Is there any Linux aside from Linpus that just works ???

Every week or so I check beck here. I want to stop using Windows XP and switch to Linux once and for all. But I get so intimidated. I do NOT want to fiddle with much. Just run and enjoy my AAO and Linux.

Is there any Linux that just works? That a newbie can install and istantly get a great desktop experience?

 

Check the Mandriva Linux 2009 threads.... I've used that for a while. And that's the distro with the least work to get things working.

 

I thought that it still requires configuration and fiddling from what I saw. How about something that works completely oput of the box?

 

Linux4One seems to work perfectly. I ended up disabling the Netbook Remix packages, but that's optional. DreamLinux came pretty close to "just working"--the only think I had to configure was the screen resolution. It only took a few seconds. I also didn't like the MacOSX-like panel and disabled that.

 

You have to define what you mean by "works completely out of the box". I have said this before. There is no OS that works completely out of the box. All OS's need some tweaking to work the way a user wants it to. In the past we only had the choice of Windows, a version of Apple or the command line. Now we have, thanks to Linux, a much wider range of choices. There was a time when you had to buy a mouse that was designed for the version of Windows you were using if you wanted to use a mouse and even then you had to install another program or install a driver. So even from those times all OS's required tweaking to get to work as the user desires. So there is no such thing as working completely out of the box.

 

What do you mean by completely? I know it sounds like a silly question, but it's not meant to be. For me, working completely includes being able to read xD cards in the right slot. Linpus is the only distro that provides such capabilities. However, Linpus has other failings; failings that are so severe that many of us chose to use other distros. That's why you see subforums devoted to Fedora, Mandriva, and Ubuntu, and mention of a good number of other distros.

The Fedora 11 beta, in its default configuration, appears to require the addition of only one line of code to /etc/rc.local:

Code:

/sbin/rmmod acer_wmi

to get everything up and running. About as close to working completely as I can expect. However, it's not perfect. The installer still needs a bit of work. There are permission issues when starting X from the command line; but the default graphical boot seems to be just fine. Hopefully these deficiencies will be addressed before the release of Fedora 11. Stay tuned...

 

I mean - "just work!" No fiddling. No inane editing of some obscure files. I mean aside from anything that can be set through the GUI (like screen resolution...) is there a LINUX that will:

- install easily
- have third party codecs so the machine actually does stuff
- have all devices working
- has a rich repository and lots of applications
- is stable and provides a good user experience. I mean an appliance like experience. No technical stuff. Simple. Usable. Elegant.

I am not trying to be sarcastic or anything. I love the machine. I hate... hate... hate... WINDOZE and want to move on! So aside from my experience with Linpus and a few weeks of UBUNTU, I would love a Linux experience that was slick, stable, inuitive, and solid.

 

when you find the OS that does all that, let me know too! as i want to buy shares in the company that writes it , as even linpus doesn't provide all that!

for what your after i think you will need to lower your expectations a little bit, as if it met all your conditions it would be the holy grail of OS/distro's

phil

 

Mandriva 2009 Gnome does that.

As far as I know Mandriva 2009 Gnome does that I have no trouble running anything.

With Mandriva 2009 Gnome there are 2 files I needed to change to achieve that and they were

Which I did with the built-in text editor instead of a word processor program so no extra codes were inserted.

Mandriva 2009 Gnome does that of course there are some programs I wanted that were not already installed but the install remove software made that easy.

Mandriva 2009 Gnome does that in fact Mandriva 2009 Gnome is one of the 2 Linux distros that has not broken something when you do updates. Mepis is the other one but I personally have not gotten Mepis to run on the AAO.

I only use the CLI (command line interface) when someone post the excact line I want to use and then I copy and paste the lines. With Mandriva 2009 Gnome I have only used the CLI to find out information about my machine when someone posted something that I and I had not found the GUI (graphical user interface) to find the information.

However there is a learning curve meaning things are not laid out, named the same or done as in Windows. There are also a lot of things that can be done that you can not do in Windows.

 

I use puppy linux, there are two versions for the acer aspire one. I have a aao with window xp and a hard drive. http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=35424. there are two versions in that forum. I use the first one and I don't know if the camera works but everything else seems to, the second I use a little but it does take some tweaking on my machine to make it work. It does take some brief learning to run either of them. I run puppy as a "frugal" install...that is with linux in just files on the microsoft partition. with grub installed in the boot I can choose either windows xp, puppy linux 1, puppy linux 2, or linux mint. I use windows xp to watch netflicks. I use linux mint to impress people with the spinning cube and wobbly windows, and I use puppy if I am just in a hurry. I replaced the 120 gig hard drive with a 250 gig drive and have a 15 gig partition for microsoft and the two puppy's, a 14 gig partition for linux mint, and the rest is a fat 32 partition for all my stuff. puppy or linux mint are easier to figure out and install than windows xp in my opinion. puppy will run off a usb 4gig really fine. I spent 3 or 4 hours recovering windows xp when I replaced the hard drive, linux's were installed altogether in about an hour. Good luck in your search. Linux is fun.

 

I've run it off my old 128MB usb stick. More than enough room for a pup_save file to hold my custom configuration data

 

I downloaded Sidux lite kde, burned the iso to a cd. booted my desktop computer with the cd, installed to usb(menu selection to install to usb) put usb in acer aspire one 150 with windows xp and linux mint and puppy linux. at boot I hit f12 for boot options. picked usb. sidux started with a grub menu, used additional boot command(cheat code dpi=96). I don't know about the camera and internal mic, wireless scanned and picked up numerous networks nearby, wireless light did not work. I watched a mp4,and saved avi movies, watched flv video clip, listened to wma and mp3. I did get an error message when I started the movie/music player but it played everything anyway. very nice distro.

 

Tried SIDUX - not too bad at all. But not good either. Still stuff to configure.

Tried Puppy. Pretty likable but not really a full desktop either.

As for Mandrake... I want to try it but as a relative Newbie, I am afraid to, and do NOT know how to edit the two configuration files.

How about someone building a script to edit the two files in question. It would be VERY much appreciated.

 

Hey schwinn, edting config files isn't much different from editing a word processing document. The only difference is you might have to type in a root (admin) password. Really, that's all there is to it. Start by opening a terminal, type su to become super user, type in the password. Then type gedit (or whatever text editor you wish to use). From there, just use your file menu to open, close, save etc. your config files, just like you do with any program. Just ask if you run into any trouble.

 

Crunchbang Linux,http://crunchbanglinux.org/, I will say it works perfect on my AA1. Add the Sickboy's kernel and it runs even more perfect Fast and light. Ubuntu based distro. Completely upgradable. No problems installing new software, f.i. Wine.

 

Crunch Bang did the trick. Easy install. Everything worked. Simple to upgrade. What is sickboy's kernel? Sounds tuff to install. Why is it worth it?

 

If everything works for you and you are satisfied then you probably don't need to considerer installing a custom kernel. But if you have non fonctionning hardware then you might want to install one.
http://aspireonekernel.com/ is one of these kernel compiled to fit as best as possbible the aspire one.

If you check the site you'll see that installation is pretty easy.

Grtz

 

Just anted to update this thread. I am still using Crunchbang Linux. I dual booted for a week with UNR 9.04 but I am hooked on Crunchban and I am running it accross my desktops now too. It is minimalistic and yet full featured. It runs fast. Everything works and best of all any UBUNTU application will run This version of Linux is addictive. I would love to know more about its origins though.