Post by ax25nut on May 18, 2010 15:18:46 GMT -5
Greetings, folks....just thought I'd drop a post here to say "hello" since I'm trying out some of these distros on this site. Currently, I've been tinkering with nflux Slackware on my desktop and netbook machines. These are their specs:
Desktop: IBM ThinkCentre P4/2.7ghz w/160gb hdd & 2gb ram
Netbook 1: Acer Aspire One w/Atom 1.6ghz CPU w/1gb ram & 120gb hdd
Netbook 2: Asus Eee PC 701sd w/1gb ram & 8gb cfdisk
I just got this Asus Eee at the Dayton Hamvention last weekend, so I've been tinkering with it a lot the past few days. The first thing I did was completely wipe the built-in flash drive (WinXP) so I could have enough space for some linux distros on it. So far, I've tried Slack4Christians, nflux-Slackware, Puppy, BackTrack 4.0, Ubuntu Netbook Remix (dud) and the PupPak 1.0 here. I'll try more, as I'm undecided what I want to stick on this machine yet. I may end up putting BT4 back on or Phlak and using it for portable ops. Puppy's a good choice here (is there ANYTHING that doesn't work on?). I want something that has apps that work, and, unfortunately, most so-called distros have failed miserably on the netbooks I've tried in that regard. The biggest glitch I've seen is that, when opening an app I get config windows that are way to large for the screen, with no way to resize them, and this makes it impossible to use them.
Ubuntu's netbook entries give you a popup window advising to click on it to activate your wifi connection, but it vanishes when the cursor is placed on it (grrrr.....). Also same issues with config windows being too tall.
BT4 was fun, but way too hazardous to show off to newbies and friends. Ever try explaining all those cracking tools to your Christian friends and government/law-enforcement buddies?
Slack4Christians, nflux, PupPak: Now we're getting somewhere. These are great for family & friends, easy to show off and demo to the techno-challenged (high priority here), and you can always download other apps as you need them. Even a rank novice can do almost everything here with these distros. I really like PupPak's "ShepherdPup", which uses the typical puppy interfaces and methods for doing everything. Really tight & functional. I also like the Slack4Christians, despite the hassles that rose up around the name. All of these will get your screen resolution right out of the box, although a novice may have trouble using the network setup. Same goes for nFlux. A wired ethernet presented no problem. I only had trouble with the wifi stuff because I was unfamiliar with the wifi tools on these distros ('m accustomed to the puppy netwizard). That will change after I do some more badly needed reading. None of this existed the last time I used slackware on my machines (386 vintage, try not to snigger). Most of these new "live" distros really do spoil a guy!
By the way, about my nickname: ax25nut....it comes from another hobby of mine; amateur radio. The x25 protocol was created, IIRC, by the old ARPA and still drives much of the internet's packet switching & networking. The ax25 protocol is the Amateur version of this protocol used in the Packet Radio communications. I'm somewhat of a nut about this packet radio stuff, hence the handle: ax25nut. Kinda' makes you wonder where everyone else got THEIR nicknames, huh?
Back to testing & fiddling....
ax25nut
Desktop: IBM ThinkCentre P4/2.7ghz w/160gb hdd & 2gb ram
Netbook 1: Acer Aspire One w/Atom 1.6ghz CPU w/1gb ram & 120gb hdd
Netbook 2: Asus Eee PC 701sd w/1gb ram & 8gb cfdisk
I just got this Asus Eee at the Dayton Hamvention last weekend, so I've been tinkering with it a lot the past few days. The first thing I did was completely wipe the built-in flash drive (WinXP) so I could have enough space for some linux distros on it. So far, I've tried Slack4Christians, nflux-Slackware, Puppy, BackTrack 4.0, Ubuntu Netbook Remix (dud) and the PupPak 1.0 here. I'll try more, as I'm undecided what I want to stick on this machine yet. I may end up putting BT4 back on or Phlak and using it for portable ops. Puppy's a good choice here (is there ANYTHING that doesn't work on?). I want something that has apps that work, and, unfortunately, most so-called distros have failed miserably on the netbooks I've tried in that regard. The biggest glitch I've seen is that, when opening an app I get config windows that are way to large for the screen, with no way to resize them, and this makes it impossible to use them.
Ubuntu's netbook entries give you a popup window advising to click on it to activate your wifi connection, but it vanishes when the cursor is placed on it (grrrr.....). Also same issues with config windows being too tall.
BT4 was fun, but way too hazardous to show off to newbies and friends. Ever try explaining all those cracking tools to your Christian friends and government/law-enforcement buddies?
Slack4Christians, nflux, PupPak: Now we're getting somewhere. These are great for family & friends, easy to show off and demo to the techno-challenged (high priority here), and you can always download other apps as you need them. Even a rank novice can do almost everything here with these distros. I really like PupPak's "ShepherdPup", which uses the typical puppy interfaces and methods for doing everything. Really tight & functional. I also like the Slack4Christians, despite the hassles that rose up around the name. All of these will get your screen resolution right out of the box, although a novice may have trouble using the network setup. Same goes for nFlux. A wired ethernet presented no problem. I only had trouble with the wifi stuff because I was unfamiliar with the wifi tools on these distros ('m accustomed to the puppy netwizard). That will change after I do some more badly needed reading. None of this existed the last time I used slackware on my machines (386 vintage, try not to snigger). Most of these new "live" distros really do spoil a guy!
By the way, about my nickname: ax25nut....it comes from another hobby of mine; amateur radio. The x25 protocol was created, IIRC, by the old ARPA and still drives much of the internet's packet switching & networking. The ax25 protocol is the Amateur version of this protocol used in the Packet Radio communications. I'm somewhat of a nut about this packet radio stuff, hence the handle: ax25nut. Kinda' makes you wonder where everyone else got THEIR nicknames, huh?
Back to testing & fiddling....
ax25nut