Sorry if it has been asked before, but i'm in a dilemma.
I have downloaded a couple of different distros, but don't know what to choose.
I have a Benq laptop, Intel Celeron M @ 1.7 Ghz, 512 MB ddr Ram, 60 Gb hdd, dvd+-rw, wireless card, Nvidia GoForce 7400.
I downloaded: Fedora Core 7, OpenSuSE 10.2, Ubuntu 7.04, PCLinuxOS 2007 (but it doesn't work, the cd is messed up), Linux XP.
I have little experience in the Linux world, mainly I installed for a couple of times Mandrake 10, on my old computer.
I want to be able to play games, surf the internet, office stuff (word, excel=their equivalent in linux world), compatbility with M$ products. I don't mind dual-booting. And I don't want a liveCD/liveDVD. I want something to install. Better if it is from the list above.
Thanks for your time reading this long post and sorry again if this has been questioned again.

Yeah, you're right it has been asked...ad naseum. Look at this thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...+distro+thread

Then use Cross Linux from Scratch.

The link below--Getting started--may help.
Good Luck

for newbies, I dont want to start a distro war here, so I will refrain from telling you to choose one or the other. I will tell you one thing, since you are barely getting started, you should burn a copy of a Knoppix live CD pop it into your CD drive and play around with it. This is good for three reasons you get to familiarize yourself with Linux and dont have to wipe your hard drive and you can learn during your free time too.

here is the link for Knoppix:

http://www.knoppix.org/

In my opinion, it's simple:
Create space for a Linux installation.
Next install and try each of the distros for a while and see which one does what you want and what you like.

When you download an iso, make sure you do an Md5sum before burning, then check CD/DVD for integrity before install. I also think you should just install and try and see what you like. If dual booting with XP; defrag several times, erase all temp files, then partition. If dual booting with Vista, do the same and then partition from WITHIN Vista.

It's actually even simpler: Create space for FIVE (~30 GB total). Go to Distrowatch and find out what is in the top 5 on the "hit list".
Install them all.....

thanks for all your replies. I made up my mind, and I'll install Fedor 7 and if I don't like it I will give openSuSE a try.