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Re: [LUG] What should I go for?

 

jody salt wrote:
> Yes I'm using a flat screen!
>  
> I have load of memory (ram) nearly 768mb -  so it's not a memory issue.
>  
> So I'm going back to old faithfull - Fedora.
>  
> I'm just starting the download now.
Good luck!

I was all set to go back to my old friend linux after 4 years of using 
xp almost exclusively.  I have a dual boot with SuSe8.0 at the moment 
but with the Novell/MSoft deal and all that I wanted to switch to 
another distro preferably one Debian based because I prefer deb package 
management.  I was impressed with all the blurb I'd seen about Ubuntu 
and how user friendly it was.  Well!  If everything goes right, I guess 
it might be.

I've a laptop: problem 1.
It's an IBM thinkpad a31p so quite old: problem 2.
My screen died ages ago and I've got an LCD monitor replacement: problem 3.
I've lost the documentation and it's an obscure brand of monitor: problem 4.
I tried 7.04 live cd and it could just recognise my monitor but at the 
wrong refresh rate.  However, I could fix it. So, I thought, I'll use 
the live cd for a while, fix the problems using persistence and then 
install from live cd.  Wrong!
Persistence doesn't work with 7.04 so that's problem 5. 
(Seems self-defeating to decide to release every 6 months if it then 
means you have to make releases with basic functionality broken.)
But tried installing from v7 live cd and using existing partitions.  
Installation just hangs on detecting existing O/S which I don't want to 
use for import anyway.  All partitions set up and formatted correctly, 
all that needs to happen is an installation onto / partition.  But no. 
Problem 6.
Tried installing on my other machine (also a laptop, in fact a 
notebook).  Installation hangs here too.  Also network card works very 
intermittently.  Problem 7, several hours' work and no closer to linux 
on either machine.

Conclusion: Ubuntu is not for me and my setup.  Faith in story that 
linux is suitable for non-expert desktop use severely dented.

So I will be interested to see how you get on with Fedora.  And if 
anyone can suggest a more suitable distro of course I'd be delighted...

does anyone know if there will be any LUG meetings in the foreseeable 
future?

Matthew.

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