| Erik Osheim on 15 Oct 2003 19:43:02 -0400 |
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So my girlfriend has decided that she wants linux on her Toshiba laptop (she currently has Windows ME, which leaves a lot to be desired). She has a Toshiba Satellite 1805-S203; while there is no entry for that precise model on linux-laptops.com, there are a bunch of very close entries which all point to a promising install (no horror stories about audio/video). So I'm feeling good as far as that goes. Now I need to make some fundamental decisions about how to install linux. Here are the questions I've been mulling over, and which I'd like your opinions on: 1. What distro of linux (and what version)? -- I'm really unsure. 2. KDE, GNOME (or other? XFCE??)? -- I'm leaning toward GNOME on this one. The bottom line is this: she is probably not interested in learning much about shells and command lines. Thus, I'd like to get a distro/Desktop combination that will allow her to change settings and configure her environment without having to edit config files by hand or run commands (i.e. no ifconfig eth0...) if possible. Also, since she can watch DVDs and listen to mp3s in Windows ME, it's pretty essential that those work in Linux (but from what I can tell, that probably won't be too hard to set up). Currently, I'm sort of torn: I myself use NetBSD, Gentoo Linux, and Debian Linux (on an xbox)-- I prefer to do a lot of configuration myself and have a lot of control. However, while Debian might work, I feel that it might be a stretch. I'd prefer to stay away from Red Hat, since I really don't think up2date is much good for anything, and don't think rpms are so hot. However, in this case it might be the best bet. As far as GNOME and KDE, I don't have much experience with either (I use fvwm2 pretty exclusively), but seem to feel that with some configuration GNOME can be made better looking. If anyone feels passionately one way or the other, sending me config files (off-list) or links to configuration tips would be great. So... what are people's thoughts? Rather than just getting one-line emails back, I'd really like some serious discussion of the various distros' current merits. While I myself would obviously like nothing better than a Toshiba laptop running something like Gentoo, Debian, or Slackware, I'd need a lot of convincing to believe that any of those are ideal for an inexperienced user with no background in programming or unix. On the other hand, I have no experience with SuSE or Mandrake, and don't really like Red Hat very much. ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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