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One of the things I found really hard was choosing a Linux distribution to install on my system. You really don't know which one will work for you and/or you'll like unless you try it out. The best way to do that is to get a Live CD/DVD of the distribution (available via downloading) and then try it out without having to install it only to find out you don't like it. A list of Live CDs/DVDs available for lots of distributions can be found here: http://www.frozentech.com/cont ent/livecd.php

Otherwise, there are some top distributions you can look at reviews for that many people have used and recommend:

RedHat
Fedora Core
SuSE
Gentoo
Mandriva
and more, but there are way too many to even list them all here, so if you'd like to see a longer list; visit: http://www.linuxlinks.com/Dist ributions/

Fedora Core seems to be becoming more and more of a popular choice, but in my experience when using it, I've had to do a lot of work to get things running. It's been at least a year since I last used it, so that may have changed.

SuSE is my top choice because since I've installed it, I didn't have to spend a lot of time trying to get hardware working - especially on a laptop. The only thing was my wireless network card, which I could have installed a lot faster if I had only thought of using the drivers that came with it, rather than downloading them.

One issue for people is finding out if their hardware will work with a distribution out of the box. Sometimes it will and sometimes it won't. You can usually do some research on your hardware to find out if it's supported or not before deciding to install a distribution.

Keep in mind what you would like out of the distribution. Are you a gamer? Will it be primarily for work/business? Or do you want to just browse the Internet and chat. There are many reviews for the many of the distributions that will help you decide what you need.

Learn more about this author, Alisha G..
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