Help choosing (there's to many)
 

Right now I run RedHat 9.x and Windows XP in a dual boot. But after I upgraded windows 98 to windows xp, I can't access RedHat anymore, so I was looking around here. After seeing all the distributions of Linux I became confused. But one thing is certain, I'd like to reformat my 40 gig drive and give at least 15 gigs to a Win 98 installation and at least 5 gigs to a Mandrake Linux installation. Now that leaves me with 20 gigs to space extra, is it possible to install more versions of Linux? If so, which ones are highly recommended, full featured and simple (I'm still a linux-idiot)?

Thank you.
SevenForever.

Stock answer:
Search LQ - this question is asked almost 3 times a week
Check the LQ Reviews where there are lots of opinions on many distros
Go to Distrowatch where their aim is to review every distro (and there are 100s)
Go to LinuxISO to see what's on offer.

In all seriousness, this question is asked over and over and over - the only way to find out which one is 'the best' is to try them and decide for yourself.

Thank you very much for the links :)

I don't doubt the question being called many times. But I thank you for your quick reply and your kindness (I know it is annoying to answer the same question over and over). I couldn't find these genre of links in the forums.

You should be able to use the rescue floppy you created during installation to boot into Red Hat.
Either keep doing that or rewrite the bootloader after confirming correct setting for booting Windows.
Good Luck.

yeah, doesnt windows XP skrew with your MRB wether u want it or not....
use grub-install to restore the MBR.

either use a linux boot floppy like 2damcommon surgested, or knoppix if u have a copy lying aroung.

(read grub-install --help first)

but grub-install /dev/hda (or /dev/hdb if you boot of primary slave) should do the trick.

then check to see if you have a file called menu.lst in the /grub folder of your boot partition, of you dont, use grub --config-file to set the default config file to grub.conf OR just rename grub.conf to menu.lst

its really quite easy once you read the --help output :)

I´m using Slackware 9.1 and I think it´s great - since taking the plunge with it I have learned so much and I don´t think I´ll be going back to a RPM based distro.

There is a custom version of Gnome for Slackware which is also pretty nifty - it´s optimised for i686 systems - that is Dropline Gnome & you can get it here

http://www.dropline.net/gnome/

Funny you should mention the Knoppix (It's being downloaded right now) and I do have a boot disk for RedHat, but alas, it doesn't seem to like me. Either that or Windows XP is more evil than I thought. My boot disk doesn't want to run properly and just asks me to install linux RedHat.

But that's alright, right now Windows XP isn't working correctly, somehow my internet connection is unstable and tends to randomly kick off my connection and halt and cancel all downloads, IM connections, ect... (Downloading Knoppix on another computer in case your wondering). So It seems that I'll need to re-format anyhow.

Right now I'm leaning on a Gentoo, College Linux, Mandrake and Win. 98 plus system. I hope it works out. And thank you all for your posts too :D

Also, ixus_123, that Dropline Gnome looks pretty interesting. I'll definetly be checking it out after I complete my works above.

Well it should run on College Linux seeming as that is Slackware based.

That's what intriged me to look into it farther :). It appears to be a well constructed branch.