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ok im in a bit of a bind. im trying to decide which distro to get so i figured id come here. so im asking you which do you guys prefer/use,what features do you like about either one, and what was the install like.
p.s im runnin a vaio r505el p3 slimdock (detatchable battery /dvd-rom) so if anyone is running the same specs (with slack or red) feel free to let me know how it turned out! linuxonlaptops still does'nt have the tuts im looking for :rolleyes:
I've run Mandrake, Redhat and more recently Slack on my Dell Inspiron 8000.
The latest releases of Mandrake or Redhat should probably install and run fine with minimal to no tweaking. With Slackware you will always have to manually configure and set your system up.
As with any system, If your hardware is supported, then any linux distrobution would work - some just take a little more patience than others.
My opinion is that if you know your way around Linux and you know your laptop well go with Slackware, if not Mandrake or Redhat will be the better choice.
BTW, My Dell uses an internal CD-RW and modular DVD-ROM both manufactured by Sony.
sorry i could'nt post a followup (girls gone wild night at a local club :D) but ive decided to got with slack. also i found a nifty little window manager called fluxbox. has anyone used it? someone told me that compiling it can be a bitch, so heres hoping all goes well! w00T TIA
Fluxbox rocks ! Ive never had any problems compiling it nor have any of the hundreds of ppl i know use it (happens when you hang in linux channels every day on IRC !)
I have an IBM ThinkPad and was able to install Mandrake 8.2 on it. The biggest issue I had was getting the X environment to work properly on it. After days of tweaking I finally got a resolution I could live with.
well red you see im kind of a *nix n00b so i dont quite know my way around everything just yet :( but whatever. i created all the necessary directories and all but when it came time to compile, i got a "could not compile message" i rtfm so many times i set it as my homepage. all this happened on my other box btw.
Well to get back on the topic, as Wickdgin said, Both RH and Slack will propably work fine, it just depends how much you wanna do yourself..
I'd go for slack, but I'm a masochist ;)
But since you are kind of a nix n00b, you propably wanna go for RH, SuSE or Mandrake...
word, if you're a newby, I advise against using Slack. It's great. No, it's better than great, but it isn't for new linux users unless, as somebody said, you're a masochist. I run an old version, 4.x on an old 486 and the wife and I network through it. I'm sure it's vastly easier to configure and run the new Slack variations than mine but, Slackware is Slackware and it's really more for people seriously familiar with Linux.
Mandrake, Redhat, or SuSe are all great. Caldera is a good option, too. Any Linux is good, but some are more user friendly than others. The rest, like Slack, take a little more knowledge. It's something to shoot for, but not if you're just starting.
Ok first off this is my first "official" post here :).And i would say go for redhat i havent personaly used slackware but redhat ask's if you want to install the OS on to a laptop
or a desktop or a server and it is a very easy installation.The redhat installation walks
you through the proccess and ask's what sound video card you have (note i do not know about a laptp but im guessing it should be the same).So if you are new to linux i would definetly say redhat is the way to go because to my understanding slackware isnt for a new user to *nix because it has a more of a BSD feel to it and the installation can be a pain if you're new and dont know much about troubl shooting if anything goes wrong
just my 0.02c
D.0.C
well after taking into account all of this posts feed back, i have redhat and slack (a co worker donated his version of red to me) so i guess this means ill start off with redhat . thx for all the input guys it was a real up,up,down,down,left,right,left,right A,B,A,B, start saver :D
oh one more thing, is fluxbox for redhat because i only saw debain and slack packages for dl'ing.