hey, i've been thinking about trying out linux for a while now and i think it's about time i took the plunge...sort of. i plan on doing a dual boot with XP. as i said, i've done a bit of research but i still don't really know which distribution i should go for. my hardware includes: Intel core 2 duo e8400 (3.00ghz 2GB corsair ram gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 motherboard HIS radeon 3870 samsung 500gb HDD asus dvd burner what do you guys think i should go for? i think i read somewhere that ati graphics cards have issues with linux... not sure whether i made that up or not lol.
As you are new to linux, i would recomend that you go with Ubuntu (get the 64Bit version to maximise the CPU you have) to get a feel for things. It will run as a live cd so you don't even have to install it and then you can see if your hardware is compatible (which it should be). As for ATI cards, i have just put in a PCI-E card (was running with onboard video for over a year) and as long as you don't use the fglrx driver (which is installed when you get the driver download from ATI themselves) and just use the ATI driver in *nix (i run Lenny 64Bit, it is in the repos) it works just fine. I am not interested in high end graphics stuff, it was a cheap card that has its own memory so it freed up the onboard memory. I had been experiencing some issues with graphics when i updated to FF3.
The fglrx driver is running here.. but you NEED to know what you are doing to get it installed properly if there are any problems (dpkg force-overwrite options).. envy should work on the new ubuntu.
thanks for the replies. i've got my ubuntu cd burned and ready to go. i'll let you know how things work out
I have just made my dual boot system "Vista-Ubuntu" have similar hardware! I have not yet experienced any issue regarding graphics! I had a bit problem however by installing ubuntu as I never used linux before and after installing ubuntu I lost vista! But with this guide: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Ubuntu everything is simly.
But there are about 60% of all computer users who does thing the opposite! Why not to experience different OS as each of them has advantages and disadvantages and just take the best out of each of them!
hey again, got everything up and running now. had a bit of trouble getting my wireless connection going but it's all sorted now. my computer is so much faster running Ubuntu than it was running XP. even with compiz fusion. i hope it stays this quick. the only problem i'm still having is that when i try to play any movies, the video flickers. makes it almost unwatchable. any ideas as to why this might be? something to do with the graphics card drivers maybe?
Ubuntu will stay that quick, as it only needs 256megs of ram to run and it doesn't save a whole bunch of sh*t like windows.
