[tlinux-users:07646] Re: An OS for my laptop

On Wed, 1 Feb 2006 14:36:56 -0800 (PST)
John T <[email protected]> wrote:

 >tried SUSE 10 and it worked great(only some problems with the modem).

I'd put SuSE (v10 et seq) and RedHat Fedora in the same league.  Both have good update programs that you can put into full automatic (mine run nightly in dead of night).  Both OSs get new releases every 6-9 months.  I run them on laptops that I work daily with, these are not my experimentation toys.  

> I also tried a live Ubuntu cd. 

Limited experience; won't comment.  

>I also considered on FreeBSD 

Stock FreeBSD is ok but still requires some wrestling to get a good installation.  You might look at DesktopBSD which has a single-CD, fairly idiot-resistant installation.  The single CD probably won't have all the things you're looking for, but you can use the FreeBSD ports and packages system.  FreeBSD works better if you have a live network connection; if you're confined to CDs and dialup, you'll find it clumsier.  
	(There's been some kvetching on DesktopBSD's wiki page lately about whether or not the supporters are serious about the project.  So far, the maintenance over time looks a bit shaky).  

>(Someone told me that FreeBSD has the Smart Battery system included in the kernel!?) but I am afraid of hardware compatibility problems. 

FreeBSD is late to the laptop market compared with many of the Linux flavors.  The maintainers don't have that market focus.  So I wouldn't bet on these kinds of features working reliably.  


>I saw good reviews for Solaris 10 but this is a system build for servers, not laptops.

In past, I've used Solarix x86 and your assessment is not far off.  It didn't match up well with the very heterogeneous mix of ethernet cards (in the PCMCIA era).  It also tended to run comparatively hot on my laptops compared with Linux flavors.  

>  I want to choose an operating system to use for several years(that's because I don't think I will make hardware upgrades to this laptop). I need it for editing text, programming in C/C++ Java and PHP, surfing on the Internet...

many alternatives meet this list of needs.  




>  What operating system do you recommend me to use on my laptop that would have good compatibility with my hardware, stability and enough additional software.


You might try some of these alternatives, in addition to the ones you've listed:

- Puppy.  Single live CD with about 57M of the CD actually used.  I've installed Puppy Linux on 3 older machines now.  Barry Kauler has spent a lot of time on configuration scripts so they tend to find hardware and allow adjustments by you.  You can easily add more software, but the base selection is a very good start.

- Knoppix mentioned by another poster.  Full-up live CD full of Linux+apps.  A resident in my briefcase for emergency surgery purposes and marching up to a j-random machine and booting it up for use (gotten away with this in kiosks once or twice).

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php?pick=BSD_x86&showonly=All&sort=&sm=1

contains a list of live CDs.  You might want to find a machine with faster access to internet and visit it with a fistful of CD blanks ... run off a few of these and see what you like.  Or buy 'em from FrozenTech like the page says.  


Help?