Totally New, What...

[d18]

I'm totally new, and a friend gave me Freespire,
is this a good starting point, or should I look
elsewhere for a better FREE Download.

T

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Check the link in my signature for lots of good information on getting started with Linux. There are some quizzes there to help you pick a distribution, as well. If you don't like Freespire, you can find lots of others to choose from at DistroWatch.

Hope it all works out well for you.

[jmadero]

I'm biased so I'll be up front about that but....I have installed Ubuntu on several people's computers who are not techies at all (including my mom and my girlfriend who both...have issues with computers) and they both have really enjoyed the switch, my mom doesn't use Windows at all any more, my girlfriend only uses it for proprietary stuff that only works in Windows (I think a couple school programs). I think Ubuntu is the easiest to switch to but Fedora Core and OpenSuse are both very solid as well. I think Freespire is a poor choice for a beginner, mostly because the support base isn't as solid as Ubuntu and the other distros I mentioned (as well as a couple others). Again, I'm a little biased but I could suggest that you try several distros out (you can dual boot easily even tri boot with relative ease). I would try the major distros and just choose after you try them each for a little while (couple weeks is plenty if you are using them every day).

[bigtomrodney]

+1 on Ubuntu. Distro choice is quite personal and you may go through a lot before you find one that suits you - but I have to say for hardware configuration and ease of adding applications and codecs I'd vote for Ubuntu. My mother, father and sister all run it and love it now.

Lots of distros offer similar things to Ubuntu but I find the huge software repositories and simple management of proprietary software/codecs to be the dealbreaker. Once you have a decent internet connection it's great.