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RE: [LUG] Which Distribution?



I would also suggest Mandrake.  I've just upgraded to 10, and it was pretty
much plain sailing.  However if you have an older PC you may fair better
with a more lightweight distro. Having said that, 10 is lighter and faster
than 9.1 or 9.2.  A friend recently installed it on a PII 450 /w 256Mb and
has what he terms "acceptable performance" out of it.

Basically I would suggest putting the first CD in, let Mandrake do what it
wants for partitions and accept the defaults for the install options.  In
time you will learn (as I did) what packages you do and don't need, but when
if you accept the defaults (needs a couple of Gb) you won't go far wrong.
Then as David said follow the prompts and it should "Do what it says on the
tin".

Basically it's all down to disk swapping from there unless you have the MDK
10 DVD from the last Linux Format.  Mandrake 10 is also pretty good at
picking up your hardware, so unless you have something very outlandish in
the box you ought to fair OK and get it to detect without much difficulty :)

Specific points:

1.  I have exactly the same sound card. MDK 10 saw it and lobbed in the
right modules painlessly.
2.  Multimedia card readers or other kit, especially USB based *may* be an
issue.
3.  If you want full 3D capability from your GFX card you *may* need to find
the right modules.  For Nvidia download the driver set off their website.
For Radeon, good luck!

The main question is how old is the kit in the box?  My newest acquisition
is an Nvidia Geforce FX 5600 which again the system spotted straight away.
Unless you have anything brand new released in the last couple of months I'd
say you ought to be OK.


Kind regards,

Julian


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf
Of David Johnson
Sent: 05 June 2004 14:03
To: list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [LUG] Which Distribution?


On Saturday 05 Jun 2004 13:40, Solfius wrote:

I've had a browse on the net and it seems the "best" distro for new users
is either Mandrake or Red Hat. I've looked at Red Hat but don't fancy a
now
unsupported version, so I was wondering what Fedora is like for a new
user.
What would you recomend for a distro?

Personally I'd recommend Mandrake. Fedora has always seemed a little too
unstable for my liking.


I'm assuming I'll have to find a new set of drivers for my sound card, or
worst case the card is incompatible with Linux (it's a Sound Blaster Live!
Player 5.1 on the offchance someone has any idea what will happen to it)
is
there anywhere in particular that is a good place to start looking for
Linux drivers? I'll check the manufacturer site when I get round to
looking
at the sound card, but I was wondering if there was anywhere else other
than Google.

You almost certainly won't have to download or install any drivers at all.
Unless you've got some uncommon hardware, everything will be included in the
distribution and will be installed automatically. Your SB Live 5.1 will be
included in this and will work perfectly - I've got one myself.


So basically what I'm about to try and do is exterminate all remnents of
Windows 98 and install Linux, is there anything I should look out for that
could render the machine kaputt?


Nope. Bung the disc in, follow the instructions and you should be
up-and-running (probably) within half an hour.

Have fun!

David.

--
David Johnson
http://www.david-web.co.uk/

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