hello i'm another frustrated windows user. i've heard that linux is a much more stable system. however, i am not a computer wiz and i'm afraid linux would be harder to use and find applications for. i would like to hear from people that use linux for everyday computing if it's a good idea to change. also, if so which one. i've heard about red hat and mandrake but have not seen them. thanks

If you really want to play around with linux but aren't ready for the plunge, check out knoppix. Its a CD based distro so you don't have to fiddle around with repartioning your drive. Its also got a lot of software so anyhting you might want to check out is included.

Forget CD based distros, you can't configure them (or change them) for your use as they are in read-only cds. They are far from the real thing. As you must have heard, redhat and mandrake are good distros, and easy for the new user, but they are also good for the experienced users. Many poople would argue that distros like slackware and debian are for advanced users but that isn't true, redhat offers as much as they do, actually much more. I recommend redhat, after using almost every distribution. (gentoo, redhat, mandrake, slackware, debian, SuSE, etc) Redhat beats them all. I think thats why its the most popular distro. When you get more familiar with linux, you can build your own system from scratch (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org) basically compiling every piece of software needed for a fully functional linux system on your own machine.

YES! I made the switch yesterday at 4:00 pm - and allready Windows (all of them) has become even more unpaletable than it was before. I've never used Linux before, and I took a leap of faith by downloading Mandrake Dolphin 9.0. What can I say? God loves Tux and his followers! :-) Instalation was clean, with plenty of information on exactly what was going on. I'd highly recommend Mandrake. I think the only thing I really miss is Grokster, because I seemed to get more hits on it than on Limewire. Anywho - Go for it!

I agree with Balram. What is it with this knoppix stuff lately. I have been on this board for a while and this stuff just comes up out of the blue. Do you people promoting this KNOPPIX work for them or something. Stick with your basic Distro's: Red Hat, Debian, Mandrake and Slackware. These are some of the best. Red Hat I believe is the one for me. You just need to test them out for yourself. However, I can tell you this.. Red Hat has come a long way. I just installed RH8.0 and it is really graphic oriented and works very much like windows.. I am not to happy about that but it is nice! Anyway try them out and you be the judge!

I recommend noobs to knoppix because it doesn't require any hardrive space, has good support for most hardware, and has most of the apps a person would ever need ready to go. You just need to boot the disc. Basically its a good preview of how far linux has come on the desktop. I do not recommend it as a real harddrive install. For that I will always suggest the 'popular' distros RH,MDK, and Suse, simply because they are noob friendly to install. I will always recommend Gentoo to the person who likes to know what goes on in the background, someone who wants to know how everything works without being dependent on fancy GUI tools. I prefer using the latest tools with the latest security patches and the ease of which it is to upgrade to the latest vers. RH, MDK,SuSe appeal to the XP converts. I find them clunky and too XP-like(KDE/GNOME are slow copycats of XP). I prefer non-bloated soft and gentoo gives me this choice.

Some people want to see and feel linux before going through the pain of downloading or buying a distro. Keep in mind there are many who have no idea what it is. Knoppix just boots off of a CD. You can drive it for a while, decide if you like it, and then go get a real distro like redhat, suse , etc. Personally, I keep a knoppix cd laying around so that I can fix broken windows machines. The reason so many people are promoting it is because it's a nice tool.