I'm getting tired of my setup. Heres the specs:

Intel Pentium 4 with hyperthreading and dual core at 3ghz
40gig hardrive (my secondary, I have a 160 gig for my win partition)
1gig of ram
ethernet
Wireless network (not really a prob with my network gaming adapter)
tv card (a btw or somtin like that, i'm writting in winxp and all they give me is legacy driver)
ATI radeon 9250 Graphics Card
DVDrw drive
CD rom drive
USB(internal) Multi card reader
Mandriva LE2005

What I want is a new linux OS that supplies these needs:
Preinstalled media Apps and Plugins
Insane Drivers for just about anything without setup
Preinstalled DVD video burning software
ATI radeon support with 3d acceleration without installing drivers
Other things

I have already filled up my hd with stuff in my current setup and I'm just upset with the results. I'm using my win more and I want to get back into linux, but this current OS is not helping me

I don't want the following OSes:
Debian-I don't like dealing with a text installer
Gentoo-Don't like the installer either
Slackware-Too complex for Me
Linspire-Too limeted and expensive
FreeBSD-Installation to complicated

As you can See I like GUI installtions
I may try:
Suse-Used a couple times but I feel somthing wrong with it also had a bad expreience
(K)Ubuntu-Tried it a couple of times too but still have that weird feeling
Fedora-Kinda upset with the 3rd edition

Could any of you please help me chose my next OS. I really want performance and speed and steability. I just don't feel too good with my setup. And please don't go off saying that "oh Debian is good if you try it" or anything like that. I had my expreiences and I'll tell one just to show you why I want the best and not to mess anything up.

I was a linux newbie (well I'm still one, but this was a year ago) and I was crazy with my findings. Every ISO of an OS I could get my hands on I installed. Then I got my hands on a Suse iso (forgot the version, prob 9.0) and during the instalation I selected to partition my 2nd hd, or so I thought. I thought somthing was weird when it said there is a current partion and it will erase everything, but I was in the moment. I figgured out it was partitioning My 1st hd. The one with win, the one with all my homework and games and family stuff. It had erased the C:\Windows files first so I couldin't boot. I was completley shocked. My parents and Bros. got mad at me not because it was a family computer (because it wasn't, it was mine), but that I broke a $2,000 dollar computer that was a gift from my Grandpa that I got for nothing. I didn't get it for my b-day or christmas, he just got it for me one day without any reason. I got it fixxed after fiddling around with the supplied recovery DVD, at first it wasn't working because it got confused at the linux partion that was there. But I fixed it.

Anyways, hope that tells you somthing about computing and that you should always backup your data. Please help me Out, Im dying to get back to the linux path.

well... debian has not a text installer... it's a gui, well ncurse... if you just plug the cd, boot and type enter until the end it should work ;-) .. .well it just means that you don't have to bother with questions you don't understand, most defaults will work for you :-)
but a fully GUI installer mmm... you mean like graphical stuff no ncurse... mmm no idea but I don't see in what it makes the installation process easier... worth thinking to...
Good luck!
A.

May I ask you, why do you want Linux?

Linux is about freedom and therefore choices. If I wanted the OS provider to chose for me the browser, the program for listening your MP3, the burning software, the windows manager, etc, etc... they I would use Windows.

If you want performance and stability: do you really think that the best way to chose your Linux distribution is looking at how pretty is the setup program? I mean, it is a program you are supposed to use only ONCE (Linux systems do not start begging for re-installation after 3 months).

About drivers: It is just not possible!! Hardware manufacturers do no support Linux. And for the few of them that write drivers, there are use to be licensing constraints that do not allow the drivers to ship in the Linux CDs.

Linux is not for everyone (neither is Windows, nor Mac OS ...). Maybe Linux is not for you.

Believe it or not, I'm not trying to discourage you, but only to say that "to follow the Linux path" may be not so easy. Freedom comes with choices, and to make good choices you have to learn. Happily you are in the right place for that. This site is plenty of people willing to help you if you still want to stick with Linux. Just take a Linux distribution and go for it. I mean: even I was able to do it, so surely you can

Now, about your original question. I'll recommend you either Debian (Sarge) or something Debian-based like Ubuntu. You already know a little about them. With your knowledge and what you can get asking for help here, I'm sure that you will succeed. Now, if performance really matters for you and since you have that machine you could also go for Gentoo. Its installation is as different as possible from the kind of installation you mention in your post, but the documentation is so good and the package system is so great that it really worths the effort.

HTH

you could checkout pclinuxos 9

http://pclinuxonline.com/pclos/index...118e49859adc8e

it has the things that you want except ati driver

but ati has released a new driver that has a graphical installer

Linspire or Xandros both will have wha you want. If you really want to be hands off and stick with Linux, go with Linspire. Thing is, most distros are based off all the ones you have rejected, have a read of www.distrowatch.com and you may get more ideas. All we can give you are opinions.

Sorry if I have upsetted any of you. But I forgot to mention some wrong things with my setup:

Kaffine is Crashing
Can't get A Ton of Codecs to work Even after installing Xine and VideoLan
My hardisk is full
I don't have Accelerated Graphics even After ATI Driver installtion
OpenGL doesn't work very well
Don't know how to burn DVD videos because don't know how to convert files to VOB(is there a new version of K3b for that? Mine says you have to encode them yourself)
Above all it is reminding me of Windows ME (yes, HAD one,was horrible, then was replaced by xp)

You can see why I'm upset and probally you are too. Thing is, Debian is great and all, but I feel more comfortable with RPMs than DEBs. Also, I thought Suse had preinstalled ATI Drivers, the Live eddition has atleast. I have been using Linux for about 3yrs now, I want to stay in the game. And when I mean GUI, I mean like installers from Mandrake and Fedora and Suse, I get really nervous now with text and even Debian installations, because of My incident (If you have read above). I really don't want to make a mistake again and graphical installers will help me get to it. The most disapoint ment to me about Mandriva LE2005 was that it din't come with the latest KDE, since I'm still on windows I can't check, but it certainly didn't have 3.4.1. I think its was a 3.3.x. It may be even lower than that hense the site say that 10.1 has KDE 3.2.3 and LE2005 is really 10.2 with some candy in the mix.

Above all that, I'm thinking of Suse 9.3, anyone using it? Anyone having problems with it? I want debian to be My last resort. Also, I use VMware to test different Linux OSes, thats why I have tried so many. I'm going to download Suse right now, and if anyone has somthing to say about why I shouldn't, please say so. Oh yea, where is the Graphical ATI Driver installation? Can you give a link?

Also, HATE LINSPIRE. I don't want to buy a Linux distro that has very little power and limmited options, yes it has CnR, but $60 a year of service for most of the programs you can get for free in a RPMs. Reminding me of some major monopoly. Xandros also was a little too limmited and I didn't really enjoy it when I got an iso and istalled its, it wasn't very apealling.