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fanderal

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Can't recall how I came across this forum but its bookmarked it and I've been reading for a few weeks. Another Linux forum is a good thing and this place seems to have a friendly atmosphere.

My default's been Debian for a few years and I doubt that's gonna change. Yep, I still get the urge to try something else but it's more curiosity about what's new than anything else, and to learn if it's a good beginner distro. As with others, friends sometimes wanna see what this Linux stuff is all about. ;)
 


Hi Fanderal! Welcome to the forums!

This is a very quiet little place compared to other general Linux forums, but except for one thread it's been a friendly and informative place. I liked Debian when I installed it, but configuring it was harder than it needed to be in my opinion. That was "Lenny," so I'm overdue in revisiting Debian. When I get time to fiddle with Linux on a spare computer again, I'm looking forward to the newest Stable release.

Artim
 
Thanks Artim, appreciate your welcome.

Would have responded earlier but the reply count has been 0 (zero) all day, even after you posted. It still shows zero whether I'm logged in or not, yet the thread does shows view quantity. Kinda strange. I'm using iceweasel, do you see a reply count in your browser?

This is a very quiet little place compared to other general Linux forums, but except for one thread it's been a friendly and informative place.

Don't mind quiet when it's friendly and informative. Noticed the troll; I try to avoid that kinda nonsense as they have neither the desire nor the ability to discuss anything reasonably.

I liked Debian when I installed it, but configuring it was harder than it needed to be in my opinion.

Know what you mean and I agree. Took me a while to get used to it and learn to work with it. It isn't my first choice to recommend to newcomers.

Whenever you're up for a revisit I'd suggest trying the Wheezy Gnome LiveDVD. The non-free wireless firmware, non-free video drivers and flash are included in the iso... and it looks pretty slick. Never been a gnome fan nor do I use it but I'm impressed.

live. debian.net/cdimage/release/next+nonfree/i386/iso-hybrid/


PS. just posted and the thread count still shows zero.
 
Hello again!

I'm guessing it's a glitch in the forum software, since the count is always zero and when I post a reply I get an error message. Reattempting it I get another error message that says I have to wait a certain time between posts. Reload the page and there's my post, but what the.... ?

Unless Gnome has changed a whole lot I think I'll stick with Xfce (I use it on SalixOS and Xubuntu) because it's simple (I need and love simplicity!), infinitely configurable, and easy on resources. I have two computers, both about 10 years old. One is a hand-me-down from parents and the other is one we rescued from the landfill and restored. Both very modest machines, yet both fly light and fast with Linux!

I've seen the "unofficial" Debian net-install disk that includes firmware ("non-free") and I expect that will make it a little faster and easier when I have time to play. But on these old dinosaurs I'm not likely to try Gnome or KDE. LXDE or Xfce most likely, maybe see what all the fuss is about with Enlightenment. That might be fun too. Have you tried that one yet?

Artim
 
The glitch you described is exactly the same over here.

Know what you mean about the need for a light DE as decade old computers limit the choices. I was using an 8 year old computer with KDE3 when KDE4 made it into Debian's repos. Didn't care for KDE4, and it was real slow. The other DEs didn't do it for me so I did a netinstall with Fluxbox and Rox-filer as a desktop. Worked great. I've got a newer computer now and it can handle the current DEs but I still prefer the simplicity/responsiveness of this set up.

Yes, I recently tried an Enlightenment distro (forget which). It was nicely done and very responsive but it wasn't for me. Dunno, might be I'm getting a bit set in my ways. ;) Also might be that I've gotten used to working directly with the system's conf files, and prefer it to figuring out how to use a DE's tools to accomplish the same thing.

Have you tried Slax or Crunchbang on your machines?
 
You're not supposed to install Slax to a hard drive, but I found a way and did it, lol. It was pretty and basic, but slow. It's supposed to be run from a thumb drive so maybe installing it to the HD slowed it down. This old computer ran Crunchbang (Openbox) for about two months. It was plenty fast, but getting the fonts right and sound and wifi to work was a pain. My parents have gotten used to Xfce and I prefer to keep it just so I can help them better, at least until they don't need my occassional help anymore. They're running Xubuntu 12.04 LTS (same as my other 10-year-old box) and they are both delighted with it. They must have a sense of loyalty to the distro too, since when I was talking about Salix they were like,

"You finally found a perfect, pretty, fast, easy distro and you're still not happy? What's wrong with you? Oh, where did we go wrong?" Fake drama with tongue firmly in cheek, but it shows how much they like their Xubuntu, doesn't it!?

Artim
 
I remember reading the "not supposed to install Slax to a hard drive" and, like you, I tried it anyway. Spent some hours re-editing grub/rebooting until I finally got it to work. I also included the 'toram' cheat in the kernel line so it ran PDQ... was a bit slow before I did that.

You finally found a perfect, pretty, fast, easy distro and you're still not happy? What's wrong with you? ]/quote]

Lol... that's just what goes through my head every time I click on Download to try another distro. Yup, it definitely shows how much they like it.
 

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