Best Linux Distro for y580?

Hello,

I'm looking to install Linux Distro on my mSata on the y580. Since I'm doing a lot of linux programming and C/C++, I'm sick of using matrix and connecting to school Servers.

anyways,

Any know which distro to use?

I've downloaded Fuduntu, Ubuntu and Mint.

I've heard they are all pretty much top of their class. I was aiming for fuduntu, apperently very battery friendly and easy on resources. I've also heard Ubuntu and mint both look great, and have great support....so now I'm stuck:S


Any advice?

Thanks

 

i would recommend ubuntu. it look great and is more user friendly than other linux distros (in general). If you are in a mood to pay for something, feodra has got the old gnome desktop and looks absolutely stunning.

 

Thank you for the response, how about fuduntu? Have you heard anything about that? I've heard it also uses old style and it's very user friendly as well:S

Edit: Meh I did Ubuntu also installed bumblebee.

 

You can always replace Unity with whatever desktop environment you like with Ubuntu (or any Linux distro, really). Don't like Unity? Then replace with GNOME, KDE, Mate, Cinnamon, XFCE, etc.

 

In terms of battery...is Ubuntu any good? Also would you suggest a substitute for Unity? I don't like flash, i like simplicity...similar to Mac...

 

It all depends on what you want to do with your system, if you are a programmer, I would recommend Red Hat, It is basic and VERY stable, often used on business servers and programmers as a test bed environment. For the usual consumer Ubuntu works great, it has the best driver support of any linux based OS.

Battery life will most likely improve on any linux flavor, as it is less system intensive than Windows, meaning that less processing is done and less RAM is used.

Also, I feel like I should mention that in your signature that the mSATA SSD you have on your system, if being used as a cache, will actually slow your system down. The mSATA interface is slower than the SATA III connector from your Laptop to your SSD.

 

One other thought, if you have a USB, you can get live distributions from any linux flavor, this will allow you to just the OS before you install it, when running from a USB it will not be as fast as when installed on your HDD, however, it will give you the opportunity to test out a whole bunch of different flavors, without installing them, so that you can see which one you like the best.

 

RHEL is great for servers and the software is extremely stable (read: old). However, RHEL is not known for supporting laptops. I think you were referring to their community testbed distro called "Fedora." There, the software is really up to date and one gets to test the latest and greatest, some of which will find their way into a future release of RHEL. Also, it works fine for most laptops, though YMMV. However, the installer for the latest version of Fedora has been roundly criticized because of the possibility of erasing a partition that the user wanted to leave untouched. Alan Cox, one of the earliest linux kernel maintainers, wrote a diatribe on this issue a few months ago. For installer ease, best to stick with Ubuntu or Mint.

This idea is nice if it was true. Unfortunately, a typical linux distro can, at times, feel like it is a hundred of different pieces held together by glue. Namely, the graphic drivers are split into two camps: opensource/community and closed-source/proprietary. The latter has more features save ATi's offerings. The former is still a work-in-progress where many, if not all, do not have the powersaving features required to keep the laptop cool or reduce battery drainage. Thus, expect your laptop to run 10C higher than it does with Windows.

Additionally, from time to time, you'll have regressions in the kernel that decreases battery life. ( Massive power regression going 3.4->3.5). In fact, as a long-time linux user, a linux desktop distro having a higher battery life compared to Windows or Mac OSX is news to me.

 

No I use the mSata mainly as a Storage Device, it hasn't been caching for a while.

I use it for general use and progamming, I just like simplicity...and I'll be honest...ubuntu is very flashy:S I don't remember it being this weird

It was always the better looking Linux Distros, but the new unity interface is weird:S

@ssri

Thanks for the info, it felt like even Ubuntu was draining my battery faster than windows 8...i was thinking that maybe I didn't configure the power draw properly:S

 

as i understand it, Ubuntu ,by default, needs to be optimized for battrey usage. this may seem painful but it does give you a postion where you can choose higher battrey or performance.

EDIT correct me if i am wrong
EDIT use elementry os if you like mac's layout

 

That looks very good

 

did you get any problem with Ethernet driver or with wifi driver. by default my Ubuntu never gets the driver. so i can't connect to my Internet.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

 

With Ubuntu, I literally had no problems installing...I was pretty surrpised! When I had the m14x R1 or m11x R1 can't remember, I do remember I had A TON of driver problems....with my y580 even the function key works! MOuse pad on off works., volume, brightness I was pretty shocked lol.

 

Install Ubuntu and get Gnome 3 running on it.

Linux Mint also works well.

 

I am running into one problem though now...sometimes touch pad works...other times it doesn:S seems to be mainly when I'm on battery....lol