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Thread ID: 141554 2016-01-10 02:58:00 Linux Bryan (147) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1414215 2016-01-10 02:58:00 Ok. Decided to "have a go". What is the consensus please? Ubuntu, Kububtu, Mint or Puppy? Bryan (147)
1414216 2016-01-10 03:17:00 How brave are you? Gentoo! :D

Go with Mint.
Cato (6936)
1414217 2016-01-10 03:31:00 Depends on your hardware. For more recent PC's/laptops my preference would be for Kubuntu (or Ubuntu if you don't mind trying the more unorthodox interface it uses 'Unity'). I switched from Ubuntu to Kubuntu four years ago because I just could not stand Unity ... but some people like it apparently. Mint is a very good, polished distro and if I didn't like Kubuntu so much I would probably switch to Mint with the Cinnamon desktop (I have 17.02 in a VirtualBox machine currently).

If your hardware is getting on in age I would go with Xubuntu or even Puppy (Puppy boots completely into ram, so if you have plenty of memory but a slow hard drive this could be a good one).

Another distro I've just heard about which looks very much like Win7/8 is ChaletOS. I was just watching a Youtube video of it and I could have sworn it was a fake because it looked so much like Windows (at least superficially). The desktop theme was incredibly like Windows: www.youtube.com

You can check out these and other Linux distros here: http://distrowatch.com/
Rod J (451)
1414218 2016-01-10 05:02:00 Mint Mate runs very smoothly, I used to use Puppy a fair bit when I needed a live distro to run off a flash drive but Mint is way easier to use. gary67 (56)
1414219 2016-01-10 10:56:00 Start with Puppy, then go to Mint. You can run Puppy off a CD, also install it on any partition, it will set up dual booting for you if you wish. Puppy has a good selection of software already installed, and has more software available for download. You can also run a lot of Windows software by using "Wine". Of the two I prefer Puppy. mzee (3324)
1414220 2016-01-10 18:47:00 I've had more issues with Puppy, mostly with incompatible graphics hardware on older machines. I think Mint is a good starting place for being able to use it straight off with no prior experience and Kubuntu is also a great choice for the same reason.

The main difference between Mint and versions of Ubuntu is the appearance of the GUI and the included bundled software. Under the hood they are basically the same. All of them let you boot off the install DVD and try the OS without installing it and disks are cheap so why not download them all and try them out before deciding. You can also do that with flash drives but it's not always quite as simple, probably better though unless you want a permanent install disk.
dugimodo (138)
1414221 2016-01-10 20:29:00 I had a copy of Linux Mint 15. I checked it out and then decided to download it to my test machine. Probably didn't work on it enough but I didn't like it. Trying to uninstall it was a mission. With help from a google site I finally got there by booting into Win 7 (dual booting) using EasyBcd in Win 7 to reset the MBR, deleting the Linux partitions and I was good to go again. Worth the learning experience in the end. Bryan (147)
1414222 2016-01-10 20:44:00 I'm using Mint Mate 17.2. Tried many distros over the years, and this one seems fine. Dual booting with Windows, using Grub. rumpty (2863)
1414223 2016-01-10 21:38:00 So you tried it out for less than a day? KarameaDave (15222)
1414224 2016-01-11 00:37:00 Yep. Like most things in life you either like it or don't. I do have the distro and will persevere with it over time but until I am completely happy with Linux I will not compromise a perfectly good PC. Bryan (147)
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