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Best Linux for your Laptop

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ilovelinux2006

ilovelinux2006

Programmer
Jun 6, 2006
32
US
Hey everyone,

I am running Suse 10.1 on my laptop. Its slow, and my laptop is fairly new. What do you think is the best distro to put on a laptop? Maybe even something like openbsd or freebsd? I've tried Ubuntu, it was ok But I like KDE. What do you guys think?
 
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Can you describe exactly how it is slow?

What are the specs of your laptop?

Have you tried shutting down and disabling services that you don't require?

Just switching distributions won't give you a magical performance boost, it's still the same stuff at the core. I can't speak for BSD though.

Annihilannic.
 
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Suse has some advantages like good hardware detection on laptops.
I also found it sluggish to work with.
So I always revert back to Slackware 10.2

Also, you might want to try Kubuntu (KDE version)


"If you always do what you've always done, you will always be where you've always been."
 
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why not use directly Debian 3 instead of Kubuntu/Ubuntu which are clones of Debian? I found it by far the fastest of linux distros and, although Ubuntu claims to have simplified installation, it looked pretty similar to Debian when I tryed it out.


It was also not as stable and the user community is not even near Debian's,so all in all I would recommend Debian on a Laptop.

QatQat

Life is what happens when you are making other plans.
 
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Not wanting to start a distro war here - but one reason I would go with [K]ubuntu over Debian is that the last release (sarge) was over a year ago, and they advised you to stick with the 2.4 kernel - which is getting a bit old now. There is no planned release date for the next debian version - whereas the [K]ubuntu releases are regular, and ship with the latest kernels.

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Free Java/J2EE Database Connection Pooling Software
 
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What about Gentoo, where you compile for your specific CPU?



BocaBurger
<===========================||////////////////|0
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the sword hurts more!
 
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how about simply mepis? from my experience, it did pretty well with hardware detection on my laptop. the design philosophy is for things to just work, and they seemed to. it is also kde based.

"Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything."
-Vonnegut
 
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I use debian on home pc, personal laptop, at work....

It is not true that it is stuck to 2.4, the stable version uses 2.6.8, while if you install the unstable version you get the latest.

I tryed gentoo because I liked the idea of good performance by compiling everything, but I found it takes too much time to maintain for me (every update means a lot of time for compiling).

Gentoo is probably the best if you like spending time "playing" with configurations, compilation parameters, optimizing for performance, etc....

I like very much debian because it doesn't install useless stuff, you can decide exactly what you want, so this gives a good performance without having the complex/long installation and maintenance difficulties of gentoo.

This is obviously just my personal opinion.
 
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I never said that Debian forced you to stick to 2.4 - only that their release notes for the latest stable release - sarge - advises you to stick to 2.4 - its in the release notes.

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Free Java/J2EE Database Connection Pooling Software
 
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I disagree, I got sarge Cd's and there was a double option, 2.4 or 2.6 kernel and no mention of 2.6 version being unstable. You may argue that it is not the latest of 2.6 kernels but all my ThinkPad hardware worked perfectly anyway, including an exceptionally crisp sound that I never thought my thinkpad had.


Cheers

QatQat

Life is what happens when you are making other plans.
 
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With debian you can install any kernel just using apt.

It is true that the most stable kernel is still 2.4.

The choice depends on what you have to do with your pc, balancing new features like hardware compatibility, and a stable bug-free version.

There is no choice that is the best in all situations.
The best in a desktop environment isn't the best in a pc used as a firewall.

 
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With my last post I said:

It is true that the most stable kernel is still 2.4
Click to expand...

I wanted to say that what you said had sense.

I still can't find a reason you should install kubuntu instead of debian because of this sentence, which actually regards every distro.

2.6 isn't more stable on kubuntu than on debian.
 
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It was more aimed at QatQat ... but I take your point about 2.6 being the same level of stability as debian.

However, you also need to remember that Kununtu has been on the 2.6 kernel by default for two major releases now - where as there is no debian version available yet which ships with 2.6 as the default. My point was just this - that the level of development on a 2.6 kernel seems to be in favour of Kubuntu, in my opinion.

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Free Java/J2EE Database Connection Pooling Software
 
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...try debian, and you'll never ever use anything else......

lol


apt-get install beer pizza cheesecake whateveryoulike
 
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I've tried debian, then went to Kubuntu, now Xubuntu. Xubuntu is super fast, but some might be turned off my XFCE. KDE kept crashing on me (even though I love the interface), but then again I'm a linux novice ;-)

I had to configure too much with Debian on my computer. The new installer for the Ubuntu flavors is ridiculously simple.
 
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