Game Development Community

Linux Question

by Chad \"DigitalEagle\" Kullhem · in General Discussion · 02/13/2003 (9:35 pm) · 19 replies

Hello, I'm mainly a dedicated Windows user. I don't know why, I just like to use it better.

But I have a big question.

I'm looking for the best free Linux OS I can get and there are many of them around. Linux - Mandrake, looked pretty darn good from the screen shots of it. But is there a better one?

What I'm looking for:

*Easy to use
*Stable
*Nice look to it
*Compatible with most software

I'm hoping to find something that is more like Windows XP ( Shiny and new =) )

Thanks =D

Any input is welcome, just don't start a Windows Vrs Linux fight ;)

-DigitalEagle
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Associate Tim Newell
Max Gaming Technologies
#1
02/13/2003 (9:37 pm)
Give a try for Mandrake 9 or Redhat 8. I currently use Redhat 8

Torque Owner Chad \"DigitalEagle\" Kullhem
#2
02/13/2003 (9:42 pm)
Mandrake looks pretty cool. So does it work ok with windows 98 installed? It says it does, I just wanna double check to make sure I don't screw myself over =)

Torque 3D Owner Eric Forhan
#3
02/14/2003 (2:50 am)
I had Mandrake 8.4 installed, and it was a nice O/S. I didn't really do much with it, though, so I took it off. I hear 9.x is nice, though.

I also hear that Gentoo is a good, free Linux. One thing that intrigued me about it was self-booting CDs. You put your program on a CD and it automatically runs it before booting the rest of the machine. They had a demo of UT2003 set up on this. The CD also contained the full Gentoo, IIRC.

-Eric

Torque Owner Matthew Shapiro
#4
02/14/2003 (4:53 am)
Gentoo isn't really classified as easy though. compatability ins't a worry since all distros are linux, thus all software will work. You can dual boot it with any os (I dual boot with XP on my laptop). Mandrake can automatically set that up for you. There are a few other good ones, like yoper (www.yoper.com). Yoper seems to be the most popular at www.distrowatch.com and supposedly is very easy to install nad very good. Might be worth checking out.

--KallDrexx

Torque Owner J. Donavan Stanley
#5
02/14/2003 (5:20 am)
RedHat has a nice simple setup and the default workstation install boots straight into X with GNOME.

Torque Owner Simon Windmill
#6
02/14/2003 (9:29 am)
I'd say RedHat would be the distribution to go with, because you'll find RedHat packages are more commonly available than other distributions, followed by Mandrake.

A lot of people however will start with RedHat, get comfortable with it, and move on to something else if they really want to get their hands dirty.

I've settled on Debian, after using Slackware for a while, RedHat for a brief time, and Mandrake even.. brieflier.

Torque Owner JC
#7
02/14/2003 (10:28 am)
I always used Red Hat. I tried other distros... but always ended up going back to Red Hat. SuSE is another I liked.

BTW... every linux distro is free. They cost money at stores because you are paying for the docs and stuff... but all are free to download.

Torque Owner Prairie Games
Prairie Games, Inc.
#8
02/14/2003 (11:18 am)
Debian here...

-J

Torque Owner Matthew Shapiro
#9
02/14/2003 (11:59 am)
Not all distros are free. Xandros and lindows are two distributions that cost money no matter what.

and sourcemage here (www.sourcemage.org)

--KallDrexx

Associate Tim Newell
Max Gaming Technologies
#10
02/14/2003 (1:10 pm)
If you download lindows or Xandros you can actually pirate linux.

Torque Owner JC
#11
02/14/2003 (1:21 pm)
Hmmm... weird. Its been a while since I was linux guru... I guess some things have changed. I thought it was always part of the license that linux had to be free.

Torque Owner Mz
#12
02/14/2003 (1:34 pm)
The kernel is GPL, not the whole system.

Torque Owner Mike Stoddart
#13
02/14/2003 (1:51 pm)
How about Lycoris' DesktopX:

www.lycoris.org

Torque Owner Yacine Salmi
#14
02/14/2003 (2:19 pm)
and free doesn't always mean free as in no cost...

I personally would suggest with starting with either redhat or mandrake or suse. I hear yoper is not bad as well...As you get acquainted, you may feel the need to find a distro which suits your personal preferences better...You can then take a look at slackware, debian, gentoo, or, if you're adventurous LFS (Linux from scratch)....

Have fun! and make sure you backup any important documents ;)

Torque Owner Chad \"DigitalEagle\" Kullhem
#15
02/15/2003 (11:19 am)
Do any of you Linux guys know why my linuxMandrake install freezes 1/3 of the way. In the console it tells me "bad package aspell-eh-0.33.7.1-7mdk.i586" before it freezes. Is there a way to fix this? Could this be caused by an error from burning the CD or downloading the ISO? Or is there something conflicting with it??? Please help. Thanks

Torque Owner Matthew Shapiro
#16
02/15/2003 (11:52 am)
not sure if thre is a md5sum app for windows but if there is you can test to maek sure the downloaded iso is an exact copy (might have had trouble or soemthing).

--KallDrexx

Torque Owner Chad \"DigitalEagle\" Kullhem
#17
02/15/2003 (2:02 pm)
The file aspell-eh-0.33.7.1-7mdk.i586 is my problem. Now just to figure out how to get it to work right...

Torque Owner Nicolas Quijano
#18
02/15/2003 (3:47 pm)
Last time I tried Mandrake, you had to be careful of what you installed if you had only downloaded the first install CD : the whole distro comes on 2 or 3, I don't remember exactly.
The installer might simply be looking for the file, and hanging ?
Just a thought.

Associate Tim Newell
Max Gaming Technologies
#19
02/15/2003 (7:48 pm)
don't install aspell. Install it from the web later. You can do so by doing a custom install.. and when you are picking the main catagories of software, look at the bottom and make sure Individual Package Selection is checked.. then the next screen will allow you too look for aspell and remove it.

Once you get it installed you can setup the package manager in mandrake to grab rpms from ftp sites instead of from the cdroms.

-Tim aka Spock