Uhh some beginners help would be wonderful!

So I am purchasing a new laptop hard drive for my Compaq nc6000. That said, I don't want to purchase windows - I bought the laptop with it pre-installed - nor could I afford it at this moment. However, I do need a laptop so I guess the only other option I have is Linux.

I just have a few questions that I'd greatly appreciate being answered:
1) Which version is really solid in performance and somewhat easy to learn.
2) Are there some good guides to learning how to use Linux? If so, where are they?
3) Should I download all the drivers for my hardware and then put them on a flash USB storage device or a CD?
4) Am I making a horribly silly decision I'm not saying Linux is silly, but the idea of making it my only operating system when I barely know anything about the mechanics behind it.
5) Would I be able to play .mp4 iTunes purchased songs on the selected Linux version(I know it depends on which one).


Thanks for the assistance,

sulretal said:

1) Which version is really solid in performance and somewhat easy to learn.

Click to expand...

I have only tried a few linux distros, but I have found that Ubuntu LINK is a very friendly and well supported distro.

sulretal said:

2) Are there some good guides to learning how to use Linux? If so, where are they?

Click to expand...

Well using the graphical aspects of Linux is fairly easy, just learn the menu's. However learning the file structure and and command line (Bash Shell) can take some time. On the Ubuntu link I sent you they have a documentation link that explains alot.

sulretal said:

3) Should I download all the drivers for my hardware and then put them on a flash USB storage device or a CD?

Click to expand...

More than likely those drivers on the website are dirvers that are only compatible with Win XP.

sulretal said:

4) Am I making a horribly silly decision I'm not saying Linux is silly, but the idea of making it my only operating system when I barely know anything about the mechanics behind it.

Click to expand...

Well that is kinda of hard to say. Learning Lunix in my own experience (been using linux for 3 months) does have a learning curve especially if you have never used linux before. I would give it a try, try it for a week and see what you think. The ubuntu forms have a great community that usually responds quickly to posters problems.

sulretal said:

5) Would I be able to play .mp4 iTunes purchased songs on the selected Linux version(I know it depends on which one).

Click to expand...

I am actually not sure, I have not tried to play any .mp4's within linux.

1, If you're totally new to linux and don't want to put time and effort in to *really* learning the ins and outs of it (including configuring things yourself), you might as well go with Ubuntu or one of it's other flavors (Kubuntu and Xubuntu)

2. Stick to the Ubuntu Wiki and their forums and howtos on their forums and you should be fine

3. Linux doesn't really work like that. You don't "download and install" drivers. Most drivers are enabled through the kernel, the main exception being binary drivers you'll probably want to use for your graphics card that come from the manufacturer rather than being open source. Again, stick to Wikis for info on how to make sure these drivers/modules are enabled.

4. It's easy to learn the graphical interface for linux, but there are going to be times you will have to open up a terminal and do things yourself. The level of difficulty depends on how committed you are to reading documentation thoroughly and really trying to understand what you're doing. If you have that commitment, learning linux and it's console is actually pretty straight forward...much more so than doing things through a GUI.

5. I'm positive I've seen media players that will play .mp4 files, though I don't know if iTunes has a linux version - although I'm fairly certain it will run with emulation (wine/crossover)