I have a laptop that i bought that has Windows Vista and I don't like it at all. I've decided to get Linux but I am confused because I don't know where to get it and hear so many different names for Linux. Where do I start?

Try various LiveCDs until you find one you like. Your Hard Drive will remain completely untouched (unless you decide to install) Have a look at http://www.livecdlist.com/

Go to the distrowatch website. You can get an idea on each distro's features before downloading.

If you are new and want something that can be as appealing as Vista then you can look out for Ubuntu. You can get it from ubuntu website at ubuntu.com. or you can have it shipped at your place free of charge from shipit.ubuntu.com.
This said it will completely depend on your likeness of things. I referred you to ubuntu for you are new to linux. It is one of the easiest distros available for desktops.
You can also try Fedora or OpenSuse.
You can use google to find out from where to get these.
Else you can try distrowatch.com and find out a distro that best suits your needs.
Another way is to get a live cd and try it yourself without installing it on your system. It can give you an idea how that os will perform on your system and if it detects your hardware well.

There are hundreds of distributions, which means there are millions of opinions concerning this distributions. As a new Linux user, you should look at the "Major Distributions" link on the www.distrowatch.com page mentioned above. The distributions in that list have the most support, community, and developer "wise". Although Debian, Slackware, and I think Gentoo are on that list, you will not want to tackle those yet. Don't worry about them until you are more comfortable with Linux and it's inner workings.

I decided to look at eBay and see what I can find. I found a nice one on eBay called Linux XP. Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Upgrade-now-to-t...3A1|240%3A1308

It is item # 320304394869

It sounds like a very nice one. What do all of you think?

To me part of the point of Linux is that it is FREE. Why would you want to pay money for something you can get legally for FREE.

Go to distrowatch (as was already suggested) and check out some of the FREE distros they have there.

Ubuntu and Freespire (from your ebay link) are available for download FREE.

My favorite distros are Sabayon and Puppy, but the cool thing about Linux is the there are so many great FREE distributions available.

PCLinux might be a good FREE distro for you.

Another thing you must consider is your laptop is new and very new hardware may not be supported out-of-the-box in a particular linux distro. You should certainly try out Live CDs as has been suggested to make sure your distro has support for your particular laptop's hardware.

If you ask for advice then you should read that advice and take it under consideration. As suggested, try out some LiveCD distros and see what plays well with your hardware and what appeals to you.

Linux XP is one of the worst distros I have ever tried.

More to the point, Linux is widely available for free. After several people pointed you to distrowatch, I'm not quite sure why you headed for e-bay.

If you WANT to pay, several of the top distros give you that option.

I think everyone here has given you good advice so far. I'll add this article http://www.linux.com/whatislinux/124162, which sums things up a bit and has some links.

I have installed Linux for about 10 or 12 people who had never used it. I used either PCLinuxOS (lousy name, nice distro) or Simply Mepis. I really like Mepis, but PCLinuxOS is shinier, and that caught some people's eyes.

Why did I show them more than one version? Because what no one has told you yet is that not all distros work well out of the box with all hardware. That's why live CDs are so important. They'll let you know if things are going to work OK out of the box.

It's not as big a problem now because the big distros really concentrate on hardware recognition (the system figures out what you have and picks the right drivers for you). And newer and more mainstream computers are usually better. But you never know if the company that made your computer saved a buck by using some off-brand part somewhere and made up for it with some funky driver or BIOS setting.

One more distro option: the last version of Mandriva I tried out was exceptional. I used the Gnome version and liked it better than Ubuntu. I'm sure the KDE version is nice as well.

Hi there,
If you are a new linux user, i think, u should try RHEL(Red Hat) 4/5, as it is simple and gives you the flavour of linux. thenit will be up to u in what flavour of linux, u want to proceed.

Kapil.

I like to buy a lot of my stuff on eBay but I emailed the guy selling Linux XP and asked if he could lower the price and he lowered it from $9.99 to $7.99 so it was a good deal. One reason I chose to go over him versus downloading is he offered to offer support after I buy it if I have any problems.

Good luck.

Well, you asked, even if it was your intention to ignore the answer...I haven't tried it myself, but I did read a review of it once and my impression is that it is a hateful buch of sh*t.

I have no idea why, having decided that you dislike Vista, you should want to go for a version of Linux that has been bastardised to look like XP. You should bear in mind that you can, if this is what floats your boat, customise the appearance of a KDE or Gnome distro (probably others, too) to look quite like some arbitrary version of windows.

I have no idea why some people consider this a good thing, long term, but I suppose it does help some to get over the fact that they are using something different.