I've heard all this good stuff about Linux, and it'd be nice to have a reliable OS in addition to Windows Me. Do you think it's worth it to download Linux for free? I've been looking at Corel Linux... is there much of a difference between the brands? Also, will I need to partition my hard drive? I've got 20 GB, but I don't really wanna mess with it by changing the partitions. Anyway, give me any words of wisdom that you have. Thanks

Well i'm not a pro with Linux and I want to tell you that I tryed to install it 3 times, the two first I got trouble with partition (yes you need to make some) and I needed to format my HD. After that I installed Linux Mandrake 7.0 and it worked with the graphical installation! I did love this OS for 2-3 week but after that I found that I can't do nothing that I like on this, I can't play game or code with Visual C++... the only thing I can do is chating! So I erased it. It's a very good OS but hard to install and too hard. I don't know if corel linux is better but I heard Mandrake is the bets one to begin. There are some other linux brand that we can have without doing partition but they really suck!!! Don't take them!

Yes. Most likely you will have to partition your hard drive to install Linux. There are versions that install on a DOS partition and I believe that Corel is one of them. And, Yes. There is a major difference in flavors of Linux. Those differences can range from hardware support to the X-Windows environment (KDE or Gnome). Just research before you buy (or download) and make sure what you are getting is what you want. I have ran other versions, but am most happy with Red Hat 6.2

i say - fdisk! through linux on there - i recomend Mandrake 7.1 -- it seems to me to be the best for the windows to command line o/s

Before switch I agree with Duncan. Research. You will be surprised at the list of requirements that may differ from the hardware you have. I've tried Slackware & Caldera. Good Luck.

I agree with DunCan too. I tried SuSE linux and Redhat Linux but they did not support my modem because its a winmodem. So research on your sys hardware before doing anything. Make sure your graphics card works with your flavour of linux too. If you want an easy form of linux, try easylinux or corel linux. If you want the best of the herd, try Mandrake or Redhat. I don't really recommend SuSE.