I've been playing with several versions of Linux and have not yet settled on one that suites me more than the others. I am basicall trying to get off the microsoft band wagon but it's proving more difficult than I thougth it would be. For instant, I am very familiar with all aspects of how windows operate but Linux seem so foreign to me and difficult to find the same functions. The only things that's keeping me from making the total switch is the hardware issues and the programs that I love using under Microsoft.

My Computer:

Sager 5790
DDR 1 gig
Hdd 80 gig
Video ATI 9700

This laptop has just about everything you would want in a good desktop but in a laptop package. Here's the list of distros i've tried and the problems i've found associated with them.

Suse 9.0 pro.
lack of hardware support, associated with the laptop and my desktop, for instant; ATI 9700 pro and Linksys wireless PCMCIA adapter.

Suse 9.1 Live
Would not detect wireless hardware and a long list of other associated hardware issues.

Redhat 9.0
Same problems and seem difficult to configure right out of the box. Lots of add ons RPG's that made configuring seems complicated.

Xandros 2.0
Same problems as before.
Crossover hangs and would not undelete nor load programs that were installed. Very little support and/or lack of knowledge base, without paying.

Knoppix 3.3
Hung trying to load with PCMCIA wireless card.
would not detect video card or wireless card
several programs hangs.

I need somthing that would allow me to use such programs as:
dvd decrypter
Nero
dvd shrink

I am interested in a distro that easy to use, something that I can learn from but not to the point of getting frustrated and going back to window. I am not familiar with Linux what so ever and trying to understand all the different terms. I am willing to learn however.

Please advise.
Thank you

I've found Mandrake to be a very easily configurable distro that's very user friendly.

As far as running your windows programs you need to check into wine. It will run many windows programs including dvdshrink. As far as Nero I would recommend giving k3b a shot. IMO it's much better than nero.

Most newish distros have good support for wireless, particularly Suse 9.2, Mandrake 10.x and Fedora Core 3. You need Ndswrapper installed to detect some wireless cards and make them work properly. Also Knoppix 3.7 has been greatly improved since 3.3. Redhat 9 is now a legacy distro and has been replaced by Fedora and RHEL, so I am not suprised that you have had problems running it on a very modern laptop.

Thanks Guys
I hope I didn't offend anyone bashing thier distro. Okay that being said. I am really trying to leave the Microsoft community alone but they make it so damn easy to use their products.

One of the biggest problems I've had was configuring drivers. Noted, even under windows you might have to load a driver and I'm fairly familiar with the whole process. I think one of the problems I've had under Linux was trying to load a driver from ATI x86 using SuSe and man that seemed very difficult and didn't work.

I have not tried SuSe 9.2 and if it's anything like SuSe 9.0 than I'm willing to try it. Insofar, I've spent a lot of money trying to get the Microsoft Monkey off my back.