Places in Malaysia, , , , ,
There are many Linux distributions in the internet. I have installed a few like Fedora, openSuse, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Sabayon, Linux Mint, CentOS, Debian and Slackware, .
Places in Malaysia


Some of you may wonder where is RedHat. I did not install RedHat because RedHat has become an enterprise package where RedHat actually get 'royalty' or 'licencing fee' or something like that when you use their enterprise package. If not mistaken, they count per number of PCs connected to the server. It has grown into something like a server package for big enterprises so I will not talk about it here. For more information, kindly check with them.

The others that I mentioned above are mainly for PCs though most of them have server capabilities in their distributions. These are free softwares that you can download from the internet free-of-charge.

I am just a normal user like most people. I use my computer for emailing, browsing, listen to songs, some simple graphics and create some simple webpages. Maybe that's why I could use Linux system for 5 years without MS Windows.

Before 2006, I would not dare to recomend Linux system to people partly because I could not find drivers for my printers, webcam and many more. I couldn't even mount my usb thumbdrive. As I am basically a user, I did not learn much about the Linux through my 5 years but I really got used to it. Now, Linux is very simple to use, very much like MS Windows.

I am not a gamer but I will give you some good site on Linux-based games because there are many of you out there who use computer to play games most of the time.

I am sure you are interested to know a little about the different Linux distributions I mentioned above. The notes on the right side will give you a brief information about them.

There are many other Linux OS but it won't be mentioned here. Actually East Asia has their own distribution. Its a join venture by China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand. Their Linux 'flavour' is based on RedHat Enterprise. The distribution can be downloaded free from their site and if you are interest visit Asianux Consortium. China has its own Chinese Linux distribution under Red Flag Software. The Japanese group is under Miracle Linux, the Korea group is under Haansoft, the Vietnam group is inder Vietsoftware and the Thailand group is under WTEC. I have seen these websites and personally, I do not like Haansoft most. The others are ok.

For those interested in Linux magazine, the is one from India called Linux For You. It cost about RM19.00 per issue. This magazine comes with one free CD and one free DVD. This magazine is just half the price of other Linux magazines from other countries. I find this magazine pretty good. Not too simple and not too difficult. You may be able to pick up some tips from this magazine.

Popular Linux desktops such as KDE and GNOME are mostly bundled with the distributions. These two desktops look quite like MS Windows desktop. So, I am quite sure you won't miss MS desktop if you decided to change to Linux. KDE's File Manager in the latest Mandriva 2009 Spring is different from other file manager even other KDE's file manager in other distributions. Many users like KDE desktop because of it has more applications. However, I like Gnome because of System Load Indicator which shows resources usage. :-)

Gnome has a new look out in 2011 which is called Gnome 3.0. This version of Gnome has an interface which is really different from the previous ones. It was said that the creators rewrote the whole software using a different software language. I do not like this new version at all because they took out the capabilities for users to create own desktop outlook. For more comments, click Gnome.

I have decided to put more comments for some of the above stated linux distributions. They are Fedora, openSuse, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Sabayon, Linux Mint. As for other applications, I have decided to put them into other pages(s) in the future. So, watchout for the links here.
Fedora is a PC version of RedHat. When RedHat became an enterprise version, Fedora took over as the PC version. Fedora is said to have a good security system for PC version. I could not login direct as root or as administrator (MS Windows' users). I guess this is part of the satety features that Fedora decided to have. So, setting up takes time.
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Due to this, I think most users who would like to install their own software would not like Fedora because it gives them extra work. But unless you install software very frequently, I think Fedora is OK. My printer, thumbdrive, modem and router can be detected by the system when they are turned on or pluck in. Software drivers are available too. However, it is still safer to get hardwares that has been in market for some time.

OpenSuse is the PC version or free version of Suse Linux which is now under Novell Inc. I think Novell has sort of disappeared in Malaysia market. So, I think it is a smart move by Novell to try to get back its networking software market from Microsoft. About 15 years ago when I first tried Novell system, I was unfriendly. Maybe, they purposely made it hard to use so that people cannot simply change anything.

I am sure openSuse can compliment Novell's networking software pretty well. Suse Linux is more of an Enterprise version and has charges imposed on the number of users that use the server. So, all other computers that connect to the Enterprise version can use openSuse with is free.

Even if you are not using Novell's software, I think openSuse is very friendly on PC. Of all the Linux distributions that I have tried, I think this has the best installation features. openSuse is also the only distribution that still allows people to login as root. Its applications for personal use are quite ok because the related modules were bundled together with the main programs. And yes, my hardwares can be detected. I hope they don't change their policy.

Mandriva is one of my favourite too. Its very much like Fedora in the sense that I cannot log in as root but hardwares are autodetectable. Its pretty friendly when setting up, I say it is more friendly than Fedora. Mandriva's main 'desktop' is KDE and it has others too.

When my cousin gave me a live version of Ubuntu, I have not heard of it but he said its very well known. Yes, its very big. The live version has many things but the version that I installed, Ubuntu Studio version is mainly for audio and video purposes. It did not impress me because I cannot watch video CDs and cannot play my .mod videos. Messages came out saying short of this and that. Argh. Studio version and still have to download this and that which are quite big files!!

I managed to install Sabayon 5. The previous versions could not be installed. I found this distribution not as good as the ones I mentioned above like its such as settings for file browsing. However, this version of Sabayon is easy to install.

I just tested Linux Mint on th 09/Mar/2011. I like it because it uses Gnome Desktop. It installed only a the main few software for office use like openoffice, browser and mailling system. Linux Mint also provides many other packages where users can choose what they want to install after the main packages had been installed. Linux Mint has many games which can be downloaded from Ubuntu site.

At first, I managed to install CentOS but it was unstable (sometimes cannot start windows, usually during the time when it's going to ask for login, graphical mode) on my system. Sometimes, during installation, the display cannot appear. CentOS has almost everything like the others but due to its unstableness, I have decided not to use it.

The same goes for Debian. Have some problem installing Debian too, display problem. Slackware can be installed but it uses only 'lilo' and I cannot get the lilo command to boot other Linux distributions. It can be boot from root partition using other distributions. I find the Slackware's setting up more difficult because it is still quite manual. So, I think this distribution is good for those that who do not want their setup to be easily found and changed.

There are many 'flavours' of linux distribution in the internet but I think the few that I mentioned here are good enough.
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