Hi, there. Yeah im another linux newb asking a stupid question...

Anyways, what im basically looking for is your humble opinions on which distro's in your eyes are currently offering the best hardware support?

Nothing to ramble on about, just maybe list a few that your think are better off than the hundreds of other distros. But if you are a rambler...feel free to ramble....i know how that goes

Thanks, any and all suggestions is greatly appreciated.

EDIT: And if you want to throw in a suggestion on what distros are the most user friendly please feel free. Ie: not too much of a jump from windoz.

Try ubuntu, fedora or mandriva.

You could also try a distrobution called Linux XP though personally I hated it and formatted my hard drive after a few hours ....

What hardware do you use anyway?

The hardware i use is nothing special. But recently i got the linux urge again, and to get the fk away from windoz. My recent project is pertaining to my Compaq notebook i purchased recently.
link to spec page: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...231960&lang=en

My original intent was to try Xandros and Suse since ive "heard" they are rather friendly on the windowz soul. SUSE 10.1 was horrible ( i liked 9.x but dont think it will run on my newer laptop), and i havnt given xandros 4.x a try yet....still downloading.

So out of frustration i posted here (after searching for about 5 days) since this seems like an awesome linux forum.

Personally I haven't tried xandros or suse yet so I couldn't advise you on those.

A useful website for finding information on the best distro for you, is distrowatch.com.

Looking on wikipedia though, xandros does seem fairly windows like.

The first Linux distribution I ever used personally was mandriva, though it's not one I like personally even when I was new to it.

Anyway, if you basically just want a desktop PC then any of the ones mentioned in this thread should be good enough.

Saying that though, never be afraid to experiment (as long as you have some idea of what you're doing).

All Linux distributions will support the same hardware. Every Linux distribution is based off of the Linux kernel from kernel.org.

The distribution that I recommend is Gentoo, but it is not newbie friendly. For newbie friendly Linux distribution with out being too proprietary is Ubuntu, but I have not tried it yet. SUSE is not friendly because is actually Windows-Linux. SUSE users will be out in the cold because Linux users can not help you unless they have used SUSE. SUSE is very proprietary. Fedora is plain and it wins a popularity contest all the time. Mandrake or now Mandriva has too many loose screws.

Since the system that you are using for Linux has an ATI graphics, I suggest Linux distributions with at least Xorg 7.0. I know for sure that Gentoo has Xorg 7.1 but other distributions may not have it.

"All Linux distributions will support the same hardware. Every Linux distribution is based off of the Linux kernel from kernel.org."

That made my linux quest of confusion quite a bit easier. I have a ton of questions about that, but ill save it for later or start a new thread. But for starters, how do i find out what kernal and Xorg a particular distro version is using? I cant seem to find that info...I'm looking for the info on Ubuntu and SUSE

And on top of it all...the kernal i understand....but what Xorg is...i cant figure it out. I can see its related to the "x windows system" , but i dont understand the relationship between ATI grapchis and Xorg 7.0 is? I would think that would be kernal related. ....considering its hardware.

Bah, gotta get back to my slave laber job..ill be back.

Thanks Gogul and Electro for the provided info up to this point.
Ill have to take a better look at that distrowatch.com

You can always browse a site like linux-on-laptops.net and look for a how-to on a laptop similar to yours..

I would also like to add that the level of hardware support for a particular piece of equipment also depends on the *manufacturer* rather than on the kernel or distro. Some vendors simply have chosen to essentially ignore the Linux market, and just don't offer Linux drivers. Other (smarter) vendors offer a very high level of support for Linux.

Check the HCL link in my sig block to see what kind of experience other LQ'ers have had with a given hardware component.

Welcome to LQ!

Gonna give ubuntu a try in the next few days.

Im getting confused again....ill have to learn the hard way like i learned windoz and networking...trial and error....then eventually some reading and experimenting