Looking for a distro.

I'm looking for a distribution for an HP Mini 1035NR. The wireless card is Broadcom 802.11b/g. The most important thing for this machine will be the ability to connect to a wireless network easily. All that's really going to be done on this machine is using OpenOffice, GIMP, Firefox, using a media player primarily for music, and not getting viruses.

This isn't my machine; it's a siblings, and I'm tired of cleaning up the mess of viruses on it. It's reached a point where it has to be formatted, and I'm not going to let this process repeat.

I haven't used Linux on anything other than wired networks before, and I'm totally lost as to which distributions is the easiest for wireless networking.

Ideally I'd like something that feels like Ubuntu as far as the ease of installation of software, but with networking similar to Windows.

Thanks for reading.

 

It's really a matter of preferences. openSUSE, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc all have good built in wireless managers. I've use the following desktops with no probelm KDE, Gnome, XFCE.

If you want to stick to a more "windows" like interface avoid Ubuntu Netbook Remix.


Edit: Just read you have a broadcom wireless card in it. First, check for a guide on getting it to work with the selected Linux distro. Then, with wired access ,get the wireless card working. Then it's wireless freedom.






Off Topic: I really hate broadcom wireless cards.

 

Thanks for the input. I'll probably go with Ubuntu and Gnome. I bet this would be easier if it had an Intel wireless card, but putting money into such a cheap computer just doesn't make sense.

+rep, thanks again.

 

I was going to say buy an intel card but figured it wouldn't be worth it. I'm actually in the same boat with another computer - I don't want to pay to get an Intel card in it.

Ubuntu with Gnome would be a good choice. Seems to be the most user friendly and easiest for someone who isn't really a computer person (sibling) and new to Linux.

 

broadcom now has a good step by step instruction to install the driver on their website. then install network-manager. reboot.

 

Ubuntu's netbook remix isn't windows-like at all, but it's really awesome

 

I might go for that one actually. I'm going to leave those as the two options and see what get's chosen by the owner. When I was talking about something something similar to Windows, I was really only referring to the ease of networking exclusively and nothing about desktop environment.

 

to Sirhcz0r:
to get broadcom working in ubuntu, boot it with wired internet, go to system > administration > proprietary hardware drivers, you have 2 choices: b43 or broadcom STA wireless driver. I choose the second. Install, reboot and done.
For fedora there is a little more to do, you can see here and here (read the entire page in linuxwireless).

once the wifi is set up, every gnome distro acts the same with the default network manager, you click the icon, select wifi network, put password, done. this behavior is very close to windows 7 wireless manager.

i have actually installed linux last week on my hp with broadcom wifi and could not get wireless to work with fedora 13, even after following the guides. so i just got ubuntu and used hardware installer. i'm happy with it. also, i choose the broadcom sta over b43 because b43 didn't work with my machine.

good luck.

 

How about openSuSE?

 

Those days are quite over. To get Broadcom working, usually all that is required is being connected on a wired connection and going to System > Admin > Hardware Drivers

Yeah, the STA is a good solution, however you have three options when running ubuntu:
* Installed the STA Driver
* Use the OpenSource Broadcom Driver(with nonfree firmware)
* Use the OpenSource Broadcom Driver(with free firmware)

The first two are automated, however look here. for details on the third option.

 

another solid choice I can now recommend because I'm using it, is Peppermint OS....it's LXDE desktop enviro, and based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Very solid, very fast....forums are good too. The developer is the Mint LXDE guy, so it's got a solid base and climbing the Distrowatch charts.

 

About halfway through the Ubuntu Netbook Remix download at this point. I don't exactly have the fastest internet. I'll post updates regarding the wireless once it's installed.

I do really like LXDE though. I use Knoppix as my emergency/backing up files OS.

 

Also consider Linux Mint. It's basically Ubuntu with some UI tweaks and all of the "non-free" media codecs and drivers installed.

 

All the recommendations tend to Ubuntu. Once you have it installed, you can then add and remove from it whatever you want. You can switch to LXDE and try it, then come back, etc.

 

Love Mint

http://forum.notebookreview.com/linux-compatibility-software/488506-mint-9-discussion.html

 

Okay, Ubuntu Netbook Remix is installed (I actually like it more than the regular Ubuntu!), just about everything is updated, and the wireless works perfectly with the STA driver.

I'd say the wireless networking feels more like Mac OS then anything else.

Thanks guys!

 

Good for you. There is no turning back now