I just did a full format and install of Win 7 Ultimate. Before the format I had Mint installed and I liked it quite a bit. But I heard Debian has software that allows me to use ram in place of hard disk for greatly increased performance. Someone also mentioned puppy runs very well off a usb.

I looked around at a few linux distro homepages but I am not making any headway because according to all the homepages Linux users have access to huge stores of drugs (happiness-inducing drugs) and a very positive attitude. This is easy to notice on the Fedora homepage... I had wanted to try the distro because it has a long history and is named after my favorite hat. I would say the homepage was a huge pack of lies but that would be unfair... the fair thing to say is that Fedora is oriented towards people that would promptly vacate themselves if they glanced in the general vicinity of my universe.

I don't want to deny people their happiness... I just don't want them at my door handing out pamphlets.

Picking a distro for your dual-boot is relatively important which is why I am asking for any input before I arbitrarily install Debian to test out the Ram disk functionality. My concern is Debian will be no good due to my lack of knowledge of Linux fundamentals. Mint has the multimedia support I like because I don't want to switch to windows when I take a break and want to watch something. Windows is only on the lappy in case I want to play RO or NWN.

I appreciate any suggestions, negative or positive, but please bear in mind that if I come off as hostile it has less to do with me and more to do with the world I live in. Z/Z

I'm sure you can do it with any distro. It's become quite common (especially with SSD drives) to mount /tmp in RAM:
If you're after a distro with the longest history, why don't you try Slackware (the oldest existing distribution) and it has a nice name, too.

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I like Slackware, I like its history and its community fits me well and I will probably buy the t-shirt regardless of whether I use it as a primary or not.

the issue is not Slackware's suitability to me but my suitability to it. I glanced over the homepage before and it is moar technically advanced than I am right now. Even the install program which is very easy to grasp (not too different from the old windows install menu features) indicates I would be in over my head. I still haven't done a successful install of Slackware in a VM... but I only tried once and got distracted by something... actually I didn't find the install procedure as confusing as I found trying to imagine imaginary system resources to be confusing.

Anyways since I don't have the luxury of experimenting with an old school Slackware install I will put in Mint for now and practice Slackware from a VM till I know more. Thankx. Z/Z

IMO. Contrary to the popular belief, Slackware is not that difficult to install and configure. I can do it!!! I think the most challenging stage of the installation (as with any distro) is partitioning and making sure you don't wipe out a partition you want to keep. Other than that it's self-explanatory, IMO.

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stick with Mint until you become very familiar with it. What is easy for some may not be easy for others, once you are very familiar with mint then look for another distro. To see the real difference look to try a non Debian base OS.

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Of all the distro options Slackware is where I want to be. But when I burst head-first into Linux by starting from BT5 I was too much of a burden on the friend who brought me over... going from Windows to advanced Linux techniques was very taxing on both of us.

I have no desire to burden the Slackware community with my novice questions. At the moment I only need to read the various Linux documents given to me so that I'll be familiar with the fundamentals. I'll be in Slackware soon enough and I'll do it under my own power. Z/Z

Obviously, you'll do as you wish but don't be scared to ask questions. Slackers (and users of any distro) are expected to do a lot of learning on their own but I can assure you that the Slackware community is very friendly and helpful. Have fun whichever distro you choose.

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Not quite as simple as just learning Linux. I have to unlearn all my bad Windows habits as well. Trust me a Linux noob is nothing compared to a Windows "power-user" for irritating the crap out of a community. There is an old Linux saying that goes something like " Attitude is no substitute for Competence " ... it'll be a lot less painful for all if I just nail down some basics first. Z/Z

That really depends on the 'power user'.

I was a power user of windows for sure, and I never really irritated the community. I ran linux on 2ndary machines for a long while before I changed over on my 'main box' though, and by the time I did move my main box to linux I had learnt more than enough to get the system running the way I wanted. I never even had to make a forum post asking questions when I did run into (minor) troubles, I could always find someone who had the same problem before me. Even if it was a different distro to the one I was using, just seeing a solution normally gave me the hints I needed to fix my own problem.

Maybe it helped that I'm old enough to remember using DOS (sod playing DOS games on windows!) and the command line/config stuff I had to do with dos made using linux seem like 'the old days', LOL. But even better, I could quite often run the command from within a nice desktop enviroment, and even copy 'n' paste commands from a browser. If I could have done that with DOS, it would have made using DOS a lot easier.

As for the 'happiness-inducing drugs' comments, yeah, well, fedora has always been 'upbeat'. Do you really think that a 'doom and gloom' homepage would do much to attract users? I dont think so.

IMO debian is easy. Sure, mint comes out of the box with more codec support, but its not hard to get that stuff with debian. Its just a quick internet search away. For example, with media in the worst case you will have to mod your repos (add 'debian-multimedia' repo, and 'non-free' to the standard repos), apt-get (or synaptic, or even software center if you feel like it) a few packages, and its done.

If you were a 'power user' of windows, you would be better off with debian over mint IMO. Sure, it might cause you some minor issues at times, and if you are running testing/sid you may well break the OS a few times. You'll learn more doing that over a few days or weeks than you will on months or years of using mint.

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I think I'm probably lucky in having only two years with Windows before I "discovered" Linux. Not enough time to get brainwashed into the Windows way of doing everything.

While I do agree I am extremely talented, brilliant , sexy, experienced and humble ( I was writing programs in BASIC at the age of 12 before MS-DOS was released )... you may also notice my forum join year and month directly to your left. That is when I began learning how to use Linux... or moar accurately that is when I barged onto the forum and demanded to know everything about Linux and attacked anyone that responded regardless if they tried to help me or not. WINDOWS SMASH WINDOWS BASH!!! (I do know you have something called bash script which I know nothing about...yet)

Upbeat is one way of putting it... I like calling it "Carrying excessive residual charge". Remember the old XP commercials? The one where the guy at the desk thought he was blasting across a desert at break-neck speeds because of his new operating system... that guy was carrying excessive residual charge.

Fedora is fine... I am just pissed they associated my favorite clothing item ( the epitome of style and class ) with an extremely blatant marketing campaign. Sorta of like having your favorite beverage endorsed by a child molester... doesn't quite taste the same after that.

If you let me I would probably gab all day... but thanks to a generous donation from the Internet I have to finish dling the 50 languages that Ultimate can install ( sort of like telling Microsoft to kiss my ^&* in 50 different languages )... I really need a Mac OS ... picking on Windows is too easy. Z/Z

Edit: Hi Bri... unlearning is so much harder than learning Z/Z

On the other hand, I'm still pissed off with myself for finding out how interesting computers can be at the age of 58, only eight years ago. Missing out on all the early stuff.

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That's true... I am cheesed it took me so long to find Linux... but I am very glad I found it.

I have a friend with a wife and two kids who loves computers and technology but he is terrified to download torrents or use an external wifi modem because he is afraid the "man" is going to beat down his door and hurt his family. And the horrifying thing is that is exactly what private software makers would do if they could get away with it. Z/Z

While this only shows how new to Linux you actually are, and sure you might disapprove of their "marketing campaign", to compare it the way you did is quite distasteful in itself. Red Hat and Fedora have given and still give the Linux community as a whole more than you realize and certainly more than your current or favorite distribution ever will or can.

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I have no favorite distro... Slackware is just closer to where I started to learn computing... why this is relevant can only be understood by those who were coding before commercial operating systems.

I have said this before and considering the lack of comprehension I am tempted to make it my signature... I hate being lied to and I like choice.

When an operating system utilizes marketing techniques that imply a product will give them moar that it actually will it is lieing (don't bother trying to explain the declination of that verb). Please reference the preceding sentence.

Why you care why one person dislikes the marketing techniques of one distro is beyond me. [mod_edit]rudeness removed[/mod_edit]. Attitude is no substitute for Ability.

You have officially fallen into the category of "time sink" for making the mistake of attempting to force me to believe what you believe. Z/Z