I want to completely get rid of WinXP. I am considering Linux as a replacement OS. Could anyone recommend versions of Linux that are user friendly and perhaps offer a GUI and MS Office compatible software?

How difficult will it be to reformat my HD and install the version of Linux?

Thanks in advance.

I would recommend Suse, Ubuntu, Mandriva, FedoraC5 you should try them as live versions first to see which one you like best. It is not hard to reformat th HD the distro will do it for you.

Howdy

First of all: good call getting off of windows; i still use it 1/2 time, but strongly prefer linux, which is also a great learning experience for me.

Secondly, this is that you may want to research the review of distrobutions section, and get a general feel.

Third; my user name says it all, i dont really know whats going on myself, but i'm pretty sure that about 3 out of 4 times i log on here, there is someone asking a very similar question to this one; so maybe next time try actually looking through the forums before creating a new thread

Fourth and final, what is it you want the distrobution for, and what kind of computer are you talking about? Do you want to use it for gaming, with a little word processing on the side, or is it a number cruncher -- or, just an email and web broswing computer?

I don't have too much experience myself, but from what i have seen, Ubuntu has been the easiest for me to use / set-up and so on. But, there are so many ins-and-outs of distro-differences, so i'll let the folk smarter than me feild that question -- or, you could just find out yourself with a bit or research

I am using it for email, browsing, and word processing. I'd like to have a complete suite of software compatible with microsoft office. As a student it's required in many of my courses but I just can't stand to choke on windows any longer.

The computer I want to install Linux on is a Compaq Presario.
AMD-K6 3D 533 mhz processor
312 mb of ram
30 gig hard drive

Thanks again for all your help.

Essentially all Linux distros come with OpenOffice.org, which is a nice office suite that can use open document formats as well as MS Office formats.

I've also heard Xandros is good especially for beginners. Any input on this version?

I hear ya. I was a die hard fan of Windows (note that I said "was").
I am now 100% depenant on linux. I did toss out windows and I don't regret it.

I prefer Mandrake/Mandriva. Mandriva is simply a newer version of Mandrake. It seems pretty easy for me to use and I simply love it.

Some words of advice if you don't mind:

First, please make sure that the linux system, weather mandriva, suse, or whatever, pretty much does what you want it to. Get fimiliar with it, use the system often.
If you want/can, spend as little time away from Windows (if leaving windows is really what you care to do).
Getting rid of windows isn't always a great thing to do, but I myself don't do a ton of different things on a computer to begin with.
There will be an aftershock of getting rid of windows. I had it the following day after tossing it out. After that, I didn't think of it or even miss it BECAUSE 99% of the time, I was using Linux, and getting projects done, checking email, internet, music, etc on linux, so to me, getting rid of windows didn't affect me much at all. I only played one game on windows, that's about it.

I wish the best of luck with you, whatever you do decide with.
Come here anytime you need help.

cam29, this site may help make a decision on what distribution may be most suitable

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

then head over to

http://shots.osdir.com/

and have a look at the screenshots for the distributions it suggested.

Xandros is a good beginer distribution, if you are willing to pay, simerally so is Linspire (I know alot of people dont like it, but were talking new users here and it has alot of gui tools). However these both cost money, well until Freespire final is released which is a community driven version of Linspire.

slackware is pretty sweet....hard to install though..

Start with any one of the free distributions ("Distros"). If you are going to dual-boot with Windows, then a "live CD" may be useful, but if you want to just install Linux, don't bother--just install. My reason for this is simply that live CD distros run VERRRRRRY SLOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLYYY and give a bad first impression.

I have recommended Ubuntu in the past but--at least on my machine--the latest version has been unstable. I currently run Fedora Core 5, which has been a rock ever since installed about a month ago.

Nice distro choosing tool.

If you plan to learn linux inside out and (in the future) to install linux from scratch, I would recommend (K)ubuntu or Knoppix. These distributions are easy to install and are based on debian. Later when you are well-experienced, you can switch to debian.

Try PCLinuxOS. It is easy to use, very hardware-friendly and fairly responsive running from a live CD. The HDD install isn't the best, but if you don't plan anything fancy it is OK.

Michael:
Wonderful sites you posted links to. I'm checking out the versions of *nix that the site recommended. I plan on doing some test driving over the next few days to see how things go.

In the course of researching *nix today free version of Xandros that you can download via BitTorrent.
http://www.xandros.com/products/home...d_windows.html

The instructions given for downloading and installation are quite thorough at that site.

I'm currently downloading Xandros and will download the other versions as I can. Thanks so much for all who have replied and posted such wonderful information. I don't feel so lonely out there anymore :P The other choices the site gave were Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Mandriva.

Hopefully in a few days you can call me "Linux Gal"!

I hope it works well for you. I don't know much about linux myself, some in mandriva2006, that's about it.
I may be able to help in some things. We have a ton of people here who I know can pretty much help you with anything, whichever distro you do choose.

Try any Xandros. Honestly.

You'll have no trouble migrating.