a total newbie-here!
 

Hello~All,
I'm trying to understand "which" distro would be good for me (a real newbie!!)
Running Knoppix on my dell desktop, it works well, accept for email, just can't get it working...
I've checked the distro "choice" program, it selects for me according to my choices, Xandros or Mandriva???
I realize this is such an open question, no right or wrong answer, it's up to the user...
I have 2 HD, tons of room, if I should choose a distro to d/l, do I have to partition the HD for Linux? I have partition magic, never used it and don't want to destroy my windows XP installation on the 2nd HD.
The 2nd HD is used mainly for backups and playing around with software, trying new things....Nothing there to worry about, but I don't want to corrupt the Xp setup??
I can't "really" can't determine which is the best distro to try??? So many differing opinions, it's confusing!!
I really would like a CD/disk instead of a d/l...Probably
better choice.
Thanks for a great web site---I'm learning slowly..
John in Dallas.

Ubuntu should be one of the right distribution for you.

If you like Knoppix, Kanotix might be a good one to look at.

if you are new to linux and wondering what to try you may as well try a bunch. The installations will get you used to linux a bit and you will also get the feel for what you want in your distribution. AS for partitioning because xp is on a different drive you shouldnt need to do anything

You'll confuse yourself even more by asking such a question on a Linux forum. :) Anyway why not get a few live CDs e.g. Ubuntu, Suse, Mandriva, Fedora Core etc and give them a spin. If you find one that you like, you can then install that on your hard drive.

Hello,

The question lonestar17 is asking is the question which every first time linux user thinks. Which Distro ?? I think answer is select any distro. Then look around your needs and option available in that distro. If something is missing, first search for that and install that in same distro. Still if something is missing or you can not use the distro to do what you want then select another distro.

This is how you can learn using linux. (In fact I did that)

tamoneya wrote that :
I want to alter this to "if you are new to linux and wondering what to try you may as well try a bunch. The installations will get you used to linux a bit and you will also get the feel for what you want in your distribution. AS for partitioning because xp is on a different drive your current xp setup will not be corrupted but you need to reformat the partition on which you want to install Linux".

Reformat of partition is required because linux use extfs while Windows uses FAT partition types. At present, your second disk partitions are FAT partions. Which you need to format as extfs.

Thanks.

IMO both are easy to use, I would suggest Mandriva is both a better value and what I would prefer.
Check out Xandros and Mandriva websites.
Short course for resizing Windows XP.
Temporally turn off the Windows swap file.
Run scandisk and defrag and antivirus/antispyware.
Resize the Windows partition.
Turn the Windows swap file back on.

You need a boot manager to let you choose which OS to boot into when you start your computer. I would suggest GRUB which many distributions use as the default.
PLaces such as Cheapbytes will sell you the exact thing you can download, or you can by commercial boxed set that usually includes a printed user's manual.

if u got patience like i kinda do,distro hopping is fun,they all offer something diff.i like installing and playing around,then breaking it n fixing it,guess i like to test diff distros.my main system is simplymepis,im sticking with debian based.