The New Guys On The Block

Hey guys, what's the best way to try out distros? Do I completely reinstall each time I want to change a distro and if so, would nt that wipe all my data? Or does my personal data , text files etc etc stay on the system and only the distro changes?

My Linux computer comes today and it has Ubuntu installed which I believe is a very popular and stable system but I really want to check out the so evolve distro because it looks fantastic and the reviews were very favorable. BUT I was warned on this forum not to get involved with beta distros until I know what I'm doing.

Does swapping distros erase all data ?

Hi, guys! I'm new in this Linux community, and I must say that, for now, I feel at ease. But I need some help.

Look, the reason why I knew Linux is because I needed a portable OS to work in differents PCs (Mine is damaged). I found Slax Linux and I've tried it. It's very intuitive, but it's hard to add more programs (modules) because I have to look for each one I require. I need a distro with all the basic programs -LibreOffice, a good web browser...-. A distro which I can use inmediatly, without need to download or reboot.

So, which would you recommend? Thanks for your attention

Hi

I'm a telecom/IT contractor and my work laptop died so instead of buying a new one, I decided to give my spare laptop a try. It's a cheap Lenovo G585 with only 2Gb ram and a AMD E1. Needless to say this is a real slow laptop. W8 was preinstalled and barely runs. Even for simple work related tasks its too slow.

Instead of wasting money on it, I am contemplating the idea of installing a Linux distro. I manage via ssh a few linux servers for my customers (centos, red hat, ubuntu server) but actually never used it as my main OS.

I just want something lighter than W8 so the laptop will be faster. Which distro should I get? I was thinking about LXLE but there's too much distros I can't choose.

Speed is the priority in this case. I also like a good looking UI.

Also, how's Microsoft Remote desktop from a Linux client? Is it fast and well optimized?

Thanks!

im using the latest version of ubuntu on a 4 year old dell 780 optiplex and I am more than impressed with the speed and agility of the machine. Im so impressed that I have asked my friend for an old dell laptop so I can go mobile with this thing.
my question is.... do i install the same distro for a laptop as i am using on this desktop or is there a widely used laptop distro that the linux experts always use or at least on avarage use more than any other.
thanks guys

Hey,

When you have decided to multi-boot several distros and have space to do so. Is there a preferred sequential order for those distros?

Let me see if I can make it even more confusing. I presently have two Linux distros on my PC, PClinuxOS and Manjaro 0.8.12 XFCE. My PCLOS was installed first then came Manjaro.

If I am able to install a third distro would I do it from when I am using Manjaro, or would it be better sequentially to do when I am using PCLinuxOS? Or does it not make a hill of Garbanzos which distro I happen to be using at the time of the third installation?

How does 'GRUB' feature in to this equation?

The Grub screen (I think it's called) shows 'Manjaro' at the top, then Manjaro Advanced. Then below it is, PCLinuxOS followed by PCLinuxOS Advanced. Last is the MEMTest.

Would this hypothetical third distro and there is no problem with installation or with 'GRUB', appear at the top of the list when booting into it?

"XXX.distro
XXX.distro advanced
manjaro
manjaro adcanced
pclos
pclos advanced
MemTest"

Just for elucidation the third Linux distro I am considering adding is; Ubuntu 15.04 Mate Edition.

Thanking All in Advance.

herakles_14

Hi
I am not brand new to Linux but have been using a very popular Linux distro which has pretty much made everything easy for me in day to day use
I do distro hop quite a bit on my spare laptop and have tried many distros i came across Antix 13.2 which i really love and is a superb distro in terms of speed and increasing my learning curve in linux systems and was easyish to set up via wicd (just involved writing in wlan0) and that was it
One thing i can never get the hang of though and would love a complete idiots guide to is the wifi set up in some distros i have discarded because i just do not understand how to set it up
This evening i tried Sparky Linux on a usb and would love to have tried it but the wifi problem surfaced again
a box comes up re edit connections and from there i have no idea at all what to do what i normally do is disregard that distro and move on! But i would like to be able to input the info to get it working..any ideas please
Many Thanks

Hi guys, I have 2 distros on my computer and I want to get rid of one and instal another in its place. My basic Ubuntu is amazing so I want to leave that I. Place but the music distro I have installed is not to my liking . I would like to install amother in its place. What do I have to do to create the space for a new distro?

I am a basic computer user as far as operating systems are concerned. I do a little programming here and there but nothing special yet.

I have tried Linux many times, but I'm always left to getting *another* distro, after I fail to properly install Linux. Basically I resort to simple installs and found that Linux Mint and Ubuntu, most of the time work out of the box. However, after an installation, ... here and there I get error messages and sometimes crashes and i understand that my installation is not stable, simply because I did not properly configure some conf file or similar.

Another even more important problem I have is device drivers. Working from the command prompt (console) and the GUI is very confusing to me. I'm not sure if I'm setting something right with one and then unsetting it with the other. So basically I'm here with some noob questions and a couple specific ones.

1. Can someone recommend a good distro to learn to correctly configure drivers with manually. Remember, that I understand that there are distros that work out of the box mostly, but I actually am not worried about complexity as far as someone can guide me through errors. Which will lead to more questions of course.

2. After an installation there are sometimes a dozen errors during bootup, but no stops. Since it all scrolls by fast (most distros), where can I check after bootup what I need to fix?

The Goal is an *error free* stable installation of a linux distro, with enough common sense learned to take it to other distros.

Hello,

I am looking for a live linux distro that is able to recognize more hardware by "default" without installation. For example, when I borrow a laptop/netbook, I want to be able to boot the live linux distro and be able to have wireless access to internet (at least most of the time).

I know how to get the wireless working if I have internet access to begin with, but sometimes I do not have a wired connection or am not allowed to install stuff.

I would like to try many live distros on different laptops, but it would be hard to convince other people to give me their laptops to do that; so I would really appreciate your help.

Thanks

Hi. Sorry to be so stupid, but I just managed to load and install this Linux (which I really like a lot) on my previously windows <--(bad) system.
But now I need to upgrade some software (like Adobe flash), and I have no clue how to do this. I understand I should go to my original linux distrubutor, and select software thru them (my "Linux distro").
But actually, it's been awhile since I did the install, and I dont exactly remember where I even got this distribution. (I know, I'm dumb--sorry).
Is there a way I can look at my linux system files and see who my distribution is thru, and where is their website. Or would it be easier if I just went thru the whole download and install of linux again <--(not really looking forward to that).
Or even, am I wrong about going thru the distro to do installs/upgrades?
Anything you can tell me will be greatly appreciated.

Long Live Linux !! David K