Hi all.
Just another person that is had all they can take from Microshafts crashing all the time..

Looking to find the best suggestion on what to load (kernel name?)
I go to the Internet quite often and tend to get catch virus's it seems.

I only have a few programs that I might loose but, oh well.

Quick history.
Back in the early early days (late 80's) I got started in the internet.
Ran a company called QCSN out of Gresham Oregon. Then started QCSN.COM which hosted PLUG for awhile.
I was the owner so didn't get into the OS very much but what I did, I enjoyed.

I also run a forum board for old glass boats called, www.classicboatclub.com so I still have a little savvy left.
But, pretty much brain dead having to deal with Microsofts folly's.
See, I was a IBM Main Frame person that helped cross over the PC's to the Main Frames back in those days. I was there when Bill Gates worked for IBM on there DOS. We all know the story from that point on.
The DOS was never fixed, just new and improved versions of broken DOS.
Hey Wait :-) Windows is doing that still :-)

So here I am, still running XP and looking to load up Linux.
Hope there is some help for me..
Thanks guys..

Helmar

Hi

So you have decided to move over to THE DARK SIDE, A good way to start is to use a live cd, That is a cd which can be run to test the OS and try before you use. example I use Ubuntu so you could burn ubuntu to cd boot from cd then run it from cd only without making changes to pc. You could try this with a few distro's to see which 1 you like, While running from cd it will run slower than when installed.
Have a look here http://www.linuxquestions.org/reviews/index.php/cat/2

Move over "From" the dark side is more like it.
Yes, I really like that idea.
I did at one time with a very early version of Linux, try the dual boot which worked until the hard drive died.
I had to do my own tech support for dial up customers (yes, should be brain dead for doing that for over 10 years) which meant I had to pretty much stay with microsoft os's. In fact, several machines on a switch. I mean step by step, scroll down all that junk so I can get pretty detailed when I need to be.
I think I am going to enjoy this. Should have done it a long time ago.

I will go check out that link and Thanks big time !!

Helmar

Welcome to LQ and to the Light Side and Freedom !!

Yes as stated above live CDs are one good start point, but 1st don't forget to check what kind of hardware you have and try to get distributions of GNU/Linux that goes good with you hardware. Debian is rock solid and very customizable, well Ubuntu is based on Debian but seen like the most experienced users are dropping that because its philosophy, besides that Ubuntu doesnt go well with old hardware.
There are many others, get as much live cds as you can and try them all out, now days is possible also to run them from USB sticks, as live cd and some of them can be installed into the USB stick.

Regards

You should definitely have a look at www.distrowatch.com