Hi,i'm thinking about migrating to linux but i have some doubts.
I have the following hardware:

Motherboard:Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
Graphics:Geforce 6600 Silencer
DVB Card:Skystar 2
Tuner Card:Pinnacle PCTV PRO
Sound Card:SB Live 5.1(possible i'll swap for a audigy 2 zs)
Hd1:80 gb sata
hd2:80 gb sata
hd2:200 gb sata
Ram:1 GB
Cdrw:Lite-on
DVD-ROM:NEC
DVD-RW:Samsung
All in one:HP PSC 1310/1315
Gamepad:Microsoft sidewinder(game port on sb live)
External storage:Mp3 Player and 120 Gb HDD
Mobile Phone:Nokia 6630
Well to start my doubt is if i will have drivers for all components listed up(on the phone i just want to send files to the computer and from the computer to the phone).

Other thing that i need is any clone or app to program in VB 6 and VB.Net(school)(or do you recomend windows for those 2 and linux for the rest?)Another problem is since i have so much space i don't know how am i going to make partitions i know how to do it but i don't have any ideia how to distribute the space into partions?Can you gimme a help?The 200 Gb will be for storage(downloads and stuff like that) and possibly backups.The rest i think i'll manage to do.
Sorry for making such a huge post i just want to get rid of windows but make a successfull install of Slack
Ps:I'm a bit of a noob as you probably noticed but i've managed to install slack a long time ago(v9).

All of your hardware should run fine on linux, I've nerver had any real problems.
As for programing, I use "mono" to do C# .NET programing, they also have a VB.NET pluggin aswell.
As for vb 6, I'm not sure, I stoped using vb when I learned C# and java.
Slackware was also my first distro, but I only recomend it if you are willing to REALLY LEARN linux. Red Hat and the likes remind me to much of windows.
As for final remarks... I comend you on fealing the "tiredness of windows". I am a microsoft professional, i work with server 2003 and windows xp all day long. I will be the first to tell you how much they suck. It seems the more time i spend on linux, the more i grow to love it and hate windows.
Good luck on your new adventure

The main hardware parts shouldn't be a problem, but I don't know what is involved in setting up the DVB Card, tv card, game pad, phone (I don't have that sort of hardware to setup) - though with enough reading, googling asking questions you probably be able to get them running.

PS: Dual boot Slackware with Windows until your comfortable with linux, you'll find it less stressful knowing you can just reboot into windows and leave linux for a few weeks when your at the point where you could throw the computer, monitor and peripherals still attached out a closed window.

Thanks everyone for all your replys i'll try it today i'll reply later

I'll have to agree, Dual Booting in a nessesity unless you have a spare computer lying around.
I'm currently booting between Windows XP, Slackware, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, and SuSE. Slackware is managing all of the boots with lilo ('li'nux 'lo'ader).
I mainly just use Slackware and Windows (For games). The other ones are just for playing around with and testing (playing aroud with linux is really interesting, you can do SOOO much with it).

Once again, good luck. If you need any help at all, let me (or the other guys) know.

I just installed windows(yup i formated it because i want my system clean),now i'm going forward to slack i have just only one doubt.
I'm going to use my 80 GB hdd to install slack and my 200 i'll make a small partition about 10 GB fat 32 to exchange data between linux and windows.How should i format my 80 Gb hdd,i mean,only with swap and / or with more partitions?I read somewhere that with partitions i might waste some space...Thanks in advance

For a desktop normally a swap partition, a partition for / and a partition for /home is sufficient.

If your partitions are badly thought out you can lose space, for example if you gave 20 gigs for / but only used say 7, then you are wasting ~60% of that partition which could have been used as more space for /home

But is is more convenient to have separate partitions for / and /home so that if you reinstalled then you wouldn't lose personal data on /home you could just format / and start again.

I'm not thinking in install lots of apps,how much do you think i could spend on /?Since i have 1024 of ram my swap won't be very large (never is).

with a gig of RAM you could set up 512 mb of swap or even less, slackware almost never swaps and you have plenty of memory

Do what ever seems practical. If you've never used linux before, I would just install everything under "/" and make a swap partion.

Incase you wanted to know..
/ = begining (kinda like "c:\" except there is no "A:\" or "D:\" or any of the likes, you will soon understand what i mean)
/etc = most of the system config files go here
/home = very similar to "documents and setings"
/usr = were most of the software installs (kinda like "C:\program files")
/boot = boot files go hear (equivilents to ntloader, boot.ini, ect)
/temp = temperary files go here

There are more, but these are the ones that are generally partitioned separatly.
I personally keep everything under "/" on one partition. but that is personal preference.

As far as ram and swap goes, I agree, a small swap is fine. Slackware is NOT bloatware like MS.
the only reason you might need a big swap is if your running larger databases.
Sorry for posting so much... I dont usually post so many times on one thread.

Remember also storage is vary cheap and you don't want to run out of space, 8 gigs should be plenty and give loads of room for additional programs, but that assumes /home to be an another partition especially if you have many user files. I agree with raska's suggestion for swap size.

You can make /home as big as the rest of the drive, or just as big as you need and leave the rest unformatted. Having unformatted space at the end gives a certain degree of flexibility incase circumstances change in the future

3 more days to go for the year to end !! Put this in the "quotes of the year" book !

I use a lot of Windows myself on some very high end hardware - a lot of times I really wonder if Windows is really deserving to run on such high end hardware !!!

on the other hand I have some miserable "out dated" box which sits in one quiet corner and runs linux and squid. its so long i had a look at it - i think i forgot the root password. There is no "contingency" planning we have in place for of this enterprise proxy going down on 1500+ users. We have a friedly neighbourhood developer who comes over and keeps on adding to the webadmin interface as per our cranky ideas - we want a feature we add it in....

Cheers
Beyboo

beyboo,
I think any professional windows user to some degree realizes what we do.
thanks for your coment to my post