_Trejox

PS. To the dude up there who was asking about Linux distributions, I started learning Linux with fedora. It never had a problem I couldn’t solve without a little googling and asking here and there… I love Fedora. :)

I am a long time Mandriva Linux user (so I think it is the best, but I am biased). My best recommendation to any one who wants to give Linux a test drive is to install a virtual machine program, and install the Linux distribution of your choice in the vm (VMware is an outstanding commercial solution but Virtual Box is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux host operating systems and it is free for personal use (I am a Virtual Box user, but I am not affiliated with Virtual Box in any other way).

Note: From this point forward vm will reference Virtual Box.

Note2: Most Linux distributions have a Live CD image available for download as an iso file. You can boot your computer (or vm) with a Live CD and run the Linux distribution from the CD with no installation th hard drive required.

After you get a Linux distribution installed (Open Suse is one of the better choices for users new to Linux), download Live CD images for any distribution that interests you. You will not need to burn them to disk because Virtual Box can use a CD image as if it were a disk in a CD ROM drive. It’s as easy as pointing the virtual CD/DVD at the image, starting the vm (it boots from the Live CD image).

I included Open Suse above because the writer asking about which distribution is best took a class in which Suse was used (so it will be familiar).

There are many Linux distributions suitable for users new to Linux. I started with Mandriva Linux when it was still Linux-Mandrake about 1998 because it just worked on the computer I had at the time. It has continued to be the best choice for me and still is, but it may not be the best for all users. Other distributions with a good reputation for users new to Linux are Simply Mepis, PCLinux OS, Ubuntu (and friends Xubuntu and Kubuntu), Puppy linux (especially good for vintage computers too), and there are many others. One good resource for finding Linux distributions is http://distrowatch.com (DistroWatch).

The advantages of starting with a vm are as follows:

Removing the Linux OS (if you decide that Linux is not for you) is as easy as deleting the vm file to which it was installed.

You can boot from CD image files. You never have to burn the image to disk. You save time and money (not to mention what it does for the environment).

You do not mess with your hard drives MBR or repartition until you decide Linux is for you and you want to at least dual-boot (or replace Windows all together).

You do not have to reboot your computer to use Linux when you are using Windows already.

There may be more, but these are the biggest ones that come to mind. I have Windows in a vm here running under Linux because I do some computer support locally and I use it to try to reproduce customer issues when the solution eludes me.

This solution will work best if you have at least 1GB RAM, at least 10GB free hard disk space, and a good video card. Remember when you run a vm, you are pretending that your computer is really two computes, the host machine (the real computer), and the vm.

I have a Debian installation in my test vm that fits in about 7GB hard disk space and runs on 256 MB RAM (my system has 512 MB RAM). It runs OK, but it is a bit slow (enough so that I notice). I use an old nVidia (TNT2) video card with 16 MB video RAM on it which may have some bearing. Based on my own real world use, the specifications I provided above should return a satisfactory experience IGB system RAM, 10GB hd space per vm, and a video card with 32 to 64 MB video RAM. If your system exceeds these specifications, all the better.

HTH,

Ernie