Laptop Distro Suggestions for Student?

I am a business student taking computer science classes. I need a stable distro for my laptop that I could easily customize (without the need for a lot of linux know-how).

I've been using Ubuntu (and recently Mint) for the last three years, so I know the basics. I don't necessarily need a "beginners" distro, I'd just rather not have to do much "advanced" work.

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated, but please tell me why they would be a good choice in your response.

Arch would be a good choice for you. Packages are easy to create and modify, and it doesn't require a lot of know how if you follow the beginners guide.

Fedora 10 was fantastic though I've never used it with a laptop. It's not something that takes hours to configure so I would deem it more of a intermediate distro

Coming from a student and someone who loves trying new Distros my suggestions would include:

openSUSE --> Has advanced features but easier none the less PCLinuxOS --> A little on the beginners side, but KDE runs nicely Fedora --> See openSUSE description but adds SELinux to the mix Sabayon --> More advanced but the easier way to try Gentoo Mint Ubuntu

Overall, I say just go with what works. Although I have tried all of these, I just keep coming back to Ubuntu because it works for me. And although it may make many things simpler, and many people may see it as a "starter" distro, if you want to do advanced things, it can handle that as well.

Fedora 10: A large, well-maintained distro with lots of power but still remains very easy.

Zenwalk: A nice Slackware-based distro with lots of automatic tools.

Pardus: An excellent distro if you like automation and don't mind doing things the Pardus way. Lots of graphical tools.

As a student who has promoted the use of linux and also convinced our Head Of Department to get one of our labs powered entirely by ubuntu, I suggest you to use Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. Since it is a long term release, you can easily work with it.

I got the whole lab installed with 8.04. I formed a small team and we carried out the installation. You can work on ubuntu. Its the best experience you can ever get

cardinals_fan said:

zenwalk: A nice slackware-based distro with lots of automatic tools. +1

for expert : gentoo or archlinux If you cant install gentoo, check sabayon linux for beginners : fedora 10

+1 Arch

Sidux

For a Ubuntu user I would suggest Debian because of its familiarity. Or Slackware because of its simplicity.

Arch is the most customisable distro I know of and I run it on the laptop as a small install to keep space down. Just have the wiki available!

i have started using linux after 3 years i am using ubuntu. try it. this is really good.

mikjp said: Or Slackware because of its simplicity.

Slackware's simple nature is underrated.:KS

If you're familiar w/ Ubuntu, then why not go w/ Ubuntu server or Debian and build up from there using apt-get/aptitude. This way you can make a 'only what you need' install while still being familiar w/ how to navigate your system should any issues come up.

Then on the other hand, you could always try something new, like all of the other distros that have been recommended. Regardless, decide what's best for you and what you need out of your machine.

Best of luck w/ whatever you decide. =]

So long as you stick with a debian based distro it will be pretty familiar with what you have with ubuntu and of course you can customize your system based on the packages you use. I started with fedora, moved to debian, then went to ubuntu because it is easier to get non-FOSS software (codecs and stuff) through the repos. I've been told I should use mint because it's basically ubuntu + medibuntu automatically included but I'm so comfortable with ubuntu I have no desire to change.

i use crunchbang linux on my asus EeePC and it simply is great. there is a distro called linus lite which is also nice but it is red hat based(rpm) and i would say use debian as it is the most stable one of them all (in my experience) or just stick wiht ubuntu . there is all the programs i imagine you should use as a student and its also very stable and nice community. which is great. good luck distro hunting. :)

Unless you've got some time to put into it, just stick with Ubuntu for now. As a student, it sucks to be pissing around with a distro to get it all set up or acclimating to new features.

Agreed. I was distro-hopping for a while, but when family was going to come over and I wantred to be able to show them a full-featured setup with compiz, flash etc, I immediately reinstalled ubuntu.

Funny thing is, as much as the more "hardcore" Linux users talk about how Compiz sucks and work at trimming down system resources (guilty here, although now I'm just more used to OpenBox) and all those other technical aspects, if you want to show it off or get some converts, flashy bloated is the way to go.

Your average computer user doesn't give a damn if their system uses 450 or 1500 MB of memory during usage as long as it's not dragging the experience down, and thus is a lot more impressed with a desktop cube than having the entire system running on a 512MB flash drive.

Anyway, back to my point, if your system WORKS, don't mess with distro-hopping just yet. I went that route and it was pretty disastrous when things didn't go well. I'd lose time to work (at best) or I'd lose work itself (at worst). It got terribly stressful when I was trying to get something done for class and I'd lose a day because I thought I could use distro X only to discover this or that wasn't working right and I had to go back.

SomeGuyDude said:

Anyway, back to my point, if your system WORKS, don't mess with distro-hopping just yet. I went that route and it was pretty disastrous when things didn't go well. I'd lose time to work (at best) or I'd lose work itself (at worst). It got terribly stressful when I was trying to get something done for class and I'd lose a day because I thought I could use distro X only to discover this or that wasn't working right and I had to go back.

+1 never ever distro hop during a time like exams but otherwise I'd say the perfect time to distro is when everything is working as expected. IMO things just get boring after that :D, but really it gives you a good base to return to if things go wrong so you don't find yourself without a paddle when things go wrong :)

Slackware. The install is fairly easy. It comes with everything (including the kitchen sink). I use it on my laptop for all of my school work. It is similar to BSD, allowing you to learn a little more whenever you are bored. It's always been around, so you know it always will be. It is stable. It is secure.

Thank you everybody for the suggestions. I have looked them over, and Fedora seems to best fit my needs.

I'd recommend Mint.