[Cialug] New members looking for test laptop

[David Champion]

According to distrowatch.com (a good resource for looking at different
Linux and BSD distros), the top 10 page hits are:

RankDistributionH.P.D*1Mint <http://distrowatch.com/mint>3581[image: <]2
Debian <http://distrowatch.com/debian>1894[image:
>]3Ubuntu<http://distrowatch.com/ubuntu>
1890[image: >]4Mageia <http://distrowatch.com/mageia>1524[image:
>]5Fedora<http://distrowatch.com/fedora>
1391[image: >]6openSUSE <http://distrowatch.com/suse>1332[image: >]7
PCLinuxOS <http://distrowatch.com/pclinuxos>1101[image:
<]8Manjaro<http://distrowatch.com/manjaro>
1022[image: >]9Arch <http://distrowatch.com/arch>946[image:
>]10Puppy<http://distrowatch.com/puppy>
879[image: >]
I use a variety of CentOS, Mageia, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu for various
purposes.

As I mentioned before, Mageia has a good mix of new features but still runs
good on older hardware, like something without a PAE kernel like a Pentium
Mobile, as you can see it does have quite a bit of popularity.

Ubuntu will run OK on semi-old hardware if you don't use the Unity desktop,
try something like KDE or XFCE, but the default install requires PAE
support.

-dc


On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 4:53 PM, Matt Stanton <matt at itwannabe.com> wrote:

> Mr. Denner recently gave a presentation at a LUG meeting on the
> differences in the philosophy and setup of several of the most popular
> Linux distributions.  You may be able to search the LUG mailing list
> archive for an email with a link to his pdf/powerpoint(style) presentation.
>
> Some basic comparisons:
> -----------------------
> Debian - Focuses on providing absolutely free (Libre) software packages.
>
> Ubuntu - Based on Debian, but focuses on a user-friendly interface.
>
> Mint - Based on Ubuntu, focuses on an even more user-friendly interface
> and includes commonly-installed license-restricted software packages by
> default (i.e. MP3 decoders/encoders and similar non-free licensed codecs
> that are popularly installed on Debian or Ubuntu after the normal install).
> Fedora - a Redhat-based distribution that uses cutting-edge versions of
> software packages.  serves basically as a testbed for packages that are
> going to be released for RHEL once deemed stable by Redhat.
>
> RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) - a Redhat distribution aimed at enterprise
> customers
>
> Centos - A distribution based on Redhat... not sure if it is based on
> RHEL, but it is aimed at the same market
>
> Arch - certainly not for the beginner! aimed at the Linux expert who wants
> a distribution that has a powerful package manager, but doesn't include a
> lot of intrusive configuration customizations.  all packages must be
> personally configured after installation, giving the admin the ability to
> set the install up exactly as he/she wishes.  packages can also be easily
> compiled from source, though Arch is aimed only at machines that use i686
> or x86_64 hardware (I believe this consists of Pentium 4 chips or later)
>
> Gentoo - Also not for beginners.  Every package that is installed is
> compiled from source code on the target machine.  If you want to get an
> extra 1% performance out of your software by compiling everything you
> install for a week straight, this is the distro for you.  (search Google
> for "Gentoo is for ricers"... an extremely entertaining read) ;)
>
> There are hundreds of other distros, but these are the top selections that
> I can think of off the top of my head.
>
> -- Matt (N0BOX)
>
>
> On Fri, 24 Jan 2014 13:51:44 -0600, wdmtrader wrote:
>
>> My son and I are new to the group so please gently correct me if this
>> request is inappropriate.  We are looking for a cheap laptop to experiment
>> with various Linux distros.  We would like to experiment with Ubuntu,
>> Fedora, and others.  Can you please recommend where we may find something
>> under $200 (free is even better)?  What specs should we be looking for
>> (RAM, CPU, DVD, DVI/HDMI out, etc.)?
>>
>> On a related note, is there a good resource that compares/contrast various
>> distros?  What are the trade offs for choosing Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, etc.?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Scott Burklund
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cialug mailing list
>> Cialug at cialug.org
>> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>>
>
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