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Installing Linux over ME, is it possible?

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dantheman:
Josh, i understand your point of view and it is good to be aware of these things.

After testing with a LiveCD, i'll be able to see with my own eyes if the desktop becomes more stable or not. As you know, crashing issues abound with ME and a Linux OS seems to be the only door to take at present time.

BTW, if someone has a similar experience, could they suggest the best free Linux version to try?

Josh:
Also, a LiveCD might not give you the full experience but it is good to get a taste of what Linux can offer you on the system. Only doing a full install will let you experience everything. Running it for a week to a month will give you a good picture of how your system will handle.

Bamse:
May be you can use UNetbootin when hunting down the perfect Linux version http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ Lets you use usb key as a cd. Much easier and go crazy ;)

If computer is very old and slow may be look up Puppylinux. One of the minimalistic distros. I find it harder to use and not really easier. If decent specs I would use Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Ubuntu is easy and popular, Mint is a tweaked Ubuntu and even easier for Windows converts (from XP/Vista!). Is more or less ready to go from boot up. There are several versions, just use std. the one you get when clicking "direct download" from here

Another benefit of not going Ubuntu is it could be easier to find solutions and answers. Mint has own forum which is pretty big but nothing compared to Ubuntu. Having good sources for info is very important. If you had a friend who knew all about Mandriva then you should use Mandriva. Linux is mostly variations of the same so no big deal what you use. Just go for the most user friendly and what feels right. Fire up UNetbootin and test a couple. Even if some hardware part does not work out of the box it does not mean there are no workarounds. Where help kicks in. As said you will need to understand and learn a few things but most is really basic if you know Windows already. Not so sure about Puppylinux but the most popular distros are certainly not for geeks only, target is everyone :) As long as hardware works it is a click, click experience for the most part. Since ME is previous experience it can't go wrong.

Are you sure cpu fan is not full of dust and so overheating? Better check hardware before fighting Linux as well.

dantheman:
With DeepBurner i was able to make a good ISO copy of LinuxMint.
Although it failed to recognize my external monitor, it worked fine on my XP.
Much slower on ME (need a bit more RAM but do have minimum required) though.
I presume that a "hard" installation will make a big difference.

@Bamse,

Thanks for the reminder about CPU bit.
I usually try to remember to open and clean everything at least once a year.

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