Just a bit more on the topic of Mepis passwords: I ordered the CDs from Mepis headquarters, both last year to receive SimplyMepis 2004, and this year to receive SimplyMepis 3.3. In both instances, they arrived in less than a week, accompanied by a nice sheet of instructions which CLEARLY stated the passwords, no mystery whatsoever.

ok, what about for a newbie like myself?

i have a 3 year old gateway laptop.
i want to use KDE.

i really only the use the computer for basic websurfing, email, newsgroups, word processor stuff, watching DVD's and listening to music.

any reccomendations for a distro? i would also prefer one with a bare minimum of applications. i'd like to pick between different offices programs and media players and what not instead of having a bunch of software i'll never need or use, and that will also give me practice for playing around with linux.

-jeff

MEPIS should be right for you.


Ubuntu requires a lot of manually installing the stuff, which can be boring at times, but yeah, it is truly helpful in understanding a bit of Linux.

My personal (not work-related) laptop is a three year old Compaq, and I use Slackware to do everything you listed above. I use KDE, Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org, Xine for DVDs and xmms for music. It's very customizable, very slick and as far as I'm concerned, easy to use.

That said, I'm using Ubuntu on my nearly-new Gateway laptop with 98% success. The only thing I've not got licked is drivers for my ATI Radeon X600 Mobility video rig, but it works reasonably well at 1024x786 while I'm figuring it out. Otherwise, everything worked out of the box, including integrated wireless.

So, YMMV, but for older hardware and basic apps, I wholeheartedly recommend Slackware. For the newer stuff, Ubuntu's got my vote.

Yeah.....Slackware rocks, but can be sometimes a pain for the Newbie. Slackware requires patience, and a thirst for learning.

If you don't have that, better use MEPIS or Ubuntu.

I would agree with you; after trying lots of distros - Ubuntu simply has the right focus: stability, security, ease of setup (the basics anyhow), a broad level of support and lots of apps.

bl

slackware is simple, stable and fun for people who is learning how to make things work. However, it is just wrong for some i18n users.

Ubuntu, in exchange, I feel like I won't get flamed installing it on other people's PC.

Frugalware is great for users who want a Slackware-like distro for desktop use with the "Just Works" defaults. Also, Slackware's i18n problems are something that Frugalware tries to fix.

This is not to say that Ubuntu & Mepis wouldn't be great, too.

I tried to install Mepis and it told me it couldn't work with my CD rom drive so I went with Ubuntu and it's by far the easiest to use I've come across.

I mean everything seems thought out and the guys have done a great job with it. I had tried Novell Desktop Linux, Suse, Mepis and Mandrake but all had issues. Ubuntu was the only one that worked out of the box with my Laptop Hardware(even configured my wireless connection for me), it's the god of Desktop Linux distro's in my opinion.

Ok I finally broke down and installed Ubuntu on my laptop, took forever to install. Then I installed the Unofficial Add-on cd which installed tons of things including Real Player, Flash and Java all very simple to install.

Everything worked right from the start including the ATI video card with X.org. Don't really care for Gnome so I installed XFCE and it looks and runs great. I must say I am impressed. The one thing I did notice is that the repositories; even with multiverse and universe added, do not seem to have quite as many packages as my Debian Sid desktop does.

The laptop is an older Dell C600 with only 256mb ram but running XFCE it runs great. Hopefully they can keep up the good work.

I tried to install MEPIS but it kept stalling during the install for some reason.

Debian is my number 1 distro of choice, followed by Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS, Kanotix, Knoppix, Slackware.

I recommend the Add-on cd for anyone it is a very simple way to install things like java, flash, skype, and tons of other apps.

You know, when I was first trying Mepis a couple of months ago, there wasn't even a user's guide. I too had the password problem, and it took me 15 minutes of Googling to find the passwords, but when I first tried to test the distro live, the hardware detection was crappy with my Win box, and I ended up with nothing but a command line. I tried it on my Lin box later when it was up and running, and it worked well, so I installed it and used it for a bit. I later replaced it with SuSE and Ubuntu, just because they were more polished. Ubuntu worked on both my machines beautifully, so that's one of the reasons why I stuck with the distro

The fact is, Ubuntu is what a lot of people were waiting for: Debian Linux Workstation.

Debian was always a great server, and APT rules, but until Ubuntu there was no decent, free desktop distro based on it...Xandros, Linspire, etc. were all pay2play. Except Knoppix and Mepis, but they were designed primarily as LiveCDs. And they use KDE....workstations use GNOME..I just think it looks more "worky."

So basically, Ubuntu became a GNOME workstation version of Debian. ow people who wanted to use Debian in the desktop didn't have to pick through Sarge, chance Sid, and deal with potential breakage during every upgrade. Ubuntu starts you off with the basic, critical stuff, and gives you an easy-to-use utility to get anything else you might need.

It makes the power of Linux simple enough for the masses. Power 2 the People, man!

Incidentally, I also messed with Fedora 4 and SUSE 9.3....Fedora was the better one for desktop use, but it's still a bit bloated, and many pieces are still broken (Even though YUM/Yumex are almost as good as APT/Synaptic, and typing "yum install synaptic" gives you APT/Synaptic anyway). SUSE 9.3 is a bit pitiful...it's not the most stable thing in the world. It's a shame, because Novell Open Enterprise Server has got RHEL beat to a pulp...YAST and iManager are SUCH good remote-admin tools.

And, as I mentioned before, Debian is a bit much for an ordinary workstation install.

I will admit straight off, i'm a n00b at linux. 6 years ago i tried out mandrake, but i was young and didn't have the patience to learn it. Now that i am older and tired of windows doing everything for me and me wanting to learn more, and have the patience to learn, i have be picked up on Ubuntu. I have asked many questions from others about which distro to go with for a complete linux n00b. Many have told me to go with Ubuntu, so that is what i have done. I have only had it running for 4 days, and I am learning quickly. One day, i may leave Ubuntu, and go onto something better for what I want to do. Like many have said already, just depends on what you want to do. But, we all have to start somewhere! Some don't want to go into something so foreign and get lost, that they quit. As for me, if someone asks me what distro to start out with, i would recommend Ubuntu!! Some ppl need to start off slower then others, and some learn faster then others...Either way...ppl need to find out what is best and works best for their needs.

Everyone has been a n00b at one point or another.

Maybe he thinks everyone but himself is either a scriptkiddie or he is very very lonely. Seriously though, he probably works for the SCO legal team and want to turn everyone away.

*cough* Dead thread *cough*