Which linux distro do you run?

**Sporkk** · 08-13-2011, 02:28 PM

Puppy linux has worked well for me on older computers but also thinking of trying crunchbang. Why is xubuntu for beginners? The new unity thing has caused quite a uproar and most people say they are not happy with it at all. They say 11.10 is going to drop classic ubuntu completely so xubuntu may be the only good option. I like it because sabnzbd is already built for ubuntu. Other than that I really don't need any other software that isn't installed.

I want to have a ntfs folder that is auto mounted and shared on boot so I can stream it and use sabnzbd if I'm in windows or linux. This didn't seem to work all that well for me before and is the main reason I stopped booting linux. Maybe it would be better to dump the files directly to a shared folder to my htpc in the basement.

**Stabber** · 08-13-2011, 02:36 PM

you can do that manually through fstab (to mount the ntfs partition)

**bijoy** · 08-13-2011, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by Stabber

why don't people give archlinux a try ? it's not as hard as it looks like , and you don't need to be a pc guru to manage to install it

after installing it , it's probably the best distro you have tried , pacman is the fastest package manager i've used it , and the whole system is extremely fast

For beginers ubuntu is great.

**lightshow** · 08-14-2011, 10:54 PM

I want to have a ntfs folder that is auto mounted and shared on boot so I can stream it and use sabnzbd if I'm in windows or linux. This didn't seem to work all that well for me before and is the main reason I stopped booting linux. Maybe it would be better to dump the files directly to a shared folder to my htpc in the basement.

So if you would like to do this, I can help. What you'll do (high level) is create a Samba share (that is the windows sharing protocol) which is easy on the Linux server/workstation. You can do this though the GUI and share a folder and it's subfolders with a name : ie myshare

Then you'll make sure that the Samba process starts on boot on the linux server (the service is called smb)

Then you'll set up your windows desktop. A) My Computer -> Map network drive -> IP address of your linux server/workstation and the share name: ie //192.168.1.1/myshare b) Tell windows to connect this drive each time on boot c) you're done!

**Sporkk** · 08-15-2011, 12:39 AM

My actual plan is to have my main desktop as a dual boot setup. I was planning to use ntfs for my main storage drive for easy access from both operating systems. So on my main desktop I wanted to have a folder on the ntfs drive that would be auto mounted and samba shared so I can dump stuff from sabnzbd no matter which o/s I use while having it availalable to the htpc in the basement. I somewhat had it working before after editing samba and fstab but I remember having trouble sharing the ntfs drive from linux because it needed root access and chown was not letting me change it.

So thats why I was wondering if it would be easier to send all my downloads to the htpc in the basement. Not sure what my plan is at this point but I'm going to move some drives around. Right now I'm running windows 7 from a 32 gig ssd and things are getting tight so I'm going to move that over to a standard drive and run xubuntu from the ssd. I just need to finish playing a few games from steam so I don't have to re-download them again.

thanks for the offer to help. Will let you know if I get stuck

**Funkin'** · 08-17-2011, 03:56 AM

Originally Posted by Artemis

If you are looking for a lightweight distro for the meantime have a look at Peppermint OS2 http://peppermintos.com/ . This also is an Ubuntu distro, but uses the LXDE environment and is specifically designed to run on less than 512MB of RAM. You can download and run a LiveCD to check out what it offers. LXDE stands for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment and the interface really is lightweight.

Thanks Art. I gave Peppermint a try a few months ago. It was alright, but I decided not to go with it.

I did install Crunchbang Openbox a few days ago though and I have been in love with it. Openbox also. So much that I doubt I'll ever go back to a desktop environment on whatever distro I use. After using LXDE(on both Ubuntu and Lubuntu) for almost a couple years now, I'm so happy to get away from it. The desktop is really light, but it's just not as polished as it could be. It still needs some work in my opinion.

The lightness and speed of Openbox is great, and I'm learning it pretty fast. Really the only thing I had to get used to was that the menu doesn't auto update when you install a new app. Which I was kind of used to anyways as a lot of newly installed apps didn't auto appear in LXDE's menu either. But unlike LXDE, getting the app to appear in the Openbox menu isn't a pain in the ass. And in fact I'm starting to skip that route altogether now and just go with shortcut keys. So much simpler.

All in all I could not be happier with this move.

And Stabber, Arch is the distro I want to try next once I start having more free time again. Looks like there's quite a bit of work to this distro and I just don't have time for that right now. But I've read nothing but great things about so I'm pretty anxious to get into it.

**enviouz** · 08-24-2011, 03:41 PM

Im currently running Gentoo ~AMD64 keyworded on the desktop and mine and my wifes laptops. Then debian stable AMD64 on the home server as well as the business server and desktop in my shop.

**WolverineDK** · 08-24-2011, 07:30 PM

I just installed Linux Mint 11 LXDE on my Linux laptop, and well whether it is Peppermint Os One (I hate two, because of the Google shit), or it is Linux Mint. Then I am okay with it