Distro help. Please?

[Dark_Me]

Newbie here...
Okay the basics.
I am running on:
Intel Celeron Pentium 4 with 2.3 Ghz
                212 Mb of RAM
                3 hard drives, 17 GB, 17 GB,39 GB
                Only onboard graphics so far
This is just for basic home use, nothing fancy or too taxing. Just surfing the net mostly.
I took the Linux Distribution Choser test and got:
Mandriva
                                                    PCLinuxOS
                                                    Linspire
                                                    Xandros
Don't really need a live disc, I do however need dual boot and GUI.
I also need to run Windows programs. Hmm... wine mabey?
As an ending note I would just like to say that I'm a complete noob when it come's to Linux so I need something that's easy to use. I realize that this is one of the flaws (thinking of the average comp user) in Linux but well I can dream can't I?
Oh and Hi!
And since this is a anti-Microsoft forum... Down with Microsoft! All hail er... something else.

[Dark_Me]

Oh and I should probably mention that I have no problem with learning GNU/Linux, it's just that I don't know it. Some resources on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

[Jenda]

Well I'll always recammend Ubuntu for desktop use for all "Human Beings" (non-geeks or demigeeks). Ubuntu has an incredible community, great HW support, great app resources, a near perfect package manager - apt, is quite demanding on resources, but that's not really an issue on a 2.3 GHz CPU (The RAM might be prablematic) - I have 1.6 GHz and 0.75 GB RAM.

Do NOT, I repeat: Do NOT use Linspire! That is Microsoft's incarnation on earth. The evil within the good. The dark spot on the Sun...

[cymon]

xandros is gross too. ubuntu is okay to start with, when I get better i'd go for Debian.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Just one question why could this not be have posted here?

Duplicate threads are annoying and can lead to confusion so could a moderator please append this to the aforementioned thread.

[KernelPanic]

could a moderator please append this to the aforementioned thread.

No, but i'd like to make this comment:

SEARCH!!

[Aloone_Jonez]

:confused:

Edit:
Was that aimed at me or the origional poster?
And why can't this shit be moved?

[Pathos]

This is just for basic home use, nothing fancy or too taxing. Just surfing the net mostly.
- Vector Linux 5.1 SOHO - you shouldn't to install any new software (except wine) and it should run great on your system.
http://www.vectorlinux.com/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=21&page_id=19

I also need to run Windows programs. Hmm... wine mabey?
- no guarantees it will work.


I recommend using one drive for ubuntu, one for vector linux and one as storage. Use ubuntu for emergencies and keep your documents in the storage so you can access them from both distributions

[Dark_Me]

Using my drives like you suggested would be great but I need to dual boot with Windows XP as I'm not the only user of this comp and I'm too lazy/incompetent to sort out any formatting/compatabilty issues that may arise. So for now the evil stays. That and right now everything is everywhere in respect to my drives. Gotta sort them. I need my own box.

They say if you play a Microsoft disc backwards it plays satanic messages. That's nothing, if you play it forwards it installs Windows!

[Narf Man]

Woah... Deja vu, man.

Dark_Me... check this out:
The Linux Distro Chooser


...oh, and interesting quote.

[Dark_Me]

*Ahem*

I took the Linux Distribution Choser test and got:
Mandriva
PCLinuxOS
Linspire
Xandros

The qutoes from snipe.net. Donno where she got it from. You could always ask her...
EDIT: oh and I'm getting Ubuntu now, so that's the distro problem solved. I hope...
Now what else to get?

[Dark_Me]

EDIT: I decided that this was a stupid post.

[Dark_Me]

I've tried ubuntu, and (for what it's worth) here's my opinion:

Installation
This was pretty easy and like Vector Linux and Windows XP it didn't give me very much choice, so on this front it's very newb friendly, and everything worked apart from my NTL cable modem.

Configureation
I still had to edit some text files to get things to work the way I like so on this front it isn't ver newb friendly.

General use
Not too bad, GNOME is fairly easy to use and most tasks are point and click.

Overall
Ok, a fairly average newb distro, but I wouldn't recommend it to a tru newb as you often still have to edit text files to get things working the way you want.

I found this and would just lke to say that code doesn't scare me it's just that when I see it I have no idea what I'm looking at. Thanks for this Aloone_Jonez. Again I would just like to say that any resources on GNU/Linux or coding would be greatly appreciated.

[KernelPanic]

:confused:

Edit:
Was that aimed at me or the origional poster?

Nope, it was aimed at evryone and anyone.
Search, then post. That's the motto.

And why can't this shit be moved?

The truthful answer is because I have better things to do with my life, but I also prefer not to mess with people threads when it is not absolutely nessesary.
You asking me to merge it isn't a mandate for it to happen.

[Pathos]

Using my drives like you suggested would be great but I need to dual boot with Windows XP as I'm not the only user of this comp and I'm too lazy/incompetent to sort out any formatting/compatabilty issues that may arise. So for now the evil stays. That and right now everything is everywhere in respect to my drives. Gotta sort them. I need my own box.

No problem, I have XP on my original 40gig Disc. I bought a 80 disc and installed vectorLinux on it. The stock install recognised XP and next time I booted I was given the lilo boot option screen. easy as.

I haven't got any experience with having more than one version of linux installed they may override each others boot setup when installing but this is easy to fix/reconfigure.