Hi all,

Newbie here just thinking about launching myself into Linux. Will prob have many tech q's but will post in relevant sections as and when.
First q is simple advise on which one to install.
I am an idiot when it comes to programming so looking for easy and friendly GUI desktop and after much reading have come down to either 1. Xandros or 2. Mandriva. Any advise on these or other suggestions would be much appreciated.
Main concern is Wireless Lan connections.
Thanks.

Take a look at this:

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

On this forum, you'll find countless threads with similar questions and answers, so going through all of it again isn't what I consider useful. Use the search feature to locate the threads and read up on the lot... Besides, what you'll want and need depends more on taste than on functionality - all main distributions are capable of doing everything, if not for different approaches to do it and different philosophies behind decisions on handling things. I myself like the Debian way, but you may not. Best advice I can give is: Try out several distributions with different approaches and settle for one you LIKE having.

You say you've done a lot of reading, so you should be ready to go.

For anything else, try http://distrowatch.com/

Since you're also concerned about wireless, I suggest you have a look at:

Mandriva's Hardware Compatibility Database and the NDISwrapper hardware list

To see if the wireless hardware you intend to use can be integrated with minimal fuss.

Do you mean that you write idiotic programs? Or perhaps that you're an idiot who writes programs---or DOES NOT write programs?? (All of these exist..... )
You don't need to be a programmer to run Linux. You will, however, want to learn a bit of command-line stuff. Eventually, you will see benefit in learning shell scripting, but that can come later.
Start with any one of the more popular free distros---look at distrowatch---the page hit statistics.

I recommend Ubuntu for a starter.

There is nothing that will get attention like asking "Which distro......"

Based on everything you have told us, I would recommend either Gentoo Linux, or Damn Small Linux. Gentoo is horrifficly complex to install, takes hours and hours of compilation time, and will teach you everything you need to know about Linux in only a few short years. You will also use language that your mother will not approve of.

Damn Small Linux does not require any installation (just copy it to a directory in your MS Windows system), can be installed to anything that your computer can boot from (jump drive, mini-CDROM, hard drive, etc.), and is alot of fun.

Take your pick. Good luck.

C

Thanks all
My mother probably uses worse language than I so no prob there but all the same looking for uncomplicated ( still on the Idiot theme here) so will start damn small and start learning.

Cheers for help.