I use Mandrake 7.2 still as I haven't had the time to download v8. I have tried Red Hat (v5 onwards) and have found that the only _real_ difference between the two distros seems to be one of cosmetics. However, Mandrake does appear to be aimed at more at the Newbie than the others (hence there being a lot of people in this section talking about it).

I've heard that SuSe is quite good for newbies, with its Yast system, or whatever, but to be quite honest - I've only ever tried the 'SuSe Live!' version, which isn't worth a sack of spuds!

I did try SlackWare, once a long time ago when we were still with MS-DOS 5 and Win3.1 - Didn't get on with it then, but it was a _long_ time ago!

If you don't want to repartition your HD, then there are a few distros that offer a 'file based file-system', also known as Lin4Win. Mandrake and 'SuSe Live!' being but two.

This option is *much* safer, but does run remarkably slow (hence the 'isn't worth a sack of spuds' remark). I would suggest that if you're unsure then try these first. The Lin4Win Mandrake version is available on the normal installation CD. Run it from *within* Windows, DON'T BOOT FROM IT!

There is no discernable loss of functionality, so everything should work just as if it was a proper installation, just slower.

Have fun with Lin. It's not easy to convert from being a Win user to being a Lin user, but don't give up. Even if you get *increadibly* stuck, and haven't a clue what's going on, don't condemn your Linux system to the bin. It'll be worth it once you've got used to a new system.

Good luck.