Linux - But which?

Hey,
I'm currently thinking about changing my laptop into a linux only machine.
But I'm yet undecided which distribution I should choose.
The use of the laptop will be:
- surf the internet
- instant messaging (icq/msn)
- writing texts
- programming in java (eclipse)
- playing small games (solitair, sudoku etc.)

It should:
- boot up fast (WinXP Pro needs 1 min 5 secs (ca.) to fully boot)
- not overloaded with useless stuff
- good support for wireless cards (i got an atheros wireless-lan card)

the hardware of my notebook:
AMD Turion64 X2 1.6 Ghz, 2048 MB RAM, nVidia Geforce Go7300 graphic card.

I took a look at:
Xubuntu, DamnSmallLinux, PuppyLinux

Thanks for any hints!

Kubuntu is good i think.

Well i don't use many graphic-based linux systems. Without graphics i would suggest Debian.

Otherwise go with Ubuntu (not Kubuntu). It has a nice graphic layout and isn't that overloaded with stuff.

The only difference between Ubuntu and Kubuntu is that Ubuntu uses Gnome as desktop environment and Kubuntu uses KDE.

Any other opinions on this?

zenwalk http://www.zenwalk.org/ or
vector http://vectorlinux.com/

- bloat-free, one application per task
- xfce -> very fast desktop environment based on GTK+ (looks and feels a lot like GNOME, but is faster)
- fast boot (~42s to DE)
- good support for wireless cards (i have an atheros myself, however zenwalk did not find it during the installation so i use ndiswrapper which works great, vector found it instantly)

- surf the internet -> firefox or opera
- instant messaging (icq/msn) -> pidgin
- writing texts -> openoffice (must be downloaded, does not come on the cd)
- programming in java (eclipse) -> must be downloaded, does not come on the cd
- playing small games (solitair, sudoku etc.) -> part of GNOME or KDE (can be installed from the repository as well)

these are slackware based distros which i use myself, i found them to be very stable, reliable, fast, and quickly booting (what you can't say about all those x-buntus or debians out there). i can't say that the limited number of graphic config utilities on slackware is a handicap, most things are configured during the installation automatically. however, if you never used linux before, it might be a bit confusing, but you'll get used to it.

if you want a "beginner" distribution with a large german-based user base, try suse.

most distributions offer live CDs, so you can test everything before installing.

one word about 64bit OSes (as you have a 64bit cpu): don't bother, use the 32 bit versions.


ps: neither DamnSmallLinux nor PuppyLinux will satisfy you.

Thanks broozar!
Yeah well the Puppy Linux and DamnSmallLinux versions indeed did not satisfy me.
I once tried Ubuntu and Kubuntu, now Xubuntu

I'll check out vectorlinux and maybe go with vector or zenwalk.

I have heard some good things about Freespire. Would you recommend it?

i have tried freespire once and was quite impressed, because it offers a wide range of out-of-the-box-drivers that are hard to find on any other distro. freespire 2.0 is just a modified ubuntu and dates back to 2007/11/30, so it's not only slow compared to other distros (and has a pseudo-modern standard theme...), but it's pretty outdated.
lin-/freespire have been acquitred by xandros, another commercial linux distribution, which hasn't been too active recently as well. i wouldn't recommend it.

The problem I currently have is that the download link of the live version of vectorlinux is broken.
So I'm currently downloading the standard version "VL 5.9 Standard Edition" as this looks most like the one you (broozar) mentioned.

edit: nevermind, just found the file on a different mirror

I'd suggest Fedora. I've been using it as my main OS for probably about a year now. It does have a fair bit installed on a default install (compared to some other linux distros anyway), but you can remove whatever you don't need during the install.

So I installed VectorLinux (standard 5.9 final) parallel to windows to check it out fully.
And it does not recognize my Atheros AR5BXB61 wireless chipset, any hints?
I searched the vector linux forums, and didnt come up with a fitting topic, neither did the atheros.com website have any interesting information or download option for drivers, which i could have used with ndiswrapper.

any advice?

it should.

1. open a terminal, log in as root
("su" <enter> "your_password" <enter>)
2. enter "iwconfig" (without quotes) and show us the output here. your chip should be listed as ath0 or something.

ndiswrapper works with windows drivers, that's the fun. so your windows driver cd is all you need to make it work with ndiswrapper. but give us the iwconfig output first.

3.1 if ath0 is listed and you have an unprotected/access point wlan, it's enough to do
"dhcpcd ath0"
3.2 if you have a protected wlan, use
"iwconfig ath0 key <yourkey>" or "iwconfig ath0 key s:<yourkey>" if it's a passphrase/password and then go to 3.1

"man iwconfig" will bring up the iwconfig man page.

Ok, thanks so far.
I tried what you said, here is the output of "iwconfig":


The problem is: if you write "man iwconfig" you can see in the section about "key" that passphrases (ascii) is currently not supported.
That means that I have to create a hex key for my wlan, I guess.

EDIT:
Now I changed the key to a hex key with 64 characters and entered the essid and the key:
iwconfig ath0 essid xxIDxx
iwconfig ath0 key xxKEYxx

Now the essid is set properly, but setting the key fails:


EDIT #2:
Another test. I deactivated the key (only mac filtering and hidden ssid as protection now) and now it works.
But I'd really like to have a key, although I have a mac filter table up and running to deny access to other but mine systems.

I will choose openSUSE.

I "worked" with openSUSE and from what I can tell its pretty unstable and bloated with stuff.
On one computer it acted all weird. Sometimes freezing etc. or the applications became really slow caus the memory was full.

mac filtering isn't safe. under windows, you can change your mac address with the "arp" command to match an allowed one, which can be found by sniffing some packets.
i'd try a live cd of the same distro which supports your wlan card out of the box and use the configuration there to set up your installed linux.

joey.

that's weird.
i know that it is possible to use vl 5.9's iwconfig with passphrase ("s:<password>") because i used it myself (i'm currently on zenwalk, though). did you try it with s: ? or did you read the manpage and decided right away that you needed a hex key?
how did you enter the hex key - with "-" or without?

setting the essid is not really required, if there's only one wlan around, it will try to connect with this one.

no I tried to set the passphrase with s:
like:
iwconfig ath0 key s:PASSPHRASE

The hex key does not contain "-" characters, as it is self typed in 64 characters long, consisting only of A-F and 0-9

edit:
What kind of key did you (broozar) use?
WPA, WPA2, WEP ... ?

edit #2:
Another thing that bugs me is that it seems to be impossible to change the keymap to any german layout.
Whatever I select in the list it seems to always jump back to default-US.

currently wep.

try with "-"

keymap: what's "the list" you are refering to?
you can change the keymap in several ways.
- in vl, there's a tool called vasm (the administration tool) where there should be a keymap selection. change that.
- using /etc/X11/xorg.conf (the 100%-way):
1. terminal, log in as root
2. "mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf"
3. in one of the InputDevice sections, there you shuld find
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "en"

change it to
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "de"
Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"

lines that start with # are commented out.
4. restart X (ctrl+alt+backspace) [or, to be 100% sure, shutdown and reboot)

xfce has an option to always remember you last settings, it's selectable shortly before you log out ("save session" or something).