Admittedly mildly off-topic

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6534
Credit: 284730859
RAC: 105773
Topic 193734

I need to find and then install a version of Linux on a bare machine. This is to do a learning assignment ( on operating systems ), but also to gain a platform for other testing ( eg. E@H screensavers ) and of course to plonk BOINC on as another E@H host. I once briefly put on a Red Hat about five years ago, but am otherwise a Windows Man!

So I don't want anything 'mission critical', 'enterprise quality', 'virtualised', 'realtime', fancy pants or ultra expensive. 'Linux for a Dummy' would be ideal - download, install, have a cup of coffee while I wait, and then away I go.

Any suggestions for which simple, stable, fail-safe, no frills, bland Intel distro to get? :-)

[ I've been given a Knoppix CD, but for whatever reason - that I don't have the time to tease out - it's just not happening ... ]

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Erik
Erik
Joined: 14 Feb 06
Posts: 2815
Credit: 2645600
RAC: 0

Admittedly mildly off-topic

I'd suggest OpenSUSE as I have found it to be really good at recognizing computer hardware from the git-go. Or Debian "Etch"... plain jane, but fairly fail safe.

Whatever you settle on, you may care to install the KDE (K Desktop Enviroment) interface as it somewhat resembles Windows. (Gnome would be similar to Mac)

-edit- btw, both are free
-edit part deux- some distros have a live disk available, so you can try it out without changing or committing to your computer's HDD. Kind of like taking a new car out for a test drive. :)

tullio
tullio
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 2118
Credit: 61407735
RAC: 0

I am running Einstein, SETI,

I am running Einstein, SETI, QMC, climateprediction.net, CPDN Beta and LHC on SuSE 10.3 32 bit. You can try SuSE 11.0 on a live CD if you wish.
Tullio

KSMarksPsych
KSMarksPsych
Moderator
Joined: 15 Oct 05
Posts: 2702
Credit: 4090227
RAC: 0

Personally, I like Fedora

Personally, I like Fedora (which is also Red Hat based). Use KDE as your Desktop Environment, it looks more like Windows. Gnome reminds me of Macs, which I was less familiar with. Fedora 7 (pretty old now) just worked on my laptop. Worked better than Ubuntu at that point in time. I installed Kubuntu 8.04 on a separate partition a few weeks ago, and it worked a lot better than at first. I still like Fedora better.

Kathryn :o)

Einstein@Home Moderator

RandyC
RandyC
Joined: 18 Jan 05
Posts: 6006
Credit: 111139797
RAC: 0

RE: Personally, I like

Message 82513 in response to message 82512

Quote:
Personally, I like Fedora (which is also Red Hat based). Use KDE as your Desktop Environment, it looks more like Windows. Gnome reminds me of Macs, which I was less familiar with. Fedora 7 (pretty old now) just worked on my laptop. Worked better than Ubuntu at that point in time. I installed Kubuntu 8.04 on a separate partition a few weeks ago, and it worked a lot better than at first. I still like Fedora better.

Currently using Ubuntu 8.04 (both 32 and 64 bit versions; different machines). I started with 7.10 and was reasonably pleased with it, but couldn't get E@H to run without crashing on it. Also had video driver problems. Went back to XP Pro.

I tried the Kubuntu 8.04 before going to Ubuntu 8.04. Since I had previously become familiar with the Ubuntu interface, Kubuntu kind of threw me off. I'm more of a command-line person anyway as I was pretty deep into DOS stuff.

The Ubuntu 7.10 Live-CD was decent...I didn't bother with the 8.04 Live-CDs for Ubuntu or Kubuntu.

Seti Classic Final Total: 11446 WU.

Donald A. Tevault
Donald A. Tevault
Joined: 17 Feb 06
Posts: 439
Credit: 73516529
RAC: 0

RE: I need to find and then

Quote:

I need to find and then install a version of Linux on a bare machine. This is to do a learning assignment ( on operating systems ), but also to gain a platform for other testing ( eg. E@H screensavers ) and of course to plonk BOINC on as another E@H host. I once briefly put on a Red Hat about five years ago, but am otherwise a Windows Man!

So I don't want anything 'mission critical', 'enterprise quality', 'virtualised', 'realtime', fancy pants or ultra expensive. 'Linux for a Dummy' would be ideal - download, install, have a cup of coffee while I wait, and then away I go.

Any suggestions for which simple, stable, fail-safe, no frills, bland Intel distro to get? :-)

[ I've been given a Knoppix CD, but for whatever reason - that I don't have the time to tease out - it's just not happening ... ]

Cheers, Mike.

This is the most common question from Linux newbies, and you'll get as many answers as there are Linux users. A lot depends on what you want to do with Linux, and on personal preference. It also depends some on your hardware, as hardware support still isn't uniform from one distro to the next. The best that I can tell you is to try out different distros, and see which one you like best. (Several distros offer live CD's or DVD's, which makes that job easier.)

If you go to a Linux forum that's not well-moderated, you'll see that this question comes up quite often, and that it always provokes a Holy War. Some of the more intelligent comments go along the lines of, "You like that distro? You're an idiot! Everyone should use my distro, because it's the best".

Anyway, Distrowatch is a good place to start learning about the different distros. I'm a certified Linux instructor, so feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Zxian
Zxian
Joined: 23 Oct 06
Posts: 40
Credit: 5121474
RAC: 0

Donald - I can see where

Donald - I can see where you're going with that, but I think your explanation is one of the main problems with the linux community right now. There are too many choices!

My suggestion would be to try one or two distros from the larger "families". To clarify - My workstation is a Fedora9 machine, but I also administer a cluster of CentOS5 systems. Both are based from Red Hat or RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), so the basics of system maintenance, logfile locations, installation methods, etc etc - they're more or less the same. A similar "family" is the Debian family, which Ubuntu/Kubuntu is based upon.

Of course, I'm a bit biased, and would recommend Fedora9, but I had no problems whatsoever getting it to work with my hardware (Q6700, P5B Deluxe motherboard, nVidia 7900GS). Just make sure to run a 'yum update' as soon as the system is installed.

If you want to get E@H running on that system, just follow the instructions from my blog post.

Donald A. Tevault
Donald A. Tevault
Joined: 17 Feb 06
Posts: 439
Credit: 73516529
RAC: 0

RE: Donald - I can see

Message 82516 in response to message 82515

Quote:

Donald - I can see where you're going with that, but I think your explanation is one of the main problems with the linux community right now. There are too many choices!

I hear what you're saying. But. . .

Since everybody and his brother is going to give him conflicting advice anyway, I'm just providing a tool that he can use to help him decide for himself.

tullio
tullio
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 2118
Credit: 61407735
RAC: 0

I have a 64 bit CPU (Opteron

I have a 64 bit CPU (Opteron 1210) but I am running a 32 bit SuSE Linux,release 10.3, on it because most of the BOINC applications are 32 bit only, especially climateprediction.net and CPDN Beta. I have downloaded a SuSE 64 bit Linux, release 11.0, and shall try its live CD, with KDE 4.0, to see which BOINC applications are compatible with it.
Tullio

KSMarksPsych
KSMarksPsych
Moderator
Joined: 15 Oct 05
Posts: 2702
Credit: 4090227
RAC: 0

RE: I have a 64 bit CPU

Message 82518 in response to message 82517

Quote:
I have a 64 bit CPU (Opteron 1210) but I am running a 32 bit SuSE Linux,release 10.3, on it because most of the BOINC applications are 32 bit only, especially climateprediction.net and CPDN Beta. I have downloaded a SuSE 64 bit Linux, release 11.0, and shall try its live CD, with KDE 4.0, to see which BOINC applications are compatible with it.
Tullio

Tullio,

Any project with a reasonably current server will send a 32 bit app to a 64 bit host if the 64 bit app doesn't exist. The only thing you need to watch out for is that your distro installs the 32 bit compatibility libs. Fedora did most of them out of the box. I had to install a few to get the 32 bit QMC app to run, but that was the exception, not the rule.

KDE 4 is kinda neat. I used the Kubuntu 8.04 CD with the new KDE on it, but didn't play around with it extensively. I'm definitely a RedHat girl at heart.

:-)

Now if I could get my install of Fedora 8 to behave, I'd be really happy. But that's a rant for another time and place.

Kathryn :o)

Einstein@Home Moderator

tullio
tullio
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 2118
Credit: 61407735
RAC: 0

RE: Tullio, Any project

Message 82519 in response to message 82518

Quote:


Tullio,

Any project with a reasonably current server will send a 32 bit app to a 64 bit host if the 64 bit app doesn't exist. The only thing you need to watch out for is that your distro installs the 32 bit compatibility libs. Fedora did most of them out of the box. I had to install a few to get the 32 bit QMC app to run, but that was the exception, not the rule.

KDE 4 is kinda neat. I used the Kubuntu 8.04 CD with the new KDE on it, but didn't play around with it extensively. I'm definitely a RedHat girl at heart.

:-)

Now if I could get my install of Fedora 8 to behave, I'd be really happy. But that's a rant for another time and place.


Thanks Kathryn. Now, to continue on the mildly off topic thread, all my total credits have disappeared from all my applications, but not the RAC. Why?
Tullio

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.