As a complete newbie, I recommend Xandros. They have a commercial version and free version. I recommend downloading the free version and giving it a run. I never could get me dell internal modem to work but I was going to a cable modem anyway so it was no loss. KDE/Debian based so it is very easy to use. The only thing I use
MS for is money. There is an Linux version but I don't have the will right now to setup all the data.

http://www.xandros.com/products/home/desktop/dsk_oc_download.html

The only real benefit to the paid version is the full speed CD burning.

Xiamiam Evolution (Outlook email) can be download separately.

http://www.novell.com/products/evolution/

Mozilla (Explorer Web Browser)

http://www.mozilla.org/

Openoffice (MS office {spreadsheet, word, presentation, etc.})

http://www.openoffice.org/

( A little story about Openoffice: I took my MS PowerPoint presentation written at work and made modification in OpenOffice and saved it as PowerPoint presentation (it defaulted to PowerPoint) at work I gave my presentation from PowerPoint.) No problems.

Other Linux versions you might want to try are:

Fedora (Red Hat) Standard and leading edge gnome base

http://fedora.redhat.com/

Also, look into it's main competitor SUSE (KDE/Debian):

http://www.suse.com/us/private/index.html

OpenOffice and Mozilla can also run on top of windows so you can give them a try to get flavor of what Linux is like.

All the others I think are for more hacker types.

Generally speaking if you want easy use stick to a debian based distribution

I'm using Mandrake 10.0 since May. (I was a total newbee.) I dual-boot XP and Mandrake. It's been a good product for me to transition from Windows to Linux. (Quite a learning curve for me...but now I'm "getting it") I didn't have a fast internet connection so I bought my distros from Cheapbytes website for something like 6 bucks.

My Dimention 4600 has an internal Win Modem (Dell's default offering) that I understand all Linux distros have difficulty with because of the inherient reliance on the Windows software. All I know is I couldn't get mine working on Linux. I decided to buy a new external modem (hardware modem) and eveything else worked OK.

Good luck,

Jon

Running happily debian unstable

Mandrake is nice for beginners, but all the rpm package scheme (redhat, mandrake and cie) is way back behing debian package management.

Thanks to all the people who responded with suggestions. I was hoping I would get multiple people suggesting the same distribution. Now I've got 4 different distributions to consider. It's a good start.

While I was waiting for replies to my post I decided to download the KNOPPIX distribution. I've downloaded it and burned a CD. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I picked KNOPPIX because I did some searches and found what I think is a reference to my Dell TrueMobile 1180 USB adapter in the KNOPPIX documentation. So I'm hoping the adapter will work with this distribution.

Does anyone know if the 1180 adapter will work with this distribution or any other distribution? That was one of my original questions which is still unanswered.

The adapter I have is, I believe, the first generation 1180 adapter. It doesn't have the flip up antenna that the newer ones seem to have. The label on the box is "Dell TrueMobile 1180 USB". On the bottom of the adapter it says "Model: WL-683D".

I dual booted and tried out red hat 9.

I'm still new to linux, but I mess around with it whenever i get a chance

Uhm i think redhat is far from being the best disribution.
If u wish rpm based distro, choose mandrake, which has far more better support. Redhat is said to have a little more stability (for server), but all default settings, environment are a pain in the ... And Redhat is kind of dead for end user since no more support.

For newcomers, i would suggest mandrake for its ease of use and excellent hardware support. i moved to debian after becoming expiremented and getting fed up with rpm packaging system

Running Debian unstable / KDE

Dears,
just give "Kanotix" a try.
Kanotix is a live CD distro based on Debian. It configured my network, sound and
Fritz!Card DSL on my DELL Dimension 8400 without problems. It comes with kernel
2.6.8 and is quite fast.
The clue: after getting all the hardware to work use the HDD installer script and
it installs Kanotix as a Debian (sid) Distro onto the HDD in less than 3/4 hour,
complete with apache, Mozilla and OpenOffice, an all the above configured hardware
running.

After doing it, I turned my back to SuSE, which I was using 3 years before...

Only the BIOS has to be switched to "Combination Mode" to let Linux recognize
the HDD. With this mode on Windows wont start unless you switch back to real
SATA mode. Not a problem for me, as I use Win very seldom an are more fixed on
Linux.
ciao
_omega_ from Germany

Based on Basset9078's recommendation, I downloaded xandros-201-ocd-installation.zip, unzipped it, burned to a CD, and installed it.

The resolution on my Dimension 4600 with an Intel 82865G Graphics Controller cannot be set to anything but 640 x 480. How would I change it? Would I need to download another driver?

If this can't be changed, I would like to remove Xandros Linux from my system. I would need to uninstall the program, restore the Windows XP partition to the entire drive, and have the computer boot to Windows XP only. How would I accomplish this?

Thank you,
Daniel

Also,

Check out the Forum:

http://www.xandros.com/support/forums.html

http://forums.xandros.com/

Good sources for information, tips and tricks.

A little tip be sure you can always access the root (Administrator). (get a password you can't forget)

FYI. I also have Xandros on my 64mb ram HP. I don't know of any other distro that does that.

Good luck!