Yo, every now and again I get the feeling that i want to make a jump and dual boot linux on my laptop, can anyone suggest the best distro to get me going, I just want to be able to use the internet, use open office etc and maybe fiddle a bit once i get a bit more confident.

Cheers, Reza

I heard good things about ubuntu

i'd start out with Ubuntu, though Suse's my favorite and really isn't much harder

I'd really recommend getting a copy of Knoppix or a LiveCD of Suse... this will let you boot and test hardware compatability, get a feel for it, etc. without actually changing anything. Then, once you've gotten everything working, you could go with the full version of whatever you tried.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html

http://en.opensuse.org/Download
(scroll down and hit the "Live" download)

Ok, cheers for the advice everyone, i've mixed and matched it all together and am now downloading a Live DVD of Ubuntu that can be either installed or just used off the disk so I get the best of both worlds.

Dave....what are you doing? Don't you remember what happened when you tried this last time? I think you need something else to spend your time doing. Why don't you get a girlfriend? Oh wait....you've got one...

Seriously, if I'm gonna get called in to pronounce "it's f*cked" every ten seconds, someone's gonna have a pizza bill to pay.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux Dave....what are you doing? Don't you remember what happened when you tried this last time? I think you need something else to spend your time doing. Why don't you get a girlfriend? Oh wait....you've got one... Seriously, if I'm gonna get called in to pronounce "it's f*cked" every ten seconds, someone's gonna have a pizza bill to pay.

Yeah yeah yeah, i got bored, and I got caught by that god damn Windows update last night, there was no way I was gunna have my lappy moan at me everytime I turned it on so this gave me a great chance to stick a small partition on my hard disk and try out something different.

Quote: Originally Posted by Reza Yeah yeah yeah, i got bored, and I got caught by that god damn Windows update last night, there was no way I was gunna have my lappy moan at me everytime I turned it on so this gave me a great chance to stick a small partition on my hard disk and try out something different.

Dave, I hope that yesterday's experience will make you learn that putting Linux on your laptop is not a good idea.

That's now twice you've had to completely reinstall Windows after fiddling with Linux.

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux Dave, I hope that yesterday's experience will make you learn that putting Linux on your laptop is not a good idea. That's now twice you've had to completely reinstall Windows after fiddling with Linux.

No i'm just more determined to find a distro that will actually install properly for me!

Quote: Originally Posted by Reza Yeah yeah yeah, i got bored, and I got caught by that god damn Windows update last night, there was no way I was gunna have my lappy moan at me everytime I turned it on so this gave me a great chance to stick a small partition on my hard disk and try out something different.

I'm sure between you and your mate you can work it out without going down the linux route

Anyone besides me on here that uses/loves Slackware distro?
Though by no means the one to start with.

I recomend installing Mandrake (the most windows-like imho) and most compantible on laptops as far as I know.

Quote: Originally Posted by Aselus Anyone besides me on here that uses/loves Slackware distro? Though by no means the one to start with. I recomend installing Mandrake (the most windows-like imho) and most compantible on laptops as far as I know.

Cheers for the advice, i'll download that next!

you could try kororaa, its got some nice xgl effects, its waht I had to use for my pc when my hdd died, livecd's dont need hdd's, I just found that to be cool.

www.kororaa.org

Quote: Originally Posted by Reza Cheers for the advice, i'll download that next!

Download Mandriva...the project is no longer called "Mandrake"

http://www.mandriva.com/en/downloads

mepis?....

Quote: Originally Posted by Aselus Anyone besides me on here that uses/loves Slackware distro? Though by no means the one to start with. I recomend installing Mandrake (the most windows-like imho) and most compantible on laptops as far as I know.

Yeah, I really like Slackware. Im using Gentoo now, probably not the best one to start with...
Mandriva is really, really good for begin with Linux. They released something new called Mandriva One, it's a live cd that can also be installed to Hard drive. My dad tried it recently and it was not bad at all. Kororaa is also good and hard as hell to spell. I also liked RR64 linux and there's also RR4 Linux for non 64-bit computers. The RR distro's are prettie neat because they are based on gentoo and have Xgl installed on them (the newer ones, anyways). They are both live disks and can be installed.

Gentoo is one of my favs. Thats what I'm running on my home file/game server at the moment. I love the USE flags...Portage is pretty sweet too. I dont recommend it for a first timer though.

Slackware is good too...I just wish the latest version(10.2) shipped with Gnome and not KDE. Not too big of a deal...I could always install it myself. Its just one more thing to do thats all. Honestly thats my only real gripe about it. I think If I had tried Slackware before I got a feel for Debian based distros, I would like it alot more than I do. Its a little bit too Unix-like for my taste.

Quote: Originally Posted by Kemosabe79 Download Mandriva...the project is no longer called "Mandrake" http://www.mandriva.com/en/downloads

I've thought about this, since I've been having display problems in... well... about everything (I miss Suse 10.0), but I don't have any idea which one to download

Quote: Originally Posted by _Sexy_Pants_ I've thought about this, since I've been having display problems in... well... about everything (I miss Suse 10.0), but I don't have any idea which one to download

Here you go:

http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=29

Your profile says you are using a 9800 Pro. If thats the case, I think I know why you are having display issues. ATI under linux can be a pain in the arse. However, the 9800 PRO should work flawlessly with the latest fglrx drivers.

Profile's way outta date, but it's for my laptop actually which is using an onboard intel 855G I think. Thanks for the link though, I'll give it a shot, maybe ask you a few more questions if this doesn't work either.