Re: How To Choose A Distribution?

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 13:40:19 -0500
"Jay Turley" <jay@weberrific.org> wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I'm about to come into possession of a decent notebook that I would like
> to turn into a linux box for use as a portable web development machine.
>
> I'd like to get the LAMP stuff on there, as well as Ruby on Rails, along
> with some other nice tools.
>
> But that isn't the problem. The problem is that while I have used
> Solaris and Unix back in the day, I have never used Linux and have no
> idea what would be a good distribution to get to put on this machine.
>
> I would love to hear some recommendations and ideas. Thanks for all your
> help.
>
>
> Jay Turley
> jay@weberrific.org
> "Have you heard about the new corduroy pillows? They're making
> headlines!"


Linux on Laptops[1] and TuxMoble[2] are your friends here. You may need help figuring out how to get the laptop apart to install a new drive. Often Googling will get to a page where someone has explained how it's done. Newer laptops may only require removing one screw but for older laptops you may have to remove the keyboard to reach the drive space. The hardest part is often figuring out which plaastic strip to remove first and how to remove it without breaking it! Newer laptops take a 9mm thick drive, older laptops 12mm.

Sounds like your laptop has a bootable CD, so you shouldn't have a problem with any distro. If not, Smart Boot Manager[3] will help or a 2.5" to3.5" drive adapter which will let you install the laptop drive in a destop for formating partitioning. If you're test running KNOPPIX, be sure to look at the boot options since you may need to boot with the framebuffer to get X to work. Typing knoppix 2 at the boot prompt will take you directly to the command line.

Dennisk
[1] http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/
[2] http://tuxmobil.org/mylaptops.html
[3] http://btmgr.webframe.org/
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