I've been happily using XP Professional for quite a few years now, and i find it very good. Now, Vista has come out. It's quite a good OS, with it's features and stuff, but i've found it to be buggy, resource hungry and just generally annoying, not to mention compatibility issues.

I just read an article about what MS plan to do (http://apcmag.com/5835/vendors_in_no_rush_to_ditch_xp_for_vista). Apparently they're going to force retailers or whatever not to sell computers with anything but Vista on them (those Retailers signed to MS, that is), even though public demand wants XP.

Anyway, i'm starting to get sick of MS and stuff, and i know there are a lot of other OS' out there (well, a few), and i wanna know what ones to check for.

I've heard a lot of good about Linux and Ubuntu.

Anyway, if you could recommend an OS, give some pointers and stuff, minimum/recommended specs, etc.

My specs:
1gb RAM (2x512, DDR DIMM speed 400)
3.4ghz Pentium D
nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (256mb, plan on upgrading quite soon though. AGP)
200gb HDD

~Seltox

This post has been edited by Seltox: Sep 27 2007, 08:36 AM

I still think that kubuntu is the least command line distro I know, dead easy to install and has a real friendly forums to go with it, your specs are great for it, here's my rave link then:
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/introductio...ux-t168708.html

but don't install anything until you have tried out the liveCD, and keep your XP too, no one is asking you to dump one for the other, I would start with the liveCD test, then a trail with wubi just using 10gb on kubuntu, later when you want to go further down this route you can use gparted to resize partitions but now it is just the trail of distros time, 350 linux distros to chose from. Glad you are taking an interest then here are some other links too, because others have their plus points too, it is a matter of taste and the work in hand
http://distrowatch.com/
http://www.desktoplinux.com/

This post has been edited by fleamailman: Sep 27 2007, 12:22 PM

Linux has many distributions that I think are much better than any thing I've ever used from Microsoft. My latest forray with Ubuntu 7.04 still leaves me not that impressed. It is a good place to start and the options to expand and add to are pretty good. I still don't like GNOME and find it far to limited in the options to add the customization I'm used to with the KDE distributions I prefer. Ubuntu is "out of the box" a good distro to try because it does just work with good video support (my screen resolution and refresh rate were set without the need to load the ATI drivers. I wasn't that lucky with Kubuntu 7.04).

Kubuntu was a bit more to my liking but even after I loaded the ATI drivers the video is not as good as it should be and leaves me unimpresses with the overall performance of the distro. Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu and the distributions based on it are good and my main workhorse distro (SimplyMepis 6.x) is the best I've used(for me) is Ubuntu(Dapper) based and will probably be on this machine for some time to come mainly because a year of tweaking has it set to the way I like it.

Distros to try (live CD):

KDE

PCLinux OS 2007 is out of the box the most complete because they are not adverse to including non-free packages. Large repositories allow for a good seletion of software once installed.

SimplyMepis 7.0 beta is on my laptop and my newest PC and what I've come to expect from Mepis. Non-free packages that add to the out of the box usability and the Ndiswrapper for wireless cards not supported with native linux drivers works even on the live CD. The Debian Etch base means a stable and long lasting distro with one of the best package repositories out there.

GNOME

Ubuntu is Debian based but heavily modified so not all Debian packages will work. The popularity of the distro does means that there are plenty of back port repositories to draw non-free software from that will work with Ubuntu.

Linux Mint is Ubuntu based and has both KDE and GNOME versions. It's pretty nice overall and worth checking out.

XP replacement (NOT Live and not free)

Xandros 4.1 Home is the most Windows like and easiest transitional distros out there. Though based on Debian Woody it contains mostly proprietary software and is not free, $40 - $80 usd.
I gave this one to my thirteen year old non techie nephew for his birthday on an old PIII machine and he has had no problems at all with it.