Which version of Linux for my Alienware 18?

I never used Linux before, which version would you recommend me to use on my Alienware 18?

 

I presume you're intent on gaming with it, correct?

Mint would be my first choice, although I personally use a different distro (CentOS) nowadays.

 

I don't want to play games on it. I have my desktop for that. I just want to be able to learn linux. I don't like not knowing something and me having no idea how to use Linux is a shame on me so I wanted to see what's the best one to use that will have all the drivers working and stuff you know

I will make the Alienware 18 a pure linux machine, no dual boot or anything

 

Matrix Leader, I haven't booted an AW on Linux, but I have on many other devices, but not for gaming.

It would be good to figure out which Linux Steam uses / tests on, to get the best compatibility (looking).

Rather than spend a lot of time blowing away your configuration, testing new Linux configs, you can also boot from USB.

Ubuntu would also be a good choice:

How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

For work I use RHEL, OEL, Centos, Debian, Ubuntu, Solaris, OSX

Please let us know what you find works for you best

 

Try Mint as a "live" distro and see how you like it. If it ends up being far from where you need it to be, we can look into other options.

 

Matrix Leader, the best way to be dissuaded from using Linux is to try to get it to boot and function at 100% on a laptop

For learning Linux, I recommend using Virtualbox and/or VMware Player, both free and efficient at bringing Linux up quickly - all except for 3D - that's why I don't recommend it for gaming.

You can run several VM's through VB or VMware at a time, and even network between them, to learn network set up and management.

That's all even more fun than gaming on Linux

 

I have tried Linux Mint last month on an old laptop and it worked fine but I didn't really dive into the OS. I don't like booting off the OS off a lice CD/Flash disk as it cripples its performance big time. I would wanna run it as the full time and only OS on that system

 

Well, if this is just for curiosity there are arguably things way more important or fruitful to do than learning to use another OS...

With that said, as long as you're not into anything performance demanding (like gaming) inside your GNU/Linux environment, VM is the way go in the beginning. It's much easier to mess with things within a VM and reverse to previous snapshots quickly. Besides, if you break something, your host OS is still there for you to Google and copy/paste.

 

Matrix Leader, that's why I use a USB 3.0 superfast drive, that runs at 250MB/sec +, it can boot / run almost as good as a SSD boot.

As my next post said, for non-gaming, non-bare metal boot requirements, VM's are best. As long as you don't need specific hardware outside the VM emulation, it is the best solution.

Have fun

 

That is why I prefer not to use a VM, I have to deal with the hardware straight on. I have my second drive now, 480GB, that will eventually go Mint 17.2. While I am by no means a Linux expert I am confident enough in my abilities for Grub and a normal boot.

Nice thing though about a VM is quick access to both OS's. This you can't get with a dual boot. Every situation has different compromises.

 

I think you'll like the Mx-14 Symbiosis Linux as a first choice, whether using a USB drive or full install. There are many helpful videos on their home page. Do a quick search and you'll find them. You can download 14.4 version, or look for their monthly update link. This is a Debian system that will get you started quickly. You might also consider Mint LMDE2 Betsy, which has 32 and 64 bit versions available.


Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

Just remember Grub does not like fast boot. Before with the HDD it booted slow enough but with 2 SSD's it is too fast.

 

What's the problem with GRUB and fast boot?

 

Well it is not just Grub but Linux, with the HDD in the second slow it still too a bit of time. With the 2 SSD's it is WAY faster past the OEM logo so the SSD does not seem to get time to initialize. I keep reverting to grub rescue.

 

I'm not sure I understand your issue. How could the SSDs be too fast if they are not initialized yet? Doesn't GRUB itself (or the kernel after it) sit on the drive and must wait for the drive to initialize before loading?

Don't have GRUB on my laptops but at least with Gummiboot/Systemd-boot everything seems to be fine even with sub 1 second boot time from kernel load to full systemd tree ready.

 

The problem with people asking "which linux?..." is; its just like asking which car or which food is the best. There is no "best" answer.

 

It seems the UEFI fastboot intializes them to the OS before they are actually ready. With FastBoot enabled and the HDD in the second slot the logo is up for about 3 seconds, with both SSD's and fastboot disabled again it is up for slightly over 2 seconds but with fastboot and both SSDs it is a flash only. It is a well documented issue of fastboot incompatibility.

I actually, for me, found a great solution. I leave fastboot enabled and on install have the boot loader for linux installed on the second drive. At logo just F10 and select the second drive to boot for Mint. This way unless you specifically try for it you never boot linux just Windows 7.

 

OP is completely new to this so asking about which distro to pick up does make a bit of sense.

Do you mean Windows fast-boot/hybrid-boot causing problems in a dual boot system? I'm aware of that, but that issue seems to be about data corruption on Windows system partition, not failing to boot Linux. If not, can you give me a link describing the nature of the problem?

 

True as I don't want to try something that will blow me off the hook and be daunting at first. Thank you all. I will try Linux Mint Cinnamon x64

 

I agree with trying Mint. It has all the basic tweaks already done.
Of course the base distro is just the first step. You'll want to try out the different desktop gui's; from Cinnamon, to Mate, KDE, XFCE, Gnome and even ubuntu's unity, and see which you prefer.
Keep track of the lastest distros at distrowatch.

Also this website has a bunch of good tips: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/

 

Most USB drives really suck at random access though, especially in write.

 

Mr.Koala, now that SSD's are cheap, just get one of those and put it in a USB 3.0 enclosure. We all have left over SSD's hanging around, and except for the larger 2.5" enclosure size, they are ideal for booting and testing new OS's.

For years I used the Patriot Magnum USB thumb drives (now Patriot Extreme Performance Supersonic Rage 2 is faster) , and then the Super Talent RAID series (very hard to find, military/gov bought them all up), and now SSD drives in an external case.

All faster than a CD/DVD... right?

There is a site I have been using for a while when looking for USB thumb drives for backup recovery, you can sort by any column to focus in on the speed item you are most interested in.

Right now it looks like the Mushkin Ultra USB 3.0 series 60GB has the fastest 4k write speeds of 52.4mb/sec, the larger sizes not as well, but not bad:
http://usb.userbenchmark.com/SanDisk-Extreme-USB-30-64GB/Rating/1459

You can sort columns from this page:
http://usb.userbenchmark.com/

Given the prices, unless you just need a 16GB/32GB size for a recovery backup, you might as well work from an SSD, like that spare M.2 SATA SSD you have left over from an upgrade, here is an external case for it:

ZTC Thunder Enclosure NGFF M.2 SSD to USB 3.0 Adapter. Support UASP SuperSpeed 6Gb/s 520MB/s Black Model ZTC-EN004-BK
http://www.amazon.com/ZTC-Enclosure-Adapter-SuperSpeed-ZTC-EN004-BK/dp/B00KQ4LNJC

A little bigger than a USB thumb drive, but still nice and compact, and fast

 

Thanks.

The ZTC will get the job done. But something like this would give pure thumb drive form factor. No hanging from USB cables.



I used to have a SanDisk CZ80 for this purpose. I knew the SanDisk was quick in random, but given the UserBenchmark rating it looks like I managed to hit the jackpot.

 

@Matrix Leader, after your done playing with Mint, here are some for you to try out:

PCLinuxOS kde64 full.
Elementary OS
Netrunner
Pinguy OS
Ubuntu 15.04

- no where near a complete list, and I didn't include any I considered "lightweight", but I think these that I listed have a certain elegance about them that's worth a look.

 

Honestly If you want to just learn Linux then go to distrowatch and pick up any linux that you like. The best thing about most Linux distros is that they are free and you can easily load them onto a VM and try them out. Try out Mint, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE, Debian, Fedora, LXLE, Zorin, Elementary and many others and then make your choice.!

 

Linux for Dummies is also a good source for the basics. The thing I find about Linux is that since it has become more mainstream there's tons of info via a Google search. Every question i've had has been answered just by doing a search.

 

Hi guys I found virtual box pretty easily but struggling to find VMware player 12 for free. Could you guys post me link to somewhere.

I am running Windows 10 without any scaling so should be good to go with ease. Would like to try this VM stuff as I have not done it before. If I balls Up I have Acronis to save me.

Then going to try full installs of Ubuntu, Mint and Kali on an empty SSD I have sitting in my system as I will just partition it 3 ways and Install each one then use boot manager when I want to access a different one.

Its time for me to experiment

 

You're missing the point of a virtual machine there. The virtual machine runs sandboxed in Windows and making any changes inside the virtual machine will not affect Windows. If/when something does go terribly balls-up then you just delete the virtual machine and all is well.

Try Virtual Box first - it's very good. Be sure to also download the 'guest additions' which is also free.

 

Okay that is a fair point. I actually didn't know that was how they worked. Thanks for tip I shall do that.
Its all a big experiment for me. Part of my new years resolution!

 

Here. The "VMware Workstation Player" variant is free of charge with the basic feature set. The paid features are not important for your use case.

VirtualBox works just fine as well.


Virtual drives used by VMs can have snapshots. Make one before potentially dangerous changes and you'll be able to go back in time easily if you do mess up.

 

No problem! You boot Windows as normal and open up the Virtual Box app. Select the virtual machine you have created and it loads in a seperate window, like any other app. As Mr.Koala points out, you can make snapshots before making any big changes, so if something goes wrong you can restore your virtual machine from them.

There are guides to help you set up Virtual Box but it's not too tricky to do it yourself.

 

Right I shall crack this on Sunday then.

They actually used Virtual Box in part of my Comptia A+ 802 course. So I kinda saw how to use that a little bit.

With snapshots and also Acronis on my system I can just play and then as you guys say just restore if I make a mistake.

 

So just downloaded and installed VirtualBox I could not find the guest additions? They do a ' VirtualBox 5.0.12 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack' That is all I could find on the website though?

I also downloaded and installed WMware workstation player.

I feel the need for 3 monitors now. lol

Windows 10 in the middle. Left Ubuntu, right Linux Mint Cinnamon, Laptop OSX El Capitan.

Possibly getting a head of myself a little bit! Hey a boy (man? I'm 29) can dream lol

 

My mistake, it shows as 'guest additions' on my system but it certainly seems to be called 'extension pack' on the Oracle site - just need to download it and double click. Once you've done that, you can load it inside the virtual machine, where it will appear as a disk drive and can be run. I run VB from inside OSX El Capitan and run Windows, Linux Mint, FreeBSD and Android 4.4 from virtual machines (Including nestled VM's) - that's the point where you've possibly gone a bit too far.

It's sometimes handy to have a Windows virtual machine running inside Windows, for the times when there's a queastionable piece of software you want to use or something else that might damage your main OS.

Have fun with Linux!

 

Well I have just typed you this message using chromium on Ubuntu. I am in VMware workstation player though. Simply because I thought I would player with that one while I waited for an answer on the extension pack.

I am going to Install the extension pack now and then install Linux Mint Cinnamon 64bit. I am guessing as Linux mint is not listed within virtual box I just say its 'other Linux 64 bit'

Thanks for all your support with this.

I can see the massive advantage of VM's now. Might see if I can pick up a Windows 7 64bit ultimate edition somewhere. I use it more on all my Courses than I do Windows 10. To be honest I have always prefer Windows 7 to the newer ones anyway. I just have an issues for always wanting to be on the latest and greatest OS. Turns out they are not so great lol.

 

They're both good - I favour VB but I'm sure you'll find one that works for you. The extensions pack installs a bundle of drivers such as graphics and allows shared folders between the main OS and the VM client. Also allows you to connect USB devices and have them show in the VM.

Yup that's right.

If you run a VM in full screen mode, it's sometimes easy to forget you're running an OS as a VM.

 

That's actually pretty handy. I could certainly use that for the devices.

I can now learn a little more about terminal and I got a C programming book for Xmas that use a compiler that's built into Linux as well.

I got a book on Python, C and objective C. Plus a Book for my 801 and one for N+ I have 5 books to read and get through! I don't know what my family and partners family were thinking!

 

Well I managed to get Linux Mint and Ubuntu installed on Virtual Box.

Even managed to sort this issues of Ubuntu running at 640x480 in virtual Box.

Must admit so far Mint looks more familiar to Windows and Ubuntu looks a lot more like OSX just on the left.

 

When you install Mint (or Cinnamon desktop on any other distro) as the host, download this extension and put each of your VM window in a dedicated workspace. Then you can simply switch among Linux/Windows/Mac by scrolling on the edge of your screen. As benni said, when the VM window is in full screen mode, you won't even notice it's a VM.

 

But that only works If I have Linux as my Main OS (Host)?

I would have to then put Windows inside the VM.

Just checking my understanding. That tool is awesome going to save that in my favourites, Using windows Key +Ctrl and left and right arrows in windows 10 to change workspaces is hard work. Especially compared to gestures and 3 finger swipe in OSX.

I have been putting each OS in a VM on a separate workspace in Windows 10 and using the method above to move. Catch is in full screen mode it doesn't work. Well least I have worked out how to make it work.

I think It might my Left ctrl, right control, windows key and arrow key in Virtual box, Right ctrl being the key for the host.

 

Yes. And you must use Cinnamon Desktop.

The VM software hijacks all your keyboard input (with the exception of the host key) when it has the focus. This is necessary for stuff inside the guest to run reliably, but your host may not detect the shortcuts (depending on which layer the shortcut detection works with).

The Cinnamon extension works because it generates a hidden overlay which is rendered on top of any other window even in full screen mode.

We could try to make a tool with identical function under Windows 10. However Windows UI may have some problems supporting this in full screen mode.

 

Well making one is not a bad idea. Windows 10 does allow full screen, Allows workspaces and also responds to the keyboard short cut of ctrl+windows key+ arrow right or left to move work spaces.

Getting Windows to look for the mouse being at the edge of the screen I am guessing will be the hard bit. As its needs to look for it and capture it independantly of the VM capturing it in full screen.

Sorry for late reply. Been having issues with 2 routers doing double NAT and making back to my mac go wrong for my partner.

 

If you're looking to learn Linux the probably you'd like a virtual machine for the first time.
Or you may find yourself reinstalling the Linux few times before feels more or less comfortable with it.

Speaking about the specific distribution I can recommend you the Ubuntu desktop or Mint. They're the most user-friendly at this moment.

Take a look here for some information about Linux and software you can use.