What Linux distro. Mandriva Gnome or Ubuntu 9.04?
Hi, I just deleted my vista OS about a week ago and my friend got me to try Mandriva as I was having trouble using Ubuntu. I jumped right into Linux I had no previous experience with this OS so it’s been a little hard to transition. Know I’ve been looking up things on compiz fusion and it seems to look better on Ubuntu. Please give your input don’t be an butt wipe just give your honost opinion. Thanks for all answers that are useful and not from butt wipes.
Tagged with: butt • fusion • Linux • transition
Filed under: Mandrake
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You could try Linux Mint, it’s designed for newer users, but doesn’t have a hard-on about how everything must absolutely must be open source, so it has a little better hardware support and out of the box support for formats like .mp3.
One that I like is Ultimate Edition. It is Ubuntu based but it comes with tons of software out of the box, better graphics and wifi support, as well as a program for installing all the non-free codecs and other software with virtually one click. Plus, it has all the compiz settings installed as well, some of which even work on the Live CD. It really helped me when I was starting out with Linux because I was sick of having to go find software or drivers.
I thoroughly recommend Linux Mint 7 Main Edition which is built upon Ubuntu 9.04 Its easy to install and easy to use plus it comes with much of the software you are likely to need preinstalled
Linux Mint 7 Download
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=38
Linux Mint 7 User Guide
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15884753/Linux-Mint-7-Gloria-User-Guide
The Perfect Desktop – Linux Mint 7 (Gloria)
http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-linux-mint-7-gloria
You download the ISO. image of Linux Mint 7 then you need to create a Bootable LiveCD for installation
Linux Mint 7 can also be run direct from the LiveCD from Booting up without touching your Hard Drive
CURRENT SESSION
Linux Mint 6 custum LiveDVD with switchable Compiz 0.7.2* and Beryl 0.2.1**
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=31
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_(window_manager)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiz_Fusion
*Compiz 0.7.2 sourced from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS ( Alpha 5) repositories
**Beryl 0.2.1 sourced from Ubuntu 7.04 repositories
LUg.
A note to all Ubuntu users:-
There is a package that installs all codecs, java runtime and Flash player all at once. One package with several ways of installing. It’s often the several ways of installing that causes issues. Add to that that each distro has different ways of installing software from the command line (which also has different names – console, terminal (which is called ‘gnome-terminal’ if you need to type it in a run box ie Alt+F2), KDE’s console is a konsole! etc etc)
ubuntu-restricted-extras in gnome
kubuntu-restricted-extras in kubuntu
xubuntu-restricted-extras in xubuntu
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
I use gnome with Ubuntu because there is so much documentation available just through google. When I do that to help people using other distros I get a lot less if anything.
Having said that if you want to use Mandriva they have the best IRC channel in my opinion. Its not just a matter of opinion really: the questions get answered and the same few people can deal with everything I have seen thrown at them. The Ubuntu channel is too hectic and you are lucky to get any reply sometimes. Live help is great especially if you use a pastebin to post your troublesome code for their perusal!
You say "compiz fusion and it seems to look better on Ubuntu" well I think KDE or/and its applications seems to interfere with other processes or gnome apps. This is from when I have used them together as desktops and when I have used KDE apps in gnome desktop. gnome apps work fine (for me) in KDE desktop. Mandriva was the only distro where the 2 desktops worked perfectly but I’m sure that’s because it was KDE3.5 (which is better than 4.x IMHO)
Ubuntu 9.10 with gnome gets my vote.
As an aside, I live in the UK and I can only watch BBC TV with Ubuntu (3 versions) or openSUSE. This happens a lot. Ubuntu is the best place to start. Then you can practice with other distros on live CDs or, better still, you can use them inside Virtualbox. From Ubuntu I suggest only a few are worth using and that will depend on your computing requirements. Mandriva and Debian are certainly worth a look.
I’m just reading what you wrote – Is there a problem getting compiz to work on Mandriva? I’m fairly certain mine worked out of the box.
Good Luck