I am thinking of defecting to Linux from Windows (well maybe a dual boot to start with). Seeing that I am a Linux newbie I wondered which distro to go for.

Cheers

Mandrake

www.mandrake.org

I'd recommend mandrake myself. I would also go for a dual boot, unless you have another pc to be linux only.
Here's a few points to remember:
If you have any interest in gaming, you will need a windows box, since few games are ported to linux, also a lot of programsaren't ported to Linux. It takes some time to find a Linux progy to do the same thing, as whatever windows program your using. There are a few P2P programs that work with Linux, but Kazaa isn't one of them. I'd also make sure your hardware is linux compatable, as many aren't.
My main box is still windows, as my sound card and All-in-wonder vid card, don't work well with Linux.

Those problems aside, definatley try linux, after you learn it, you'll love it.

Just my 2 cents................

Perhaps the biggest issue with changing to Linux is the modem. You can't do much on a Linux box without an internet connection. If you have dialup and an internal modem you will probably have problems finding 'drivers' for it. If you have broadband then you might have the same problem unless you have a broadband router which then makes things a piece of cake.

I love RedHat (http://www.redhat.com/)!!

Also look here for WinLinux (http://www.winlinux.net/2003/). Just for the learning and a good beginning. ;)

There are some version's that run completely off CD so you can test them out without changing anything on your windows system.

all you have to do with these 'no install linux' distro's is restart the computer and boot from the CD. One that springs to mind is Knoppix KDE. The CD comes with an office suite, web browsers, games and other stuff and I must admit really suprised me with how easy it was to use, and how damn good it looked onscreen.

If you are in the UK, it came free with PCUtilities a couple of months ago but you can also download it from www.knoppix.net

Also, visit www.linuxnewbie.org for some more information about the different distro's.

Hope this helps.

Many Thanks Andyr!! Somehow I was not aware of this. :o

Personally, I prefer Redhat.

Thanks for the input :) I will take these suggestions into consideration. Is there an easy way to see if my system is Linx compatible? I assume it's not like XP which pretty much tells you!?

Thanks again for all your help.

The homepages of each distro usually have a hardwaere compatibility list

www.mandrake.org

www.redhat.com

The 2 best distros for learning Linux IMO.

You can still run some of your windows programs and games under linux using wine

The new Suse 8.2 looks very interesting.......even the nutter from the register managed to install this one :)

I'm running version 8.0 but I am interested in finding the ISOs for 8.2........I'm not willing to pay for the disks again for a while. I bought 7.3 then I bought 8.0 and a few weeks later 8.1 came out and I aint willing to cough up more dosh for 8.2..........jeez they are, almost, taking more liberties than MS exept for the fact you can do an FTP installation.

BTW drivers are available for most proper modems and the Linux community are making advances into drivers for the so called winmodems........they can be a pain in the proverbial to set up but it can be done.

BTW2 Captain also said " You can't do much on a Linux box without an internet connection" you can do everything on a Linux box that you can do on a win box and if you have an internet connection you can do it more securely on a Linux box compared to a win box.

I think Captain may have a point about broadband, I don't remember seeing a method of connecting a Linux box to NTL but then again I wasn't looking for one cause I use a router. I would recommend a router to anyone that has a broadband connection, for security reasons.

Anyone here tried Slackware Linux 9.0?

Any good?

Another recommendation if you have an old PC hanging around just collecting dust it might be worth installing Linux on this because then you can 'play' wuth it as much as you like and it won't affect your everyday machine. This is how i learnt how to Linux.
If it helps i was using Mandrake on an AMD K6-2 350 with 128MB RAM with absolutely no problems. Couldn't find drivers for the modem (:)) though!

@Demo: what I meant about not being able to do much without a net connection was there are no games and in you don't get an Office app pre-installed like Star/Open Office, KWord etc suck. Maybe things have changed since I last installed Linux as I use BSD now. Not too many shops sell Unix apps either so the only place to get them is off the net. Unix strengths lie with its security and networking but you can't get hacked with no net connection and networking to a Windows PC is fairly dull, not much you can fiddle with at least. So there isn't much to do really.

Hi Captain

I think things may have changed since you last installed Linux. As you see from this list http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/i386/index.html Open Office comes with Suse 8.2

I think you would also find that it is now much easier to set up modems etc.

Seen quite a few linux posts in the last few weeks, so how 'bout a Linux forum, after the overclocking one is up an running, of course ;) . I mean the MAC foum only gets a few posts a day, not that I go there very often, either. My 2 cents..........again..........

Like the idea of a linux forum m8 :tup:.

Good idea nightheart

I may be mistaken but when I first reged on rom Im sure there was a Linux forum but dont think it saw much action.

@ captain dont forget programming enviroment, stability and free too.