OK, before you think it, I know that there are tons of posts asking about the different distros and everyone has their own personal fav. But, I have very specific guidelines and and am about to redo my computer, so I want to do it right!

Which of these (or a suggested distro I didn't list) is going to be the best for:

1. Installing on a Thinkpad T40p Laptop (madwifi wireless)
2. Running KDE - I heard Red Hat is kind of weird with their version of KDE.
3. Has a lot of corporate support, so getting things like rpm's and getting help is not as much of an issue
4. Would be nice to be able to network well and be able to network across a win xp network (this is probably not distro related, but I could be wrong!)
5. be polished enough that I will not feel like I have taken a step backwards from winxp when I try to install new software and hardware...

I am currently using Mandrake 10, which I like and have had no real problems with. Sometimes I think it would be better going with Red Hat because of how many people that use it, so there is a lot of info and packages available for it. Additionally, now that Novell has acquired Suse, it looks very promising as far as future corporate sponsorship goes.

Lastly, if you haven't figured this out by now, I am a noob that REALLY want to break myself from windows, but doesn't want to feel like I have taken a step back in time - I want it to work without a huge time commitment from me to make it work. Is that too much to ask???

Well, Red Hat for home users is now Fedora. To be honest, they should all work fine. I ran OpenSuSE on an R40 for a couple of days. They all have no issues with getting rpms and all are well supported.

I would basically say that if you are happy with Mandrake, stick with it. All three distros you listed are good, but if you already have Mandrake in your "comfort zone", then you will be more comfortable using that.

(Personally, I would suggest Mandriva 2006.0, but, then, I'm biased. )

SuSE IMO

well, I downloaded Mandrive 2006.0 and tried to install it on one of my Dad's computers and it was HORRIBLY unstable. Programs wouldn't start, it crashed EVERY time I tried to boot into KDE (took me back to the login screen), and it even crashed a couple times when we were just surfing the net (also took me back to the login screen). I checked the hardware config and everything looked fine. I'm not sure what the problem was, but he said he was also having problems with stability in Windows - he thought it might be the motherboard or power supply - it is a 800MHz HP Pavilion with a "Cognac" motherboard... never heard of it.

So, last night I decided to get the Suse 10.0 CD's, and I just got finished burning them. Tonight I am going to try and install them on one of my computers that I had Mandrake 10 on. This way, I can kind of evaluate Suse and Mandriva a little and make a permanent choice.

The thing that bothers me about the Mandriva is their "club". I used to be a member back when it was $20/yr, but I looked the other day and they have gone up to like $66/year, which I think is a little expensive... Based on that, it looks like if they got the chance, they would be worse than MS as far as greed goes...

That's a fair call. If Suse also is unstable, then it's pretty certain the system is hosed. (From my experience, when a power supply goes, it often takes *at least* one more component with it.)
Well, they *needed* the increase in Club dues to help pull them out of bankruptcy. But I agree - I won't pay that kind of money for the Club. I *buy* a copy of the distro every couple of releases, just to help support, but most of the time I just use the Free version. It has everything I need, and the extras I want can be picked up on the net and easily installed.

I don't think its greed because nobody is forced to join the club. You can download the free version, setup urpmi and you have access to almost all the software in the Mandriva repos for *free*.

yeah, I don't mind spending a few coins to help support the distros from time to time. I just think that increasing the fees by more than 3x is a little excessive! I guess it is better than them going under, though.

Haven't tried Mandrake/Mandriva lately, but have been quite happy with SuSE 9.3 & now 10.0 on my T40. All the hardware is well supported and it get's my recommendation.

hehe, good to know. I am using a T40p as my laptop and just downloaded Suse 10.0. I also just booted into Mandriva 2006's LiveCD and it picked up all the hardware. It recognized the wireless card, but didn't install the driver - said you had to be a "club" member to get it, or do it yourself at the MadWifi site... what kind of crap is that?!

If you have a problem with their business model and the way they give priority to their paying memebers, there are many alternative distros to choose from and thats the beauty of opensource. I do not agree with certain aspects of the club but its obviously working for them and there are people willing to pay for the extra services.

I agree. That is why I downloaded Suse 10 yesterday. I'll probably find something even worse with Suse!

i try the suse 10.0 and after 1 month, i prefer use mandrake or mandriva. Is more easy get rpm for mandrake and you wil download the image and just cancel the invitation to join the club ($)... i use mandrake for 2 - 3 years and it´s easy, estable (more than windows) and really the better option. If you want a better option you will use debian, but it´s not easy like mandriva.