Going to try linux since windows xp no longer supported. These are my requirements.
1. Some type cad program. (Retired but still use auto ad on limited basis).
2. Product similar to ms office (familiar with open office), used for personal accounting.
3. Data storage (data files, pictures e-mail etc) limited personal videos of kids.
4. Web surfing.
5. Printing pictures, data files, cad, etc.
Experience:
First computer dos based IBM. Have built my other pc's. Consider myself to be tech savvy but outdated as I have not kept up with new hardware since retiring.
Think my current computer will handle any of the linux systems. I'm sure to have more questions later but want to limit my effort towards 2 or 3 systems at this time.
Thanks for any advise
Max inman

Any of the general purpose distros would meet your requirements. I'd suggest you go to distrowatch and and look at some of the most popular distros. You can burn a few live CD's and try them out. You can then come to a decision as to which one you'd be happiest with.
jdk

As jdkaye points out, any distro will meet your requirements. A short rundown:
1. AutoCAD alternatives: http://alternativeto.net/software/au...platform=linux
2. OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Calligra
3. I am not quite sure if you mean a file-manager or a database for pictures and videos, the first one comes with any distribution, for the latter you can try Shotwell or digiKam
4. Linux offers the most common used browsers, except Internet Explorer of course, so you can use Firefox, Chrome/Chromium, Opera and many more
5. If you can print in Linux depends mostly on which printer you have and how well the manufacturer supports Linux

However, computers that used to run XP are mostly older machines that may have problems with the more heavy-weight desktop options, like KDE 4, Gnome 3, Unity or Cinnamon. If you tell us the hardware in your machine we can give you better recommendations which distributions you can try.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hardware:
Asus motherboard M4N78 Pro.
Nvidia gforce 8300 on mb.
Sata hd's. (500G installed). Have a new 500G waiting for my decision on software. I'm presently leaning towards ubundt.
Don't remember exact amount of memory but feel it can handle task. In excess of 2G (think I installed 2ea 2-G sticks. Computer shows 3.43G so installed limited by windows xp)
Willing to buy printer. Don't think the one in use is supported by linux. (HP6988DJ).
Plan to keep xp on present drive until new system installed on new drive.

With a machine like that you can choose freely between all distributions.
Also, HP printers are usually supported pretty well in Linux out of the box using the hplip software.

For beginner friendly and easy to use distributions I would recommend to have a look at Linux Mint 17 or the latest version of openSuse.

Thanks too "jdkaye" and "TobiSGD":
Distro watch provided lots of insight. After about a day, decided to burn live USB with mint 17 Cinnamon.
No problems. Next decided to try mint 17 MATE, a little more hands-on than cinnamon. For me, the mate version had the right feel so have decided to install mate to hd. I have decided to use 3 partitions: boot, root,home, since I should be able to mount and use my existing windows NTFS partitions. With 4G ram see no reason for swap partition. Any advise greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Max

I think you should consider to add 1 or 2 GB for swap. The reason why I suggest that is because swap is a virtual memory the OS uses in case of running out of RAM. Also if you use a laptop the swap is used for hibernation and suspend the OS. So it doesn't hurt to have swap in your new installation.

Hope you enjoy Linux Mint

As already has been stated, it is usually the case that HP Printers work. But, if you did want to research a new printer, you can check here or here.


Just as a matter of general information, you do know that you don't necessarily have to re-install to do this. For practically all distributions, where there are multiple graphical user interfaces, you just have to go into the package manager (or software store or whatever it is called in the particular case), tick on the appropriate packages for the new GUI and it will do it for you. You then should have the choice at log-in time as to which GUI you will use for that particular session. Sometimes it isn't all that clear that you have that option on the log in screen, though...

I'd still advise the creation of a swap partition, though. There are two cases that you might find this useful. One is that you use suspend and resume, and you would use swap for that. If it isn't a laptop, you may not, though. The other case is that you either have a program that runs out of control, and uses a lot of memory or you underestimate the amount of memory that you are using when running several programs simultaneously.

If you've got some swap, the task(s) just slow down (probably, quite noticeably); if not, something doesn't run. I'd rather have things slow down rather than stop, so I'd prefer to have some swap, even if I hoped not to use it in normal usage.

If you have a look round that 'alternative to' link mentioned earlier, you'll find alternatives to the software that you'd run on windows. An alternative way is to go into the package manager and search on whatever you want (eg, word processor, presentation, or whatever). One of the keys is to be able to work with the software that you've got and its capabilities, rather than to say 'if it isn't exactly the same as Microsoft Word (or whatever) I'm not going to use it'.

Keep in mind that a 32-bit OS, regardless of source, can only address 2**32 bytes (4096 GB), a trough from which things like video memory and various system-related resources must be fed. The practical limit of any 32-bit system is thus around 3 GB of total usable RAM. Windows is off the hook on this one at least!

You could try a 'beginner's' distribution like Ubuntu. If your new to linux you might find that it is very easy to install and use for all of the purposes that you have listed.

I hate to weigh in with even more to think about but I would do without a /boot partition and just have root and home partitions. I say that because it is rarely necessary to have /boot and it may cause problems in future if, for some reason, your chosen distribution decides to leave old kernels behind when it installs new ones.
As to swap -- I hate it but I would include a swap partition (or file, but that's another topic) at least as big as your RAM if you are using a laptop and might want to hibernate it. You've plenty of space on that hard drive so dedicating 4GB or so to swap can't hurt and if for some reason your system uses lots of memory it provides a safety net -- it won't be used unless you need it so it won't slow your system to have swap defined if you're not using it.