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.