On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:36:34 -0500, seeker wrote:

> Many years ago, I became exhausted with command line Dos. I moved to
> Macs because I wanted to work with an easier, more user friendly system
> where I did not have to learn Apple script or terminal linux or any
> command line language.
>
> I'm looking for the best Linux distro in terms of user interface that
> requires none or a minimal amount of command line work. One that has a
> lot of working applications including a good web browser, office suite,
> email, games, programs that will playback music (mp3, lossless, ogg,
> MIDi, etc.,) no hassle drivers for all-in-one printers, will accept
> external usb hard drives and DVD drives, external usb modem - basically
> as complete an OS as possible without having to hunt down a lot of
> drivers and hack the system to work. I had enough of that with the
> Amiga. I will most likely be running this on a PC laptop without any
> other OS installed. I don't like crowds on a single computer when it
> comes to op systems. And I want absolutely nothing to do with virus,
> malware and adware protection programs - really not necessary on the Mac
> and, AFAIK, not on linux either.
>
>
> Comments and suggestions please - thank you.
* * *
seeker,

I have only used Linux for a year a few months on a modern desktop
hardware... I have tried KDE Mint, PCLinouxOS, AntiX, Kubunta and
settled upon Mepis. I liked the simplicity of the Synaptic software
upgrade system, and have toyed with apt-get...

I am running both a 32 & 64-bit mepis7, I hate using a CLI as my computer
has a mouse attached. I am a computer janitor, clean them up to put
groceries on the table, & I use the Mepis 32 & 64-bit Live CD as a simple
test of computer hardware.

I always try the default boot to see if it will load, then drop back to
the vesa boot option if there is a video card, or integrated video that
can not be recognized.

Mepis is not the most propeller edged distro, but it is stable based upon
the vast Debian software repositories. There are a great many software
upgrades that have been back ported to run on Mepis 7 while Mepis 8
development is under way... Also being Debian based you can upgrade as
you wish...

I have read that some notebook computers do not run Linux as well as the
Microsoft O/S, because the latest hardware in some systems are cutting
edge and there are no drivers or it requires the latest propeller distro
that breaks often... My Gateway notebook is a few years old, and runs
Mepis 32-bit with all the functions I know about...

HP printers seem to have the most Linux support, I use a HP laser without
any problems... But have been looking with fondness at a flatbed scanner
recently, so may go back to a inkjet for color/scanner abilities.

I Use a computer based text only e-mail client "Kmail" and forward e-
mails often. Because of that I use an anti-virus software to verify the
e-mail I am sending on is not infected. I receive an infected e-mail
from my window on-line contacts almost daily...

I use the Open office org suite... I also install this on most Windows
computers I work on, replacing a hacked pirated version of Microsoft
Office that can not be updated... Gimp, is also another candiate to
replace a older pirated adobe photoshop... inkscape to replace a older
Illustrator, and
Scribus for Desktop publishing.

I use K3b/amarok , for my personal use of music, and I do download using
deluge, I am seeding AntiX-7.5 now...

Download a mepis7 live CD, take it for a trial run then ask your
questions in the mepislovers forums before installing the operating
system... or if you have not purchased your laptop, you can ask about
others running the ones you are looking towards...

Note: I enjoyed my Amiga for a long while after going to windows 95...

JR the postman

Seeker:

While there is no one best distro, I will make a suggestion.

Use Mepis. They have a Live CD so you can try it out, and I just found
it to be a great all around distro and have yet to communicate with
anyone who specifically dislikes it. Easy to use, and great with hardware
with one major exception. It does not work with series 8 Nvidia Graphics
cards. If you have one of those, sorry. perhaps with the new driver
released recently and someone could make them work together.

I have one of those cards and eventually settled on Ubuntu. I know it is
a cliche, most popular distro and all, but I was convinced to try it and
am liking it. This is saying allot considering my intense hatred of it
the first time I tried quite some years ago.


When I had an Nvidia 6800 card though my Mepis experience beat the
current positive Ubuntu one.


Mepis took a few minutes to set-up the graphics driver, codecs etc, but
provided facilities to easily do this. My network printer was working
within 90 seconds, including the time it took to walk to the printer and
grab the test print. Same printer took more than 30 minutes in Windows to
get working, so all in all Mepis was ahead in terms of what one had to do
with upon initial installation.


The big thing with Mepis is that it has a nice manual dropped on the
desktop during installation, the website has a "quick fixes" section
(http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Quick_Fixes) and it contains some
specialized configuration utilities called Mepis Assistants. These
assistants got the 3D graphics card drivers and the networking up and
running for me with very little effort. Reading the quick fixes page
meant only a few minutes of following good quality step by step
instructions were necessary to take care of common concerns.

So yeah, I say try Mepis.


BTW, I never once, ever, had to install a driver for a piece of Amiga
hardware to get it to work until well after Commodore went under. Aminet
meant no hunting for software either.