Ok, I don't want to create an argument here, but I know that there are linux users on the site and I would value any feedback. As I have mentioned on a different post, I am looking at building a new computer and I am sorely tempted to use linux as the OS. I have been pointed towards mandrake (least that's what I think it was called).

Anyway, I gather that linux is more stable, etc than w*ndows, but my concern is how many programs am I going to lose? I am vaguely aware that there are certain emulators, binaries, whatever which can help run some windows programs and that some programs have linux versions, but I am completely ignorant of the details.

I don't want to have a great OS but not be able to actually run anything. Also, I have heard that games can be a problem. Do any users here have any feedback that would be useful to me. I am aware that I need to research this further, but I would appreciate any opinions from people here.

you will lose lots :-( the only reason that i am not using linux right now is because i lose programs such as all my games, and photoshop. but there are alternatives. I suggest this website http://www.mandrakeusers.org hang around there for a while and you will learn lots about linux, especially mandrake,

^what he said
I recommend possibily keeping windows and installing linux on another partition or even better another hard drive untill you get used to it and get all the software you enjoy??

Yes, I'll have to look at partitioning the drive and find out about dual boot.

Thanks for the feedback.

Definitely partition the drive, also I'd recommend suse linux...I believe it's the right up there with mandrake as the best linux at the moment. My friend uses it and has found it quite suitable.

Also if you've never used linux before be prepared...it isn't windows...it may try and autodetect your hardware but most of the time it forgets one important thing. Earlier said friend has used four different linux versions and never got all his hardware to work right off the bat. Usually it's sound or modem. So, I guess the point of this is, that you need to be able to work the konsole (which is like playing with an improved DOS for windows)[aka sometimes linux have control panels that don't work as well as they should].

Reccomend partition magic for the partitioning, worked great for me for years.

If you've not bought the hardware for your machine yet then I'd take some time to make sure that what you get is well supported by the linux kernel. You'll be pretty safe if you get name-brand quality components. The main components to make note of are the sound, video, and network chipsets. If they are all supported well by the kernel then you'll have a pretty easy time getting everything autoconfigured during the installation of Linux. The problems usually come when you have obscure hardware that doesn't have a good driver in Linux or which the manufacturer hasn't released enough information to facilitate the writing of such a driver.

You won't need to worry about partioning since one comes with the Linux installer. You can just tell it to save some free space so that you can install Windows on the hard drive later.

Thanks. I've been looking into it. All the components I have in mind are good ones - I'll check them out further. I've heard some good things about CrossOffice as well - apparently both Photoshop and Dreamweaver run well on it, as well as many other applications. Then there is Wine of course. I'll carry on researching.

I realise it will be much more difficult in some respects than just slapping XP on there, but then I do like to make things awkward for myself.