Try another distro or back to XP?

Hey guys,
Ubuntu just doesnt seem to be working out. Too many hardware issues that I havent been able to fix either in these forums or in the ubuntuforums.org forums.
I really do like what linux has to offer, its features, interface, and open-source...ness, but Ubuntu at least still has many obsticles to overcome (at least with no name computers).

Does anyone here think i may have better luck with my hardware in another distro, that is just as user friendly as ubuntu?

I need my portability, and simply cannot achieve that with the lack of CPU scaling killing my battery, lack of memory card reading forcing me to hual cables and devices around, and no webcam, leaving me blind in the cafe, unless i bring an external with me. In addition to other little things that arent completely functional. sound, video out, etc.

XP is an alternative that I know works with all of my hardware out of the box. But... i dont like microsoft, i dont like viruses, i dont like all the bloated software im forced to use with windows.

What are my other Linux alternatives... for newbs? My computer is a Haier W36 laptop.

Thanks

 

PCLINUX (it is worth a try)

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

 

I think you're better off going back to XP honestly. I stick with Linux because it works for me, and if hardware manufacturers would be more cooperative, it would work for most people IMO. But they're not cooperative, and they do some screwy stuff, and Linux users have to pay the price. And to be honest, your chances of getting the webcam and media card readers aren't exactly great. Add to that the fact that you have a brand that not much is known about, and you're unlikely to get your ACPI issues resolved either.

So basically, I say go back to XP. I have still yet to use a distro as easy or user friendly as Ubuntu (PCLinuxOS included), so I can't make any recommendations in that regard. Keep in mind that your hardware will not really work with XP "out of the box"... you'll still have to go hunting for drivers. But at least it has drivers available for it.

 

Hai, I'd also agree that Windows is probably your best solution at this stage. Even the media card reader on my Dell (a feature I don't use, but whatever) only reads SD cards under Linux. Memory Stick Pro Duo functionality would be great, but my PSP has a USB cable.

But - if you are still desperate for Linux, the only distro I've used with a good hardware detection as Ubuntu has been Sabayon Linux. Great out of the box experience.

 

Not trying to bash here but just responding to what you wrote in your post.

I guess you have to decide if you want to deal with the viruses and bloatware more than trying to get things working in Linux. I just got a Clevo M570U recently and it has some ACPI issues as well. But CPU frequency scaling is built-in to the kernel (this should always work unless you have a CPU/chipset combination that's truly bizarre) and I've never seen unsolvable problems with sound or video support. Admittedly I haven't ever tried to get my webcam and card reader going - I just don't use them, so that might be what pushes you back to XP. If it is, at least you gave Linux a good shot! The experience you have so far will make it much easier to come back if/when support for your missing feature(s) arrives.

BTW - you were using a "Feisty Fawn" release, right? It made some improvements on auto-detection of the latest hardware. Really surprised me at how well it did (I installed Kubuntu to build my usual Gentoo partition) right off the CD - definitely better than Windows out-of-the-box!! In fact, I still have my Kubuntu partition around just because I was so impressed with the improvements they've made to my original favorite Debian distro!

Good luck!

 

Darn, it really is a shame. I really liked what I saw of Ubuntu, and if i had to choose between XP and Ubuntu that were both fully compatible with all my hardware, i would definately choose ubuntu. But thats just the problem, its not.

and yes notebook_ftw, my mistake. XP isnt necessairly great "out of the box", but, my notebook came with a nifty driver cd which solved every problem.

Its just that in XP, i always feel like something is running in the background, slowing me down, something is always there, i didnt necessairly have a choice in putting there. I never felt like that in ubuntu.

Well i guess its back to XP for me.
But before i go. Can someone give me a link to the BEST place to report laptop specific hardware issues directly to ubuntu. So that maybe, in the next release, they will make everyhting work JUST FOR ME Then i will be back

one more quick question. do those other distros mentioned have somtime simular to ubuntus synaptic package manage. i cant even consider using only terminal to install things. Thanks

 

What would work better is to get a laptop that is specifically supported by open source. There's only so much reverse engineering work that people want to do for machines that aren't theirs, and that don't give them any information. It's better to get something that has an Intel wireless chip, etc. Even Broadcom chips, which are all over the place, aren't working in open-source yet, except with ndiswrapper. If you want to run Linux, you need to get hardware that supports Linux. Same as if you wanted to run OSX, Solaris X86, or any number of other systems.

 

You can report your issues to the Ubuntu Laptop Testing Team, but unless one of them has your specific laptop as well, they're probably not going to be able to get much done. But it's worth a shot.

Other distros use the Synaptic Package Manager (including PCLinuxOS), though the actual packages vary. Linspire/Freespire has their CNR thing. SUSE uses YaST, which is similar, but not really the same. Even BSD has a ports system, and PC-BSD has their own network of executable files that are as easy to download and install as Windows. I don't know if Gentoo has a package manager though. Anyway, if you still want to give something a try, you could test the PCLinuxOS LiveCD. It's not as good as Ubuntu IMO, but it's worth checking out.

 

The problem with laptops is that they use many different parts; my Toshiba probably has over 10 different manufacturers who contributed various parts to the entire laptop. This makes it tough for an OS like Linux, which has no support from the hardware makers, to get things right.

This leaves you with two choices: use another OS or try another distribution. If I were in your shoes, I would choose the latter, because in the end it is worth it. Like the other members I would recommend PCLinuxOS and Sabayon, but if you want to look at the big picture, go to www.distrowatch.com to choose a distribution. Happy hunting!

 

If Ubuntu is giving you a headache, most likely any other distro will too. Go back to XP.

 

Don't feel sad of not get marry with Linux. Just back to XP.

 

Yeah, it's not like it's the end of the world. For all its faults, and for all the trouble I've personally had with it on my home machines, XP has been very stable and very easy to use for all the machines I've used at school and work. And it's not like you're out bashing Linux or anything; it simply doesn't work with your hardware. It's not your fault, and it's not Linux's fault; it's the hardware manufacturers. If you truly want to use Linux, you will probably put more research into the next computer you buy, and that's all I'm asking.

To be honest, I really don't want to see Microsoft or Windows die. I just want enough people to use other options to give Microsoft a kick in the pants so they either make better products, or play nicely with everyone else. Competition is mother of innovation, and that's no less true of Linux than it is of Windows or OS X.

 

Other distros use the Synaptic Package Manager (including PCLinuxOS), though the actual packages vary. Linspire/Freespire has their CNR thing. SUSE uses YaST, which is similar, but not really the same. Even BSD has a ports system, and PC-BSD has their own network of executable files that are as easy to download and install as Windows. I don't know if Gentoo has a package manager though. Anyway, if you still want to give something a try, you could test the PCLinuxOS LiveCD. It's not as good as Ubuntu IMO, but it's worth checking out.[/QUOTE]

May be slightly off-topic here, but just for clarification:

All the distros that use Debian as a base (*Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, etc.) can use "synaptic", "aptitude", or any other front-end they like.

Gentoo does have package managers - portage is the default package handler/manager and several GUI frontends have been developed for it. The one I use is an "unofficial" package manager called Paludis. pkgcore is another alternative package manager for Gentoo, but I've never tried it myself.

 

Thanks for the clarification on Gentoo. However, PCLinuxOS is not based on Debian, it is based on Mandriva Linux which is based on Red Hat. It uses a modified version of Synaptic and apt-get (which was ported to apt-rpm), but it still uses rpm packages rather than deb packages. In addition, it has no ties to the Debian repositories. Just for further clarification for those who might be confused (although I'm sure I didn't help in that regard).