Any good distros?

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Lobster · #1 Post by **Lobster** » Mon 09 Jan 2006, 02:50

Yesterday I tried Kanotix lite linux (CD) and today
Fox Linux (1 CD version of fedora 4 - installs to HD)

Kanotix lite is an abandoned half finished project - shame it showed potential - Kanotix is based on knoppix

The last time I installed Fedora it was from DVD - this Fox was a lot slower - probably because the CD is an old one

Fox Linux looks fabulous but these distros (even from HD) are so painfully slow compared to KDE Puppy - which looks great incidentally

What distros have you tried recently? Any good?

gnomen · #2 Post by **gnomen** » Mon 09 Jan 2006, 03:36

I like STX Linux and Zenwalk. Both are very focused, small and fast. Check them out

Lobster · #3 Post by **Lobster** » Mon 09 Jan 2006, 06:51

Tried Zen - all I remember is a rather complex installation. One of our Puppys liked it because it did video better than Puppy.

SLX I keep meaning to try - they are releasing version 1 soon, so will leave it till then.

Barry really liked Vector Linux (slack based) it seemed no faster than any other distro. The last fast distro I found was Mitrax Linux - it impressed me because it was faster than Puppy (and very similar).

I hope development of Mitrax continues but it does not seem to be moving on . . .

Billwho? · #4 Post by **Billwho?** » Mon 09 Jan 2006, 08:55

I installed an old 2001 demo release of both Peanut and Vector as a Linux absolute newbie early last year while looking for an alternative to M$. Both looked promising but were light on documentation

so I started looking for more on the net,tripped over that darn Puppy

and haven't played with either of them since. I still have Vector installed so I might get back to it one day. Until then the Puppy reigns supreme.

raffy · #5 Post by **raffy** » Mon 09 Jan 2006, 09:27

We share a common path there, Billwho, from Peanut to Vector to Puppy, although I also keep Slax in my kit, at least until a compact AMP is built for Puppy:)

# AMP = Apache, MySQL, PHP; or possibly PHP5 'coz it has SQLite. Ian already has SQlite dotpup for Puppy.

Dougal · #6 Post by **Dougal** » Mon 09 Jan 2006, 13:26

I was quite impressed by Vector 5.1. Fast and easy to install, too.
Hikarunix is pretty fun... if you want to play Go.

Ted Dog · #7 Post by **Ted Dog** » Mon 09 Jan 2006, 23:33

Puppy+FUSE in puppy3?
Very wild idea, download pieces as requested. Best of all worlds.
http://unit.aist.go.jp/itri/knoppix/htt ... ex-en.html
well it works(as I am using it now to write this), very slow start but faster than download/burn/boot

Nathan F · #8 Post by **Nathan F** » Tue 10 Jan 2006, 02:21

I'm still a fan of Vector for many reasons. It's configured well out of the box, has the stability of Slackware but advanced package tools, and reigns supreme as a development environment. I still run a server using Fedora because of the ease of configuration but the distro kind of sucks in most other respects.

Really though Puppy gets better and better with every release and has enabled me to do more than I ever thought I was capable of. It's quickly becoming the best out there and I don't see that trend changing much.

Nathan

John_C · #9 Post by **John_C** » Tue 10 Jan 2006, 06:25

Kanotix lite is an abandoned half finished project - shame it showed potential - Kanotix is based on knoppix

I run Kanotix 2005-3 (semi install w/config) and I have to totally disagree with the remark about Kanotix. It was (and still is) the first Distro that configured everything on most of my computers. At one time I was just about ready to give up on Linux, until I just happened to come across Kanotix -- very polished, looks great on screen, and FAST - it actually loads faster than Puppy. Could give you a long list of Distros I've used, and Kanotix is the one to beat!

Of course there is a place in my heart for Puppy -- because it is so, well, special. Doesn't do everything all that well (printing, sound

... but I spend a lot of time with Puppy. It runs fast, never crashes, and I always find new things to play with. Haven't had so much fun since the days of DRDos & GeoWorks (that's back when I refused to run Windows 2 & 3.0). That wasn't yesterday.

John_C · #10 Post by **John_C** » Tue 10 Jan 2006, 23:31

I don't take back my remarks about Kanotix.... but I received Kanotix 2005-04 lite in the
mail today (dial-up) and I was bitterly disappointed. On two machines that run 2005-03, neither one ran properly -- one wouldn't complete a boot at all.

Never expected Kanotix to act this way -- guess it did get rushed out the door (Dec 31) too soon. Would have been much better to scrap the 2005-04 version and issue 2006-01 when it was more ready for final release.

Oh well, it just gives me more time to play with Puppy. That being said, if Distros get rushed out the door too soon (without Beta stamped on it), it will discourage new users who are thinking of switching to Linux. I have to admit I've reached a point of firing up new versions, and if they don't work without major fooling, they get put aside real quick -- I have better things to do.

Lobster · #11 Post by **Lobster** » Wed 11 Jan 2006, 00:10

I downloaded STX today and they expected me to partition the HD - well OK - then it tried to install Lilo in the MBR and could not (can anyone remember how to clear the mbr from cli?)

If I had to run STX I might persevere but I do not, so I might not bother . . .

The version of Kanotix I thought unfinished was Benix
http://www.livecdlist.com/

My Puppy install is something like this:

Download ISO
clear disk RW-CD wih graveman (last option)
burn CD wih burn2CD (in Puppy)

boot up
select locale
select mouse type and connector
select xorg and resolution

In

then I turn on the firewall
and DHCP means I am connected to the internet
in 3 mouse cicks

My settings are saved on exit
I have all the most used .pups on the HD

GuestToo · #12 Post by **GuestToo** » Wed 11 Jan 2006, 03:38

it tried to install Lilo in the MBR

i have grub installed in the mbr

i can set it up to boot whatever distros i have installed

i chain to hda1 to boot WinXp from Grub
title = Win XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

i boot Win98 directly from Grub too
title = Win98
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader /bootsect.dos

when i install a distro, i always tell it to install to the boot sector of the partition it's installed on, not to the mbr ... it usually installs and configures Lilo or Grub to the boot sector of the partition that the distro is installed in ... then i add a couple of lines to my menu.lst file, to chain to that partition

title = Vector - chain to hda13
chainloader = (hd0,12)+1

title = Gobo - chain to hda15
chainloader = (hd0,14)+1

that way, installing a distro should not wipe out my nicely-configured Grub on the mbr ... (but i keep the config files in /boot backed up, just in case)

Ted Dog · #13 Post by **Ted Dog** » Wed 11 Jan 2006, 03:43

I was bitterly disappointed

As was I, very poor release.

Billwho? · #14 Post by **Billwho?** » Wed 11 Jan 2006, 08:52

[quote="Lobster"]I downloaded slx today and they expected me to partition the HD - well OK - then it tried to install Lilo in the MBR and could not (can anyone remember how to clear the mbr from cli?)

I have only ever had to remove Lilo from my MBR once and and from memory I used
# fdisk -MBR

I also found this in what documentation I have got for my old Vector linux install
# fdisk -U

I think from memory that I tried fdisk -U first without any succes but as this was quitte some time ago it might pay to experiment on an old hard drive first if possible.

Good Luck

Sage · #15 Post by **Sage** » Wed 11 Jan 2006, 09:35

That's the problem with penguin console commands - few non-gurus can remember them.
I have a confession: I use an M$ or DR DOS floppy to clear the MBR with:
fdisk /mbr
If that fails - usually it doesn't - I clear the entire HD with a debug script:

F 9000:0 L 200 0
a
Mov dx,9000
Mov es,dx
Xor bx,bx
Mov cx,0001
Mov dx,0080
Mov ax,0301
Int 13
Int 20
(enter, enter)
g

How widely is this known? Probably all the professionals use it?

Lobster · #16 Post by **Lobster** » Wed 11 Jan 2006, 11:12

Thanks guys -

You is right . . . only the Gurus can remember - now I may give STX another go . . . but wait DSL 2.01 is out - I tried the RC and liked the fact that it was using LUA - OK I have downloaded - just need a spare moment . . .

I wanted to try installing MU's Doom game versions but all that death and mayhem may be too much . . .

It was easier when Linux had no games . . .

noip · #17 Post by **noip** » Sat 04 Mar 2006, 21:19

Lobster,

Came upon this thread doing searching about network printing in Puppy ...

As far as alternative distros are concerned ... I spent a lot of last year trying different ones, and have come back to viewing Slackware, Debian and Suse as the distros of choice (for me) as full blown distros.

Slackware can be configured to be as light as you like (as can Debian) so they sort of overlap the lighter distros based on them. Puppy keeps library compatability with (I think the 10.1 verson of) Slackware, so you can get packages from www.linuxpackages.net and pull them apart for Puppy. And Slackware is just so elegant.

Debian Sarge has come a long way from Woody, and is also a great, flexible choice. If you investigate Debian, Martin Kraft's book "the Debian System" is a must.

And what do I use now? Debian to run the home network, and Puppy to play for anyone I come across that needs a simple easy distro for an old computer.

Rgds

GS

ftgs

drongo · #18 Post by **drongo** » Sun 05 Mar 2006, 21:32

I know, it's only a cat, but they're supposed to have nine lives.

One of the Beatrix developers has produced a stripped down version called BeaFanatIX. Around 150M so she's lost a bit of weight.

They've called her "Crichton". Admirable.

http://bea.cabarel.com/index.php?page=BeaFanatIX

Lobster · #19 Post by **Lobster** » Tue 11 Apr 2006, 08:23

I tried the new Cat - it is 150 meg and I think the big plus is it has CUPS? Therefore printing will work without additional effort.

I tried PCLinuxOS yesterday and was impressed with some things. It looks good and has a marvellous config box. I prefer Gnome to KDE but . . .
It also is quite fast as a Live CD (compared to most others)
It is a full size distro based on Mandrake originally and has a a keen following

It auto recognized my USB headphone and mic set from C-Media It ran GnomeConnect (I think it was) again auto finding and setting up my logitech camera. Good
Decided to put it on the HD

Then I became too confident - set up the firewall and a guest user and on the next boot I was in command line (These OS would be so good if not for the users incompetence . . .)
Command line is not much use when you are as ignorant (and intending to keep it that way) of the CLI Shell as me.

Will I have to reinstall? Yes. Will I? Yes it deserves further attention and I prefer it to Ubuntu . . .

Puppy on CD
PClinuxOS on HD

Good

ChazZTheSpazZ · #20 Post by **ChazZTheSpazZ** » Fri 21 Apr 2006, 19:23

Ugh that reminds me....I need to buy more CD-R's. One week I went distro-crazy, downloading every distro I could find that was small enough to download on dial-up in one night or a few hours. The result is all these iso's on my hard drive (I don't remember all the versions): Kubuntu, Gentoo, DSL, Puppy, Slax, Vector, Debian, and maybe 2 or 3 more. I can't remember all of them. None of them except for Puppy and DSL have I got around to testing.

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Any good distros?

Any good distros?

SLX

Common path

5M iso of knoppix DVD

Re: Any good distros?

Kanotix lost is greatness

Beatrix revived?