From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 9 04:13:44 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1800E16A4CE for ; Mon, 9 Feb 2004 04:13:44 -0800 (PST) Received: from imo-m02.mx.aol.com (imo-m02.mx.aol.com [64.12.136.5]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BC6BF43D2F for ; Mon, 9 Feb 2004 04:13:43 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from Strangehue@aol.com) Received: from Strangehue@aol.com by imo-m02.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v36_r4.12.) id n.1c3.14c70dd1 (30970) for ; Mon, 9 Feb 2004 07:13:37 -0500 (EST) From: Strangehue@aol.com Message-ID: <1c3.14c70dd1.2d58d371@aol.com> Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 07:13:37 EST To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: 8.0 for Windows sub 6024 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.1 Subject: What OS should I use? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 12:13:44 -0000 I have a question on what would be the best OS for me. freeBSD another Unix/BSD or a brand of Linux. Here's what I have, tell me what you think. I have an old used Gateway (Solo 9100) laptop with a Pentium2, 4-GB, 640k RAM, the system is x86 based physical memory is 191.51mb total and 91.57mb available. It came with Windows ME, that's been a nightmare. Now the OS is having issues and I need to replace it. This is my only PC so I don't want to fry it or tinker too much at first. I am willing and eager to learn but at first I want the OS to be fairly painless to use. I don't want to have to be a super techie or have to jump threw a lot of hoops just to get the OS to work. This PC has other issues as the CD ROM drive is to old to read writable disks i.e. CD-R CD-RW so I'll have to use floppy's or a pressed vendors disk. I also think there may be another issue I haven't diagnosed yet. I tried a version of KNOPPIX WFTL edition from a book (Moving to Linux) but it wouldn't load on my machine. It asked me to insert another disk but I didn't have one (I got the book from the library). It did load on friends PC so the disk was good though it ran to slow from the CD ROM to know if I'd want Linux. I do know that that the regular KNOPPIX comes with two disks one for none US and I am afraid this may be the issue or an issue in the future. Any thoughts on this would be helpful too. I look forward to any suggestions on what might be a good OS for me and would appreciate the basic reasons behind your suggestions, beyond "it's the best." Thank you for your time and in advance thank you for your suggestions. Shawn.