Vista Blows - Need help converting to Linux

[TuxicSkillz]

Hey guys I recently bought an Alienware m9750 for college and Vista is severely slowing it down.

I'd like to wipe Vista off of it and downgrade to XP

I'd also like to dual boot with a full-fledged Linux distro and run off my BackTrack3 disk for hacking/pen testing

What distro do you recommend?

I'm fairly knowledgeable of computers, just not Linux

I'd prefer it to be free and not require prior knowledge of Linux to run easily (doesn't need commands in the shell to run, has good GUI similar to XP)

Thanks,
Tux

[Kieren]

Hello TuxicSkillz

This is a common question and has been answered in a sticky. Have a quick read of http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...e-posting.html

Personally I would recommend Ubuntu, it's very usable for new comers

[TuxicSkillz]

Thanks for the recommendation as well as the link

Usually I just receive the former on forums

[techieMoe]

Hey guys I recently bought an Alienware m9750 for college and Vista is severely slowing it down.

I'd like to wipe Vista off of it and downgrade to XP

I'd also like to dual boot with a full-fledged Linux distro and run off my BackTrack3 disk for hacking/pen testing

Just a tech note: I'd recommend wiping your drive, partitioning it and installing XP first. Leave the extra partition unformatted. When you install Linux you should have the option to use the free space and it will set up the bootloader for you. MS Windows tends to have issues if you try to install it second.

[TuxicSkillz]

Just a tech note: I'd recommend wiping your drive, partitioning it and installing XP first. Leave the extra partition unformatted. When you install Linux you should have the option to use the free space and it will set up the bootloader for you. MS Windows tends to have issues if you try to install it second.

Yeah that was my plan originally

I just didn't word it right in the OP