I was planning on updating everyone in a few days, but thanks for the reminder in case I forgot. I ran through about 6 different distros. I tried Fedora, openSUSE, Debian, Slackware, Kubuntu (even though I wanted to stay away from *buntu products), and tried the latest Mandriva. I realized through my testing that anything with the latest KDE was a bit too much for my laptop. This morning, I installed Mandriva with XFCE, and I think I found a winner. I know I could do other distros with XFCE, but Mandriva is familiar, and I understand it.
So in the end, changing my window manager was the answer. I'm still trying it out, but XFCE is very responsive and provides all I need, while still being cool ebough to show off to non-linux users. Thanks all for the suggestions. This opportunity has allowed me to see what other distros are really like. And I also re-realized I don't like Gnome. A side note: I kinda liked Slackware much like Arch, but it would have taken a bit more work to get it how I would like it (wireless, power options, etc) than I want to put into my laptop. I might consider it as an alternative to my desktop Mandriva in the future. Jeremiah E. Bess Network Ninja, Penguin Geek, Father of four On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 13:25, Bryan Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > Jeremiah, > > Did you ever get this sorted out and if so what did you settle on; if not > what are you currently testing, what did you test and what are your > thoughts? > > I'd be interested in knowing! > > Bryan > > On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 1:46 PM, Jeremiah Bess <[email protected]>wrote: > >> How may times have we heard, "which distribution should I choose?" Well, I >> have that question now, but it will be asked in the way I think I think it >> should always be asked. >> >> I have a Dell Inspiron 1521 laptop. I've run Mandriva on it for years, >> dual booting with Windows. Recently, Mandriva has become a bit slow on it. I >> still use it on my desktop and home server. So I would like some suggestions >> on what else to try. Here is my criteria: >> >> - Laptop power options must work with minimal or no configuration >> (hibernate and standby) >> - Would prefer KDE, but willing to try out other GUIs >> - Would prefer the GUI to be installed by default, instead of >> installing manually. >> - A GUI-based software installer is preferred, but willing to do CLI. >> - Not Ubuntu or a derivative (see here >> <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Gldt1009.svg>to >> eliminate choices). I want to avoid the Linux=Ubuntu stigma. >> - Must be a home-use style distro, not an enterprise-style like >> RedHat. >> - Must be a distro you would be proud to show off to non-Linux users. >> >> I use my laptop for web surfing while traveling, and some document >> editing. I have tried Arch and would have stuck with it, but the laptop >> power functions wouldn't work even after 2 days of working on it. I tried >> Linux Mint, but it sucked dry my laptop battery fast. I attempted to try >> PCLinuxOS just a few days ago, but the Live DVD would not boot after Grub >> regardless of the numerous kernel options I put in. >> >> Jeremiah E. Bess >> Network Ninja, Penguin Geek, Father of four >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users >> Group. >> To post a message, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, send email to >> [email protected] >> For more options, visit our group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup >> Please remember to abide by our list rules (http://tinyurl.com/LUG-Rulesor >> http://cdn.fsdev.net/List-Rules.pdf) >> > > > > -- > A healthy diet includes Linux, Linux, and more Linux. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users > Group. > To post a message, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] > For more options, visit our group at > http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup > Please remember to abide by our list rules (http://tinyurl.com/LUG-Rulesor > http://cdn.fsdev.net/List-Rules.pdf) > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup Please remember to abide by our list rules (http://tinyurl.com/LUG-Rules or http://cdn.fsdev.net/List-Rules.pdf)
