gNewSense

[bibzgi]

I've tried numerous times to install gNewSense. Always: "No root file system is defined" and "Please correct this from the partitioning menu".

gNewSense is supposedly the best independent Linux OS, at least according to gNewSense.

Any tips for a Vista user?

[lonny]

Mint-Mandriva-Mepis or just plain Ubuntu

gNewSense is Ubuntu without the handholding features, they have been removed.


probably some versions of Xandros still around even a magazine cd still floating out there, Amazon sells a book with a cd in it
all about Xandros called Linux Made Easy.

[Ritho]

I agree with lonny. Start out with something that does not require an in depth knowledge of Linux. It will be a uphill battle all the way with gNewSense and you will likely walk away discouraged. I personally started with Linux Mint. Now I am using Ubuntu. The nice thing about distros that are based on Ubuntu, that have not been too heavily modified, is that you can simply search the for and error or a "how-to" for Ubuntu and still use it with distros like Mint. Ubuntu has a huge user base so it will have the best support when problems come up - it is the most diverse.

Mandriva is pretty good to, but has quite o few differences from Ubuntu. I think its major draw is that it is the most like the Windows environment of the major distros, but others may disagree with this assessment. I have no real experience with Mempis.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by Ritho

Ubuntu has a huge user base so it will have the best support when problems come up - it is the most diverse.

Totally agreed.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Ritho

I agree with lonny. Start out with something that does not require an in depth knowledge of Linux.

As I'm new to this myself I'm very much still on the learning curve but one thing that is obvious is that just like Windows programs, each distro has it's own fanboys and knockers

Linux has always been popular here in Brazil but amongst what I call the "quiet professionals" one name I'd never heard of before keeps being put forward, especially for stability and ease of use. Pardus, so I've read was developed to provide a national operating system for Turkey by their Scientific & Technological Research Council. It's meant to have the most user friendly install and set-up compared with other distros and a lot of other unique features. As I'm firmly planted in the recent migrant (from Windows) category I thought it would be a good idea to compare this with those I've already tried namely, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Fedora and Mandriva.

The good thing about this genre of Linux distros is that it only takes about an hour to get up, running and back to where you left off with the previous one unlike Windows where unless you have an image you spend the next life and a half installing programs and updates ;D

I'm downloading the image now and hopefully will get round to running it later this week.

[bibzgi]

Thanks for these helpful replies!

My attempt to install gnewsense today almost worked but fell short of working.

EasyBCD helped get my laptop to get the boot problems fixed. I thank those who suggested that program.

Ha ha, my 'puter crashed again today when trying to install gnewsense...the readings were that my optical medium (a CD) was not picking up files and I should do a new disk of the gnewsense installer or check out my CD drive.

After an hour doing this and that and being increasingly nervous, I got my 'puter working normally thanks to my Vista boot CD which was not from Microsoft.

Still, I have no Linux based OS.

Honestly, I'm only interested in Linux for two reasons.

One: Linux is free and collaborative and supposedly can do whatever Windows can do if one gets the right added free software

Two: My bloated MS Vista OS would take 2 DVD's to back up even though I've got it trimmed down and have almost all my programs on a non-OS partition. Surely, a Linux OS would take only one DVD or even a CD!

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by bibzgi

Ha ha, my 'puter crashed again today when trying to install gnewsense...the readings were that my optical medium (a CD) was not picking up files and I should do a new disk of the gnewsense installer or check out my CD drive.

This usually happens if the burn speed is too high. I have better luck using DVD's than CD's for burning bootable images but the choice of makes to buy here is limited.

I still think the nearest comparison to Windows (for looks) in Linux is Mandriva. Ubuntu has to be the easiest to manage but not everyone will like how it looks by default after install. This is easily changed though.

I did download the live CD (only) version of Pardus yesterday and was impressed apart from he fact that it has a unique network manager which I could not connect with. It was saying "connected" but nothing was happening. I read somewhere about downloading an alternative to their network manager but as this requires a full install I doubt I will be following it up.

[Ritho]

I have had much success using a usb flash drive to install linux and prefer it to optical media.

Unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ is a great tool that will help you create a Live USB of many different Linux distros automatically. If the distro you want is in its list, it will download and copy it to the USB drive automatically. If it is not in the list simply download the iso yourself and tell unetbootin where to find it.

[bibzgi]

Ritho, I'm sure a UPS flash drive would do much better than optical media.

Honestly, I've yet to purchase a key.

I am stubborn.

Can I download a virtual optical media program that fools the OS to see it as an actual one that would run installers like a virtual burner with the image file?

Have I mentioned that I am stubborn?

Thanks Ritho!

[Ritho]

It would be rather hard to boot from a virtual drive.