Need Advice on Distro

[McCreary]

I've been told that I want Ubuntu, I'm here getting a second opinion.

What I want from Linux: Stable gaming platform.
What else I want: Stable gaming platform.

Pretty simple eh?

I do have a few programs and accessories that I would like to keep using.

Programs:
Open Office (doesn't this come with some distro's?)
Skype (should be okay)
Winamp
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
Firefox
Xfire
Ventrilo
Did I mention games? Lots of games. :P (I figure at any given time I have 15-20 installed)

Accessories:
Logitech G5 Mouse
Logitech QuickCam UltraVision
HP Photosmart C5280 All-in-One

My main reason for switching is that my harddrive on my machine died about 5 weeks ago. Ever since I re-installed windows (64bit Vista) on the new hard drive, I have had nothing but trouble. Before the HD failure, Vista was easily the best OS I've ever used, sure, some stuff sucked, but it was very stable, gave me no troubles, and if something went wrong, I could always close it out without having to hard restart.

After the re-install, which I had to call Microsoft to do a keyless install because I only had an 'upgrade' copy of Vista, I have had nearly one problem after the other. Same hardware, continuous problems. Earlier today was the last straw, my onboard sound is going funny, and after a reboot, windows only thinks I have the digital for the onboard sound output. Also, I am obviously connected to a network, but windows doesn't think so, windows can't FIND a single network. But apparently windows is so god-damn stupid that even though it can't FIND the network, it knows where to send all the little packets from the network. . .

I've freakin' had-it with windows. I'm ready to abandon ship and scuttle the damn thing. I'm willing to spend the time to configure Linux, I spend nearly a week fiddling with windows whenever I reinstall or get a new version. I'm just angry at the lack of long - term stability and endless 'host process failed, sending report.'

Sorry for the rant, I'm sure you've all heard it before.

Also, should I try to dual boot? I'm kind of curious to see if Linux has the same sound problem as windows, but the network bs and failing processes that I can't seem to get rid of after two weeks are sending me to Linux, probably forever.

[Timberwolf5578]

I tried Ubuntu and Mandriva, and on my computer Mandriva is much better.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Probably any of the distros in the top 20 or so at DistroWatch.com should work well enough for you, and yes, dual-booting might be a good idea for you.

Have fun with Linux.

[kopete]

Go to Distrowatch and choose some distros and download the LiveCD or LiveDVD which will be an image (i.e. ISO). Then you can try it on your current computer without writing to the drive yet.

OpenOffice can be installed from a software package that is available in the distro's repository.

I don't know about Skype on Linux but it's available. There are Winamp equivalents for Linux. Linux includes security software or it can be downloaded and installed. Firefox 3 or equivalent is on most distros now. Or, again, it can be downloaded and installed.

It's hit or miss with Logitech cams as far as I know.

For your printer, it is probably supported. It might be this:
OpenPrinting database - Printer: HP PhotoSmart C5200

I suggest you dual boot and include Windows for your gaming needs. Linux has gaming abilities but it's not up to par with Windows yet. It might also depend on which card you use, Nvidia or ATI. ATI is the King now for gaming in Windows but is way behind even though it's opensource (in Linux). Nvidia can work on either platform but the potential is still best in Windows. For Linux, you need Wine for the gaming, I think, but I don't game so you can check by googling it.

[McCreary]

Go to Distrowatch and choose some distros and download the LiveCD or LiveDVD which will be an image (i.e. ISO). Then you can try it on your current computer without writing to the drive yet.

OpenOffice can be installed from a software package that is available in the distro's repository.

I don't know about Skype on Linux but it's available. There are Winamp equivalents for Linux. Linux includes security software or it can be downloaded and installed. Firefox 3 or equivalent is on most distros now. Or, again, it can be downloaded and installed.

It's hit or miss with Logitech cams as far as I know.

For your printer, it is probably supported. It might be this:
OpenPrinting database - Printer: HP PhotoSmart C5200

I suggest you dual boot and include Windows for your gaming needs. Linux has gaming abilities but it's not up to par with Windows yet. It might also depend on which card you use, Nvidia or ATI. ATI is the King now for gaming in Windows but is way behind even though it's opensource (in Linux). Nvidia can work on either platform but the potential is still best in Windows. For Linux, you need Wine for the gaming, I think, but I don't game so you can check by googling it.

Thanks for the info. Yes, the only reason I've continued using Windows is because I game, my work stays at work, so all I need the computer for is my budget, email, internet, and gaming. Painless stuff, except gaming. But with windows being on the fritz suddenly and for no logical reason, I've decided to give linux, and gaming on linux, a try. I do have an Nvidia card, and I've heard their drivers tend to work better anyhow. Well, I've just finished putting the image of Mandriva onto a CD, so I'll be shutting down now and beginning my linux journey. Thank god my wife bugged me about a laptop, so when I completely mess this up, I'll still have internet to beg for help.

[McCreary]

Well, I got distracted from my install, but. . .

I'm posting this using Firefox in Mandriva One!

The whole process took about 5 minutes once I rebooted. Pretty painless, but I think I'm running this off of my CD. How can I tell?

[McCreary]

Okay, so I was running off of the CD, and I did get it installed. Whoever had the idea of putting an install icon on the desktop is a genius.

[kostasan]

Open Office comes preinstalled in Mandriva.
Skype is available in Linux
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009: You don't need it. There are only a few hundred viruses in Linux compared to 100.000 in Windows. Statistically it is more possible to get infected by 500 viruses in windows before you get one in Linux. Still you can install klamav and scan you pc once a month to be absolutely sure.
Firefox comes preinstalled.
Xfire and ventrillo seem not ready yet linuX-gamers.net - Xfire plugin for Gaim - Tools - News
But some have figured it out apparently
YouTube - Linux + Beryl + CSS + Ventrilo + Xfire

Check out this link for installing xfire using wine. The instructions are for Ubuntu, but they should work for Mandriva as well. Instead of synaptic use Mandriva's package manager.

Winamp developers REFUSE to port Winamp to Linux and MacOS, because they say it is depending heavily on windows libraries and APIs So use Amarok which is better than Winamp and will be ported to windows, cause its libraries (qt4) can be used in any OS. When that happens i will tell everyone i know to use Amarok on Windows; developers refusing to port programs should get a lesson!
Enough of my rant...
For games check the following, which are open source: Nexuiz, openarena, alienarena, astromenace

[Timberwolf5578]

Okay, so I was running off of the CD, and I did get it installed. Whoever had the idea of putting an install icon on the desktop is a genius.

Good job choosing Mandriva over Ubuntu. I was not at all impressed with Ubuntu even though it is hyped so much. IMO, Mandriva is a much more polished and nicer distro. I have heard good things about SUSE also. I downloaded SUSE, but didn't bother installing it because Mandriva is so good.