Admittedly mildly off-topic
27 Jun 2008 4:55:50 UTC
Topic 193734
(moderation:
I need to find and then install a version of Linux on a bare machine. This is to do a learning assignment ( on operating systems ), but also to gain a platform for other testing ( eg. E@H screensavers ) and of course to plonk BOINC on as another E@H host. I once briefly put on a Red Hat about five years ago, but am otherwise a Windows Man!
So I don't want anything 'mission critical', 'enterprise quality', 'virtualised', 'realtime', fancy pants or ultra expensive. 'Linux for a Dummy' would be ideal - download, install, have a cup of coffee while I wait, and then away I go.
Any suggestions for which simple, stable, fail-safe, no frills, bland Intel distro to get? :-)
[ I've been given a Knoppix CD, but for whatever reason - that I don't have the time to tease out - it's just not happening ... ]
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Admittedly mildly off-topic
)
I'd suggest OpenSUSE as I have found it to be really good at recognizing computer hardware from the git-go. Or Debian "Etch"... plain jane, but fairly fail safe.
Whatever you settle on, you may care to install the KDE (K Desktop Enviroment) interface as it somewhat resembles Windows. (Gnome would be similar to Mac)
-edit- btw, both are free
-edit part deux- some distros have a live disk available, so you can try it out without changing or committing to your computer's HDD. Kind of like taking a new car out for a test drive. :)
I am running Einstein, SETI,
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I am running Einstein, SETI, QMC, climateprediction.net, CPDN Beta and LHC on SuSE 10.3 32 bit. You can try SuSE 11.0 on a live CD if you wish.
Tullio
Personally, I like Fedora
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Personally, I like Fedora (which is also Red Hat based). Use KDE as your Desktop Environment, it looks more like Windows. Gnome reminds me of Macs, which I was less familiar with. Fedora 7 (pretty old now) just worked on my laptop. Worked better than Ubuntu at that point in time. I installed Kubuntu 8.04 on a separate partition a few weeks ago, and it worked a lot better than at first. I still like Fedora better.
Kathryn :o)
Einstein@Home Moderator
RE: Personally, I like
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Currently using Ubuntu 8.04 (both 32 and 64 bit versions; different machines). I started with 7.10 and was reasonably pleased with it, but couldn't get E@H to run without crashing on it. Also had video driver problems. Went back to XP Pro.
I tried the Kubuntu 8.04 before going to Ubuntu 8.04. Since I had previously become familiar with the Ubuntu interface, Kubuntu kind of threw me off. I'm more of a command-line person anyway as I was pretty deep into DOS stuff.
The Ubuntu 7.10 Live-CD was decent...I didn't bother with the 8.04 Live-CDs for Ubuntu or Kubuntu.
Seti Classic Final Total: 11446 WU.
RE: I need to find and then
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This is the most common question from Linux newbies, and you'll get as many answers as there are Linux users. A lot depends on what you want to do with Linux, and on personal preference. It also depends some on your hardware, as hardware support still isn't uniform from one distro to the next. The best that I can tell you is to try out different distros, and see which one you like best. (Several distros offer live CD's or DVD's, which makes that job easier.)
If you go to a Linux forum that's not well-moderated, you'll see that this question comes up quite often, and that it always provokes a Holy War. Some of the more intelligent comments go along the lines of, "You like that distro? You're an idiot! Everyone should use my distro, because it's the best".
Anyway, Distrowatch is a good place to start learning about the different distros. I'm a certified Linux instructor, so feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
Donald - I can see where
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Donald - I can see where you're going with that, but I think your explanation is one of the main problems with the linux community right now. There are too many choices!
My suggestion would be to try one or two distros from the larger "families". To clarify - My workstation is a Fedora9 machine, but I also administer a cluster of CentOS5 systems. Both are based from Red Hat or RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), so the basics of system maintenance, logfile locations, installation methods, etc etc - they're more or less the same. A similar "family" is the Debian family, which Ubuntu/Kubuntu is based upon.
Of course, I'm a bit biased, and would recommend Fedora9, but I had no problems whatsoever getting it to work with my hardware (Q6700, P5B Deluxe motherboard, nVidia 7900GS). Just make sure to run a 'yum update' as soon as the system is installed.
If you want to get E@H running on that system, just follow the instructions from my blog post.
RE: Donald - I can see
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I hear what you're saying. But. . .
Since everybody and his brother is going to give him conflicting advice anyway, I'm just providing a tool that he can use to help him decide for himself.
I have a 64 bit CPU (Opteron
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I have a 64 bit CPU (Opteron 1210) but I am running a 32 bit SuSE Linux,release 10.3, on it because most of the BOINC applications are 32 bit only, especially climateprediction.net and CPDN Beta. I have downloaded a SuSE 64 bit Linux, release 11.0, and shall try its live CD, with KDE 4.0, to see which BOINC applications are compatible with it.
Tullio
RE: I have a 64 bit CPU
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Tullio,
Any project with a reasonably current server will send a 32 bit app to a 64 bit host if the 64 bit app doesn't exist. The only thing you need to watch out for is that your distro installs the 32 bit compatibility libs. Fedora did most of them out of the box. I had to install a few to get the 32 bit QMC app to run, but that was the exception, not the rule.
KDE 4 is kinda neat. I used the Kubuntu 8.04 CD with the new KDE on it, but didn't play around with it extensively. I'm definitely a RedHat girl at heart.
:-)
Now if I could get my install of Fedora 8 to behave, I'd be really happy. But that's a rant for another time and place.
Kathryn :o)
Einstein@Home Moderator
RE: Tullio, Any project
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Thanks Kathryn. Now, to continue on the mildly off topic thread, all my total credits have disappeared from all my applications, but not the RAC. Why?
Tullio