linux, but which one

look i've being wanting to get rid of windows for years now, tried a few different versions of linux XandrOS, SuSe, IPcop, Fedora and many more, but i always end up back with Win9x (cos i understand it) which linux would you suggest ?

 

I use Mandriva, I'm no Linux expert, in fact I'm quite the opposite, but I found it extremely easy to set up an get running...

 

ok, i'll give mandriva a blast, and see how it goes!

 

I prefer Mandriva to SuSE simply because the OSS version of SuSE does not have an mp3 codec, and that made my whole music collection worthless. So Mandriva it is.

 

Not to mention SUSE's inability to resolve package dependencies.
That's another vote for Mandriva

 

There are quite a few distros which offer a live CD.
You bung it in and can see how the distro work without having to go through a full-blown install.
If you like, you can then move on to permanently installing.

Any respectable distro these days have a decnet multimedia repository which should take care of any playback problems you might face.

A quick look in the distro forum should help you find that repository.
If you choose mandriva, check AT's in depth tips'n'trick thread here -
http://www.hardwareforums.com/getting-most-mandriva-8119/

Good luck....

 

Of course the OSS version of SuSE won't have mp3 support - It's supposed to be open-source!

If you wan't mp3 support straight out of the box then try the Evaluation version (available at www.novell.com/suse). It's completely free with no time limit, so the name is a bit misleading.

The only problem I have had with SuSE is the dependencies issues. But hey, nothing's perfect