I'm ready to switch. I've use primarily Windows most of my life and after building my own computer I can't understand how Microsoft expects me to pay $255 for the O/S. I'm a noob, and I'll admit it, so bare with me.

My question is this, I've downloaded and burned Slackware 9.0. And I'm tentative to load it. I've had no experience with Linux. Is slackware user friendly enough that it's worth it for me to try to do it myself? Not only that, but I heard installation of Windows programs onto Linux is a huge pain in the butt. Someone please help the NOOBIE.

Thanks

slackware probably isn't the best choice for you, try a more newb distro like mandrake or redhat. you might be ok though, steep learning curve,

of course installation of Windows programs onto Linux is a huge pain in the butt, it's not meant to happen... certainly a lot easier than making Linux programs run on windows though....

yeah try out red hat or mandrake its better for you im also a newbie but used linux a little time

The slackware install is fine for a beginner, its just not as pretty as MDK or redhat. Just as easy though.

Your big problem is going to be setting up hardware, MDK is much better for that.

If you dont mind "jumping right in", then Slackware is (IMHO) the best distro. Its got a great mix of automatic and manual, and its completly vanilla.

If you are worried, get Mandrake, play with it for a few months and then switch.

but if you do try slackware, remember these great forums,
and the slackware section :)

i'm a linux newbie too, i started with it about a month ago and
now i am happily rolling along with the rest of the crowd and
enjoying every minute of it.

Slackware isn't hard to use as other people make it out to be. For me, slackware was the easiest to use and i tried mandrake and red hat. Just read a few documents and then u can get rolling right away. And all the commands do what they are supposed to do! With red hat and mandrake, i managed to mess them up in 3 days!! Then I tried slack and it's working flawlessly without any problems. It's been a month since i used linux and it hasn't crashed yet