Student needs help:confused:

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Originally Posted by widding

Hello:)
Im a 18y old student that recently managed to destroy his home-computer (windows) and have now ordered and laptop.
The problem i have is choosing a Linux distro. Everybody seems to recommend differnt distros and say its a matter of "personal choice"

Well...."everybody" is right. We're not trying to be cheeky or brush your question aside, we really mean it when we say your distribution is very much your choice.

If this helps, think of it like ice cream. Everyone has their own favorite, and everyone's tastes are different. You could ask 100 people and get 100 different answers. When you ask someone to pick a distribution of Linux for you it's like walking into an ice cream shop with a hundred flavors and telling the clerk to pick your favorite for you. There's just no possible way we can know what you're going to like. You have to try a few for yourself.

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etc.. My problem is i just need a system that fits my needs:
Stability, School work(office of a kind? writing, presentation etc), wireless connection, downloads, music, moviewatching and able to do many things at once without lag etc.. And still not be to advanced for me to learn and figure out since ive never ever had linux before.

so im looking for: stability, simplicity? userfriendly, nice look? and would prefer some power if possible(effective atleast:)

Any popular Linux distribution can do all of that and more. When I say "popular" I mean anything on the top 20 or so of DistroWatch. You shouldn't worry about what one distro can do that another can't. They all share the same abilities. It's just a matter of whichever one delivers those abilities in a style that you like.

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My computer if relevant
15,4" Widescreen WSXGA+ 1680x1050 blank skjerm (glare)
NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT skjermkort 512MB
INTEL CORE 2 DUO P8600 2.4GHZ 1066MHz FSB 3MB cache 25W
200GB SATA 7200RPM 2.5" [+
4GB DDR2 SO-Dimm 800Mhz

That's a pretty standard machine. You should have no issues running Linux on it. One thing that might trip you up is your wireless card. Do you know what kind of chipset it uses? That makes a difference. If it's an Intel wireless card you're set. Most Linux distributions detect those out of the box.

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Also a question does all the systems download al the drivers itself? Since that would also be preferable!

The only things you might have to download yourself are video drivers and wireless drivers. All other things should just work. Again, if you have Intel wireless that's not an issue.

You have an Nvidia card, which is well supported in Linux. Some distributions such as Ubuntu will even detect that and give you the option to have the system download and configure the video driver for you (with a program called "Hardware Drivers").

If not, the install process is a little daunting to new folks but not difficult. If you have any questions any step of the way don't hesitate to start up a thread in the appropriate section of the forum and we'll help you out. Here are some good beginner links:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...ead-first.html

Happy hunting!