Hello,
I'm fairly new to linux (although I use unix on a daily basis @ work) and I've got RH9 at home with XP, but I don't really like it.

What is the next best linux distro to use for a newbie? I wan't one that's relatively easy to install, especially relating the the internet.

And can I just install it over my red hat distro? Or do I have to repartition my computer again?

did you try searching this site before posting? this is asked EVERY day.... please see our review site for info abuot different distros:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/reviews/index.php?cat=2

as for repartitioning though... you can use the existing partitions again, no problem.

agreed, every hour almost, a new post about this comes along.

i'd recommend ubuntu. a nice, clean, gnome-based desktop distro, using debian as its base system. easy to install, not bogged down with useless, apps, its the bare minimum without being bare.

Okay, from the research I've done, it sounds like Slackware is closer to what I'm looking for, but I hear it's hard to install. Is freeBSD similar to unix? I'm not too interested in the GUI like RedHat has, I want to learn as well as program.

FreeBSD is a unix variant, so if you got some Unix experience you should be quite comfortable with it. SLackware isn't hard to install, the installer is text based but quite user frindly in my opinion because there is very little manual configuration of files.

Thanks for ur quick reply.. what is the differences between freeBSD and slackware? My biggest concern is ease of connecting to the net w/high speed modem as i had tons of problems setting up RH's internet connection

I've not used FreeBSD much so I can't give you detailed differences. You may wanna take a look at distrowatch because they have a listing of various Linux distros and BSD's.

The difference between slackware and FreeBSD is that Slackware is linux and FreeBSD is BSD.. i.e. - not linux..

FreeBSD, as well as OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc.. are based on the 4.4BSDlite UNIX from Berkely... FreeBSD is great.. it's got excellent performance, stability, security, and almost 12,000 programs in ports for you to look through...

It feels right at home as a workstation, dekstop, server, even on a notebook it works great...

Slackware is the most 'unix-like' linux distro because of it's lack of GUI configuration tools.. (which I like)..

I think you'd be happy with whichever you choose...

if you want an easy to install slackware, i highly recommend vector linux. you can have it installed in about 15 minutes. it is the easiest distro ive ever installed.