Karlo Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Hello,As of now I'm trying to reformat a friend's laptop. It's an old one. Sony VAIO, with a 512 MB of RAM, Intel Pentium 4 3 Ghz with an 80 GB of hard drive. ATI video card I think.The user is just someone who access Facebook, Yahoo! Messenger and a bit of Skype.Most of the time, the user plays a game called Slot Machine from Slot Plus Casino. It'sa free game that simulates a Slot Machine game with virtual betting stuff.Now, I hate Ubuntu because of the Unity thing. I did some research. Linux Mint and OpenSUSE.Apparently, I'm confused. Linux Mint has KDE and GNOME as well as OpenSUSE.Which of the two (Linux Mint vs. OpenSUSE) will I install and will I use KDE or GNOME?What's the default Desktop Environment that comes with Linux Mint and OpenSUSE?Which is better KDE or GNOME?The user is really used to Windows XP. I can't use Windows 7 because the DVD drive isn't working properly.It can't read DVDs but CDs are okay. I also can't install Windows 7 via Network Installation.I don't know how to do a Network Installation of Windows 7. I only have 2 laptops (mine) with Windows 7 installed.Anyway I'm waiting for everyone's reply. As of now, I'm burning Windows XP into a CD-R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0H1T Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 KDE/GNOME are desktop shells for the linux operating system(kinda like Windows Explorer) except that they also have certain apps & features inbuilt that're exclusive/restricted to that particular branch. Linux Mint/Open Suse don't have a default flavour as such & can be found in LXDE, Debian & certain other versions as well. If you wanna pick one then its really down to a person's choice btw you can (re)install XP with a flash drive if your friend isn't comfortable with Linux cause lets face it there are all sorts of problems(driver/network et al) that you might face especially on older pieces of hardware ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karlo Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 KDE/GNOME are desktop shells for the linux operating system(kinda like Windows Explorer) except that they also have certain apps & features inbuilt that're exclusive/restricted to that particular branch. Linux Mint/Open Suse don't have a default flavour as such & can be found in LXDE, Debian & certain other versions as well. If you wanna pick one then its really down to a person's choice btw you can (re)install XP with a flash drive if your friend isn't comfortable with Linux cause lets face it there are all sorts of problems(driver/network et al) that you might face especially on older pieces of hardware !yes i know, i've used ubuntu before and i love gnome. apparently they're using unit now and i hate it.again, i won't be using that laptop, a friend of mine, not tech savvy and a windows xp fan.there's no available flash drive right now, that's also what i'm thinking earlier to install windows 7 or xp via a flash drive.that's why i'm asking for you're opinion. what type of desktop environment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0H1T Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 KDE/GNOME are desktop shells for the linux operating system(kinda like Windows Explorer) except that they also have certain apps & features inbuilt that're exclusive/restricted to that particular branch. Linux Mint/Open Suse don't have a default flavour as such & can be found in LXDE, Debian & certain other versions as well. If you wanna pick one then its really down to a person's choice btw you can (re)install XP with a flash drive if your friend isn't comfortable with Linux cause lets face it there are all sorts of problems(driver/network et al) that you might face especially on older pieces of hardware !yes i know, i've used ubuntu before and i love gnome. apparently they're using unit now and i hate it.again, i won't be using that laptop, a friend of mine, not tech savvy and a windows xp fan.there's no available flash drive right now, that's also what i'm thinking earlier to install windows 7 or xp via a flash drive.that's why i'm asking for you're opinion. what type of desktop environment?By desktop environment I meant GUI i.e. GNOME/KDE are basically different interfaces for the same linux kernel base(separate for each distro versions) on which Mint/Suse run btw I prefer GNOME over KDE so if you already have their respective setups then go for Linux Mint GNOME but if you're about to download them then check the other versions out first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadioActive Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Short version: Mint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karlo Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 Yes, desktop shells, desktop environment and GUI, they're basically the same thing. Same functionality like explorer.exe ...Upon checking the Linux Mint website, it made me confused. They have three versions.The Linux Mint KDE http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1927The Linux Mint "Lisa" http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1889 (GNOME 3)and the Linux Mint Debian http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1818And with OpenSUSE, they have 2 versions, the KDE and GNOME. I don't know what default Desktop Environment they use wheneveryou install the "general" OpenSUSE version if ever they have one.Well, the person who's gonna be using this Linux is a non tech savvy, more into windows xp, more into internet browsing ,yahoo messenger, skype and playing slot machine games (i hope linux offers a slot machine game).Do you think GNOME is still the best for this type of person or KDE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R0H1T Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Yes that's why I said Linux Mint GNOME as its based on Linux kernel 3.x which is more recent as compared to Open Suse 12.1 IIRC the latter is based on 2.8x so you'll have better driver/network support with Mint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karlo Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 Yes that's why I said Linux Mint GNOME as its based on Linux kernel 3.x which is more recent as compared to Open Suse 12.1 IIRC the latter is based on 2.8x so you'll have better driver/network support with Mint.so OpenSUSE is a bit outdated? For sure OpenSUSE can check for drivers online, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeetPirate Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Doesn't matter which Linux distro you choose, you can install any desktop environment you want. You can use ubuntu if you like it and just install KDE or Gnome manually.In my experience, I always preferred KDE, the look and feel was more like windows, also I found it more visually appealing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrean Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I dual boot with Linux Mint with Cinnamon and it's awesome! I, however, am not sure if there are linux versions for yahoo mess and skype. slot machine games not sure if we have those Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.