looking for a good book to help me navigate through linux based os. i have kubuntu dapper drake installed now. want an author that gives a practical hands on approach to a linux os. most of the things that we do on our computer is mainly multimedia so any hints on a better distribution for this application. want to learn to use linux system but unsure how to work within programs, type correct paths, etc... i know there might be a bit of a learning curve but i'm a fast learner. bought the a+ book for dummies 5 months ago and have so far built 3 working systems from scratch and working on mine now. any hint on hardware,motherboards,ram that will work best .

Generally speaking most harddware works on ubuntu, although Nvidia cards generally work better on linux then ATI because of Nvidia has open source drivers.

appreciate the info on distros but what about any books. going to the book store this weekend. about the distros for older computers, any of these work well on a 98 system/

Well, this is definitely worth reading: http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
As for older computers, pls supply HW specs.