New to Linux Could Use Some Advice

[Circumnavigate]

Hey I am currently using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, I am running a Asus 1215b netbook which has an e-350 processor, 8 gb of DDR3 ram and a SSD hard drive.

I want to switch to Linux, which version should I get? 64 bit Ubuntu?

I plan to use the computer to watch HD videos, browse the web, and do some word processing. The websites I frequent are Khan-Academy.org, wikipedia.org and reddit.com will these website work if I switch to Linux?

[sgosnell]

Websites should be OS-independent, meaning they should work the same with any OS. I'm not a fan of Ubuntu, but lots of people like it. I prefer Debian, and for a newbie, Linux Mint Debian Edition is a good starter for that. The choice of a Linux distro is really a personal one, and I hesitate to make a firm recommendation. They're all free, so try out several and see which you prefer. It's easy enough to install the OS to an SDHC card, and try it out before committing it to the internal drive. Get a card, install the distro of your choice to it, and try it out, then try out another, and when you find the one you like best, install it to the SSD. While you're trying them out, you still have Windows on the SSD as a fallback. Linux will run a little more slowly from the SDHC than from the SSD, but it's not a horrible experience.

[MASONTX]

Just make sure you download the 64 bit edition to match the amount of ram you have. Ubuntu, Mint, Lubuntu, and a number of other beginner linux distro's would fit your needs. Go to distrowatch.com and search beginner and 64 bit, and it will give you a list of available distro's.

[Bemk]

I personally prefer Linux-mint, and after 4 years I can genuinely say I'm not a newbie. I just like how it comes with everything I need (except for software development tools) pre-installed.

You could also go for Ubuntu. It now has a new interface. A lot of the more advanced users are complaining about Unity now, somehow, but I think for someone new to Linux it's a very warm welcome.

There might also be other interesting newbie distro's out there, but I'd go searching for them at distrowatch.