Hi,

I have an old Pentium M laptop that I'd like to use for watching TV (via a DVB-T USB stick), watching DVDs, listening to music, managing photos and browsing the internet. I'd like to give Linux a shot but I'm overwhelmed by the amount of distros that are out there. Is there a distro that comes with support for the above tasks? I already tried watching DVDs with a particular distribution I installed some time ago but I didn't find out how to do that. Is there a distro with support for that built in? I'd prefer not to perform any additional, complicated installation.

Thanks

All major distros support the tasks you want.
The DVB-T stick may have issues, depending on which one it is.
DVD playback is usually available for non-encrypted DVDs. You should be aware that encrypted DVDs are not intended (by the manufacturer) for playback on computers which have not got a paid for license to do so. This excludes all free distributions.

Any company that supplies deCSS support to play encrypted DVDs is exposed to lawsuit. So you will always be installing extra addons if you don't want to part with money.

You realize, of course, that "music" and "mp3" are not the same things. All distros support the superior free formats, including vorbis, theora and flacc. Restricted, IP-burdened, format support can be added. AFAIK: some heavily DRMed formats will not play at all. This is intentional on the part of the producer.

The easiest to add restricted extras would be Ubuntu (see: http:www.hbclinux.not.nz/ubuntu.html the additional installation is not complicated). However, distos like PCLinuxOS enable a great deal of non-free "stuff" out of the box. Don't know about DVDs though.

Simon,
I have not bought the DVB-T stick, yet. I waited because I wanted to choose one that can be used both with Linux and Windows (XP+Vista). Can you point me to a method for finding out which ones are supported?

Thank you for the recommendation. I am installing Ubuntu right now.

Again, thank you for the reply,
YellowOrange

Already found a source of information: http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_USB_Devices

OK - source for post-install config:
http://www.hbclinux.net.nz/ubuntu.html

You are going the right way about the usb TV gadget
Have a look at the range available to stores near you, take notes, then look them up. Tell the sales-body that you are shopping for Linux too. The more people do this, the more awareness that there is a market out here will seep through the blindfolds these people tend to wear.