Please suggest a Lin friendly PC config + 3 Distros (multi boot) for School Students

[din]

@mehulved

Thank you. But the thing is I will not have access to other systems. I mean I won't be able to change anything in the lab. So a server-client setup is not feasible, that is why I opt for a standalone PC.

@The_Devil_Himself

I have no problems with Intel at all. But I thought AMD will reduce cost and another thing is, the teachers, students etc never heard of AMD, for them processor = Intel Pentium ! So I thought of giving them something new. If theres a good Intel pro which is not costly and support Lin, np, can go for it.

@QwertyManiac

Thanks a lot. Sure, if price difference is 200 or 300, will go for 160 GB HDD

@choto_cheeta

Where are you ? Come n help meeeeeeeee . LOL

@infra_red_dude

lol, nothing great in that. As I mentioned before, comparing to the quality, sincerity and the commitment of those teachers towards students and community, my gift will be very close to zero But I am doing something that I can.

Great, I think I will go for the normal HDD as per your suggestion. I remember one of the teachers told me he couldn't install Lin as his HDD is SATA. So I think better not to make it complicated. Also, with the prices of ram shown in forum, I think I will definitely go for 1 GB DDR2 min.

Geforce 6200 128MB - That will be supported by all distros you specified ?

Just curious - why nobody is recommending Fedora as the rpm based one ? Its not good at all ?

@ravi_9793

I am sorry, but I apologized before your post - In advance lol. As you can see this covers not only the hardware requirement, but other things related to open source / Lin.

@praka123

Thank you. As you already know, the default OS in schools in Kerala is Debian now. The dept provides CDs as well. So I want to give them something in addition to that / new. Thats why I thought of multi boot. That will also give a chance for students to experiment and try different types of distros. Meantime, thanks for the links and about the book. Will sure check it. And thanks a lot in advance for the downloading

Additional questions

1. It is really tough to install Lin on SATA HDDs - at a noob point of view

2. Can I make different partitions and different swap for these 3-4 distros ? Or making swap as common is better ?

3. With the tempting price of RAM, I may go for 1 or 2 GB. So I think I can consider some gaming option for em as well. Any distro / site which is more into gaming (not exclusive gaming, but something (that need more RAM) that is good for students). Just a thought ..

4. Will there any major problems in multi boot (all Lin) ? Any chance of messing up very easily ?

Thanks again.

 

[mehulved]

I believe he/she would have tried installing an older version of linux. Any new version of linux supports SATA drives very well.
I have seen quite a few people come up saying "Linux is crap, the best distro red hat 9 doesn't install on my SATA drive but windows installs very well."

There's no real problem with multibooting unless you're going for shared /home,/boot and all. If you are doing that, the thing you need to look out for is that uid of different users don't clash between distros.

 

[infra_red_dude]

i think using virtual machines is a good option in case the kids mess it up. its the easiest way to restore the system. thats the only reason i'm suggesting only a dual boot and other distros as VMs. you can haf one common swap for both the distros.

1GB of corz is the minimum. if you can, then get 2GB.

regarding linux and sata, all newer distros will support it fine. however, i haf seen some people experiencing some probs wid sata drives. i suggested ide coz all probs (if any) haf been ironed out and there is no question of any installation prob. you can be sure on that.

as far as nvidia 6200 is concerned it is fully supported in all the distros i've suggested and give quite good performace wid beryl/compiz. i suggested a plain via chipset mobo for keeping the cost less (not the mobo wid onboard via gfx). i'm not sure how well the newer AMD chipset mobos are supported on linux (i've seen some people facing probs wid ACPI).

when it comes to games, its the type of game and its requirements that matter. since i'm sure you won't be running UT or Doom any distro is just fine.

imho, opensuse is a more comprehensive distro than fedora.

 

[The_Devil_Himself]

Re: Please suggest a Lin friendly PC config + 3 Distros (multi boot) for School Stude

1. It is really tough to install Lin on SATA HDDs - at a noob point of view

Most of the distros now fully supports SATA.So I think buying SATA is more advisable as SATA has definitely some performance gains.I can give you a complete list of distros I have successfully installed on my SATA hd without any problem.

2. Can I make different partitions and different swap for these 3-4 distros ? Or making swap as common is better ?

Make different partition for every distro and let them use the same common swap partition.

3. With the tempting price of RAM, I may go for 1 or 2 GB. So I think I can consider some gaming option for em as well. Any distro / site which is more into gaming (not exclusive gaming, but something (that need more RAM) that is good for students). Just a thought ..

I think some windows games have already been ported to linux(mostly the ones using OpenGL API's).correct me if I am wrong.

What kind of 'gaming options' you want?There are plenty of small but interesting games bundled with every distro.
As far as 2gb RAM is concerned I think it would be a waste of money.Tell me how many games have you seen which requires more than 1gb system RAM?You can spend the 1k saved on something else(something useful).

4. Will there any major problems in multi boot (all Lin) ? Any chance of messing up very easily ?

There shouldn't be any IMO.But wait for some expert opinion.

Thanks again.

No problem.You are doing something very noble and this is the least we can do for you.

 

[praka123]

multibooting-there is a problem of fsck running after some few boots.this is also when u boot each distro.i know tune2fs can be used to disable it.but in a n00b point of view multiple distro is a definite no no.you can show them some live-cd's with beryl or compiz enabled.isnt that enough?

@din:im d/ling debian etch 2nd DVD now.there is an update dvd also d/l`ded will take 4 dvds im running disk out of space with these d/l'ds.is it OK for me to write into some DVD media(i got tech-com)?
edit:im downloading i386 version

 

[din]

@praka123

I am really sorry for the trouble. I bought Moserbaer DVD and Sony CD last saturday but couldn't send . My fault.

Ok, if you are running out of disk space, please burn it. Np.

@The_Devil_Himself

Games - Yes, not hi-fi. As I mentioned, they are new to computers, new to linux. Something simple and basic.

And yes, if these small ones will work, then will not go for 2 GB RAM.

@infra_red_dude

Open suse has live and install CDs rt ? I downloaded one long back, but forgot which it was..

Lil confused now. If multi boot will create problem, then it will not be easy for em

@mehulved

Teacher tried install Debian in SATA, but thats 1.5 yr back, so not sure which ver it was. Also he was very new to Lin at that time, and may be thats y he couldn't.

 

[mehulved]

That happened cos the version before etch was released 3 years ago. And ofcourse SATA was unheard of then. Etch supports SATA without a hitch.

 

[infra_red_dude]

Din, you'll need to get the openSUSE live DVD. You can also install it.

 

[infra_red_dude]

So Din, what haf you decided? Did you enquire about the hardware prices?

 

[din]

Yes, got price list of most. Going to decide soon. Meantime, prakash helped me downloading the Distros, he will send it soon