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Want to wet my beak with Linux,need suggestions on distro.

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tinyvillager:
Getting ready to install a large hard drive,and i want to expand my knowledge beyond windows but in the
same breathe need something that wouldn't be to much of a learning curve from the windows environment.
I plan on a distro i can purchase,don't want to download anymore and something under 100 bucks.   
I've used various live distros in the past (let me tell downloading 300mb iso's on dialup that averages 44k is fun!)
 
 I remember buying a version of Mandrake a few years back and it didn't recognize hardly any of my hardware.
Do commercial linux distro's,Mandrake,redhat,recognize hardware better these days,i.e.Radeon 9600 graphics
card,LITEON CD and DVD drives,etc.

 Thank you.

Carol Haynes:
Linux tends to be behind the times with hardware, and because it is OpenSource it doesn't seem to matter too much which distro you use.

If you have broadband why not download a few basic distros and try them before deciding?

RedHat is probably the most widely used distro for business and I have tried SUSE with some success.

I tried numerous versions of Mandrake and found there was always a problem getting something installed - usually networking and/or printers.

I can't say any are easy to get working if something doesn't install properly but I had best success with SUSE.

I don't know about other people around here but I have had numerous attempts to use Linux over the years but always find myself back with Windows to run software I want/need that just isn't available for Linux - or only has limited support. I know there are Windows runtime packages for Linux, but to me it seems to defeat the point if you are trying to run Windows software on Linux!!

Also support for NTFS filing system is pretty shonky in most Linux distros (or was last time I looked) and ReiserFS is not supported in Windows so there is little easy cross over of data.

m_s:
I ran RedHat for about 6 months, and it took quite a lot of tweaking and fiddling about to get everything working just as I wanted.  I really liked it, and once I had it doing exactly what I wanted, it was great.  Then I bought a new laptop, and that shipped with Mandrake, which I was really happy about, but while I was installing it, it didn't recognise the wifi card, and the previous 6 months of tweaking flashed before my eyes, and I'm sorry to say I chickened out - went with XP.  When I go back to Linux at some point in the future (I think I will), I will probably start with Mandriva - which is what Mandrake is now renamed as...  There was a link on betanews.org about their new version a few days back.

Edvard:
Yes, Linux is still behind a few months with the hardware issue, but that is getting better EVERY DAY because more and more people are downloading Linux EVERY DAY and some of them are actually contacting the hardware companies and asking hard questions concerning Linux compatibility. Not to mention standard rants concerning Microsoft's monopolistic practices, etc. etc. (Please let's NOT rant about that ONE MORE TIME?)
Seriously, try Knoppix first. Chances are, if Knoppix recognizes your hardware, most major distros will too. And Knoppix is Debian so if you find you like Knoppix, save yourself from downloading Debian and read up on how to install Knoppix to your hard drive. All the major distros have their pros and cons and fortunately, most are available as 'Live' systems like Knoppix so you can 'test drive' without commitment ('cept for the time to download and burn them all). My personal fave? Slackware and it's live little half-brother Slax. Why? It claims to be the most 'Unix-like' distro which in my experience means a very no-frills distro that actually works on most points (I've never had networking NOT work on a slack machine) and is ready for whatever 'customization' I throw at it because the developers are actually concerned with how it works than with how it looks. Seems like a lot of distros get caught up making pretty gui's for everything and end up breaking stuff (In My Humble Opinion...). Not that I am a command line junkie, but many of the standard tools included with most distros are just fine the way they are in all their CLI glory. Go ahead, dive in, the water may be chilly at first but you'll get used to it.

Nighted:
Edvard, downloading Slax now. Thanks for the heads up!

Was thinking of trying Linux and didn't realize how many variations there were! Slax looks like a solid little OS and I can fit it on my USB drive! :D

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