[ozar]

Originally Posted by SirLostalot

I think I'll eventually find a Linux OS that I like. Perhaps I just need to be patient.

Yep, that's probably the key to your eventual success, right there. Best of luck with it!

[FeestBijtje]

I have not read all the replies but I will give my simple hints/advice. If you want an nice smooth polished corrupted windows look a like distribution. Here would be your dream Debian with an Windows XP look. Its not true what your looking for. Pick an Linux distribution download some themes from *Eyecandy for your GNOME-Desktop - GNOME-Look.org and enjoy. Ive even written once an guide to pimp your distro located here.

Best part of Linux is you can customize any thing on it. Its open source and if you don't like some thing. Modify/Edit it its legal

After all Ive only used 7 months windows XP. And I really enjoyed it its true. Easy gaming and installing etc. But it went too boring to me so I head back to Linux. We have the GNU guru not the Bill gates guru

Grats,
And good luck.

[SirLostalot]

After doing an online search titled "easiest version of linux", I came across Linspire 6.
It's $50, but may well be worth it. I don't know if it can be modified, but maybe it doesn't need to be. Looks very nice.
Just to be clear, I did want a real form of Linux. Wild Bill has made enough money and his micro is starting to get a little soft )

[Gtrax]

Easy to use? Today, at work, keeping two W98-SE2 PCs going to ensure legacy design software would be OK, it descended into farce. The hard disk on one had three 'gaps' in its partition.

Amid this mix of W98, W2000, XP (no Vista here yet!) and company network, at one point, our only grip on a way out was a perfectly functioning old Knoppix 3.9 LiveCD. It was the way onto the internet, to load our way out of 'driver hell' while at the same time having access to Word and Excel documents on the network. I had forgotten just how bad Windows installs could be!

I just don't buy that stuff about difficult 'learning curve'. Its way harder to deal with a Windows install. What we really mean is - the average user does not have to deal with, or compare either. It comes pre-installed. How many folk would not contemplate using a 'recovery disk'. Nah, they take it to their geek expert, or 'move on to an upgrade'.

[genesus]

Originally Posted by wowbag1

It depends what you want out of a computer, Starting from scratch for the same effort you would get more out of Linux than Windows.

- Thats my Fedora 8 system.

That's also my Debian Etch system