I have been busy this past week or two looking at all of the different distributions. I must say I am very impressed. The most amazing is the Live CD. For those that do not know it is an entire OS that is on one CD and loads and configures in RAM. So you can get to look at linux safely behind your Window world.

After trying the top 6 distributions I settled on a fast rising number 2 in the list called SimplyMepis... I like the Window environent of KDE. It is not a copy of Windows but it does have a nice comfortable feel.

This automatic installation does allow you to keep your existing Windows should you decide to install it to the hard drive. I now have 98se on one partition, XP on another and Mepis on another. And yes, all on a Lapptop.

The one thing I did have trouble with, and almost everyone has trouble with from what I read... was getting my Winmodem to work in Linux. On a desktop I would have popped in a new non-win modem. On my laptop the Winmodem was built in. Yes, I could have popped in a pcmcia modem but it was more a matter of pride that I kept at it... I did get it to work... to the amazement of some old time linux users. I did drop in an older slower ppcmcia card while I was testing the different disributions. I did not have the strength to get the winmodem working in each distribution that I tried and it would not have been fair to try a distribution without letting it connect to the internet and get the latest updates.Which brings me to my last point. Linux is wonderful in letting you install and update over the internet. In closing, if you must use a dialup modem and you want to use windows it would be in your best interest to get a good NON-winmodem. I have been asked to do a writeup on how I got my Dell non-winmodem to work in linux. The instructions are already three pages long and involve downloading and working with the source code for the kernel. Not for the faint of heart.

Aside from trying to configure hardware that was designed only for windows you will LOVE the new linux...
FYI, sell your Microsoft stock... Linux is comming and comming fast.

If you're thinking about swapping from a bloated piece of crap, why swap to another bloated piece of crap?

For One.. It is FREE... It dosent Report back to Microsoft and check serial numbers... Report what all is installed... Dosent shut down if you havent paid the EXTORTION money Microsoft demands

For Two it is Open Source so if you want to inspect it, change it improve it.. You Can...

For Three... You cant have a Graphic User Interface without a TON of code...
(KDE, Gnome.. are still a fraction the size of Microsoft Crap)

Big Four... It does NOT have all of the security issues that are the PLAGUE of Microsoft users...

Five... No Blue Screen Of Death...

The list is ENDLESS...

i have to agree mr. thong, lol. I love KDE. It has the best feeling, its built in to the new Knoppix 3.7 live distro too, i recommend it, I tested it on 8 computer's. All old and new.. old being 7-8 years.. new being 1-2 years. Works great on them all. Also there was no set up on any of the networks needed. Just i cant promise wireless accessablility.

I guess I'm of the old skool... I hate 'snazzy' front ends... I run blackbox, and start everything from a shell window. *shrugs* To each his own... but ask most *nix techs and they'll say GNOME > KDE

I personally enjoy the IonWM. It's SUPER minimalistic. Because of the way it works, it's like you're working in pure command-line, but you still have access to GUI things like graphical web browsers when you need them. It's great because you can split the screen into frames, and run all sorts of windows.

I haven't tried it yet on my new setup, though. I've got three monitors, (2x19", 1x17" running at 1600x1200 and 1280x1024, respectively). I can't wait to see how many freaking xterms I can stuff on those screens!

I like the sound of that... I'll grab it when I have a little free time.

Speaking of multi-screen setups; until last week, I didn't realise that windows xp home doesn't support it... I suppose I should have guessed - what with it being micro$haft and all. Oh well. More power to them for actually getting people to pay for the priviledge of beta-testing their junk I guess.

TI,


I knew you'd love MEPIS when I suggested it. I'm glad you stuck with it. It truly is the best distribution available right now for desktop Linux. I knew you'd really like the LIVECD function it has as well which allows the 'try out' of it. Glad to hear that SimplyMEPIS fit the bill for you.

For eveyrone else: If you haven't tried MEPIS...get with it It is the best distro I've found in 10 years of searching.

It might be free, but it still doesn't hurt to pay for the distro you really really like, or to send them money..... they need help too.

Yes you can. You can have a wm with out a ton of code. Look at flux/black/openbox or xfce or icewm or any of the others.

Its when you add the desktop environment (kde/gnome) that you get the bloat.

QT/gtk are not anywhere near being perfect or light and to run the majority of the gui apps out there you need one or the other installed.

It does have security issues. The only way to have a box with out security issues is once its installed, disconnect the modem, the nic, the mouse and the keyboard from it and leave it alone in a locked room. With the lights off.

truth is, an out of the box linux install is just as "vunerable" as a stock windows install.

It all depends on whether or not you shut of unneeded services, run the latest kernel (yes, thats a huge factor) and don't run any programs such as apache or php on your desktop machine.

Security is in the eye of the beholder.

Gnome is the unpopular option, but i would have to say best kde is just ugly bloat