with a large memory usb flashstick 32gb i downloaded YUMI – Multiboot USB Creator. a freebie program to install linux builds onto my usb flashstick. started with the most popular and have more then a dozen live distros. yumi makes it too easy.

next was to configure the machine to allow a usb boot up. once thats successful selected a linux build and got to know which version to suit before installing to my laptop.

easiest for me was puppy lucid or wary. liked ubuntu 12.4 and later 14.4 then tried mint, mate version (32 bit). like a kid in a sweet shop.

Migrated to Mint KDE full time now, sort of. I still have Win 7 because I still like to play a game now and then, plus I've got astronomy equipment and the firmware updates have to be done in windows. I don't fancy using Wine and things like that to flash firmware, I'm paranoid enough as it is when I flash any device or BIOS (seriously, I turn into a bag of nerves). I still use Windows for my iPhone too, but that will change at some point in the near future as the phone is outdated and I'll migrate over to android (not keen on apple prices).

So, yea. My default boot is Mint KDE. It's fast as heck, I've got it looking slick.... and.. I know I will regret saying this.... but... I've never had a problem, not even a minor one. No software problems, no driver problems, nothing. It's been fine right from day one. Very happy.

P.S. Settled on Linux Lite for the netbook (was XP) and that runs fantastically well, it runs my telescopes perfectly, and it does look very nice for a light version, doesn't look basic at all. The only problem I ever had with that was having to manually change the screen brightness by editing a file instead of a GUI with a slider, but that was all, and it was dead easy, not even a problem really.

1. go to rpmfusion.org , click on rpms for free and non-free for your version (sure its 17 seems very old)
2. The rpms should install automatically
3. Then open the package manager (been called software for a few versions I think) then choose whatever packages you want. Any dependencies should auto install

openSUSE 13.2 not too far away now. Just over a month as of writing.

They ought to sort out the version numbering.

I'd all but given up on openSUSE. I don't know why, but I got a feeling things weren't that peachy. Hopefully this release will prove otherwise. Just downloaded the Gnome 3.14 beta to give it a go.

Debian to use Gnome 3 as default
https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/task...1bb5bb1d9ee6d7

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianDeskto...ication/Jessie


http://www.pcworld.com/article/26911...nux-users.html

Yup. The time is right imho. Gnome 3.14 looks fantastic. You guys here know I didn't have a problem with Gnome 3 in the first place personally, but for wider use it is more than ready now. If only Ubuntu would ditch Unity now and switch too.

Tbh, I can't see that happening not least because Canonical are so committed now to the Unity interface. I personally don't particularly care for it but even Unity's miles better than the Win 8 horror show because you can still find your way around even if it's on the quirky side. I think the best that'll probably happen is something like a manual download and installation option of Gnome 3.14.

You must understand that I don't say that as a slagging off of Unity. I love it and it's great. But development on the desktop from Ubuntu has seemingly stagnated, and I think many will see that when 14.10 comes out with next to zero changes from 14.04. They just aren't interested in the desktop any more. Maybe this will change with the move to Unity 8 on 15.04 and 15.10, but it's too early to say. Right now though, Gnome development is really pushing on and is very exciting. Regardless of where Unity goes in the future I don't see that changing, and I'd like to see more distros now move to Gnome 3.

Youre right, in that we wont see any ground breaking changes in 14.10
Thats because in my opinion Unity desktop as a user interface just works, it was a major change from Gnome 2, but thats it with unity looks wise now, just underlying kernel changes etc can take place now.

They are moving towards the
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgbxaUjY2Ag
And as the ubuntu phone is supose to be release this year? they are heading towards the microsoft and osx set up, same os across desktop/phone/tablet.

If it takes off it will be great, but i think its just going to be a niche market for them, windows and osx have too great a head start on them.

I Like the Unity desktop, and have been using it for nearly 11mnths without reformatting and trying other distros, unlike me as i used to change monthly

But the new Gnome 3.14 keeps getting great readups, just a pain in the ass its not being used by most distros,
Think Fedoras next release will have it, and Arch based distros have it now, but you dont get the software ctr with Arch https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desk.../msg00107.html
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desk.../msg00107.html

http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/6...games-las-333/

skip to 59min

Any ubuntu users thinking of moving to btrfs when 14.10 is released at the end of the month?

considering it, have been googling for people's experiences but haven't found a great deal though some seemed to prefer xfs instead.

Scroll to 41mins
http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/6...tmare-las-320/

I use BTRFS on my Mint 17 laptop's /home partition. In addition the partition is encrypted with LUKS. Had no problems with it so far.

If i were using Linux for a fileserver i'd go with XFS because i'd be wanting to use RAID 5/6 (with mdadm) underneath and BTRFS is not ready with its RAID 5/6 support, but for a single disk system like my laptop i have no qualms about using BTRFS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qRG7EYHW54

Im a fan of Unity, yes i know Gnome3 users like Gnome3, but i dont

The only thing was Unity was starting to look a bit basic, compared to the new release of Gnome and Windows.

But just seem the youtube clip of the Apps, and liking the look of it

I get that some people would like to move the bar and max/min buttons.
I personaly dont have a problem with them, also got used to single click now, thought that was mad when distros started using it as default.
But makes sense as touch phones/tablets etc use it.

Oh well roll on 23 oct for its release
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UtopicUnicorn/ReleaseSchedule

I have an old Dell laptop with a Pentium M processor and 512k RAM. It currently runs XP but I thought it was time for a change as XP is no longer supported.

I am quite computer savvy so thought it would be a walk in the park! Downloaded Mint Cinnamon 17 and unpacked the ISO file to DVD. Reset the BIOS to boot from DVD and hey presto!. Nada. Zilch Nothing. It carried on booting from Windows. Download checksum was OK. Tried another DVD. Same again. I don't accept defeat easily so tried with a USB drive. An error message said press any key to try again so that did not work either.

Maybe the DVD was iffy so I tried it in my main machine (Pentium4/XP). Looked OK but then got an error message, Cinnamon has crashed do you want to restart. Another loop....!

So my question is, can anyone recommend a lightweight version of Linux that will dual boot on the old laptop. This was intended as a trial run for my main box but I feel a new Windows PC would save time and trouble. Grrrrrrrrr

make / model is quite important as theres always been some graphics cards that just are not properly supported, also make sure you didn't grab either the AMD or 64 bit iso's and try a 32bit from another source, sometimes you may need to go back a few revisions as while the software will work its the installer expecting TOO much and getting well confused when it doesn't see what it wants and then goes tits up

Unetbootin and others automate near any install to a USB stick.

But you need to gogle your laptop model. Likely a hatch on the back lets you upgrade it to 2GB of cheap (maybe ebay for this old stuff) Ram.

Most Pentium M processors require a distro with a Linux kernel which has been compiled as NON-PAE.

I have an old Dell laptop with a Pentium M and 768k of RAM and Puppy Linux runs on it beautifully. There are many variants of Puppy produced by the community and the folks are very friendly and helpful.

The latest "official" Puppy version is Slacko 5.7 and it is available as PAE or NON-PAE. Just make sure you download the latter.
http://slacko.01micko.com/download.html
Usually I find that the mirrors such as nluug are much faster than ibiblio for downloading.

Otherwise there are other versions using Debian or Ubuntu binary packages. The core of these is still unique to Puppy but it gives compatibility if you want to install other software from those distros. I quite like this one which uses Debian Wheezy packages and is NON-PAE:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=80546

Thanks all for advice!

First problem was the laptop BIOS. After setting boot from DVD it ignored this totally and require F12 for a "one time" boot.

Next I downgrade to Mint 13 which "loaded" but did not actually do anything. Same on the old Pentium 4.

Finally decided to give Puppy a go and it does seem to work. Interface looks a bit untidy but at least it gives me something to practice on.

Have run old versions of Ubuntu from disk in the distant past and I get a feeling (puts tin hat on!) that the big names are the way to go for regular use.

Thanks again

Maybe give LXLE a go?
http://lxle.net/

Perhaps. I have plenty of time for research. Probably need to upgrade my main system first though before going for proper dual boot.

Ubuntu I think has actually got stage fright, the moment they thought it might be a mass user OS they decided to **** up the UI and piss everyone off.

Or they were suddenly caught up in an influx of ex Microsoft staff who decided to lead.

Glad Puppy worked for you. I was fairly confident that it would do. I realise that if you decide you don't like the interface then there will probably be no point in trying to persuade you, but what I would say is that when you are running on older hardware the desktop environment is an important factor in determining how fast everything runs.

Puppy uses a combination of ROX-Filer and JWM window manager as the default DE and this is extremely light and fast. There are derivatives of Puppy with other DE's such as XFCE which is considered light compared to some others, but on older hardware you can notice the slower performance when you install these. The more bloated Linux distros may look a bit more sophisticated but I would be surprised if any of them come anywhere near the speed of Puppy.

Also, Puppy has all the tools to easily set up a dual boot with XP. What I would do (and have done on lots of XP machines) is to clean up the XP as much as possible, defrag and then shrink the partition to make some room. Nice to keep XP if you can, but I find that I almost never need to boot into it.

In Puppy you have gparted to create partitions. Include a swap partition to support the RAM as well as a Linux partition (ext3). The universal installer makes it easy to do a full or frugal (recommended) install. Then you have 2 bootloader options (grub legacy or grub4dos) to set up the dual boot.

The Puppy interface reminds me of Windows 3 but it is liveable with. The dog bark on start up is really irritating though.

I'm curently running this from a LiveCD this on an old desktop creaking under W7 and the improvement in performance is incredible. There's a minor problem creating desktop shortcuts but I've solved it and other than that it seems to work out of the box. It's now a choice between LXLE and Lubuntu as to which one I install. I prefer LXLE but Lubuntu seemed to use even less resources.