I tried to install ubuntu but continued to get the grub 21 error, haven't been able to fix the bios using an abit v17 anyhoo I'm a totla newbie and would like some suggestions for a distros that doesn't use the grub boot loader or whatever it is,, I gather that debain uses, but not all of them right?

for a newbie i would sujest one of the more user friendly distros like RedHat, now Fedora Core, Mandrake (i personally do not like MDK), or SuSe. You can test out SuSe with their live CD before you grab the home vs or pay for the pro vs.

to install and get any of those 3 distros up and running take s basic computer skills that anyone from windows who knows how to install and update can install and update in linux with those 3 distros.

RH/FC has up2date also can use YUM (google for yum linux) with MDK having its own broken updater (can take weeks to get any updates and that may still fry your install) and SuSe uses Yast.

of the 3 i like YUM and Yast very much for updating as you have zero ques unlike with up2date and the MDK updater.

all 3 distros will have plenty of basics preloaded and configured for your system (lots of bloat, but great for a newbie to get his feet wet so to speak) and manage their RPM packages very well.

the RH/FC line seems to be the most publicly supported distro of the 3 and i have had great luck with RH when i first started learning linux. in fact i stayed with RH9 until FC3 was in beta before i moved over to debian.

best of luck.