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**FunkyChicken** · January 17, 2005, 14:04

what about Downloading Gentoo Linux?

**TheCotMan** · January 17, 2005, 14:05

Originally posted by FunkyChicken

Ive heard of freeBSD and obviously Linux. Which should i choose, also which distro should i choose.

Try both. See which you like more.

1. I study computing so it would be neccessary for me to be able to run C++, vb and also C++ builder. Im currently using borlands for C++ and for vb i use .net

Both have gcc/g++ and there are many debuggers that work with gcc/g++ built code. Don't know about Visual BASIC... I think that is an MS thing and you might be out of luck unless you use something like wine (a non-trivial solution, and sub-optimal too) or find an alternative/replacement that is non MS.
For a while, Code Warrior supported a C++ IDE for Linux, but I think they stopped or were considering it.
If you have a particular compiler you want, then check that compiler maker's website for support for the OS you are considering.

2 I like to tinker with photo editing, i use photoshop but i have also had a little play with GIMP, hopefully the os would be able to run something similar to photoshop, possibly GIMP.

Easy. Go to adobe's website. Do they have PhotoShop support Linux or FreeBSD? If not, then no Photoshop. Willing to "kludge" it to work? Try something like wine (a non-trivial solution, and sub-optimal too) or just switch to gimp if it meets your needs.

supported:[*]P4 1.6
supported:[*]512MB
almost certainly supported:[*]20Gb (would like to use no more than 5Gb for now)
Almost certainly supported:[*]external usb hd 20Gb (freecome)
Check the HCL for supported devices, or contact the vendor, but good chance for support:[*]pcmcia freecome cdrw (traveller premium series)
Many S3 are supported with XFre86, check the HCL:[*]S3 ProSavage graphics (naff onboard gfx)[/list]

4. I would be greatful if it could run msn messenger or another program that works like messenger so i could chat to my friends.

Go check out gaim to deal with MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Aol Instant Messenger, irc and others... all in one client.

5. Other activities inlcude the usual stuff such as web surfing,ect. (i currently use firefox) I use MS Office so something that is compatible with ms files would help

Firefox / mozilla available and source too.
Open Office is available and is mostly MS Office Compatable though YMMV. (source too)

I would also like to keep windows on my machiene at the moment until im happy with my new os. (20Gb hard drive = 15Gb windows + 5Gb Linux/FreeBSD. It is not currently partitioned so any program that would partition without the need to delete windows first would be great)

Use commercial products like partition magic, or try a free one like parted, and many others depending on the filesystem in use by your windows system.

**FunkyChicken** · January 17, 2005, 14:40

thanks very very much for your help, much appreciated.

Im gonna start looking in those areas you pointed me towards. I guess ill have to use X Windows or something similar for VB progs.

Im gonna download and install gentoo linux as i have heard loads of good opinions about this. Hope fully i will apreciate it as much as others.

Once again, cheers for your help

**TheCotMan** · January 17, 2005, 14:52

Originally posted by FunkyChicken

I guess ill have to use X Window[ing System] or something similar for VB progs.

"X" Is more like a collection of drivers, libs and an API for graphic programs to display graphics. Think of "X" as a glorified Graphics Driver. Your Window manager runs over "X" and your GUI applications also talk through X.

Visual BASIC is more like a programming environment integrated to work with MS Windows.

It would be better to ask you what you use VB for, and what would you want to use it for in a Linux/*BSD system.

Im gonna download and install gentoo linux as i have heard loads of good opinions about this.

I don't know much about gentoo. There are people who like it.

Once again, cheers for your help

You're welcome. Thanks to skroo's post for giving me a push to be more helpful instead of being an evil, bitter bastard with support questions. (my post in that thread.)

**Voltage Spike** · January 17, 2005, 17:35

Although Gentoo Linux has a "Live Boot" CD, you may wish to give the most famous Live distribution, Knoppix, a try. If you are not familiar with the Live CD concept, it is a disk that boots Linux (as well as a GUI/desktop) without requiring any changes to your hard drive (it runs out of RAM). When you wish to run Linux, you put in the CD and reboot. When you wish to return to Windows, you (you guessed it) remove the CD and reboot.

Although it is not the fastest manner of running Linux, it is the easiest and can at least give you a taste of what you are getting into.

**jef** · January 17, 2005, 18:58

Another Linux option

My experience, when I got fed up with Windows, was that the SimplyMephis version of Mephis Linux was a good choice too.

The distribution included a lot of the apps you mentioned already installed - web browsing (Konqueror and Mozilla), email (KMail and Mozilla), chat (Kopete with AIM and Yahoo Messenger support as well as IRC and IRQ), OpenOffice for documents and spreadsheets, and g++ for compiling C++ programs as well as a bunch of different editors to try out.

It runs off of Live CD and has an installer which leads you through the process of setting up partitions and loading the system when you are ready. It also included a GUI package update tool for upgrading.

My computer has about the same speed processor and less RAM (Celeron 2.0 processor, 256Mb RAM) and it works well. You can download the ISO for the live CD at http://www.mephis.org.

jef

**bascule** · January 17, 2005, 19:27

Originally posted by FunkyChicken

1. I study computing so it would be neccessary for me to be able to run C++, vb and also C++ builder. Im currently using borlands for C++ and for vb i use .net

2 I like to tinker with photo editing, i use photoshop but i have also had a little play with GIMP, hopefully the os would be able to run something similar to photoshop, possibly GIMP.

If you plan on ever taking photographic work seriously, then no free operating system will be acceptable because they aren't colorspace aware and can't provide color correctness. Even running Photoshop in WINE you'll run into considerably difficulty in this area.

Ever thought about purchasing a Mac Mini? With its Mach/BSD underpinnings, it will certainly be able to service your programming needs, and XCode 2.0 (due to ship with Tiger) is one of the slickest IDEs I've ever seen. OS X incorporates colorspace awareness at the display layer in Quartz and provides excellent colorspace management through ColorSync

**nulltone** · January 17, 2005, 20:07

Originally posted by bascule

Ever thought about purchasing a Mac Mini? With its Mach/BSD underpinnings, it will certainly be able to service your programming needs, and XCode 2.0 (due to ship with Tiger) is one of the slickest IDEs I've ever seen. OS X incorporates colorspace awareness at the display layer in Quartz and provides excellent colorspace management through ColorSync

I second that. Almost every photographer I know has always used a Mac for their work.
Linux is pretty damn easy to install these days, but for your case, I'd probably just recommend a Mac.

**MidnightViper** · January 17, 2005, 21:50

Yeah. Even though you'd have to purchase a completely new system, I'd recommend a Mac also. The Mac operating system is better for graphic arts, video editing, and a lot of other things. And, since it's built on its own BSD UNIX shell (Darwin), it's incredibly stable. But if you don't have enough money to buy a new computer, then Linux is the operating system for you. You could try various LiveCD versions (since there is a LiveCD for a ton of Linux operating systems), or you could partition your hardddrive to install it. Personally, if you're going to go with Linux, I'd recommend MandrakeLinux to suit your needs. Everyone that I've ever recommended Linux to uses Mandrake currently (or Lycoris). I don't, but that's a completely different story.

www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php -- List of Linux Live CDs
www.linuxiso.org -- Great place to download Linux

Good luck. Hope my information helped.

**EvilMoFo** · January 18, 2005, 11:33

for vb.net you are screwed.... dualboot or something, sadly
i heart freebsd, im running it right now.... i am taking a vb.net class (something to do til i can get into the cs dept) and it is the only reason i know how win2k works on this laptop :(

vmware is a possibility, wine is another... i have heard bad things about both so uh ymmv

freebsd runs nicely on the mm10, btw x needs an option so it doesnt crash

btw, freesbie is the freebsd live cd, netbsd has a live cd too

**TheCotMan** · January 18, 2005, 12:23

Originally posted by EvilMoFo

vmware is a possibility, wine is another... i have heard bad things about both so uh ymmv

I've used both. I did not like how wine worked, but this was 2 years ago. Wine feels like a crutch, while vmware seems more like a tool.

I am presently using vmware. For office productivity software, and coding, vmware with Windows on a linux Host is not a bad solution. You can choose to commit system changes or not, which makes upgrading and testing new things easy without risking your Windows System. Don't like a change? then dont commit.

vmware is "teh suck" (not so good) when it comes to playing games, or 3d work that requires hardware acclleration for graphics.

Also, if speed is an issue on your hardware, it will get worse when running windows in vmware over a *NIX system.

**FunkyChicken** · January 18, 2005, 12:47

hi guys, ive just installed linux Mandrake 10.1 (KDE desktop)on my laptop.

all seems well so far except for what i think are dns problems.

The first thing i done when linux loaded for the first time was to check the internet connection. Mozilla loaded but i could not access google. Where in linux do i see/configure the dns settings?

I pinged google and it worked fine, i took googles ip address and put this into the browser and it worked fine so iguess its dns problems.

Heres how my laptop connects to the internet;

Laptop (ethernet port)--->D-Link DSL-G604T wireless router (laptop is not connected wirelessly)

what would likely be my dns address?is this likely to be my router address(192.168.1.1)? how do i check my dns address in windows?

Basically this all boils down to three questions;

1. Is this a DNS problem
2. How do i find my dns address in windows
3. How do i put this address into linux

Cheers for the help guys

P.s. i like the look and feel of linux already, im gonna have to delete alot of the default software tho, seems like i wont be using half of it

**FunkyChicken** · January 18, 2005, 12:51

ive just used nslookup in windows.

is this my dns ip address?

Code:

C:\Documents and Settings\Matt Phillips>nslookup
Default Server:  Federal.Hardware
Address:  192.168.1.1

> www.google.com
Server:  Federal.Hardware
Address:  192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    www.google.akadns.net
Addresses:  66.102.11.99, 66.102.11.104
Aliases:  www.google.com

>

p.s. i called my router Federal.Hardware cause i was bored ;-)

**TheCotMan** · January 18, 2005, 12:57

Originally posted by FunkyChicken

all seems well so far except for what i think are dns problems.

The first thing i done when linux loaded for the first time was to check the internet connection. Mozilla loaded but i could not access google. Where in linux do i see/configure the dns settings?

I pinged google and it worked fine, i took googles ip address and put this into the browser and it worked fine so iguess its dns problems.

Heres how my laptop connects to the internet;

Laptop (ethernet port)--->D-Link DSL-G604T wireless router (laptop is not connected wirelessly)

what would likely be my dns address?is this likely to be my router address(192.168.1.1)? how do i check my dns address in windows?

1. Is this a DNS problem
2. How do i find my dns address in windows
3. How do i put this address into linux

1) It sounds like it may be a problem with DNS.
1) It could be a filtering problem (firewall/filtering rules for network access)
2) win2k, XP:
C:> ipconfig /all
2) win95,98,me:
C:> winipcfg

2) Or, instead of running them from a command/cmd shell, you can "start->run" and enter their names.

If your DNS are static, you can also checkout your Network control panl -> tcp/IP

3) Linux distros usually store dns server ip addresses in /etc/resolv.conf
You can edit this as a text file manually, or use a GUI tool for network configuration. (If you are using DHCP to get you IP address, then your DHCP client is likely altering this file for you.)

[Added content]
Things to help you from a linux shell like bash or an xterm:
$ man dig
See how to use it, and you can use this to test your DNS lookups.
Example:
Assume your DNS is the IP address of your DSL NAT Box/Router since many work this way.192.168.1.1 is what you mention this address as being (private network address)
sample dig command:
$ dig @192.168.1.1 www.google.com
will tell dig to try to use your router to perform DNS lookup with the name being looked up being the IP address after the "@" symbol.

to see how to modify your /etc/resolv.conf you can check the man page for it. Normal format if your nameserver is 192.168.1.1 might be like this:

nameserver 192.168.1.1

multiple entries [one per line] cause lookups to be performed in a round-robin rotation-- if one fails, the next one is tried.

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