best linux distro for mobile computer? ineed advice

best linux distro for mobile computer? ineed advice

 

depends on your personal choice and experience, here are a couple though!

ubuntu
fedora
red hat
slackware
Suse
debian
gentu
knoppix
linspire
Freebsd

those are just a couple popular. if it where me...and i dont use linux i would use either Fedora, red hat or ubuntu

 

wrong question. you should ask "which laptops use linux supported hardware?" Picking the distro is trivial, so long as the hardware is supported. I believe thinkpads are usually well supported.

The answers, are at http://tuxmobil.org/mylaptops.html
Pick the manufacturer, and see what's supported. You can also look the vendor database over at www.lxer.com to see what laptops vendors are selling with complete functionality. The folks at emperor linux seem pretty good.

 

Suse and Linspire made deals with the devil (Microsoft). Don't use them if you care about that. Slackware and gentoo are definitely not for noobs- very 'do it yourself' type distros. Knoppix is not really made for installing on the hdd. It's intended to be a live CD, and only that. Red hat is the pay version of fedora. Seems like everyone and their dog uses ubuntu, although it isn't 100% debian compatible. I prefer debian, myself. If you go for 100% debian compatible, go with kanotix, or sidux.

Edit: oh, and I hear folks say good things about Simply Mepis, and PCLOS (pc linux OS) as being good intro distros, along with ubuntu. Might give those a try.

 

thanks for that usefull information,but i need to know which distro is well adapted and laptop friendly

thanks again

 

Most of them are, to a certain degree. For example, Arch is friendly to my laptop just as much as Ubuntu, but not to all people.

 

If you buy a laptop with weird/rare hardware that doesn't have linux drivers, it won't matter which distro you choose; none of them will work right.

The four I suggested should work fine on laptops with linux-supported hardware: Kanotix, PCLOS, Simply Mepis, Ubuntu.

 

Thanks. I will learn more about that four distros

 

Ubuntu and PCLOS seem to be good for new users, but as noahsark says, as long as you choose compatible hardware (i.e. no broadcom wireless cards, and check for proprietary webcams, etc), the distro usually doesn't become a big factor. However, Ubuntu seems to be the best at detecting wireless cards IMO, with PCLOS coming right behind.

 

To be more specific about the hardware, the following specs will have no problem:
Intel or AMD CPU
Intel or Atheros wireless chipset (avoid Broadcom like the plague!)
Nvidia GPU (avoid ATI chips, which are sometimes a hassle to set up)

Look for a laptop with these kinds of components and you will have more flexibility in terms of what Linux distro you can use.

 

Yup, which IMO was the main reason for the huge spike in Ubuntu's popularity a year or two ago.

 

ahh getting a broadcom wireless card to work does teach you a fair bit about linux if you're new to it. I sure had fun.....

have never had a problem with getting stuff working on the three Asus notebooks I've installed ubuntu on.

A6T - AMD / nvidia / broadcom
A6M - AMD / nvidia / broadcom
W5f - Intel / intel / intel

sound, wireless, card readers, multiple displays have always worked, though the W5 did need a little work to get the resolution right. hint, i915resolution package.


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