntu: It is the only system that fully utilize my hard drive space (doesn't mean I am going to fill it.) It is faster than anything I tried and is much stabler. (Firefox loads way faster than it does in Fedora.)
As far as practicality is concerned, I may very well stick to Ubuntu. As far as Windows for laptops, the recovery disks come with very specific drivers. (Than again, why uses Windows if it is so sluggish and unstable?)