So, simple question, I have never used Linux before but I am ready to dip my feet in. My laptop is a pretty old Dell Latitude and I normally don't use the thing because...well...my desktop is billion times better (and more modern), but there are times on the road I need a laptop either for basic web browsing for trouble shooting hardware issues or just simple (very simple) word processing, so I was hoping i could get a distro to replace the Win7 I put on the laptop (which it can barely handle, btw) but...like I said, I know nothing on Linux.
I often load xubuntu on older laptops its a light weight distro of ubuntu witch is nice if your not a heavy linux user. there is alot of support for ubuntu out on the interwebs.
I went ahead and got Xubuntu, but I took a look at Lubuntu too. I got it installed and actually I am writing this response on my new installation on my laptop! Woo-hoo!
NOW, just so I don't have to start a new topic - hopefully.
I am trying to get jDarkRoom installed (http://www.codealchemists.com/jdarkroom/) as it's what I use for my word processing. The Linux version is just a .jar file which I can't get to run. It either A) Displays this message:
"The file '/home/nolan/Desktop/jDarkRoom.jar' is not marked as executable. If this was downloaded or copied from an untrusted source, it may be dangerous to run. For more details, read about the executable bit."
OR B) it won't do anything after adding "sudo chmod +x /home/nolan/Desktop/jDarkRoom.jar"
So....uh....what am I missing here?
I downloaded OpenJDK 6 and 7 with no luck. Also the command prompt line I found through a tutorial on a google search. So, I'm at a loss here.
Anything really works on low end PCs, just avoid Ubuntu, Lubuntu is good for resources, if your feeling a bit more dangerous, use Arch or Gentoo and build your own setup, it will be lighter than most new user distros, or you could go Debian, it can really rival Arch/Gentoo in being lightweight, if built correctly.
Not wrong here but seeing as he is just getting into Linux,Arch might be too much to handle off the bat. Manjaro would be great for him to get into Arch
Uh, I don't think I entirely understand. I tried various methods to get it to install proper but I guess I just don't understand the Terminal very well :/
Any laptop new enough to have Windows 7 on it should be more than up to the task of running any linux distro. Just try out distros until you find one you like. Most distros have a live CD that you can try it out before you install it on the computer. Below are links to a distro chooser and DistroWatch to help you find the right distro.
the secrete about Linux I think is that no one truly understands the terminal. but enough people know enough and post in forums like this to get us all by.
in most Ubuntu distros there is a program / applet install for the terminal called apt-get. It will download programs from the repositories on the interwebs
so the line will go like this
sudo ( this puts the admin account "in charge" of the commands your putting into the terminal. Its like run as administrator in Windows. The terminal will likely ask you for the admin or root login when you enter the command) apt-get (this tells the terminal that you are using the apt-get program like calling an exe in dos or windows) install ( this is like a switch that tells apt-get to install the program that it it is about to download once it has finished getting it) sun-java6-jre ( this is the name of the program that you want to get from the repository)
Puppy linux is perfect for computers from pentium pro all the way to opteron. You can run it in ram for just a quick check on facebook without needing windows or install it on the hard drive for permanent use.
Personally I have burned it to ram on some machines so that I don't need a hard drive or CD drive. Once I accidentally burned it to the mobo itself and I couldn't really do anything so I have treated it as an embedded machine ever since.
You could use CrunchBang (#! - for those who know - based on Debian so it's very stable), Linux Lite (based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS curently)- i have had some good results with this, LXLE - really light. I would also recomend Elementary OS Freya if it was released.
There are also some really lightweight weight ones:
TinyCore Linux
VectorLinux
AntiX
this things run on computers with a 400Mhz processor.
I have a older acer aspire 1 net book with a pretty crummy dual core amd cpu. I always liked to run peppermint on it and it runs smooth a butter. Peppermint is more of a cloud based linux distro but still allows you to install things natively.
You get a package manager, web interfacing, some scripting tools, and alsa, and that's it. You add all the crap yourself and you will never have bloat.