I am new to linux, and am excited and have some questions.

1. what is the main difference between all the distributions?

2. what would be the best distribution for me? i mainly browse the internet, code, listen to music, and talk on aim.

3. how do i partition my hard drive?

4. i kinda want something like OS X, so pointing me in the right direction for that would be sweet.

These are age-old questions that have been asked and answered hundereds, if not thousands, of times already. Google and ye shall find the answers... Method of installation, default desktop environment, package manager, and general goals of the maintainers.Whatever looks cool to you, just don't distro hop. Pick one and stick with it for six to nine months. Most problems you'll have aren't related to the distro. Work through each of them as they arise.The installation CD or DVD will have a step in the process and the right to to allow you to partition your drive. Make three partitions for Linux; one for swap (the 1x to 2x your RAM thumbrule isn't needed anymore unless you have VERY little RAM. You can easily get by with 256MB - 512MB), a second for /home, and a third for everything else. You can always move things around later when YOU figure out what works best for you.Start at www.distrowatch.com

Kubuntu
http://www.kubuntu.org/


Mandriva
http://www.mandriva.com/community/mandrivaone


PCLinuxOS
http://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/dist...glish/preview/
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/distr...glish/preview/

This is the distro I use and recommend, Why because it works right out of the box. No need to configure Everything, everything just works. It also comes as a 1 CD install that is a live CD that you can install later if you wish.

Mephis
http://www.mepis.org/

My site has some articles that may be helpful--link below.

For starters, anything in the top ten at Distrowatch is going to be fine.

so i looked through all that stuff, and i chose openSUSE, but when i tried to download it, it would download for a bit, then stop and say it was finished after 2.3mb. it also does that when i try to download anything else. does anyone know what is wrong?

Without knowing the specifics of you system and ISP it's impossible to tell you why your downloads won't complete. It could be that your ISP has some limit and you're exceeding it.

Have you tried to download something via torrent?

Have you tried using another browser? Which one(s) was that with?

Stay away from BSDs right now though...

I believe the problem is with my internet connection, but i am not certain. i am looking at that right now. i use opera mainly then if that doesnt work, IE. if i cant resolve the issue, i will post more here.