[quincyjones]

I've never used Linux before and I want to install it now (already made the partition on my new notebook). I really don't want to be disappointed because of choosing the wrong distro as it might put me off for good! It seems near impossible for a newbie to choose a distro to install (I'd like installing apps to be easy, command line or not). I understand it's largely a matter of personal preferance but

I thought it might be pertinent to have a sort of pole from Linux users of any level of experience where they reply with just one or two suggestions (for first time users)

_

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I really like Mandrake (Mandriva), it works well and is easy (at least for me) to install. It also seems to recognize a lot of the hardware out there when others do not. I know recently many other like Ubuntu and you can get a live CD from them.

[Kemasa]

I really like Mandrake (Mandriva), it works well and is easy (at least for me) to install. It also seems to recognize a lot of the hardware out there when others do not. I know recently many other like Ubuntu and you can get a live CD from them.

[daniel_c]

i found SUSE was very good and easy to use after you get the hang of it.

[warriorscot]

The distros are generally free, keep trying them until you find the one you like they are all essentially similar its just some have verying degrees of "polish".

[Dragon]

for a newbie to linux, the best suggestion would be wither Suse or Ubuntu, easy to install, application installation isn't to hard at least in Ubuntu, i was only on Suse for about 2 days before I switched.

ubuntu has just about every program you want in their repos, minus proprietary programs or new ones that are still in development stage. You can use Synaptic, the packag manager, or apt-get to get the files, the computer does the rest for you.

[quincyjones]

Thanks for the replies,
I've been on Ubuntu for about a week now, it's great, bar a few getting started difficulties. I had some trouble setting up my 1280x800 screen (which will apparently be easier in the about to be released version) and a bit with DVD & MP3 codecs.
Overall I think I prefer it to windows already though!