Whats the best Linux for a Dell Inspiron 8500

cable842

might be gettin a dell inspiron 8500 whats the best linux to put on it.

whats the best version to on it thats great to use and plays videos and and dvds

Johnboy1951

Try a few to see which you like and which works best with the hardware from a live CD. You could start with

PCLinuxOS
Mepis
Mint

Any of those should suffice for your needs and hardware.

cable842

cool will try that. how do I get 02 or vodafone modems to show up using linux.

Orion

With the latest version of Ubuntu based distros (like Mint) they apparantly are supported out of the box with no extra software required. Haven't tried it myself tho.

MunsterCycling

Can confirm its just a case of plugging them in, no software needed, it just works.

MC

Johnboy1951

Most, if not all, distros will have posts on their forum detailing what may be needed in their particular case.
For instance some distros will not have the capability on the live CD but will have the software available for download.

So for specific questions about each distro I strongly suggest a search of their forums to get the quick answers ..... that is a search of previous posts.

Have fun!

limericklassy

I found ubuntu the best destop os. Tried centos and suse but for simplicity i'd go with ubuntu

Nichololas

Mint recognised my ****ty Sony-Ericsson phone out of the box, it's not set up with o2 to function as a modem but that probably bodes well for any proper modem packages. Install VLC in Mint and you're probably good to go.

cable842

linux mint lite. the 02 broadband thing will not show up at all. but with linux mint 7 and ubuntu they show up fine ?

is there any way to copy something into terminal to get it to show up. Ive gone threw everything.

Nichololas

cable842 wrote: »

linux mint lite. the 02 broadband thing will not show up at all. but with linux mint 7 and ubuntu they show up fine ?

is there any way to copy something into terminal to get it to show up. Ive gone threw everything.

Presumably Linux Mint Lite doesn't include whatever drivers are needed for o2 broadband out of the box whereas Mint 7 and Ubuntu do ..

Copy/pasting in the terminal uses ctrl+shift+c and ctrl+shift+v instead of just ctrl+c/v

cable842

so its the drivers I need I see how do I get them

Johnboy1951

cable842 wrote: »

so its the drivers I need I see how do I get them

Use the package manager of your chosen distro.

BopNiblets

What's Mint Lite? XFCE version you mean? Your broadband thing should work, should have been detected automatically by the Restricted Hardware Drivers Manager thing.

I remember booting Mint 7 (Gnome version) off a USB and it picked up the Vodafone dongle straight away.

cable842

wont come up at all. same with the latest puppy linux. couldnt get it to pop up at all. but with full linux mint it works right away.

BopNiblets

Ah I'm confused, do you have it working or not?

cable842

can't get the 02 broadband modem working on it. using puppy or lint mint ;lite

BopNiblets

Hmm, can you get access to a network connection with internet? If you're just trying to plug in the dongle it may need to be already connected to the net to find the restricted drivers, silly I know but worth a shot!
So if you can get online first, then plug in the O2 dongle, and you should see the Restricted Drivers Manager pop up (if not, open it from Administration menu)

Looks something like this:


I don't know what Linux Mint Lite is but I'm guessing it's not the main Gnome version, which I think would run ok on that laptop, but I could be wrong.
Probably one of these versions? http://www.linuxmint.com/download_ce.php

cable842

hey buddy I plugged proper broadband into the laptop it downloaded the wireless broadband drivers for the modem now it works.

BopNiblets

Booya, I rock!

IronMan

The latest version of Mint is perhaps the first time I would recommend a Linux distro to someone who is genuinely non-technical. Has worked out of the box on 4 laptops I have it installed on. Have only had to drop to the command line once to do a custom install of the Citrix client. A peach of a distro.

cable842

yea you do cheers mate

BopNiblets wrote: »

Booya, I rock!

cable842

its truly an amazin system no errors works with everything. its amazing. feck windows 7 hail linux mint. its way better

IronMan wrote: »

The latest version of Mint is perhaps the first time I would recommend a Linux distro to someone who is genuinely non-technical. Has worked out of the box on 4 laptops I have it installed on. Have only had to drop to the command line once to do a custom install of the Citrix client. A peach of a distro.

mcmoustache

I have a spindle with about 50 cds of around 20 different flavours of lineux that I installed in the past but I keep going back to the more usable/pretty ones. I have operating systems on my PC right now. Ubuntu 9.10, Mint Gloria, Mint Gloria KDE and of course that OS we use for games. I would recommend either of those linux ones and I would also recommend PCLINUXOS. They are all simple to install, simple to use (the developers assume you want your OS to "just work"), and simple to upgrade. They'll work fine on a new computer. I haven't tried opensuse since 11.1 but I wasn't overly impressed. 11.2 is out soon so I'll install it over Gloria and give it a try.

Go with Ubuntu.Debian based OSs if you have a new computer because there is plenty of support and there shouldn't be any issues with your hardware. Gnome if you like big icons and a friendly looking desktop, KDE if you are used to windows(but don't use Kubuntu, use Mint KDE instead) and XFCE if you have a low-powered machine

BopNiblets

New computer? Did you even read the thread title? Dell Inspiron 8500 is about 6 years old!