A Linux newbie weighing between Salix and another distro

[springtime]

Hello all,

I've used mac computers for many years. I'm going to be buying an older laptop with a pentium M - and making the switch to Linux. After some really good advice on other forums, I've narrowed the contenders down the Salix and Vector. To be honest, the more I read back and forth between the two - the less sure I am of which is right for me.

One thing I do know - I really like the look of the Xfce interface.

Questions:

Is Salix easy for a total Linux rookie to install? (I'm used to uber simple Mac installers)

Does Salix make it simple to sort of point and click to install additional software?

Both Salix and Vector are reputed to be lightning fast and stable, so I'm not really worried about that.

But - is there any reason you feel Salix might be more user friendly or otherwise a better choice specifically?

I come from a graphic design background but have "retired" due to health. So there won't be much done that will tax the processor, etc. Mostly writing is my main task now, web browsing is necessary when writing. For fun, a few youtube videos to watch, DVD movies to watch. Minor use of graphic design programs - but not intensive anymore.

Oh - and does your repository offer:
FocusWriter
Gimp
Blue Griffon
(and I forgot the name of the programs I was hoping to use in place of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign .. doh! I hate it when I forget stuff)

Thanks in advance for any help.

PS: I think both Vector and Salix look super. I just know somehow there must be slight differences that might matter to me.

[antmon]

Hello and welcome! As a Salix user I can only answer that Salix is the BEST! Once installed is very user friendly so my advice is to try it out.
Have you tried the live cd? It's the first thing to do. You have a start-up guide you can follow, you have xfce, kde, fluxbox to choose from (and ratpoison, for now don't try this one).
I bet you are going to like it.

[mimosa]

To answer some of your specific questions:

Installation from the Live CD is very straightforward, especially if you are single-booting (i.e. you just want Linux on that machine). I agree with Antmon - try out the live cd for a while. It's fairly straightforward to install to put it on a USB stick, and then you also have "persistent storage" meaning your changes are retained from one session to the next.

I only tried Vector briefly ages ago and coudn't get it to work on my machine. Don't know what it's like these days but they may well have a live cd too, which you could try. This is also important to see if either distro has problems recognising any of your hardware (such as Wireless) and whether the problem can be solved - with a little patience and fiddling, usually yes.

Package installation from the Salix repositories is via Gslapt, which is very easy to use. A wide range of further software can be accessed through Sourcery, which is easy to use too, but you need to make sure you install the dependencies. From the live cd, you can check on the availability of the software you want. Chances are if anything is missing, a good alternative is available. Gimp is standard on any distro, and I remember some discussion on the forum about FocusWriter a while ago, so search the forum for that. PyRoom is nice, too

Salix Xfce is a visual and ergonomic treat and if you're coming from Mac I think you'll feel right at home.

Finally the community on the forum is very friendly and patient, and full of knowledgeable people. As with any distro though, it's helpful to explain your problem clearly and explain what you've done to try and solve it - one of the differences between Linux and other OS's.

EDIT

Focuswriter can be installed using Sourcery but it has a dependency that isn't mentioned, hunspell. Install hunspell first with Gslapt.

[thenktor]

Is Salix easy for a total Linux rookie to install? (I'm used to uber simple Mac installers)

Does Salix make it simple to sort of point and click to install additional software?

Well, after reading your post I want to be honest.
Salix has no graphical installer by default. The text mode installer is IMHO straight forward and easy to use if have a bit computer experience and we also have the Live system with a graphical installer.
Additional software is easy to install as long as it is available via gslapt (our package manager). But neither Salix nor Vector have a really huge repository. I guess with your background your best fitting distribution is Ubuntu or something Ubuntu based.

[mimosa]

I'd add that there's no substitute for trying a distro out hands-on; and that's very easy to do these days with live cds which can mostly run off usb with persistent storage.

There's only so much you can gather by pure research.

Given that you plan to dedicate the machine to Linux, there's also no reason not to install one you think you'll like. If it doesn't live up to expectations, just back up your data and install something else.

You can also boot several linuxes alongside each other on the same machine, with a menu to choose which one to boot. It's a bit more complicated than selecting the default install options, but perfectly doable.

I'd agree with Thenktor that the main limitation you may face with any smaller distro is that the range of prepackaged software will inevitably be smaller (though it's usually not too difficult to find a substitute). There can be compensations though

[ElderDryas]

Guess I'll add my two cents worth here....

In doing your research, I assume you have looked at the Salix Distrowatch page ( http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=salix ). If not, I would strongly suggest that you do so, and especially the reviews of Salix listed there.

As for me, in the past 18 months I have looked at almost every Linux Distro that one can put on a USB stick (I'm tired of wasting CD/DVD's . I choose Salix because: 1) It works out of the box (well, nvidia drivers had to be installed, the default driver worked, I but wanted the nvidia driver. Following the forum instructions was a simple cut-n-past exercise) with all my hardware, 2) I don't need or want to be on the bleeding edge anymore (there's a reason it's called "bleeding") and 3) I'm too old and lazy to bother with Slackware (on which Salix is based) these days.

My computing needs are also very simple these days...a bit of web browsing (note: While Salix is conservative in it's selection and updating of software, it does keep an up-to-date Firefox in the repos), a bit of net-communications (IRC, IM, E-mail), and ebooking (calibre). All of which the apps I use were either the default or extremely easy to install via Gslapt. So far I have had to resort to (the not quite as easy) Sourcery only once for an app that I wanted.

So...grab the ISO, burn it, boot it and have fun. If it turns out Salix is not the one, well, you'll have lost a bit of time, but gained a bit of knowledge...so it's all good.

[Akuna]

I forgot the name of the programs I was hoping to use in place of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign ..

Would that be inkscape?

[Shador]

For InDesign it's probably more like Scribus.

[springtime]

What a nice bunch of responses. Thank you all. This forum definitely gets my vote for helpful and friendly.

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Scribus and Inkscape - yes! Thank you. Those were both the programs I couldn't think of. Are they runnable under Salix?

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Guess I'll add my two cents worth here....

In doing your research, I assume you have looked at the Salix Distrowatch page ( link was here). If not, I would strongly suggest that you do so, and especially the reviews of Salix listed there.

I hadn't noticed those links to reviews before. Thank you. I'm reading through some this afternoon.

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Bear with me while I get up to speed on those reviews - then I'll have more to say here. I appreciate all your responses very much.

[ElderDryas]

Scribus and Inkscape are both included in Sourcery.