i am a new person to linux and i do not know a lot about lniux and need some help assisting me in choosing wjat operating system i should use like redhat, mandrake, etc.

thanks

Choosing a distribution that's good for you is a thing only you can do for yourself. If you have access to a decent highspeed Internet connection, download some CD images and try out different distributions.

You don't have to make an active choice...a lot of people end up going "Oh, I've been using this for 18 months now and I never felt the need for another distro, so I guess I'll stick with this."

Also, there is nothing preventing you from using several distributions at the same time, be it as dual boot on a single computer or installed on several computers.

Håkan

Stick to mandrake till you get the hang of linux, then try something more hands on, I prefer Slackware but apparently Gentoo is really good too.

They are all Linux so they're not necessarily different Operating Systems but different Distributions.

You should go to www.distrowatch.com or browse our site here, mainly the distro forum as this type of question is asked all the time.

I've been using Mandrake 9.2 for a couple of weeks now. I find that it's really easy for someone coming from Win. It's a good distro to get started with. Plenty of configuration features are automated, and there is extensive software packaging that's all really easy to install. I hear Suse is similar that way.

Milos.

Technically, your question is "which distribution"
not "which operating system" Linux is the kernel
of the OS, and there's only one Linux kernel.

Hardware issues aren't as important now as they were,
but obviously you want a distro that works on what you
have.

Aside from that, I'd advise picking one that ppl you
know in "real life" use... look for a local Linux User
group. Last week at NYLXS (http://www.nylxs.com) I
was present at a SuSe install that was almost effortless.
Lots of *lugen have installfests. It's a good way to
get through your first.