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Everything should be basically okay, just be sure to check your hardware to see if it needs special drivers which aren't included. Usually wireless networking is a little iffy. See if you can get the drivers for your hardware...even contact HP (who makes Compaq computers) to see if they have linux drivers available. It's doubtful they do, but worth a shot.
When partitioning your drive, keep in mind that Windows likes to be first on the drive. There are ways to work around it, and it isn't difficult, just a little pain. Just look up how to map drives in grub, and you should have no trouble. If you're not sure what distro you want yet, it might be best to install windows on the first partition, then linux on partitions after that. That way if you don't like the distro you tried, you can switch easily without zapping the windows install.
You should have no problem at all using the USB drive. Booting from it might be tricky. If that is what you want, it may be wise to try a distro designed specifically for that.
I won't advise on choice of distro, (though I could throw in my vote for Debian), just try lots. Any of the mainstream ones are a good place to start.
Good luck!
Last edited by bcwagne; 04-04-2010 at 12:04 AM.
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