I hope I'm writing this in the right place.
I'm thinking of installing linux or some other system (open- or freebsd perhaps) and I'd like some input on what to choose.

Today I run winxp.

I'd also love suggestions to programs I can try instead of the ones I use today.
I use photoshop and dreamweaver a lot. I have tried gimp for windows, and I think I like it. As far as I can tell it will be a fair replacement for ps.
I have a wacom tablet, and I'd like it to work.
I also use flash.
So far I've seen no (good) replacements for macromedias programs. Is this the case? I tried nvu and didn't like it at all. It was the only one I could find that also ran on windows. I do know html, but dw saves a lot of time I find.

I would also like to be able to use my ipod. I understand that itunes is not supported. Is there another way to get it to work perhaps?

I also use word and excel (no other progs in the office suite)

Other nice apps are acdsee and of course acrobat.

How about 3d programs like maya? Anything like that?

Can anyone help me with suggestions? (primarily concerning what distribution to use)

For the distro you can choose distros that are more or less windows like to get used to it. Mandrake is supposed to be good in this and recently I hear a lot of good things about installs of liveCD distros, like knoppix or ubuntu. I'd go for a debian based distro cause in the end there are less dependency problems you might get with rpm based systems and it's less different than going for a sourcebased distro. There are a lot of debian based distros like mepis ubuntu and knoppix but I don't know which one's best (or go for debian itself but some people find it a bit hard to start with)

Keep a dual boot with winXP so you can boot back into a familiar environment.

As an office suite there's OpenOffice.org which is great if you don't switch documents from Word to OOwriter. Heavily formatted documetnts are still a bit of a problem but in the new version which comes out soon it's supposed to be a lot better. In some cases you can also get StarOffice for free or you have to buy it, but there's not much difference between staroffice and OpenOffice.org.

Acrobat reader is available for linux but I like other PDF programs more. Currently I use gPDF.

The only modelling program I've heard of in linux is PovRay moddeler (or something like that) unless you count the text editors but I don't suppose many write their 3d models in there

BTW are you on Ironworks as well?

For a replacement of dreamweaver ( urggh ) try the very nice Quanta.

For 3D work theres a few Blender, and Povray probably being the two most used. I'd recommend KPovModeler for a front end to Povray ( No bias at all being that I develop it )

ipods work on Linux, usually get plugged in as mass storage devices.

Theres plenty of PDF viewers, and OpenOffice can be used to write them as well. Also you can print to PDF from programs, so instead of actually printing they create a PDF file.

Wacom tablets are supported by Linux an X, both USB and serial types.

Theres plugins for flash, but I haven't looked into editing flash stuff.

For office work, OpenOffice, KOffice, Abiword.

As for Distro try a few. Its a personal thing of which one you like, your bound to get a few suggestions, but you'll never know what you'll really like till you try them.

Another Dreamweaver replacement is Bluefish. It's had some good reports...

Thank's for the suggestions!
I looked at blender, and it looks like an interesting program! I'm trying it out now. I also found out that maya comes in a linux version, so that's all good.
I'll keep a separate win machine for games and my accounting and use the linux comp for everything else.
The suggested programs look interesting, I'll def try out a few of those.

As for distributions, I'll just try them out till I find one I like

I'm very relieved to see that my tablet and ipod will work!
I just realized that I forgot to ask, but will my scanner and camera work? I suppose they will, right?

darkleaf: no, I'm not on Ironworks. I guess it's a common username if you love horses

maya is available for linux, works out of the box with redhat 9 (usually) and most of the fedoras.
we had extreme difficulty running maya 5 on debian, so it may be hard to get it to work on other-than-redhat.
so, if you use maya you may want to keep your xp-partition.
photoshop works in linux via crossover or wine. i don´t know how well.
some usb scanners don´t work in linux. my epson doesn´t. cameras usually are functional.

Scanners are more problematic, so You may need to check the HCL or just search for you Scanners name and linux, Somebody somewhere has bound to have tried it and said if it worked, or didn't.

Camera should work the same way as the iPod as a mass storage device, so that shouldn't be a problem at all.

Also Blender is available for windows so you can try that out on your current system. I forgot about Maya being available for Linux, but the personal learning Edition is not available ( Which is why I've not got it ) Also your restricted to Rehat 9.0, or Redhat Enterprise, and of course the cost.

Oh, that's not good about the scanner. I also have an usb epson. Sorry for the stupid question, but what is HCL?
I think I'll try fedora for a first run. It would be nice to have all the graphics apps on one machine and not have to switch to windows.

I've still just started using gimp (on win), so it's to early to say if it will substitute ps. If I find that it doesn't I think I'll try crossover or wine.

HCL is the Hardware Compatability List, look at the top of the page for the link. As for support check the The list of supported Epson scanners. pevelius was exaggerating a bit on USB problem, things have advanced quite a lot.

With GIMP you have to persevere at first, its a very diffrent setup from other programs.

Now it's my turn to try a guess. Are you addicted/fan/like/love the game Zelda: Ocarina of Time/N64? . Anyway, answering your questions...

HLC stands for Hardware Compatibility List. Every Linux distribution out there should have one at their page. With that list, you are able to know the supported devices for that specific distribution. If you don't find it right away when picking a distribution, drop that distribution right away. Poor documentation makes things really difficult.

I'd like to add that games also run in Linux, through Cedega:

www.transgaming.com

and emulators as zsnes, gens, epsxe, fceu, all have Linux ports as well. There are also a lot of native games for Linux, as UT2004, Quake 3, Doom 3, etc... I'm just telling you this because I kinda got the feeling that you are a gamer too

Oops, leonscape was faster posting about HCL, sorry

It looks like my scanner might be supported after all. That's a relief.
Thank you all for your patience <3

Actually I liked gimp at a first glance. I thought it was too bad when dw changed to the big window instead of the small floating ones like gimp have, so at least that part is not a problem (I understand that some ppl don't like this). I think it was quite easy to find my way around, so I'm not giving up on it yet
So far I've only done some photo manipulation in it, but I'll try it out for painting as well.

Megaman: sorry to disappoint you, but I guess I can't really qualify as a gamer I have some games that I love, but you would all laugh if you knew which ones *lol*
I've never played zelda. Why do you ask? Was it something I said?

Thanks for the reply. Zelda: The Ocarina of time, a game to Nintendo 64, had as main character a kid called Link, who rides a horse called Epona. Since you said that you wanted to run Windows(which most of us use for games), and replied to darkleaf " I guess it's a common username if you love horses", I thought I catch-ed ya, worth a shot, I guess

I've to tell you, if you like adventures, you've to try that game. It's the next best thing after sliced bred... lol. Link:

http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrank...eviewid=252891

have a nice day and thanks for replying!

Megaman, thanks for the tip I'll have to try it out then.
As for the horse part, I have two horses of my own and epona is a horsegodess. As simple as that