Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

I'm gonna make the move back to linux on my laptop, which is a1.7ghz celeron Toshiba with 1GB of memory.

it'll mainly be used for web access and watching media from mythtv.

Any recommendations for a distro, that's friendly on the eye, and easy and quick to use?

I'm not too fussed on ubuntu, and have been toying between CentOS, Mint, and OpenSuse.

what do you guys reckon. Oh and of course I have a Nokia tablet (N800)

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

I would go with one of the Debian based distros, either Ubuntu proper or Mint. I have only used Mint briefly in Live CD form, but given that you are focused on web and media, it may be the best choice, at least in terms of ease of setup. Plus the GUI layout is somewhat similar to Windows, if that is what you are migrating from.

As far as Ubuntu goes, I have had no issues mounting my tablet as a mass storage device, or doing firmware updates. One thing I will highly recommend, if you do go with Ubuntu, install the Ubuntu Tweak app as soon as you have installed and updated the system. Its very useful when it comes to streamlining the process of adding apps and app repositories other than the official ones.

I can't really say too much about the quality of the other two. I've used OpenSUSE briefly and it didn't seem quite as streamlined. I have yet to try CentOS, although I have used Red Hat and Fedora extensively and as it is built on the same code base, it should be fairly stable if nothing else.

Regardless of which distro you decide to go with, I do have one piece of advice that I can't stress enough. When you are going through the process of partitioning your hard disk, create a separate "/home" partition. That way if you decide you want to install a different distro your media, docs, some settings, etc. will be preserved. This method has saved me from many a headache. Just make sure you don't format the "/home" partition when you re-install. ;-)

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

I second Mint for the OP's wishes. I was looking for the same sort of distro for my netbook (Samsung NC10). I tested literally dozens (from a USB key) and Mint7 is the one I finally installed. I like it so much that I also now have it as a double boot on my desktop.

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

I use fedora, but it's a personal choice at the end of the day.
There are live cd's so you can take a look at them without installing them.

I'd recommend kubuntu, mainly because it uses kde 4.x and it's easy to install apparently - though I've never used it myself (kind of weird recommending something I've never used I know).

I wouldn't recommend CentOS as a desktop env. as it's not as up to date as the others.

Live CD's are the way to go, try a few distros and see.

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

Sidux - if you like being a little bit unstable

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

I use Ubuntu on both of my systems and have for a long time. One big Ubuntu advantage is the large number of users on http://ubuntuforums.org. Since you aren't satisfied with Ubuntu, I'd recommend Mint. The user interface is different but underneath it's still Ubuntu. Mint can be easier to setup for media that isn't open source. Ubuntu releases a new version every six months so if it's been a while since you last tried it you'll see lots of improvement with recognizing hardware and the user interface.

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

You can also give mandriva a try, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

Try puppy linux. The live cd is ~100 Mb so it is easy to download, and you'll be up and running in seconds (about 20 seconds). If you want eye candy try one of the puplets. The candies will bore you after a while, but the speed of a small distro is always a joy.

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

I recently made an Acer notebook dualbootable and failed using ubuntu (due to some proprietary hardware specs), yet mint had almost no problems finishing the job. Thus, I second mint.

icke

Re: Which Desktop Distro to use?
 

have a read of: http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

personally i like the distros on a short release cycle (6 months), because you get new stuff quickly.

i get a bit grumpy with fedora, because i have had a few issues where they say its not a bug but a configuration issue, in similar place ubuntu will aim to set a better default. i don't mind modifying boot options, or config files, but most people prefer not too. but for any 2 distros you will always find someone whos laptop works better with one, and someone else for whom the other distro works better.

most distros have a live CD so you can have a play with out installing.