[kailinin]

ok, been using linux for a while now, started with mandrake 9.0 - gave me grief detecting and using some hardware,
changed to 9.1 was ok while i was learning, but as soon as i tried to do anything interesting it decided to rebel on me,
out of frustration i upgraded to 9.2 - worst thing i could have done.
in between all of this i've played with red had 7.3 also was a pain.
now i want a new distro that works reasonably well,
anyone with suggestions i'm all ears.

[danleff]

Depends on what hardware that you have and what you want to do that is "interesting."

How bout posting the hardware that you are having issues with and your basic system components.

You might want to try a CD based distro, like Knoppix or Mepis and see how they react to your hardware. Both can be installed, if you choose, to the hard drive.

If you have a newer system with a reasonable amount of ram, like at least 128 mb, then try RedHat 9 or Fedora. Forget RedHat 7.3, unless you have an older system, it is too old and the newer versions are much more hardware friendly.

If you want to compile apps. from source, and this is the issue, then make sure that you choose to install the development tools during the distro install.

Of course, then there is SUSE, which has Yast and has an easy apps. installation process.

[kailinin]

ok
my hardware specs : AMD Athlon XP 2500+, 1gb RAM, Epox Nforce2 Motherboard, 120Gb HDD space, On board GEforce4 128mb Graphics, LG DVD Rom, LG DVD Writer.

ok first all the mandrake versions gave trouble with me trying to run Java SDK 1.4.2 as well as trying to compile Java files (i do alot of Java work), also didnt like me compiling programs from source but on the other hand not all rpm's worked. also wouldnt recognize my writer as a writer, no matter what i tried.

red hat gave problems with my rom and writer, and my screen card.

i want a distro that has programs that work properlyand wont have a problem with java.

i currently have a dual boot with xp.

[Dapper Dan]

kailinin, I found this. It sounds like SuSe 9 Professional might be worth checking out.

[danleff]

OK, I see one issue, the nForce motherboard. The older distros just won't work with it out of the box.

The other issue is the LG writer, it has issues with Mandrake 9.2 that can trash the cdrw.

Look at SUSE Pro, as Dapper Dan mentioned and Fedora as alternatives.

On the nForce board, do you know if you have a sata drive and if it is enabled in the bios?

If not sata, good. This will be less of a hassle.

I have Mandrake 10 and Fedora running on my nForce board, no problems. But, my hard drives are not sata.

Also, look at your writer in Windows, Fedora, orSUSE and see if it can read cd's.

[kailinin]

thanks to danleff and dapper dan for your help and input.

i think ill go find suse 9 pro, ill try fedora too any suggestions on what version? or should i go for the latest fedora?

my drives are all ide.

how is mandrake 10?

[kailinin]

ok i'm probably being really stupid but i cant seem to find a working download link 4 suse 9 pro.

anyone know of one that works?

[Maillion]

Quote:

ok i'm probably being really stupid but i cant seem to find a working download link 4 suse 9 pro.

anyone know of one that works?

Not for the Pro version. It is commercial only. You can download 9.0, but it does not have all that is in the Pro version. 8)

[danleff]

If you want to order the CD's, I just did following a link from distrowatch. Cost me $17.50 with shipping.

http://www.linuxcd.org/view_distro.php?&typed=1&id_distro=46

[Maillion]

Quote:

If you want to order the CD's, I just did following a link from distrowatch. Cost me $17.50 with shipping.

http://www.linuxcd.org/view_distro.php?&typed=1&id_distro=46

That's a real good price for the Pro version! There's your best solution sofar, kailinin! 8)

[matttah]

uh in regards to the fedora...just download it off redhat.com then just do update...i havn't had any probs with the newer version, but wasn't too picky in my linux, and never tried other distros.
Daum

[kailinin]

thanks for the link, but i'm gonna have to keep looking cause they dont ship to south africa

downloaded fedora, looks ok but i think i would prefer suse

[Dapper Dan]

From what I understand, SuSe 9 Pro comes with a choice for installing java at install. I never have understood why the other distros don't offer java runtime, plugins, flash and all the other eye candy for choices at installation time. I know a lot of folks don't like or use it, but it sure would come in handy to have it as a choice. Do the distros have to work out licensing arrangements with them or something? If so, that shouldn't be such a problem since you can download all of it free. As a noob, I almost never figured out how to get flash and java installed.

[matttah]

I got all of java working. At first, I am not sure what i was doing wrong but somehow i managed to bug the installed so it only installed net beans and not the java part of it=p....i only got it installed when i went back to read an file it said to run at the end, but that time it installed it all...but i've redone my system 2 times now and got it installed without error now easily...both are bin files so it is relatively easy for install...then use fedoranews.org's tutorial by thomas chung to install the plug in, it takes about 5 seconds. I do agree with ya dapper, they should just have it as a package at installed.
Daum