recently i bought a toshiba satellite A100 laptop, it has intel core 2 duo processor and 100 gb sata hard disk. which version of linux should i try to load in it??? i tried redhat linux 9.0 but it doesnt seem to install, the laptop gets hanged after i insert the cd ..please guys help me out i really need linux on my laptop...

What type of Linux you install will depend on personal preference and what you wish to do with it.

Here is a site that has some links on it for how people installed linux on Toshiba Laptops:
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/toshiba.html

I found it by searching google for "Toshiba laptops linux"...

I personally use Gentoo Linux - it is fast (if configured properly), easy to update, install, and remove packages (has a great package tool called portage), and is very up to date as far as security patches. These are some things I like about it...other people don't like it and have chosen something else that suits them. There are thousands of posts here on this forum that ask the same question. Try looking at those posts, or perhaps on

www.distrowatch.com

--Mr. Snorfles

--Mr. Snorfles

You need to select a current distro to be sure to have support for the features and hardware installed in your laptop. With the rapid rate of change and improvement we are seeing in Linux today, a 4 year old distro such as RH9 is truly ancient.

I have personally had good luck with Ubuntu v7.04 on several brands of laptops. You should also consider Fedora v7 and OpenSuSE 10.2. While there are many others to choose from, starting with the "big 3" should get you started on the right foot and offer good support for your hardware. As you get more comfortable with Linux, feel free to explore and try some of the smaller distros if they have features you are interested in.

Bob