Hello, I recently became Fed-up with microsofts OS. AFTER preforming a complete system restore to factory conditions it was still exibiting problems, that's when I decided to switch to Linux.
After much deliberation on software that could replace my Windows at least in Ease of use, I settled on Linspire.

Seeking to try to run it before I make a purchase I downloaded the Live CD from Bit Torrent (file is on the linspire site).

My problem is that the CD won't boot up at all, it's as if my system doesn't recognize it exists. Here are my specs in case that could have comething to so with it.

I would really like to replace Windows ASAP and the CNR library appealed to me. Admittedly, I am a linux newbie. I'm familiar with the ins and outs of a computer, and with the ups and downs of Windows, but my experience with Linux is limited to a "Pink Hat" Linux experience when I Was 12 years old (about 5 years ago) when I set my old compaq up to dual boot windows ME and Red Hat Linux.


If anyone else has a suggestion as to which linux I should try, what I'm looking for is reliability, ease of use, simple(ish) installations like in linspire, basically a Windows Replacement.

I was looking at Xandros as well, but I don't know if that's the one I want.. can't "try it" so I don't know. Thanks for the help in advance.

Hi, welcome to LQ and welcome back to Linux It's possible you had a bad burn or a bad download. Have a look here to see how to compare the checksums and to do the burn.

You can often pick up a live cd from your local LUG or from a magazine. If you are looking for a live cd, Knoppix or Ubuntu or Simply Mepis or Gentoo are other alternatives.

Is there a specific way these disks need to be burned? I just used Windows built in burning utility to burn it to a CD-RW...

Also, any suggestions about specific Distros I might like? I've been looking at Suse and Ubuntu(sp?). Is there a place available where I can see the pro's and cons of these Distros? (Xandros, Linspire, Suse, and Ubuntu) I've been hearing a lot of suggestions but I don't know what will meet my needs.

My main goals for myself are to
Be productive with my computer
Be able to have fun on my computer (waste time)
Be able to surf the web for research etc.
and be able to access all my hardware (palm pilot (z22) and Canon Printer).


I'd like to have easy-ish program installations, and I'd like to have a program library available to me. I've heard that Ubuntu and Linspire and Xandros offer this, each in a different form (apt-get?). Admittedly, I don't want to have to learn a LOT of command line jargon just to use my computer, but I'm not beyond learning it.

Try using a CDR instead of a CDR/W.