Take an online test and find which distro is for you.

[sladden]

It recomended me to. 1)Fedora, 2)Ubuntu, 3)OpenSUSE, 4)Mandriva, 5)Linux Mint.
I am running Linux Mint.
Allthough I have tried the first 4.
Until this year I allways prefered Xubuntu. But, now, Linux Mint 13 (Mate) seems to run the most stable and smooth.

[danlee58]

I took the test, but not sure if I have a 64 bit cpu. It's a P4 2.42 Ghz. Unbutu was the 3rd chouce, but I have an Unbutu CD.

Is the Unbutu CD a live distribution?

Is my machine fast enough?

Is my CPU 64 Bit?

Should I try to boot from the CD?

[renegade600]

go ahead and boot from the cd and see if it will work. that is the easiest way to find out. most likely you will need something that is a bit lighter on resources because of the age of your computer.

[danlee58]

I tried to boot from the CD, but for some reason I can't get into the Flash program to make the computer boot from the DVD drive. I did run a setup program from the disk through Windows to allow booting either Windows or Unbutu. When I try booting Unbutu, it can't find the boot info, because it's looking at the C: drive, not the DVD.

[renegade600]

you have to change your boot order on the computer. when you first turn on the computer, it should say something about hitting keys to enter setup or bootorder or something similar. It would be on the very first screen just after you power on. If not, give the full computer model number and maybe someone here may know what buttons to push.

also, did you just copy the iso file to the disk or did you create a data disk after you downloaded ubuntu?

[danlee58]

I can't get into the Flash utility. I have a Raid controller for my 1Tb drive, but my C: drive is 80 Gb. The Motherboard is an ASUS P4XP-X. I have been using this computer for 10 years. I am planning to upgrade to an i7 computer, maybe barebones, but I have to keep this, because there are many programs that I use, that may not be available for a later oS. I run Windows XP.

[Ned Seagoon]

Danlee if your machine is 10 years old it is 32 bit, it is also not up to running the latest release of any version of Linux. If you wish to try Linux from a live CD you are going to need an older release of Linux before you will have any chance of success on that machine. May pay to wait till you get your new computer before you carry out your experiments.

[renegade600]

I agree with ned about the 10 year old computer. You will need an older version of linux. Also, if you have any more questions, you will need to start another thread instead of using the sticky. It will keep things from getting confused since the thread is about the linux test.

[craisin]

i agree with these two also

but i have a 12 year old PC that runs 12.04 3ghz cpu a very early LGA 775

[danlee58]

OK, I will end this attempt to load Linux until I get another machine. My P4 is a Socket 478, and I think that it's not a 64 bit.

[craisin]

Originally Posted by danlee58

OK, I will end this attempt to load Linux until I get another machine. My P4 is a Socket 478, and I think that it's not a 64 bit.

no way that will do 64bit if you had a socket 478 with 8x AGP and USB2 it would be better and more liable to do 64 bit

[Cerdarad]

A good distro for those new to GNU/Linux would be an Ubuntu LTS release. My current recommendation is Ubuntu MATE 16.04.2. I myself use Debian Jessie but I've been using Linux for a number of years.

Happy computing!