Need help choosing a Linux Distro

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-10-01 02:04am

I'm going to be going to Japan on a year long student exchange starting in February, and I plan to take my Laptop with me. It's rather old, with only a Pentium II 366 CPU, 64MB RAM and a 6GB HDD, and while it's currently running Windows XP fine (Though somewhat slowly), it's becoming more and more obvious that I'd be better served by converting it over to Linux. I'm not afraid of having to learn how to operate the system, so it doesn't really bother me if the distro is hard to get to grips with initially. I've heard good things about Gentoo, and I was planning to use that, however I've also been tempted to use Vine Linux or Omoikane for their integrated Japanese environment. To be honest, I don't have much idea of how these Distros work, so I'm not sure if it's possible for me to really mix and match these so I can get the features of Gentoo with the Japanese environment of either of those others. If I could, that'd be great, but if not, then I suppose I'm going to have a bit of a problem. Before I go jumping into anything though, I was hoping some people here might be able to give a few recommendations as to what I should be looking for.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-10-01 08:13am

Mandrake 9.0 for the installation process. Linux is all the same basically.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-10-01 08:21am

Like I said, I'm not really afraid of having to get to grips with the OS, so just having an easy installer isn't going to grab me. What Japanese functionality does Mandrake have?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-10-01 09:34am

Don't mess with Gentoo on such a slow box. You'll spend far too long compiling everything and it does things differently than most other distros.

I'm partial to RedHat/Fedora. IIRC, RH has pretty good multilanguage support; you might want to try out the XFce 4.0 desktop environment since it's slimmer and faster than GNOME 2.4 or KDE 3.1.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-10-01 09:39am

I'm pretty sure that Mandrake supports Japanese right out of the box. Just change the default language as soon as you go into the setup process and you're set.

Never tried it myself, though. Had no reason to.

Oh, yeah, and go for Mandrake 9.1, or if you want to wait a little longer, until they release the final build of 9.2. 9.0 is rather old now.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-10-01 10:44am

Avoid Debian. You can read a lot of good stuff about it (specially its packaging scheme) but you'll get so drowned by questions during install, that you'll probably give up before you even test it...

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-10-01 10:52am

phongn wrote:Don't mess with Gentoo on such a slow box. You'll spend far too long compiling everything and it does things differently than most other distros.

Just wondering, is this the case after the initial install, or will that be the only area where I'm going to experience a huge lag? I would've expected to have a slow time compiling everything under any distro anyway. Gentoo seemed like it'd run quicker after the initial setup, with the optimizations possibile by compiling locally, so I figured it'd be a worthwhile trade-off.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-10-01 11:03am

Archaic` wrote:
phongn wrote:Don't mess with Gentoo on such a slow box. You'll spend far too long compiling everything and it does things differently than most other distros.
Just wondering, is this the case after the initial install, or will that be the only area where I'm going to experience a huge lag? I would've expected to have a slow time compiling everything under any distro anyway. Gentoo seemed like it'd run quicker after the initial setup, with the optimizations possibile by compiling locally, so I figured it'd be a worthwhile trade-off.

It's not that much of a difference compiling with your own flags or getting an RPM - I tested a few basic tasks with downloadable binaries and compiled versions. It just wasn't that much different.

The Gentoo kernel is another story, that one is optimized for desktop responsiveness even when compiling. It works fairly well on my P3/650 laptop.

As for compiling, since you're compiling a Lot Of Stuff, it takes a LONG while. If you just want to get a box up fast and with proper multilanguage support, look at one of the other distros.

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-10-01 11:31am

I've got from the beginning of November to the beginning of February to get the box working properly. I've got the time.

Pu-239 · Post by **Pu-239** » 2003-10-01 05:56pm

Slartibartfast wrote:Avoid Debian. You can read a lot of good stuff about it (specially its packaging scheme) but you'll get so drowned by questions during install, that you'll probably give up before you even test it...

DIE HEATHEN!!!!

In all seriousness, Debian is good for a second system, but not first since you have lots of shit to pick out of, and initial setup is command line. The questions were never much of a problem, and there is only the one-time initial flood of questions - just hit the default if you don't know, or ask me, since I use Debian. After you install, you can run

Code: Select all

dpkg-reconfigure debconf

to reduce the flood of questions for future updates.

BTW, if you change your mind on a question, run

Code: Select all

dpkg-reconfigure <package-name>

as root. Also edit your ~/.bashrc - that will give you a nice color console, and then some. Insole, and then some. I can send you various config files if you want. can send you various config files if you want.

Debian has japanese support for some apps, but not all. I believe there is support for Japanese in OpenOffice though.

Vine looks out of date, at least on the english pages

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-10-01 07:13pm

Pu-239 wrote:
Slartibartfast wrote:Avoid Debian. You can read a lot of good stuff about it (specially its packaging scheme) but you'll get so drowned by questions during install, that you'll probably give up before you even test it...
DIE HEATHEN!!!!

<snip>

BTW, if you change your mind on a question, run
Code: Select all
dpkg-reconfigure <package-name>
as root. Also edit your ~/.bashrc - that will give you a nice color console, and then some. Insole, and then some. I can send you various config files if you want. can send you various config files if you want.

The problem with the questions is that the install doesn't even give you a hint, or a default, or anything. Just asks and asks and asks. And most of the questions are so obscure, that you REALLY don't know if you should answer yes or not. I never even finished installing.

Do you want to enable GUG-BURBS (y/n)?
Do you want to enable host-warp-daemon (y/n)?
Install GUI/Basic (y/n)?
Install GUI/Options (y/n)?
Install GUI/Extras (y/n)?
Do you want to be able to use your monitor (y/n)?
Do you have a keyboard (y/n)?
Does your keyboard have a N key (y/n)?
...
15 minutes later
...
Do you want your soundcard to use the special ultra FX module (y/n)?
Would you like to use FORDPREFECT1.0 instead of ARTHURDENT9Beta?
Do you want to use the old menu scheme (y/n)?
Do you want to use the not-so-old menu scheme (y/n)?
If I was an animal, would I be an armadillo (y/n)?
Do I have something between my teeth (y/n)?
Do I look fat in this dress (y/n)?
Do you want fries with that (y/n)?
...
30 minutes later
...
Are you in a coma yet (y/n)?
If you are in a coma, would you like to wake up (y/n)?
*I PRESS THE POWER BUTTON*

Archaic` · Post by **Archaic`** » 2003-10-02 04:04am

Pu-239 wrote:Debian has japanese support for some apps, but not all.

Which, sadly, means that that Distro's out of the running as far as I'm concerned.

Pu-239 wrote:Vine looks out of date, at least on the english pages

The English pages are rather out of date yes, but those in Japanese show that the distro was last updated on the 18th of last month.