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Another vote for Ubuntu. 

I have to say that a Live CD version is not a good test of this excellent Linux distro. We have 3 identical PCs. On two of these the latest version of 10.10 64bit live cd loads to a blank (completely black) screen. Google: "blank screen ubuntu live cd" - thankfully there is a remedy that works.   A few month old 10.10 64bit live cd works fine on all of three machines (?!)

But once the system is installed it runs fine (automatic updates, etc). The documentation is good and there is something useful written on any problem I've seen so far. The native ubuntu nvidia/nouveau driver problem (what a stupid headache!) is solved in 10.10 (the current version) and one can enjoy fully automated kernel upgrades, which include building a new nvidia kernel module automatically.   
      
Cheers,

Petr

Sent from my iPhone

On 22 Feb 2011, at 16:29, "Roger Rowlett" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I switched from FC8 to Ubuntu 9.04 a few years ago. Ubuntu worked with all of my hardware and peripherals out of the box, even newish motherboards, and I had fewer issues with WINE compatibility for CrysalisPro a WIndows-based X-ray data processing program for our Oxford Diffraction instrument. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is even better, and I'm scheduling an upgrade of my workstations this summer. Ubuntu will install NVidia drivers for you through a GUI setting with automatic updates, or you can do it manually, too.

Each distro has its own specific headaches. For FC, it was SELinux and a few other random driver and package issues, for Ubuntu it's other things, but I'm finding Ubuntu less problematic at the moment for the stuff I want to run.

Cheers.

On 2/22/2011 10:16 AM, David Roberts wrote:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite">Hello all,

Quick question on linux varieties.  For years (and years) I have used fedora (after Ultrix of course).  In fact, most of my computers are running FC7 (that long ago), it's very stable and works fine.  However, since it is no longer supported, I'm toying with upgrading.

I upgraded one machine to FC13.  However, this nouveau driver thing is killing me, and getting my nvidia drivers installed is hopeless (I have followed every thread on this and I simply give up - it's not worth it).  With a Zalman monitor it doesn't matter - nouveau works fine and my stereo is good - so I don't really care (or do I).

The question is this - what flavors of linux out there are simplest to install - work instantly with various hardwares, and run stereo seamlessly (either Zalman stereo or hardware stereo with an emitter).  For zalman anything works - which is why I'm going that way - but I still need hardware stereo on a few machines.  So, for hardware, I need my nvidia drivers to install easily.

I'm downloading ubuntu - is that a good choice?  Can I run different flavors of linux with nfs and share drives in a local network (so one has fc7, one has fc13, and another has ubuntu)?

Thanks

Dave
--
Roger S. Rowlett
Professor
Department of Chemistry
Colgate University
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Hamilton, NY 13346

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