Hello all. I don't consider myself a complete n00b to Linux, as I know the basic commands and don't mind editing config files and such. The problem I'm having is that there is no distro that I can get full functionality out of. I have an HP zd8000 laptop that has some rather poorly supported hardware (ATI graphics chipset, Broadcom wireless chipset) and I can never seem to get all the I want working. The closest distro that came to giving me the full fuctionality that I need as Ubuntu, and the was the pre-release version of Breezy. When I updated to the latest version, the Xserver was completely broken. I tried sudo apt-get upgrade and then sudo dpkg -reconfigure Xserver-xorg and no luck. Same thing with Kubuntu. I then tried SimplyMEPIS and couldn't get the screen resolution configured right. Coincidently this was the only distro that recognized and enabled my Broadcom chipset. I've also tried Mandrake (didin't like the rpm based packaging system), Suse (resolution isssues), Desktop/PC-BSD (resolution issues), and FreeBSD. I'm using Xandros right now (OCE) and it's alright but I don't really like the holding hands feeling I get when running it. I also don't like the fact that my burning speeds are restricted in the File Manager.

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a good Linux distro based on my hardware? TIA,

Protostar

Looks like you've tried most of the main "easy to use" distros.

If you can kill some time, it could be interesting to check out some of the more primitive distros like Arch, Debian or Gentoo. With those, you need to configure everything by yourself but at least learn how stuff works. But if you go down that road, check from your xandros installation what are the exact names of your computer components and what drivers xandros has loaded for them, it will help later.

I for example had great difficulties to get my laptop's wireless to work with SUSE, mandriva or Kanotix, but when I went to try Arch, I actually got it to work. That was a nice thing and I learned a lot about linux as well..

It may take a few days of geeking.. but well, I like that kind of stuff..