Linux Preferences

[Error 404]

[*]What distro(s) do you use??

Began with Ubuntu, moved on to Xubuntu on powerful comps and Puppy for low end comps / USB install. I've found Puppy is much better than DSL for usability and setup.

[*]Rolling or Fixed release??

Fixed, I don't update that much as well.

[*]Do you use a Graphical Login or command line (run level 3 or 5)??

Graphical, I'm still new to Linux so command line confuses me.

[*]What Desktop Environment and or Window Manager do you use?? (ex. Gnome, KDE, Xfce, etc...)

Xfce is what I usually use, still packs plenty of features with a small footprint.

[*]What Web Browser(s) do you use??

Opera, can't stand failfox (too much like IE, cbf finding/configuring addons).

[*]Do you run multiple Desktops?? If so how many?? (ex. 4 is the normal default)

I usually have just 2, but coming from windows I almost never use the second.

[*]What editor do you prefer?? (ex. GEdit, Emacs, Vi/Vim, Mousepad, etc...)

Whatever text editor comes with the distro!

[*]What if any servers (services) do you run?? (ex. Samba, Apache, Telnet, etc..)

Never got into servers, so I haven't a clue.

[*]Do you prefer the Command Line or GUI for most tasks??

GUI definitely, I don't have the time to learn all the commands and shortcuts to make CLI more efficient than GUI.

[*]If you use a shell(s), which is/are your favorite(s)?? (ex. Bash, ksh, tclsh, zsh, etc...)

Uuuuuh.... what?

[*]Do you use cron/crontab??

Nope, haven't heard of it.

Personally I don't use Linux that much, but I used to use it quite a bit when I had my P4 desktop and old Dell laptop (PIII 850 MHz), ended up getting sick of Ubuntu (XP and Windows 7 was faster) so I switched to something fast. I've had a lapse from Linux usage with my new laptop and desktop, but I'm probably going to dual boot on my laptop with something really fast for web browsing, listening to music and checking emails.
Any suggestions for what I could put on my laptop that wouldn't break my windows installation?

 

[unibrow1990]

What distro(s) do you use??

Kubuntu

Rolling or Fixed release??

Rolling

Do you use a Graphical Login or command line (run level 3 or 5)??

Graphical

What Desktop Environment and or Window Manager do you use?? (ex. Gnome, KDE, Xfce, etc...)

KDE

What Web Browser(s) do you use??

Chrome

Do you run multiple Desktops?? If so how many?? (ex. 4 is the normal default)

Yes, 6

What editor do you prefer?? (ex. GEdit, Emacs, Vi/Vim, Mousepad, etc...)

Kate

What if any servers (services) do you run?? (ex. Samba, Apache, Telnet, etc..)

MySql and mongrel when I play with rails.

Do you prefer the Command Line or GUI for most tasks??

I try to do as much as possible via command line.

If you use a shell(s), which is/are your favorite(s)?? (ex. Bash, ksh, tclsh, zsh, etc...)

bash

Do you use cron/crontab??

Rarely.

 

[regexorcist]

4 is my normal cause I like the Cube.

I ran the cube (compiz, compiz/fusion) for about a week, very slick.
(additional desktops give you different shapes)

Any suggestions for what I could put on my laptop that wouldn't break my windows installation?

850 MHz, there are about a dozen distros designed for older hardware, including puppy. My daughter is running TeenPup on her
1 GHz and it seems fast. Linux = variety, head on over to distrowatch.org and I'm sure you'll find a cool distro that suits you.

I try to do as much as possible via command line.

As do I

 

[Frick]

Personally I don't use Linux that much, but I used to use it quite a bit when I had my P4 desktop and old Dell laptop (PIII 850 MHz), ended up getting sick of Ubuntu (XP and Windows 7 was faster) so I switched to something fast. I've had a lapse from Linux usage with my new laptop and desktop, but I'm probably going to dual boot on my laptop with something really fast for web browsing, listening to music and checking emails.
Any suggestions for what I could put on my laptop that wouldn't break my windows installation?

What about Xubuntu? I ran 7.10 on a 900Mhz celly and 256MB Ram for quite some time, and it worked pretty good. Surfing is bound to be a bit slow with all the flash and whatnot, but it was alright.

 

[regexorcist]

I did a search on Distrowatch selecting
Old Computer as the Distribution Category
and here is the result:
http://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=Old+computers&origin=All&basedon=All&desktop=All&architecture=All&status=Active

There are some good names in there

 

[Zedicus]

1. What distro(s) do you use??
Debian on servers, Mepis on a laptop

2. Rolling or Fixed release??
prefer rolling, not a big deal to me really though.

3. Do you use a Graphical Login or command line (run level 3 or 5)??
xdm normally, also like slim for graphical. server is commandline. RL3

4. What Desktop Environment and or Window Manager do you use??
blackbox, E17, fluxbox. they are light and still look flashy.

5. What Web Browser(s) do you use??
iceweasel, wget (not really a browser),

6. Do you run multiple Desktops?? If so how many?? (ex. 4 is the normal default)
1 i come from windows and never got use to multiple desktops, just more places to loose track of what im doing.

7. What editor do you prefer?? (ex. GEdit, Emacs, Vi/Vim, Mousepad, etc...)
Nano, its the best. even in X i open a term and use nano.

8. What if any servers (services) do you run?? (ex. Samba, Apache, Telnet, etc..)
mysql, samba, ssh, upnp, prolly some im forgetting.

9. Do you prefer the Command Line or GUI for most tasks??
depends on the task, use both equally i think.

10. If you use a shell(s), which is/are your favorite(s)?? (ex. Bash, ksh, tclsh, zsh, etc...)
bash, and ash when i have to.

11. Do you use cron/crontab??
none

12. what terminal emulater (i added this one, it should be on there.)
xterm, occasionally eterm, and bogl-bterm

 

[regexorcist]

wget (not really a browser)

YES!!
I have at least a dozen shell scripts which use wget.
I find wget --spider especially useful

12. what terminal emulater (i added this one, it should be on there.)
xterm, occasionally eterm, and bogl-bterm

Great add , I use Eterm also (like the shading and backgrounds)

 

[Error 404]

850 MHz, there are about a dozen distros designed for older hardware, including puppy. My daughter is running TeenPup on her
1 GHz and it seems fast. Linux = variety, head on over to distrowatch.org and I'm sure you'll find a cool distro that suits you.

What about Xubuntu? I ran 7.10 on a 900Mhz celly and 256MB Ram for quite some time, and it worked pretty good. Surfing is bound to be a bit slow with all the flash and whatnot, but it was alright.

Haha, oops I was referring to my laptop in my System Specs. Dell Inspiron 1545, T4300 2.1 GHz dual core, 4 GB of RAM, 320GB HDD, 4500MHD, and I'm just looking for something that will boot up fast and do basic stuff. Xubuntu might work well in this case, but from my experience most distros based on Ubuntu are about as slow as Windows...

 

[regexorcist]

Haha, oops I was referring to my laptop in my System Specs. Dell Inspiron 1545, T4300 2.1 GHz dual core, 4 GB of RAM, 320GB HDD, 4500MHD, and I'm just looking for something that will boot up fast and do basic stuff. Xubuntu might work well in this case, but from my experience most distros based on Ubuntu are about as slow as Windows...

Hey Error 404, if your concerned about boot-up and shut-down times...
Fedora seems to have that down to a science.
I'd say that boot-up & shut-down are about 3 times as fast a windows.
They use Gnome by default so everythig should be familiar to you.

My daughter uses Fedora on her Acer laptop 1.8 GHz with flawless performance.
Fedora is a solid distro, no real negatives.
Easy to load/use
Good repository
Current software releases
Good package manager (.rpm is probably the most popular package format)

Not sure how your measuring distro speed, but if internet surfing is your issue...

I don't use Ubuntu (even though they have the best repository), but I did
have debian at one time (Ubuntu source) and found internet surfing to be slow,
until I adjusted about:config in firefox (opps I mean IceWeasel)
then surfing was much much faster.

edit:
to adjust about:config
1.) type about:config in the url area of a mozilla based browser
2.) then type ipv6 in the Filter area
3.) then select TRUE for Disable IPV6

This has a dramatic effect on internet surfing speed w/ only some distros

 

[xfire]

Haha, oops I was referring to my laptop in my System Specs. Dell Inspiron 1545, T4300 2.1 GHz dual core, 4 GB of RAM, 320GB HDD, 4500MHD, and I'm just looking for something that will boot up fast and do basic stuff. Xubuntu might work well in this case, but from my experience most distros based on Ubuntu are about as slow as Windows...

Have you tried the latest versions? The boot speeds have increased dramatically.

 

[Error 404]

Have you tried the latest versions? The boot speeds have increased dramatically.

I've tried 9.04, and it there was barely any difference between boot time of it and XP on both my laptop and the Dell P4 I had.

@ regexorcist, I'll give Fedora a go, but I'll be using Opera instead of anything based on failfox. I honestly can not stand that piece of software, and I don't know why.

 

[xfire]

I've tried 9.04, and it there was barely any difference between boot time of it and XP on both my laptop and the Dell P4 I had.

@ regexorcist, I'll give Fedora a go, but I'll be using Opera instead of anything based on failfox. I honestly can not stand that piece of software, and I don't know why.

Have you tried it on ext4 file system? ext4 gives a great amount of performance boost. Install and try 9.10 with ext4 file system. It formats to ext3 by default AFAIK.

 

[regexorcist]

Have you tried it on ext4 file system? ext4 gives a great amount of performance boost. Install and try 9.10 with ext4 file system. It formats to ext3 by default AFAIK.

I've used ext4 file system on a few different distros, but couldn't tell how much better it performed.
When I used it last, I had to use ext2 or 3 for my boot partition, because GRUB didn't support it yet (it probably does now, I haven't checked).
I'm using ext3 currently on my Arch system.

In case anyone is interested...
mkfs.ext4 (-any option) /dev/sda(your partition)

and fsck to check

 

[Melcar]

EXT4 tends to be unstable more times than EXT3. Lets just say that you better hope you never get hard crashes on your rig. If you want a stable filesystem EXT3 is still the best. EXT4 has been suffering constant regressions in speed in recent kernel revisions as they try to improve stability, to the point where it really offers no noticeable increases in speed over EXT3.

 

[HalfAHertz]

Hey Error 404, if your concerned about boot-up and shut-down times...
Fedora seems to have that down to a science.
I'd say that boot-up & shut-down are about 3 times as fast a windows.
They use Gnome by default so everythig should be familiar to you.

My daughter uses Fedora on her Acer laptop 1.8 GHz with flawless performance.
Fedora is a solid distro, no real negatives.
Easy to load/use
Good repository
Current software releases
Good package manager (.rpm is probably the most popular package format)

Not sure how your measuring distro speed, but if internet surfing is your issue...

I don't use Ubuntu (even though they have the best repository), but I did
have debian at one time (Ubuntu source) and found internet surfing to be slow,
until I adjusted about:config in firefox (opps I mean IceWeasel)
then surfing was much much faster.

edit:
to adjust about:config
1.) type about:config in the url area of a mozilla based browser
2.) then type ipv6 in the Filter area
3.) then select TRUE for Disable IPV6

This has a dramatic effect on internet surfing speed w/ only some distros

Thanks a lot! I run a Ubuntu 9.10 Guest system under my win and that gave my mozilla a noticeable boost.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

I ran the cube (compiz, compiz/fusion) for about a week, very slick.
(additional desktops give you different shapes)

Cube??? My is a sphere (cool plugin). Add in one hi res global map and my desktop is planet earth. And when I span out, they float in space thanks to my starring ski wallpaper used as the backdrop. And that is how I roll.

 

[monte84]

1. What distro(s) do you use??
Ubuntu 9.10/ Debian
2. Rolling or Fixed release??
rolling
3. Do you use a Graphical Login or command line (run level 3 or 5)??
GUI
4. What Desktop Environment and or Window Manager do you use?? (ex. Gnome, KDE, Xfce, etc...)
Gnome
5. What Web Browser(s) do you use??
Firefox
6. Do you run multiple Desktops?? If so how many?? (ex. 4 is the normal default)
4
7. What editor do you prefer?? (ex. GEdit, Emacs, Vi/Vim, Mousepad, etc...)
nano
8. What if any servers (services) do you run?? (ex. Samba, Apache, Telnet, etc..)
samba
9. Do you prefer the Command Line or GUI for most tasks??
CLI

 

[regexorcist]

Thanks a lot! I run a Ubuntu 9.10 Guest system under my win and that gave my mozilla a noticeable boost.

Yea, that confirms it. Disable IPV6 in Firefox/Ice Weasel on Debian/Ubuntu based systems if browsing is slow.

Cube??? My is a sphere (cool plugin). Add in one hi res global map and my desktop is planet earth. And when I span out, they float in space thanks to my starring ski wallpaper used as the backdrop. And that is how I roll.

Awesome!!

8. What if any servers (services) do you run?? (ex. Samba, Apache, Telnet, etc..)
samba

Yes my samba server is the central file server at my house with 2 and sometimes 3
other machines accessing it.
It's up 24/7 and always available.
Super easy to configure and a perfect price $0.00

 

[Clement]

What distro(s) do you use??
Fedora x64

Rolling or Fixed release??
Fixed

Do you use a Graphical Login or command line (run level 3 or 5)??
5

What Desktop Environment and or Window Manager do you use?? (ex. Gnome, KDE, Xfce, etc...)
Primarily: Gnome
Sometimes: WindowMaker/FVWM/IceWM
In the past: Blackbox

What Web Browser(s) do you use??
Firefox/Lynx/Opera

Do you run multiple Desktops?? If so how many?? (ex. 4 is the normal default)
2

What editor do you prefer?? (ex. GEdit, Emacs, Vi/Vim, Mousepad, etc...)
Vim/Pico/Gedit

What if any servers (services) do you run?? (ex. Samba, Apache, Telnet, etc..)
Apache/MySQL/PHP (PHP development)

Do you prefer the Command Line or GUI for most tasks??
GUI: Web browsing, Research, Etc.
CLI: Programming, everything else

If you use a shell(s), which is/are your favorite(s)?? (ex. Bash, ksh, tclsh, zsh, etc...)
Bash and recently tclsh

Do you use cron/crontab??
Mostly just for Rsync backups

 

[Yukikaze]

Q: What distro(s) do you use??
A: Linux Mint.

Q: Rolling or Fixed release??
A: Long-Term Support.

Q: Do you use a Graphical Login or command line (run level 3 or 5)??
A: Graphical Login.

Q: What Desktop Environment and or Window Manager do you use?? (ex. Gnome, KDE, Xfce, etc...)
A: Gnome or Xfce.

Q: What Web Browser(s) do you use??
A: Firefox.

Q: Do you run multiple Desktops?? If so how many?? (ex. 4 is the normal default)
A: 4.

Q: What editor do you prefer?? (ex. GEdit, Emacs, Vi/Vim, Mousepad, etc...)
A: GEdit for small tasks. I code in Eclipse.

Q: What if any servers (services) do you run?? (ex. Samba, Apache, Telnet, etc..)
A: None.

Q: Do you prefer the Command Line or GUI for most tasks??
A: Command Line. GUI is too slow, but I am not a (complete) command line maniac. Both have their uses.

Q: If you use a shell(s), which is/are your favorite(s)?? (ex. Bash, ksh, tclsh, zsh, etc...)
A: Bash.

Q: Do you use cron/crontab??
A: No.

 

[Clement]

Many times I have heard people say that the GUI's are slow on linux. For me, that statement is anything but true, everything on linux is much faster than any version of windows.

I suspect that many people are running the default Xorg.conf file instead of tweaking it for their video card (there is no utility that will insert card specific tweaks TIKO). This is just an assumption, but very likely.

That gives me an idea for a challenging application....hmmmm...

Regexorcist, want to start a project together?

 

[regexorcist]

Many times I have heard people say that the GUI's are slow on linux. For me, that statement is anything but true, everything on linux is much faster than any version of windows.

I suspect that many people are running the default Xorg.conf file instead of tweaking it for their video card (there is no utility that will insert card specific tweaks TIKO). This is just an assumption, but very likely.

That gives me an idea for a challenging application....hmmmm...

Regexorcist, want to start a project together?

Sure, why not?

Not interested in xorg.conf or video card driver options,
but I'm sure we can come up with something.

As long as we use one of the following...(at least in part)
bash shell scripting
tcl/tk scripting
perl scripting
python scripting

 

[Clement]

Sure, why not?

Not interested in xorg.conf or video card driver options,
but I'm sure we can come up with something.

As long as we use one of the following...(at least in part)
bash shell scripting
tcl/tk scripting
perl scripting
python scripting

You are not interested in writing an application to help people with tweaking their Xorg.conf or you don't want advice yourself?

Even if you aren't interested in what I mentioned, please hear me out:

Together I was thinking of you creating the user interface with a language of your choice (preferably something that would be accessible to as many people as possible with different setups - I was thinking Tcl/tk, I'm not sure if Python would be better or not) (I can help of course but you know a lot of Tcl already) and I can do all the research and writing necessary for things such as:
Which options to use for which drivers (and all available)
Which options are known to work (to recommend)
Possible conflicts
Descriptions of different drivers/Xservers available for a given chipset (and known documentation for each one)
All necessary documentation (including for each tweak/option) and help

I could also run a server to distribute the project (not a ton of upload on DSL but it will work), a server for reporting bugs/etc, a server for a central repository for the project, and I could even go so far as to setup a remote X desktop setup for you if you want a GUI terminal.

Thoughts? Better application ideas?

 

[regexorcist]

You are not interested in writing an application to help people with tweaking their Xorg.conf or you don't want advice yourself?

Even if you aren't interested in what I mentioned, please hear me out:

Together I was thinking of you creating the user interface with a language of your choice (preferably something that would be accessible to as many people as possible with different setups - I was thinking Tcl/tk, I'm not sure if Python would be better or not) (I can help of course but you know a lot of Tcl already) and I can do all the research and writing necessary for things such as:
Which options to use for which drivers (and all available)
Which options are known to work (to recommend)
Possible conflicts
Descriptions of different drivers/Xservers available for a given chipset (and known documentation for each one)
All necessary documentation (including for each tweak/option) and help

I could also run a server to distribute the project (not a ton of upload on DSL but it will work), a server for reporting bugs/etc, a server for a central repository for the project, and I could even go so far as to setup a remote X desktop setup for you if you want a GUI terminal.

Thoughts? Better application ideas?

No you don't need me, a user interface is easy to create.

I've had issues with the open source ATI Radeon drivers and
the catalyst dropped support for cards under series 600
(I have a series 300) and Nvidia doesn't work with the
open source community at all.

I've messed w/ driver options only to get frustrated.
No one wants an optimized blank screen, the experts have
enough trouble detecting the endless hardware combinations.

Now for xorg.conf, I normally edit mine due to my monitor, but
many Linux distros have eliminated the xorg.conf all together and
I'm sure the other distros are soon to follow.
In addition xorg is only one type of X11 server (currently the most popular)
but there are half a dozen different ones.
My oldest daughter is using Fedora on her laptop without an xorg.conf
and my other daughter isn't using xorg at all. Puppy uses a lighter
smaller X11 server.
Sorry but display drivers and xorg are two things I'm not very fond of.

I don't have any other ideas, so good luck as I'm sure you'll create
an excellent piece of software.

 

[Clement]

No you don't need me, a user interface is easy to create.

I've had issues with the open source ATI Radeon drivers and
the catalyst dropped support for cards under series 600
(I have a series 300) and Nvidia doesn't work with the
open source community at all.

I've messed w/ driver options only to get frustrated.
No one wants an optimized blank screen, the experts have
enough trouble detecting the endless hardware combinations.

Now for xorg.conf, I normally edit mine due to my monitor, but
many Linux distros have eliminated the xorg.conf all together and
I'm sure the other distros are soon to follow.
In addition xorg is only one type of X11 server (currently the most popular)
but there are half a dozen different ones.
My oldest daughter is using Fedora on her laptop without an xorg.conf
and my other daughter isn't using xorg at all. Puppy uses a lighter
smaller X11 server.
Sorry but display drivers and xorg are two things I'm not very fond of.

I don't have any other ideas, so good luck as I'm sure you'll create
an excellent piece of software.

Do you mean you have an RV3xx by that?

I had slight trouble getting my RV5xx to work, but now its working beautifully with the radeon driver with a few Xorg.conf tweaks (very fast!) (not the one from ATI, which doesn't support my card, doesn't matter anyway as the one I am using works beautifully!)

If you do have an RV3xx card let me know and I will check my driver to see if yours is supported and if so, I get I can get you sorted out!

That software idea was just an idea, I may work on something else I don't know yet. I really have to find a way to make more money first as I am temporarily disabled and still have bills to pay (My computer repair/building business is not enough to pay the bills at the time). So first things first. I am looking into working for TPU as an Interviewer (which would be great because I love writing) and possibly also a news and/or downloads editor. I would be perfect as a hardware reviewer, but because of my financial situation I cannot afford the latest greatest hardware.