Ubuntu!

Originally Posted by kgoings

Try Ubuntu, if you want to check out what's all the rage and read up on what is out there check out http://www.distrowatch.com

Thanks for the link. I was struggling trying to remember what that site was called.

I'll have to read up on Ubuntu sometime... I vaguely recall being weirded out a bit by all the different "flavors" of "-ubuntu" that are out there.

[kgoings]

Originally Posted by totallytentative

Thanks for the link. I was struggling trying to remember what that site was called.

I'll have to read up on Ubuntu sometime... I vaguely recall being weirded out a bit by all the different "flavors" of "-ubuntu" that are out there.

Yea just get the regular version.

SimlyMepis live CD has worked for me on every system I have tried it on, right off the CD. Anything not on the CD could be searched for and install through the utility "synaptic". The distro BackTrack3 has a way to build a flashboot drive. Useful for those behind-the-wall systems, and other things.

[Tenor CS]

I'm running Ubuntu 8.10 on my laptop right now. Wow, I had been using 6.06 before, what a difference! Automatic, easily configured wireless support! YAY!

I still use Puppy Linux on a flash drive at work. I only use Windows on the work machine when I absolutely have to.

[Tristan]

Just did a clean install of 9.04 on my laptop last week. Wow, it boots super fast and it's great!

Also, installed Xubuntu on my wife's laptop. It is so fast I can't believe it. She's really happy with it. Way faster than Windows XP!

[VirtualSmitty]

Originally Posted by Tristan

Just did a clean install of 9.04 on my laptop last week. Wow, it boots super fast and it's great!

Also, installed Xubuntu on my wife's laptop. It is so fast I can't believe it. She's really happy with it. Way faster than Windows XP!

I've been messing around with 9.04s netbook remix on my eeepc. I like it so far

[Rabidsquirrel]

Nice. I guess I'll fire up the desktop and do the update.

[rennD]

Been using Ubuntu for years. I used to run the Ubuntu California LoCo.

I have been using Linux since about 96 and Debian is still my go to OS. It sure has come a long way from where it was even 5 years ago. Compiz FTW!

And did someone say penetration test? hhmmmm Check out my company http://www.grayscale-research.org

Originally Posted by rennD

Been using Ubuntu for years. I used to run the Ubuntu California LoCo.

I have been using Linux since about 96 and Debian is still my go to OS. It sure has come a long way from where it was even 5 years ago. Compiz FTW!

And did someone say penetration test? hhmmmm Check out my company http://www.grayscale-research.org

NICE! So there are schools now to teach the stuff we used to have to learn the hard way.

[Tenor CS]

Been having problems with my Ubuntu install on my laptop lately. Youtube videos are temperamental and sometimes the audio stutters. Have 2 gb of RAM on the way. Currently running on 512. Anybody have ideas for tweaks? Or should the additional RAM help?

Here's what "free" shows me on my rig:

Axeman@2[~]$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1811976 1259076 552900 0 236484 537900
-/+ buffers/cache: 484692 1327284
Swap: 1004020 0 1004020

The posting software destroys the format of the listing.
I have two gigs of which some is allocated to the graphics card. One gig of swap on the disk that is not being used. 537.9 M used by cache that coud be freed up if needed. 484+ M used as buffer.

I like to have at least one gig.

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by Tenor CS

Been having problems with my Ubuntu install on my laptop lately. Youtube videos are temperamental and sometimes the audio stutters. Have 2 gb of RAM on the way. Currently running on 512. Anybody have ideas for tweaks? Or should the additional RAM help?

I would advise more RAM. 512mb should be enough, but may not give you desired performance.

If you want sheer speed and performance try Xubuntu. You can install the desktop package through synaptic package manager from System -> Administration menu. It's very simple and you easily find a tutorial on the "google machine."

I installed Xubuntu on my wife's laptop (1gb ram, 1.74 ghz pentium M) and the performance increase was incredible. Also, she has an ATI 128 mb video card; which Ubuntu has some issues with. The Xubuntu is a lot less taxing on the device and overall.

More on the video issues. Have you recently upgraded to a new version? I originally had 8.04, upgraded to 8.10 with no video issues. When I upgraded to 9.04 I started having huge video issues, slow downs, audio sync. I searched everywhere for resolution. I uninstalled codecs and video players (vlc, movie player, totem) and reinstalled to no effect.

I decided to back everything up and do a fresh install. Now my system is running flawlessly. The performance increase and faster boot time is astonishing!

My hypothesis; I think when I first got Ubuntu I was playing around a lot and doing things I didn't always understand (audio codecs, running scripts, etc.). I think this botched things up and after a few upgrades my system wasn't running optimally.

[Tenor CS]

Originally Posted by Tristan

If you want sheer speed and performance try Xubuntu. You can install the desktop package through synaptic package manager from System -> Administration menu. It's very simple and you easily find a tutorial on the "google machine."

More on the video issues. Have you recently upgraded to a new version? I originally had 8.04, upgraded to 8.10 with no video issues. When I upgraded to 9.04 I started having huge video issues, slow downs, audio sync. I searched everywhere for resolution. I uninstalled codecs and video players (vlc, movie player, totem) and reinstalled to no effect.

I will definitely give Xubuntu a shot, thanks for that advice. I have recently upgraded to 9.04 from 8.10 and it does seem to correspond to the YouTube quirks. I also have the dreaded ATI 128 MB video card headaches.

When I really need to get stuff done, I run Puppy Linux off of a flash drive. It can accomplish about 80% of what I need a computer to do on a regular basis.

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by Tenor CS

I will definitely give Xubuntu a shot, thanks for that advice. I have recently upgraded to 9.04 from 8.10 and it does seem to correspond to the YouTube quirks. I also have the dreaded ATI 128 MB video card headaches.

When I really need to get stuff done, I run Puppy Linux off of a flash drive. It can accomplish about 80% of what I need a computer to do on a regular basis.

Maybe go with Xubuntu 8.10. You won't have as many ATI issues. I would wait until they resolve them to upgrade to 9.04.

The only thing I want to try is to install Xubuntu 9.04 on my wife's laptop (with the ATI) and install ENVYNG to see if I can use the ATI driver, if there is one. That might help. Not sure!

Have you check out envyNG?

In the terminal:

sudo apt-get install envyng-qt

Hope that helps!

[rennD]

Originally Posted by Tenor CS

Been having problems with my Ubuntu install on my laptop lately. Youtube videos are temperamental and sometimes the audio stutters. Have 2 gb of RAM on the way. Currently running on 512. Anybody have ideas for tweaks? Or should the additional RAM help?

Are you on wireless?

[Tenor CS]

Originally Posted by rennD

Are you on wireless?

Yes, I am.

[rennD]

Originally Posted by Tenor CS

Yes, I am.

Have you tried streaming while you are hard wired instead of wireless?

512 is pretty small for real time aps. I used to get by with that much but that was 4 or 5 years ago. It's just for fast buffering. You should see how much of it you are using with "free" or "top" or some graphical command.

[WyGuy]

Might give Xubuntu a try on my OLD desktop. Probably need to upgrade the RAM though, I believe it only has 256MB.

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by WyGuy

Might give Xubuntu a try on my OLD desktop. Probably need to upgrade the RAM though, I believe it only has 256MB.

You should be good with 256MB!

Minimum requirements for Xubuntu from official website:

"You need 192 MB RAM to run the Live CD or 128 MB RAM to install. The Alternate Install CD only requires you to have 64 MB RAM at install time. To install Xubuntu, you need 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk. Once installed, Xubuntu can run with starting from 192 (or even just 128) MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to have at least 256 MB RAM."