[TriLUG] Linux for Laptops?

[Joel Ebel]

While some may find it surprising that I recommend anything but 
Slackware (They shouldn't be.  I'm aware of the benefits of all the 
distributions) For your situation, I think I'd suggest Debian or a 
derivative such as the current popular bandwagon, Ubuntu.  Debian offers 
very easy updates and package management, and a huge selection of 
software.  Two of your primary requirements.  Plus, it would be 
something new for you, and you seem interested in the educational 
experience of it.  Slackware is inappropriate for you since you value a 
good package manager.  Gentoo you've already ruled out yourself since 
you would spend too long compiling.  A binary distro would be nice, and 
because of the great package management and wide selection of software, 
I think Debian would be your best bet.  Fedora is getting an increasing 
set of software with Fedora extras, but it sounds like you may have 
become frustrated with rpm, which should probably rule out SuSE and 
Mandrake as well.  Debian's package management system is one of the best 
things it has going for it.  Check it out.  Just learn about acpi to 
take advantage of the laptops power management.

Joel

Randy Barlow wrote:
> I'm a student and so I had to keep a PC around with Sata... I mean, 
> Microsoft Windows for some programs (well yeah, I could use Wine too, 
> but the stories I've heard about getting it to work made me just go the 
> easy route...)  So now that the semester is winding down, I think I'd 
> like to switch this system over (well, back) to Linux.  This system used 
> to run FC3.  Now I don't want to start any distro wars or anything, 
> but... I didn't really like FC3 for the laptop because every time I 
> updated the system packages (like the kernel) I had to go an reinstall 
> all the wireless stuff, which was a real pain.
> 
> So I'm looking for recommendations on any distributions that are really 
> laptop friendly.  Here's a list of things that are important to me (in 
> order):
> 
> 1) Wireless has to work, and preferably easy.  By easy, I'd like to not 
> have to do anything.  Install it and it works.  Maybe this isn't 
> possible, but I thought I'd ask anyway just in case.
> 
> 2) Package Management.  Just something that makes getting the software I 
> want and keeping it up to date easy (including the aforementioned 
> wireless stuff).  And it would be nice if it had lots of software to 
> choose from, so I don't have to do too many manual installs.
> 
> 3) Power Management would be nice.  I've got the Pentium-M.  If you 
> don't know much about it, it is incredible when it comes to saving those 
> laptop batteries.  I've got a machine with a 15" screen that will last 
> literally 4 1/2 hours on battery, so long as I turn down things like the 
> brightness of the screen and the clock frequency of the processor.  If 
> there were a distro that were already set up with these or similar 
> capabilities upon install, that would be awesome.
> 
> 4) Trying something new.  At this point, I'd call myself an amateur in 
> my Linux/Unix skills.  I'm no expert or advanced user, but no beginner 
> either.  I've run Red Hat 6,7, and FC 2 and 3 before, and currently as I 
> mentioned previously I'm running Gentoo on my main computer (and I love 
> Gentoo!).  But you know, I'd like to get a taste of what else is out 
> there, so something new would be refreshing.
> 
> 5) Optimization for Pentium-M.  Well, Gentoo is the best way I can think 
> of the achieve this, but Gentoo also requires you to take vacation time 
> to install.  Any distro that offers a precompiled version for the 
> Pentium-M would be nice, especially if their package manager can also 
> get me optimized software.  I'd much rather have the previous 
> requirements than this one, but hey, I'll take this too if it's out there!
> 
> Thanks for any responses or thoughts you may all have!
> 
> Randy Barlow
>