I have tried linux for quite some time. Got a hang of it cause I'm a fast learner on Os's. Even know I still call myself a noob I tried most of the Lunix products on my Pc. I wanted to see what was the best OS, a OS, that I could do everything and even good for noobs who don't have to always be typing in xLL, terminal commands. "By the way use !Arcronis! to dual boot, it's really good! Trust me don't use linux boot it will screw you up especially when you want to get Linux off your Pc. You can also make a CD/DVD boot from Arcronis and boot to any operating system you want. It searches for all your particians and locates a OS and adds them to the boot log. Very cool graphical interface too. Never had trouble booting to any OS i wanted to get to.

Anyways, first Linux I tested was Slackware..
Slackware.. Decent, works well, can use most of the programing installations. Also hard to update drivers. Sometimes it wouldn't locate my hardware, tried to update my sound card couldn't do that without spending hours on google to see how to do it.

Linux Mandrake.. Very good, not hard to boot to, stable OS can do allot of programing, software building on it. Linux mandrake came far as well with the RPM capabilities. However, there is a bug in the OS where you can't access some stuff even if your Root, might need to read more about that. Very hard to see where to view your stuff on your drive without going to Gnome. Hard to copy stuff to your /usr folder without typing chmod a+x all the time and ls - l in terminal for permission, at least I had to do it even when I typed in my root password.. Wierd.. All in All My 2nd Choice for Newbs and people. Linux Mandrake is coming a long way from where I first used it and might surpase all Linuxes.

Win Linux 2003. Or Lindows, not updated recently, its good but doesn't offer dual boot with Win Xp or Win 2000. Only Compatible with Windows Me but still has trouble booting. Has some problem finding drivers for hardware. Good for people with old computers who use Windows Me or 98. Too me it's a junk Os especially when it uses the same partician as Windows. Just plain evil.

Xandros, a supreme good Os' I tested it was good, looks just like Windows but better, *Preferably I would use this but lacks certain programing features and other stuff.* If you really are computer illiterate this OS is for you.

Caldera Linux, buggy, I mean buggy but old and probably discontinued, I enjoyed my time with it but reminds me of Windows Me, programs didn't work right, gave me error in particians, was unstable. For the advanced everyday linux users, you can try it but its far outdated might not be as good as it was when it was released.

Last but least, I tried Susie 9.2 Professional even when everyone was having trouble with booting because it adds in it's own boot system, but Acronix never feld me and when it did take over it I immediatly booted with disks to acronix and Rallah! Fixed the particians and Now i can boot to Windows 2000/Xp and Susie. Anyways, the system is very good, I tried it on my newest computer thinking it wouldn't recognize my usb, or printer and it did. Located my video card driver and sound card with a breeze. I was extremely empressed about the ease in the system, this remineds me of Windows Xp but soo much better. It even has Java installed and rpm compiles easily to. I am impressed by Novel and I never was before. It is far beyond Linux Mandrake and * Preferably for Newbies* This Os is very good from all the others I looked at and I am still looking at Debian. I prefer this one even though Novell being money hungry just download the free one from the net. But I think all Linux's are good, as long as you know how to use them.. Give this one a try and try Linux Mandrake 9.1 cause that one is the 2nd best I believe..

Yeah Novell as a company has made many bad buisness decisions, but could always fall back on the that they owned the os server market. Not sure how, netware sucks, but oh well. Been using Suse since 8.0 and really hasn't changed all that much, except yast has come a long way. Only probley I have with SuSE is how they take over control of some of your config files, and can't change everything because of this. Also their USB support is by far the worst of any other LINUX distro by far.