Six Forty by Four Eighty
4 February 2006, terribly early in the morning
Ubuntu Linux is a pretty good attempt at making Linux more user-friendly. It’s no OS X, not by a long shot, but compared to other Linux distributions it is quite easy to use. It is a shame it is so buggy, at least on my brothers old computer. Firefox has a habit of crashing on this machine. Today, when I turned the computer on, I was greeted by a desktop squeezed into a 640×480 space. I can’t change the screens resolution, no matter how hard I try. Changing the screens resolution shouldn’t be a challenge.
I should point out that my site fits nicely on a 640×480 screen. (If you have ever wondered why my site is so skinny, it is because for a very long time I had a Powerbook 5300cs, whose LCD screen was fixed at 640×480. I got very used to designing pages that fit on that screen. I haven’t used that computer in ages, but still seem to have a design sense shapped by my use of that computer.)
I think it is time for a new Linux Distro; any suggestions on which ones to try?
Update Feb 5th: For the record, straight up Debian was a big mistake. I am actually back running Ubuntu, and it is working perfectly. I am still not sure what went wrong last time.
There are quite a few. Start off VectorLinux. Its even Canadian. SymphonyOS looks like some serious eye-candy. Foresight seems more practical. I will be trying this myself although Ubuntu is fine. Like Ubuntu it has a package management tool called Conary. And there is Mepis. Puppy is a fine mini-distro. Solaris fans would prolly like Nexenta which is based on OpenSolaris.
I am supposing the computer in question is not a Mac? Because then your choices are pretty limited.
by Sunny on February 4 2006, 4:46 am #
I’m currently working on SuSE, but haven’t really used it much. I was thinking of trying Ubuntu next.
by Ryan on February 4 2006, 6:56 am #
Thanks for all the sugestions but I ended up settling with Debian. It sounds like it is the most stable of the bunch. My dad just needs to be able to use Firefox really. I would like to use Gaim when I am home. So, if the computer can do these two things I will be happy.
Ubuntu is really quite nice. I’d try it again.
by ramanan on February 4 2006, 2:06 pm #