Let's face it...I'm a noob when it comes to Linux. What distro do you think would be best for me and MOST hardware compatible? Here's my system specs: ASUS P4P800 Deluxe P4 3ghz Northwood C 1x Segate SATA 250 gig barracuda 3x WD 8mb LE IDE 80 gig ASUS 52x cdwriter Starlogic 32x Dvdrom Linksys Wireless card (not sure which version but its 1 year old) Soundmax integrated digital audio Nvidia Geforce 5200 LE I'm not sure which ones compatible/not compatible. Would burning the distro as a live cd and booting up tell me what hardware is compatible etc? If so...does each distro have a live cd version or is the distro itself can be used as a live cd?
Most but not all distros offer a live CD and install CDs. I don't see any hardware there that looks particuarly problematic. I myself have not really noticed much differences in hardware compatiablility from distro to distro, I think the kernel is what handles most of the hardware and they all use the same (em, very similar) kernel. I would recomend you try Ubuntu. L J
Not sure about that SATA controller (seems to be a VIA VT6410), but most seem to be supported now even though the developers don't explicitly say so. Other than that the only other potential problem is the wireless card, but again you should be able to get it going even if you have to use ndiswrapper with the Windows drivers.
I've got the same mobo. You shouldn't have any problem with your SATA controller, just stick to 'semi-modern' distros Edit - Hardware monitoring works nicely as well
I'd reccomend ubuntu. It's like debian with training wheels (which can come off if you really want them to). Just try out their live CD, and if it works (wireless probably won't though) then try the install. Then use ndiswrapper to load up the windows driver, like trigger said. It's a lot easier than it sounds (especially since Ubuntu shipps with ndiswrapper)
Ubuntu, its the best distro i have used for Noobs. I am a linux noob to, i have it on a practice box of mine that i mess around with somtimes.
