What Linux Distro do the Linux users of GH use?

[iri]

Openbox, good.

[tp4tissue]

I really don't think a p8600 makes a good lappy these days..

High end C2D's were extremely fast, faster than most people realize, a P8600 keeps up with mid level second gen Core I5's and is barely slower than a 3rd gen.

Hardware simply has not marched on like you think it has since the Core2 era. The primary focus has really been on power consumption, performance improvements have come from SATA3, more memory, and SSD's. Not so much from the processors really.

Say wha...   p8600 is like 1500 cpu bench,   2520m is 3000+    double IPC

[Leslieann]

I really don't think a p8600 makes a good lappy these days..

High end C2D's were extremely fast, faster than most people realize, a P8600 keeps up with mid level second gen Core I5's and is barely slower than a 3rd gen.
Hardware simply has not marched on like you think it has since the Core2 era. The primary focus has really been on power consumption, performance improvements have come from SATA3, more memory, and SSD's. Not so much from the processors really.

Say wha...   p8600 is like 1500 cpu bench,   2520m is 3000+    double IPC

Depends on the benchmark you look at and what you are doing, not to mention processor differences get dulled by other components. Which is why you shouldn't rely so much on benchmarks that is focused only on one component.

I have several notebooks, all either had or do have the same drives (Crucial M4 ssd):
C2d P8500
I5 460m
I3 2310 (upgraded to the 2540)
I5 2540

According to benchmarks the I3 should be faster, the reality was that it made me angry how slow it felt in comparison to the C2D. I put 6 gigs in it and even then, it felt sluggish. So much that I sought out the 2540, and while it did wake it up, it was still just a step up in performance compared to the C2D. With only 4 gigs, you would be hard pressed to know the C2D from the 2540. I got the 460m later and that needed 8 gigs to match the 2540 with 6 gigs.

I'm sure benchmarking them would show the 2540 slaughtering the entire field, in the real world it just doesn't. Why? MY guess is they are starved for data, be it because of the memory, or a combination memory and Sata2 connection.

[tp4tissue]

I really don't think a p8600 makes a good lappy these days..

High end C2D's were extremely fast, faster than most people realize, a P8600 keeps up with mid level second gen Core I5's and is barely slower than a 3rd gen.
Hardware simply has not marched on like you think it has since the Core2 era. The primary focus has really been on power consumption, performance improvements have come from SATA3, more memory, and SSD's. Not so much from the processors really.

Say wha...   p8600 is like 1500 cpu bench,   2520m is 3000+    double IPC

Depends on the benchmark you look at and what you are doing, not to mention processor differences get dulled by other components. Which is why you shouldn't rely so much on benchmarks that is focused only on one component.

I have several notebooks, all either had or do have the same drives (Crucial M4 ssd):
C2d P8500
I5 460m
I3 2310 (upgraded to the 2540)
I5 2540

According to benchmarks the I3 should be faster, the reality was that it made me angry how slow it felt in comparison to the C2D. I put 6 gigs in it and even then, it felt sluggish. So much that I sought out the 2540, and while it did wake it up, it was still just a step up in performance compared to the C2D. With only 4 gigs, you would be hard pressed to know the C2D from the 2540. I got the 460m later and that needed 8 gigs to match the 2540 with 6 gigs.

I'm sure benchmarking them would show the 2540 slaughtering the entire field, in the real world it just doesn't. Why? MY guess is they are starved for data, be it because of the memory, or a combination memory and Sata2 connection.

I think it's probably due to power gating..

I've had this problem on many laptops,  where the aggressive power plan (windows Balanced) downclocks the cpu and possibly the chipset,  this raises DPC latency.. causing stutters..

But if I put it in High performance mode,  everything becomes super smooth..

I think that may have been the case if your i3 was feeling slow..

vs the i5,  the 2540m also has 3.3ghz turbo,  and it can actually turbo both cores to 3.3 for a short while, / when temperatures allow it. (depending on manufacturer of laptop)

[davkol]

Traditionally, IBM and Lenovo has had good support for Linux.
I can't speak specifically for the X200, but I can for the individual parts in it. In terms of speed, my Sony has a P8500 and runs Linux just fine (good processor actually). Where you may have issues is with the wireless card, it's probably going to need the Iwlwifi driver, which frankly, I think isn't all that great, it works, but shutting down can be slow, it's better than it used to be though. Other than that, you should have no problems. Worst case, buy a different wireless card for $10. If you have an old SSD, throw that in, newer ones will not be any faster due to the Sata2 speed. With that, the system will perform similar to a modern mid-level notebook, or at least feel like it.

I initially wrote a post about encouraging you to reconsider the x201 for future proofing reasons but after researching it, there's almost no difference between the two. Both have an 8gig limit, ddr3, sata2, same screen resolution, Win10 support... Even battery life and processing power is similar. The only real benefit over the x200 is that the x201 adds a touchpad, 300meg wifi (vs 150), and more readily accepts 8gigs of memory (the x200 requires specific memory and/or bios tweaks to do so).

Actually, the #1 reason to get X201 instead of X200 is the graphic chip. Drivers work slightly better, and esp. hardware video decoding works out of the box with Intel HD.

[tp4tissue]

Traditionally, IBM and Lenovo has had good support for Linux.
I can't speak specifically for the X200, but I can for the individual parts in it. In terms of speed, my Sony has a P8500 and runs Linux just fine (good processor actually). Where you may have issues is with the wireless card, it's probably going to need the Iwlwifi driver, which frankly, I think isn't all that great, it works, but shutting down can be slow, it's better than it used to be though. Other than that, you should have no problems. Worst case, buy a different wireless card for $10. If you have an old SSD, throw that in, newer ones will not be any faster due to the Sata2 speed. With that, the system will perform similar to a modern mid-level notebook, or at least feel like it.

I initially wrote a post about encouraging you to reconsider the x201 for future proofing reasons but after researching it, there's almost no difference between the two. Both have an 8gig limit, ddr3, sata2, same screen resolution, Win10 support... Even battery life and processing power is similar. The only real benefit over the x200 is that the x201 adds a touchpad, 300meg wifi (vs 150), and more readily accepts 8gigs of memory (the x200 requires specific memory and/or bios tweaks to do so).

Actually, the #1 reason to get X201 instead of X200 is the graphic chip. Drivers work slightly better, and esp. hardware video decoding works out of the box with Intel HD.

Well the X201 also has a cpu that approaches  ~3000 cpu score.. 

so it's much closer to modern gen Cpu than the p8600..


But seriously.. USA,  t420,  boat loads for $180..  what's wrong with that..   It's sandy bridge 2520m..  like,  that's the best price for the most modern spec..

I'm also quite sure the t420 allows for bios modding to support non-lenovo branded intel 6300 wifi cards..

[Leslieann]

I think it's probably due to power gating..

I've had this problem on many laptops,  where the aggressive power plan (windows Balanced) downclocks the cpu and possibly the chipset,  this raises DPC latency.. causing stutters..

But if I put it in High performance mode,  everything becomes super smooth..

I think that may have been the case if your i3 was feeling slow..

vs the i5,  the 2540m also has 3.3ghz turbo,  and it can actually turbo both cores to 3.3 for a short while, / when temperatures allow it. (depending on manufacturer of laptop)

I get what you are saying, however, that's not the case.

All were fresh installs using identical power plans, balanced as well as performance mode, all used Win7 configured the same as well. 
Yes, the I3 did smooth out some in performance mode, but it was still garbage, while none of the others required this. The I3 was swapped out for the 2540 without a re-install just to see if it made a difference, which it did.

Given identical memory, as I said, you would be hard to tell on a day to day basis which was which, other than the I3.  Could you tell in something seriously demanding long term, probably, but 99% of the time, you wouldn't know the difference.  It is possible that the newer processors simply needed more memory to wake up, it wouldn't be the first time I've seen that, but I don't have 8 gigs I can put into the p8500 to do a comparison. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying every C2d is better, but the higher end ones, can still hold their own.

I would still rather have, and do recommend the CI series over the C2d, but I wouldn't say it's no longer worth using, especially when Intel is shipping low end C2d's repackaged (Pentium) and AMD has only just exceeded high end C2d performance with the A6 and A8 series.

Actually, the #1 reason to get X201 instead of X200 is the graphic chip. Drivers work slightly better, and esp. hardware video decoding works out of the box with Intel HD.

I agree, with you, it's the best reason, but is it worth 50% more money? probably not.

[Blaise170]

AGH! I have an extra desktop that I can't get anyone to buy on Craigslist so I decided to make it a Linux machine. Used a new case since the old one is pretty bad and now the PSU cables won't reach. 

Now it'll be another week before I can get Linux Mint or Arch up and running again. 

[tp4tissue]

AGH! I have an extra desktop that I can't get anyone to buy on Craigslist so I decided to make it a Linux machine. Used a new case since the old one is pretty bad and now the PSU cables won't reach. 

Now it'll be another week before I can get Linux Mint or Arch up and running again. 

It won't reach even from the front?..

You can put the 8 pin mobo line under the graphics card where the notch is.

[user 18]

AGH! I have an extra desktop that I can't get anyone to buy on Craigslist so I decided to make it a Linux machine. Used a new case since the old one is pretty bad and now the PSU cables won't reach. 

Now it'll be another week before I can get Linux Mint or Arch up and running again. 

It won't reach even from the front?..

You can put the 8 pin mobo line under the graphics card where the notch is.

If it's a full tower case, I know some PSUs with short leads have trouble reaching even following the most direct path to the plug.

[Blaise170]

It's not a full tower case but it's a large mid tower. The motherboard is a micro-ATX too which doesn't help.

[godly_music]

Cute little P8700 notebook coming in the mail this week! I can't wait to grind my soul to dust trying to install Gentoo on it. It'll be a first, but as long as the documentation holds up...

[sth]

Cute little P8700 notebook coming in the mail this week! I can't wait to grind my soul to dust trying to install Gentoo on it. It'll be a first, but as long as the documentation holds up...

the documentation will hold up. better have something to do while you're waiting for X to compile though

[dan002]

I  run Rasbian (a distro based on Debian)  on my two Raspberry Pi. So, the model 2 is running a DNS server to block ads. I'm also very lucky to own the original model 1 model B rev. 1 I still use for hacking GPIO.

I also have tried arch linux. I think that the systemctl has potential.

[sth]

I  run Rasbian (a distro based on Debian)  on my two Raspberry Pi. So, the model 2 is running a DNS server to block ads. I'm also very lucky to own the original model 1 model B rev. 1 I still use for hacking GPIO.

I also have tried arch linux. I think that the systemctl has potential.

try void for pi

[swill]

I  run Rasbian (a distro based on Debian)  on my two Raspberry Pi. So, the model 2 is running a DNS server to block ads. I'm also very lucky to own the original model 1 model B rev. 1 I still use for hacking GPIO.

I also have tried arch linux. I think that the systemctl has potential.

try void for pi

I may actually give void a shot for the Pi.  I have been having issues getting my nic to work with Arch on my Pi's.  Maybe void will work better.

[wlhlm]

I  run Rasbian (a distro based on Debian)  on my two Raspberry Pi. So, the model 2 is running a DNS server to block ads. I'm also very lucky to own the original model 1 model B rev. 1 I still use for hacking GPIO.

I also have tried arch linux. I think that the systemctl has potential.

Nice setup! I have Arch running on my Pi and love it.

But, what's so special about the model 1 B rev.1? I haven't really kept up with RasbPi development. I also got one of those, and it could use some more RAM.

[sth]

I  run Rasbian (a distro based on Debian)  on my two Raspberry Pi. So, the model 2 is running a DNS server to block ads. I'm also very lucky to own the original model 1 model B rev. 1 I still use for hacking GPIO.

I also have tried arch linux. I think that the systemctl has potential.

try void for pi

I may actually give void a shot for the Pi.  I have been having issues getting my nic to work with Arch on my Pi's.  Maybe void will work better.

void is not for the faint of heart... on x86. with raspi you get a nice preconfigured image that boots and works right away hope it suits you well. runit is super cool as an init system and void in general is faster than anything i've used (maybe you could eke out better performance with gentoo but as far as binary distros void is awesome).

[dan002]

I  run Rasbian (a distro based on Debian)  on my two Raspberry Pi. So, the model 2 is running a DNS server to block ads. I'm also very lucky to own the original model 1 model B rev. 1 I still use for hacking GPIO.

I also have tried arch linux. I think that the systemctl has potential.

Nice setup! I have Arch running on my Pi and love it.

But, what's so special about the model 1 B rev.1? I haven't really kept up with RasbPi development. I also got one of those, and it could use some more RAM.

Because they're no longer made mostly. I have an aluminum case for my original pi that's been keeping it save since 2012. Check it out:

I did a quick search  for Void and it supports the Raspberry pi 2, so I will test it out.

[tp4tissue]

Cute little P8700 notebook coming in the mail this week! I can't wait to grind my soul to dust trying to install Gentoo on it. It'll be a first, but as long as the documentation holds up...

I don't understand.. why couldn't you just save some more money,  and get a better laptop.. in a month

The p8600 is very outdated TODAY,  it will be VERY VERY outdated Tomorrow,

It's a lose lose situation..  Even at $100-150 ,  price to performance ratio is no good..

A USED  x220t (the tablet version of x220, slightly thicker) with 2520m  sells for ~$200-300 on Ebay..

Sandybridge is at least still relevant,  and it has sata 3 and a much more modern GPU..


How long will it take to save another $100..    vs using a slow laptop through 1 to 2 years worth of frustration.


Seriously,  it boggles my mind how you guys think sometimes..

[wlhlm]

I  run Rasbian (a distro based on Debian)  on my two Raspberry Pi. So, the model 2 is running a DNS server to block ads. I'm also very lucky to own the original model 1 model B rev. 1 I still use for hacking GPIO.

I also have tried arch linux. I think that the systemctl has potential.

Nice setup! I have Arch running on my Pi and love it.

But, what's so special about the model 1 B rev.1? I haven't really kept up with RasbPi development. I also got one of those, and it could use some more RAM.

Because they're no longer made mostly. I have an aluminum case for my original pi that's been keeping it save since 2012. Check it out:
(Attachment Link)
I did a quick search  for Void and it supports the Raspberry pi 2, so I will test it out.

Wow, nice case!

I bet it costs trice as much as a RPi.

[godly_music]

I don't understand.. why couldn't you just save some more money,  and get a better laptop.. in a month

The p8600 is very outdated TODAY,  it will be VERY VERY outdated Tomorrow,

Oudated, relevant.. what does that even mean? It's a CPU. It either works or it doesn't. I'm not trying to follow any tech trends here or stay 'ahead of the curve', I just wanted a cheap notebook for everything but 3D games. Also.. it strikes me as a bit of a waste to put an 2520m on a SUBnotebook with a 12 inch screen. What's gonna be the advantage here besides numbers?

[Leslieann]

I don't understand.. why couldn't you just save some more money,  and get a better laptop.. in a month

The p8600 is very outdated TODAY,  it will be VERY VERY outdated Tomorrow,

Oudated, relevant.. what does that even mean? It's a CPU. It either works or it doesn't. I'm not trying to follow any tech trends here or stay 'ahead of the curve', I just wanted a cheap notebook for everything but 3D games. Also.. it strikes me as a bit of a waste to put an 2520m on a SUBnotebook with a 12 inch screen. What's gonna be the advantage here besides numbers?

It all comes down to what you need it for.
Operating system hardware requirements peaked a few years back, with a few exceptions, anything made in the last say, 5-7 years is perfectly fine doing office work/web browsing and will remain so.

While this system can handle it, if you spend your days editing video, or with your nose in Solidworks, yeah, you might want something with more grunt (even on a 12in screen).

[sth]

to whom it may concern

looks like icecat made it into the void repos in the last 24hrs... so far it seems to be more stable than firefox has been (there is a github issue tracker for ff but i havent check the status since temporarily switching to chromium for work stuff).

[fishcola]

lol where's the BSD luv? you wan't the best text-adventure game known to man? load a m*thaf*ckin BSD...

I"m somewhere between Debian, fedora/centos, and arch ATM... been in and out of linux for years. I'm excited about the enlightenment project's terminology, and wayland DMs for the future...

[rowdy]

lol where's the BSD luv? you wan't the best text-adventure game known to man? load a m*thaf*ckin BSD...

I"m somewhere between Debian, fedora/centos, and arch ATM... been in and out of linux for years. I'm excited about the enlightenment project's terminology, and wayland DMs for the future...

There was some here, but no-one seemed particularly interested.

[sth]

lol where's the BSD luv? you wan't the best text-adventure game known to man? load a m*thaf*ckin BSD...

I"m somewhere between Debian, fedora/centos, and arch ATM... been in and out of linux for years. I'm excited about the enlightenment project's terminology, and wayland DMs for the future...

i mean... this is a linux thread... bsd is great though. i use a distro which is largely maintained by an ex-netbsd guy.
wayland looks cool - hopefully i'll get around to playing with it soon.

[KRKS]

to whom it may concern

looks like icecat made it into the void repos in the last 24hrs... so far it seems to be more stable than firefox has been (there is a github issue tracker for ff but i havent check the status since temporarily switching to chromium for work stuff).

I've been checking out Void liveusb for a while now, I'd install it now but my current partitoning is a mess and one of the drives' partial corruption doesn't help. I'm tempted to just get a random small HDD(I don't need sub-second boot times anyway) and install it on that.

[davkol]

I'm excited about the enlightenment project's terminology

Some relevant reading over at Daily WTF.

[godly_music]

Jesus Christ I'm never trying Gentoo with LVM & LUKS again. Plain is hard enough.

[Vizir]

Jesus Christ I'm never trying Gentoo with LVM & LUKS again. Plain is hard enough.

Hahahaha

[fishcola]

heh, i meant it as a half-joke, but I do like how bsds have a way more consistent manpage/anything from shell setup. thanks for the links! harder to trawl the web for good *nix info.

as far as gentoo is concerned, I still haven't taken the plunge into compiling *errything* from src... Make can be a big enough headache by itself!

[iri]

Jesus Christ I'm never trying Gentoo with LVM & LUKS again. Plain is hard enough.

Again? You are much smarter than I.

[godly_music]

I'm not smart at all, I just wasted 2 days on this ****. Lol. And that wasn't the only stop-gap. Boot-update and grub-install suddenly didn't create a grub.cfg anymore, X kept telling me that I had the wrong number of screens. I was stoked to try Gentoo, but there were just too many issues and I don't have the expertise to know the easy fixes off-hand (I'm sure they exist).

Anyway, I caved and put Manjaro with i3 on it, and it's pretty damn good. Even got the .icc profile for my laptop to load. I was hoping I'd get a lower wattage on Gentoo, but ~7,5w without wifi is good enough for me.

[vyshane]

lol where's the BSD luv? you wan't the best text-adventure game known to man? load a m*thaf*ckin BSD...

I"m somewhere between Debian, fedora/centos, and arch ATM... been in and out of linux for years. I'm excited about the enlightenment project's terminology, and wayland DMs for the future...

I ran FreeBSD on my servers for several years. I have a lot of respect for BSD. Having said that, these days I'm running Linux because of Docker. I'm currently evaluating CoreOS as a base OS for Kubernetes.

[kebby]

Over the years I've used lots of different distros and BSDs, both on and off desktop. Currently really excited about NixOS but I've not had the time to install it on my workstation yet, only for a couple of servers... Debian is my trusted old go-to that I certainly wouldn't replace with anything that uses rpms. Anyone else looked at NixOS?

BTW, in 6 hours there will be a live stream on called Twitch Installs Arch Linux. Similar to Twitch Plays Pokemon, the twitch chat will be making group decisions on what to input next into the install process. Do you think they'll make it? 

[sean]

BTW, in 6 hours there will be a live stream on called Twitch Installs Arch Linux. Similar to Twitch Plays Pokemon, the twitch chat will be making group decisions on what to input next into the install process. Do you think they'll make it? 

I think rm -rf

[zlittell]

I always tend to gravitate towards openSuSe or fedora.  I tend to run ubuntu or fedora when going headless though.  I have only installed Gentoo once and that was about 15 years ago haha.  I remember it being fun but painful! 

[iri]

15 years later, it's still painful.

[zlittell]

I have a feeling the 15 years ago thing making me a "kid" made it way more fun than time crunched adult me would have now haha.  Need to get some sort of gentoo flag for my yard.  "For our brothers of gentoo <3"

[kebby]

If you think Gentoo install is painful you should try Linux From Scratch (LFS). Not really a distro, just a bunch of instructions for how to build a Linux install from source archives.

I wouldn't actually use a system like that, hard to maintain with few benefits, but they do write it like you might even want to do that. I've done it once many years ago and It's a long process but also fairly educational.

[ctm]

I use Ubuntu with Unity on my desktop and Lubuntu on my Surface in VMWare because of low available memory (I wish I bought the 8GB RAM model). I also use OpenBox sometimes when I need to save more memory.

[thelectronicnub]

even if this is old it's pretty funny

using xubuntu on my c2d dell laptop, works pretty well for general use, even with only 2gb of ram

using ubuntu server on my c2q box for octoprint, a few websites, plex, and an nginx reverse proxy so i can access my router when i'm not at home

[umeboshi]

Just reinstalled the latest Linux Mint xfce on an old eeepc, and surprised that it runs pretty well...just need to get the wifi driver going though.

[angelic_sedition]

Over the years I've used lots of different distros and BSDs, both on and off desktop. Currently really excited about NixOS but I've not had the time to install it on my workstation yet, only for a couple of servers... Debian is my trusted old go-to that I certainly wouldn't replace with anything that uses rpms. Anyone else looked at NixOS?

BTW, in 6 hours there will be a live stream on called Twitch Installs Arch Linux. Similar to Twitch Plays Pokemon, the twitch chat will be making group decisions on what to input next into the install process. Do you think they'll make it? 

Yep, I've been meaning to switch or at least start dual booting it with Arch. The attractiveness of a distro to me is pretty much just the installation process and the package manager. NixOS's config file makes a reproducible, hands-free installation trivial in comparison to the amount of scripting necessary for other distros to automatically set things up how you like. I also really like nix, but I don't really look forward to having to package a lot software.

[GuilleAcoustic]

I'm using Arch linux with Plasma (KDE 5) as my only OS. Converted a very old laptop (1GHz Celeron, 128MB DDR1) with Arch bang and Openbox.

[shibataken]

Linux mint is slowly replacing windows 10 for me

[FreeCopy]

Linux mint is slowly replacing windows 10 for me

This is my current situation as well. Windows is used pretty much for gaming and some MS Office work.

[iri]

If you think Gentoo install is painful you should try Linux From Scratch (LFS).

which is absolutely lovely, unlike gentoo.

[chroness]

I run mint of my laptop. I tried arch but just wasn't quite advanced enough to use it effectively