Trying out Linux again

[arelis]

Hello everyone,

Right now, I'm on a Mac because i had way too many problems with Ubuntu before switching (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=746182). Such as segmentation faults everywhere (which was probably a hardware problem with the computer I had back then.). So I decided to buy a Mac Mini (Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Intel GMA 950 videocard, 2GB RAM)

However, i've gotten curious towards Linux again, and want to try out it's latest and greatest.. to see if Linux has gotten as good as Mac OS X. (Especially since the last few times I tried it out, it was on broken hardware)
Linux doesn't seem a viable replacement yet.. because I have several products that don't work with Linux (such as a Line 6 Pod Studio UX1).
So, In this case, it seems best to dual-boot Linux and Mac OS X. Mac OS X for playing guitar and editing video's, Linux for everything else. But then I have to choose a distro... and there are so many. I'd like some recommendations on distro's please, based on this list:

So far, i've tried out:
On my old computer:
(AMD Athlon processor, ATI Radeon 9600 videocard, 768MB RAM)
- Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon: When it worked, it was nice to work with, but it didn't work most of the time, because it broke down after about a day of use, and a reboot fixed it most of the time.
- Gentoo (old release, something like 2003.0): Compiling, compiling.. configuring, compiling, customizing, compiling.. It took up way too much time.
- Fedora 7: I liked this one more than Ubuntu, but it also broke down fairly often..
- OpenSuSe 10.2: I liked the KDE, but once again, things were unstable and broke down after some use.
- Debian Sarge: Even Debian broke down after some use, showing segmentation faults and the like. And the software was outdated.
- Arch Linux: Like Gentoo, it took up way too much time.
--- These were all older versions, and my PC had some sort of hardware issue that made everything crash after a while (segmentation faults etc)

On my Mac Mini:
(Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Intel GMA 950 videocard, 2GB RAM)
- Ubuntu: This time, it didn't break down after a day of use, but the Intel drivers weren't well-supported in 9.04. So I upgraded it to the Karmic Koala Beta, and the Intel drivers worked, but other things broke.
- Arch Linux: Works well, and the Intel card was well-supported in this distro. But like Gentoo, it takes up way too much time to install, configure, and customize.
--- On my Mac Mini, things didn't crash after about a day of use, but hardware support was not quite right.

---

So, in short, I want to try out Linux and see how it's faring now compared to Mac OS X, and maybe if it's gotten really good switch back to Linux. And, could anyone please recommend me a distro that is up-to-date, not completely newbie-oriented, but not too time-consuming?

[Islington]

If you are happy and comfortable with osx; stay with osx imho. Only switch if you feel like you have something to gain.

[NoaHall]

Fedora 12, it comes with a default driver that supports 3D. The intel drivers are the bottleneck on your current system.

[Simian Man]

So, in short, I want to try out Linux and see how it's faring now compared to Mac OS X, and maybe if it's gotten really good switch back to Linux. And, could anyone please recommend me a distro that is up-to-date, not completely newbie-oriented, but not too time-consuming?

I'd recommend Fedora 12. It is likely the most up-to-date ditro that comes with a graphical installer and has a large community. It actually fits all of your criteria very well on the surface.

In any case, it would be beneficial if you told us what the "other things" were that broke under Ubuntu 9.10.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I will say give openSUSE 11.2 a shot, it seems to be a real winner as it has fixed a lot of bugs that were in 11.1 and if you ask me I think its a much better product then both the latest OSX or Windows.
The openSUSE team did one heck of a good job with 11.2, especially with the KDE 4 build.

[arelis]

I'd recommend Fedora 12. It is likely the most up-to-date ditro that comes with a graphical installer and has a large community. It actually fits all of your criteria very well on the surface.



I'd recommend Fedora 12. It is likely the most up-to-date ditro that comes with a graphical installer and has a large community. It actually fits all of your criteria very well on the surface.

In any case, it would be beneficial if you told us what the "other things" were that broke under Ubuntu 9.10.
Fedora 12, eh? Okay, i'll try it out. To see all the stuff I was talking about, click the red text in my starting post, or the link in my signature.

[mivo]

I second the latest OpenSuSE release. It is polished, stable and looks good. The KDE version anyway.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I second the latest OpenSuSE release. It is polished, stable and looks good. The KDE version anyway.

Well even the Gnome version is pretty good, but I still say gnome fans should stick to Ubuntu or go fedora.
openSUSE's gnome is not nearly as featured.

[Exodist]

If you are happy and comfortable with osx; stay with osx imho. Only switch if you feel like you have something to gain.
+This


Also I would highly recommend if you want to try GNU/Linux out to get a used PC about 2.5GHz (single or dual core) and about 1gb of ram. Linux plays nicer with PCs for the most part.. It would really help with your user experience and help you learn the system better before trying to install it on something as a Mac Mini which is little complicated for most users.

[mivo]

Well even the Gnome version is pretty good

Oh, I didn't mean to say it isn't good. I just haven't tried it. Only downloaded the KDE version and played with it -- was impressed by it.

[BuffaloX]

If you use your computer for music, and find a Linux distro that works for you.
You may want to try Energy XT2, it has a native Linux client, but also runs great under wine, so you can use VST compiled for windows.

http://www.energy-xt.com/
It's dirt cheap, and you can try it out before purchasing.

You need WineASIO for best VST compatibility, but my wife has made an automatic installer:
http://www.sandgreen.dk/index.php?side=linux_wineasio

When you are up and running, try to install this sweetie:
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1818.html

And prepare yourself for a seriously awesome sounding guitar. :guitar:

[rootless]

Man, don't install linux on a Macbook. What will you do if you break OSX?

Also, ubuntu will never be equivalent to OSX- they follow different design philosophies and have different goals.

If you front the money for the expensive hardware and OS, use it! For a linux box I'd recommend some cheap, old Thinkpad, honestly... but that's just how I do it.

Do your own thing- but don't say I didn't warn you.

[rootless]

Oh, forgot your original question.

If you STILL really want to try *nix, I would suggest, as someone said before, OpenSUSE. Yast will make configuration even easier than Ubuntu. It's basically the noobiest distro out there ^___^

Alternately, another really easy distro that will help if you're still having driver problems is Linux Mint- basically Ubuntu with all sorts of proprietary drivers, flash, etc. included to make things easier for you... with Ubuntu you would have to know what to install right off the bat.

Honestly, these distros, and Fedora, are all roughly equivalent, except for the minor differences I just mentioned, and the fact that OpenSUSE and Fedora use the .rpm instead of the .deb.

You will barely notice a difference... but honestly .deb has WAY more packages and better dependency handling.

In short I would recommend you try any of these, and if you still have driver problems, try Linux Mint!

[NoaHall]

Man, don't install linux on a Macbook. What will you do if you break OSX?

Also, ubuntu will never be equivalent to OSX- they follow different design philosophies and have different goals.

If you front the money for the expensive hardware and OS, use it! For a linux box I'd recommend some cheap, old Thinkpad, honestly... but that's just how I do it.

Do your own thing- but don't say I didn't warn you.

What are you talking about ? I always have some version of Linux installed on my Macs.

[arelis]

Okay, I have Fedora 12 installed right now.. The interface is really polished. The Intel drivers seem to work well, because the games run at a much smoother framerate than on Ubuntu or Arch Linux. Everything works so far, but I haven't tested out all my external hardware. So far, I like fedora 12. No crashes yet, no slowness either (in fact, it's quite speedy). But it's probably not going to replace anything just yet.

[linux-hack]

CentOS is a very stable system based on RedHat.. I like it a lot..
Give it a try and let us know

You have Debian , its a rely stable distro and it supports most of the harware out there

[arelis]

If you use your computer for music, and find a Linux distro that works for you.
You may want to try Energy XT2, it has a native Linux client, but also runs great under wine, so you can use VST compiled for windows.

Sounds good, i'll do that sometime.

http://www.energy-xt.com/



You need WineASIO for best VST compatibility, but my wife has made an automatic installer:
http://www.sandgreen.dk/index.php?side=linux_wineasio

Thanks :)



When you are up and running, try to install this sweetie:
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1818.html

And prepare yourself for a seriously awesome sounding guitar. :guitar:
Ooh :D :guitar:

[rootless]

I'm saying installing linux on a Mac is sub-optimal, for numerous reasons.

Do what you want guys, it's your hardware, (god knows you paid good money for it) but honestly, why blow the money mac hardware if you're going to run linux on it anyway? Mac costs more because you're paying for a fully integrated experience.

It's cheaper to go with non-designer hardware. Ubuntu looks just the same on both.

I'm not going to tell you what to do (that would be stupid) but in the interest of empowering you I would suggest that there are better ways of doing what you want to do.

[arelis]

I'm saying installing linux on a Mac is sub-optimal, for numerous reasons.

Do what you want guys, it's your hardware, (god knows you paid good money for it) but honestly, why blow the money mac hardware if you're going to run linux on it anyway? Mac costs more because you're paying for a fully integrated experience.

That's one of the reasons i'm trying out Linux again - if it works well, and provides everything I need, why would I continue paying for Mac hardware? My next computer would be a PC, then.



It's cheaper to go with non-designer hardware. Ubuntu looks just the same on both.

I'm not going to tell you what to do (that would be stupid) but in the interest of empowering you I would suggest that there are better ways of doing what you want to do.
Such as?

[NoaHall]

I'm saying installing linux on a Mac is sub-optimal, for numerous reasons.

Do what you want guys, it's your hardware, (god knows you paid good money for it) but honestly, why blow the money mac hardware if you're going to run linux on it anyway? Mac costs more because you're paying for a fully integrated experience.

It's cheaper to go with non-designer hardware. Ubuntu looks just the same on both.

I'm not going to tell you what to do (that would be stupid) but in the interest of empowering you I would suggest that there are better ways of doing what you want to do.

I have Macs so I can know how they work, the hardware they have, and so I can test things on OS X. This way, I get a rounded knowledge of every OS. I install Linux because it's more stable(once I've set it up), and because I prefer to work under Linux. I build the rest of my computers, and if Apple didn't lock in their OS, I would put OS X on a home built computer, so I wouldn't be limited to their pretty but not cheap hardware.


To OP : Testing how Linux runs on Mac hardware isn't the best way to tell if it'll run a home built system. It'll run much better on a home built system.

[BuffaloX]

That's one of the reasons i'm trying out Linux again - if it works well, and provides everything I need, why would I continue paying for Mac hardware? My next computer would be a PC, then.


That's a very good reason IMO,


Sounds good, i'll do that sometime.
Thanks :)
Ooh :D :guitar:

You're welcome.
Glad to hear you got Fedora up and running, and wasn't too discouraged by all the vague and unspecific warnings.

[slumbergod]

I'd be hard-pressed to recommend any Linux distro to a Mac OSX user. That is such a polished and mature GUI that people get very used to using it; switching to linux would be a hard challenge for most people because suddenly you'd can't do things the "mac" way.

It works the other way too! Whenever I have to do something on a Mac or Vista machine I get so frustrated because it is not set up in the way that is natural for me...so what I can accomplish in the same time drops significantly.

[arelis]

I'd be hard-pressed to recommend any Linux distro to a Mac OSX user. That is such a polished and mature GUI that people get very used to using it; switching to linux would be a hard challenge for most people because suddenly you'd can't do things the "mac" way.

Yes, but I was using Linux before I switched to Mac.