Hey Guys,
I am just here to ask a good specific question. Okay, I run two machines in my room one Is my gaming machine which of course run Windows XP. But really do not like using it as a workstation. I am a pretty fast learner I have already messed around with Knoppix 5.1.1 Which i really am not that fond of even with all the features it comes with. I am now looking at Mandriva distro cause i hear its based off Red Hat, which is from i hear 'The King Distro OF Linux' but not wanting to pay $80.00 bucks for. I am also wanting to make a server out of the machine as a proxy server while at work I will have no trouble finding a blocked Proxy Site to check my Personal Email's. My specs on this machine as follows:
AMD Athlon XP 1.5 GHz , 512MB Ram, 32Mb Video Card (Radeon 7000 With DIV Hookup) 160 GB Hard drive (149.89 GB) Asrock MB. SO Can U guys help me out?

Mandriva is a good distro to start if you are coming from Windows,http://distrowatch.com is a good site to visit.

Ubuntu is also an easy distro, or you could try PClinuxOS.
Instead of red hat you can get fedora which is actually the free version of red hat..

Notice that the cost-free and non-cost-free versions of different distributions do differ - just pay attention to how they differ. Usually you get some sort of support when you pay, or extra (usually non-free) software not at least easily available for those who don't buy the thing. In some cases you can also download the distribution free, but consider if you'd like to donate to the project, which is not a bad idea neither.

Well, anyway, maybe it's better to start with the non-cost versions, to get a grasp of what it is, so if you later decide it's not your call you don't lose money (like with Windows). All the major distributions suit a newcomer, no doubt, and mainly they just have different logos and differently named package manager - from the end-user-newbie's point of view. Maybe different graphics and wallpapers, but the real differences "under the hood" don't usually matter for the newcomer, so you can just as well pick your first distribution by it's look-and-feel and your 6th sense.

Most of the software is available for all the major distributions, and usually there is no difference in the easiness of getting it, so no matter what you pick, you don't "lose" anything. In the very least you can always compile things from source, but in most cases that is not necessary. And (at least if you don't pick a very specialized, cut-down, strange distribution) all Linux distributions that can work as a desktop can be turned into servers too, there's no need to buy a different "server" edition - though some distributions do offer these, and their point is that the "server edition" is typically geared towards server things as opposed to the "regular editions" being geared towards everyday desktop use, web, multimedia and such. Server distributions (like "Ubuntu Server" vs. "Ubuntu Desktop") are usually more slimmed-down - could come without a graphical desktop enabled by default, for example - and don't contain all of the usual desktop apps, but do contain usual server software (ftpd, sshd, ircd, it depends) right out of the box. And of course you can install more, turn your server into a desktop and so on.

Most new users around here I see starting off with one of these (not in any particular order, which means "random order"):
- Fedora
- Slackware
- Ubuntu
- SuSE
- Debian

You could try one of those - or you could try any single one in existence, many of them listed in DistroWatch website. Remember that no matter which one you pick up, you can make it do whatever some other distribution does. Most noticeable things that affect choosing are the things included the stock kernel (drivers - what hardware it can work with out of the box) and outlook (plain command line or 3d-enabled heavyweight ram-eating desktop).

Well i just installed Mandriva does not seem to bad i will experiment though with some of the distros you mentioned though cause i am wanting to get deeper with linux under standing the structure of the OS so i myself can master linux. But i do have to say Mandriva does remind my of windows maybe a bit to much.

Mandriva is not based on Red Hat although both use rpms. It is pretty much a branch on its own while being more Red Hat like than, say, Debian or Slackware . If you would like a Red Hat based system, consider Fedora or CentOS. The first is more innovative and as such potentially a bit buggy while the latter is a clone of the current release of Red Hat: more conservative but well-tested and generally a better choice for production systems. Suse/SLED/Novell is another distro that is often used in a corporate environment and that is quite like Mandriva and Red Hat.
Knoppix is based on Debian as are many other distros, including Mepis, Mint, the *Buntu family, ... Depending on what it is that you don't like about Knoppix, this may mean that none of the Debian branch will suit you.

Also, I here Slackware is more of a Unix Os then Linux.

Hmm, no, not really. It's true that it borrows more features from UNIX that most other distros but it's still different from FreeBSD or Solaris. You may like it though but it would depend on what you need it for. If it's for a home system, OK. But it's not something you are very likely to see in a production environment. All is see there are mainly Novell and Red Hat and to some extent Mandriva and Ubuntu.

Hmm , Interesting is going to take some time to find the one thats fits my needs. In the future I may be willing to pay for red hat , but for now i guess ill give fedora and Slackware a chance.

There really isn't any need for home users to pay for a commercial Linux. What you pay is meant to cover support not software. CentOS is a free copy of Red Hat: same software but without the dedicated support.

As for experimentation, I am all for it and I'm sure many will agree. At one time I had mabye a dozen distros installed as I feel that just installing, wiping and then installing something else doesn't offer a very reliable picture of what a distro is capable of. Use each one you install for a while and you'll find what really suits you best.

Mandriva actually did start as a fork of Redhat but that was years ago. Mandriva does now do a lot of distro specific things, but in my experience Redhat RPMS still work in Mandriva...at least, those that are not core to the Redhat distros work; I haven't tried something peculiar like loading a Redhat KDE in a Mandriva system.

you could try what I'm doing. I got the virtual appliance for about 5 desktop distros so i could try them all to see how they feel.

slackware =)