Hello all!

Sorry if this question has been over-asked, but I'd kind of like personal input.

Anyway, since I've used/owned a computer, it has been with Microsoft Windows. Then, I discovered Linux. Most specifically, Ubuntu. I'm particularly fascinated by the fact that Linux is so much more customizable than windows. I look the look and feel of the graphical user interface that Ubuntu has. The only thing that's keeping me from switching is the fact there are some vital things thaw Linux cant do. most important being the lack of support for Itunes. I've played with the live CD and the wubi installation of ubuntu, and probably learned more than I should as a beginner, like about the su and sudo commands, with only a surface understanding.

Knowing that I cant quite install a form of Linux yet, i did a lot of research instead.

As such, I've figured out that Linux itself is not an operating system, but the name of the central component that makes up the distributions of it. (A kernel?) I've also found out that there are many distributions of Linux. I'm going to guess that the first distro that pops into your head is Linux Mint. for some reason, I don't overly like it.

I know my way pretty well around computers. I'm somewhat of an enthusiast. However, although I'm not ABSOLUTELY new to Linux, I may as well be. (~2 weeks)

I plan on dual-booting Windows vista and (Distro of choice)
I plan on using Linux on my Compaq F700 series laptop. Here are the stats:

Processor: AMD Turion64 (X2?) 1/9Ghz
Hard drive: 160 G
Memory (RAM?) Maximum = 2000 MB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 700M/nForce 610M
Optical Drive: Optaric DVD RW

Then, there are a couple of specifications about the distro I might like:
Take in mind that I'm a first year high school student, and work with a lot of media. (sound/audio/video/pictures/music and respective editing)
I'm guessing that the distro won't come with the tools for me, so I'll have to hunt them down. EEK! how would i do that! And than I'm guessing I'd have to hunt down a lot of codecs and drivers, which created a bit of a sense of panic for me. As i've used windows my entire computer life, I NEED a distro with a graphical user interface, but I'd also take tome to learn the terminal.

Sorry, but I've created this very scatterbrained. There's probably something vital that I've forgotten to mention. If so, please ask!

Thanks so much for reading this! Even more if you have an answer!!!!

Welcome to LQ
A good start would be to go to
http://distrowatch.com/
and do some reading
Most distro's in the top 10 will fit your needs.

Good luck

Point you favorite browser at distrowatch.com. When the page is loaded, scroll down a bit. On the right hand side, you will see the top 100 distros. The top 20 are probably the ones to concentrate on.

Or, at the top of the screen, click on Search. When the search screen comes up, scroll down to the Distribution Category drop-down list box, and select Multimedia, then click on the Submit Query button.

When the search is done, scroll down past the search boxes to a list of distros that cater to multimedia.

Basically though, any distro will do. You can find all the multimedia packages you need. Use the distro's package manager to see a list of available sound/video/etc software, then try them out. With Ubuntu, you have the advantage that Apt/Aptitude/Synaptic (command line and GUI package management ) will chase down any dependencies for you.

Just format your hard drive and put Slackware on it. Dual booting be damned.

Why should " Dual booting be damned." ?

calm down...all your questions will be answered in time

This is trivial, assuming that you have a decent net connection and use the package manager for your distro. You can make this harder, but why would you (at least, when you are starting out)?

There will be a package manager for any friendly desktop distribution, although exact details vary from distro to distro. You can look through the large list of packages available (and try to avoid the 'kid in an unguarded sweetshop' syndrome for the first week, at least). Tick the ones that you want. Let the computer go get the programs and dependencies from trusted sources. Get beverage (or quite a few, if on a slow link). Use programs.

Additional info

• most package managers have a search facility. Therefore, you can search on, eg, codec, if that is what you want.
• in many cases, you will have to add extra repositories (stores of these things) to get software that does not fully meet the distro's own rules for what can be distributed on their source disks. See information sources for the individual distro, but things like 'extras', 'community supported' and 'non-free' will probably be required for some of your programs for which there might be a licensing issue

Please unpanic. The more immediately that you can unpanic, the better.

almost all of them are, but there is a choice of GUI. If Gnome appeals, try Ubuntu, but also bear in mind that you can turn Ubuntu into Ubuntu+kubuntu by selecting KDE in the package manager and letting it...oh, I've already done that bit (but for that you do need a heavy bit of downloading, so you need a substantial download allowance).

BTW, the less you think about this as 'a cheap version of windows' and the more 'something different that achieves results in a different way and for which lessons learnt with windows may be inappropriate', the better.

That's good too. Look at The linux Documentation Project (tldp) and search on 'bash scripting guide' or maybe tutorial. there are a number of good ones.

To everyone of my friends I recommend Sabayon Linux , enjoy sabayon

Everybody's going to recommend their particular favourite distro, so why not try a few and make your own choice?

Yep
Go multiboot and try many till you find one you like

Or, make your own too

Try the distro-choosing quiz at

http://polishlinux.org/

cool little quiz!....but turned out to have some database error

Oh My Gosh!!! Thank you everyone!!!! THIS is why I like Linux over windows.

Hmmm, so it seems like the general consensus is that I should try a
couple of distributions, and pick my fav. If I wanted to multiboot however, I would need to partition my already 3/4 full hard drive to death. I'll probably find a way to circumvent that.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what software I would need?

You can download a live cd from almost every distro, you can run it from CD, no need to install.


Start a live cd, most have gparted included, to resize partitions, or use puppy
http://puppylinux.org/main/index.php...%20Started.htm
However, in windows you first need to defrag the HD, and make a backup of your important data

In my own opinion, Ubuntu and Slackware are the way to go if you're coming from a windows environment. I speak from many years of Windows experience, while I still use a windows machine out of necessity, I'd like to start migrating to Slackware/Ubuntu.

Good luck hunting!