which distro

[marli2]

hello im back. after a year after say "**** you guys im going home"(in a catman style, due to total lack of support from the complexity of linux screwing me.) im back.
right ive got a few questions.
my HW is listed in my sig.
1)Im looking for a distro to run beside XP on JD, I want it all to work to start with and couldnt give a damn if i have proprioity sw installed.
my needs.
A)I want to use it.
Ive got my laptop to mess about with command lines etc, I dont really want to do that on my new install.
I want new apps without the hassel of a new operating system.
I know theres a lot of purest out there but I am time restricted, i dont want to have to learn A to get B working becuase I need to do C.
Basicly I want a disto that allows me to CHOSE when i want to dig around in the OS.
B)I want Out the box support to mount my NAS shared drive, zip files etc.
C)need Out the box support for flash/java.
D)I need one with wine potential.

I want
A)I like clean interfaces
B)I dont really like gnome and I hate KDEs name scheme, this is not as important as the above points but if it is taken into account it will please me greatly.
C)graphics driver that work.

There are apperntly as many distros as people so there should be one perfect for me(DSL was perfect for my laptop)

please make flames constructive.

[marli2]

im gonna try freespire.
seems to be what i want.

[SuperSonic4]

Linux Mint (http://www.linuxmint.com/), it is based on ubuntu just with a more stylish theme and preinstalled codecs.



1)I'm looking for a distro to run beside XP on JD, I want it all to work to start with and couldn't give a damn if i have propriety sw installed.

Mint has all the software installed already, mp3, m4a, avi, flash, java: all out of the box.


my needs.
A)I want to use it.

B)I want Out the box support to mount my NAS shared drive, zip files etc.

Mint is essentially ubuntu and should work although I am not 100% sure.


C)need Out the box support for flash/java.
Check



D)I need one with wine potential.
It is not preinstalled but you can install it with
sudo aptitude install wine

I want
A)I like clean interfaces
B)I don't really like gnome and I hate KDEs name scheme, this is not as important as the above points but if it is taken into account it will please me greatly.
C)graphics driver that work.
[/QUOTE]

A) mint looks clean
B) There are GNOME, KDE and XFCE versions.
C) Depends on your card.

Although Ark Linux (http://www.arklinux.org/) might be good for you

[marli2]

thankyou, i managed to kill my PC(my xp lol) trying to install free spire
I am now happily running on mint and would recomend it to anyone.
still havent tried wine yet. dual booting and mint ability to do what i need 95% of the time means i havent seen the need.

[marli2]

right im back :-)
just to make you aware due to the ease of use and usefulness of mint i have stayed on linux, this has meant that if I feel the need to play about I dont have to reboot.
Im becoming impressed at the rat that linux is evolving.
I hawever need another distrebution, ive searched and cant seem to find what i need.
I need a media centre that will rin on the PC below.
1P II 233 (i think)
2 196 MB ram
3 DVD drive
4 A random wireless card (linksys HP200)
Ive looked at live mediacentre distros and they all seem very small.
it seems really wierd that a distro designed for a PC that will problery have a DVD drive are so small
It also seems weired that a disto disigned for a networked PC is so lacking in drivers.
I would have though such distros would come on a DVD and be stuffed to the gills with drivers, espesally network drivers....maybe on a bit of a tangent here but why isnt thier a distro that is just drivers and apt scripts for the software.
Ive tried geexbox 1.1(2 on the torrent)
im trying womp but size doesnt make me confident.

[marli2]

anyone???