[Gandhi]

Download Ubuntu image from here - Download | Ubuntu and follow the steps. You don't have to install it to try it out, it can run from the CD itself.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by sanagg1

I am thinking of trying Linux for the first time and need help in this regard please give me some pointers

Before we all bombard you with our favorite distros, can you please us your requirement? Will you use this as your personal desktop or office desktop or office server for some special purpose, etc.

[Abes]

I have been on & off the Genome version of Mint Linux, which is based on Ubuntu. Never actually got to installing it on the hard disk, it runs perfectly well from a USB flash disk with persistent boot.

[Neilguy]

I primarily use Ubuntu 10.10 on my laptop (dual boot Win7), Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.10 on my netbook(dual boot Win XP) and Debian linux on my HP 2120 NAS.

I tried quite a few linux distros earlier including Mandriva, Fedora, Mint, openSUSE and Kubuntu but finally settled on Ubuntu for the ease of use but mainly for the awesome community support. I've also managed to convince my wife (80%) and my mom completely into using Ubuntu primarily and they have taken to it like a fish takes to water.

[Spitfire]

RHEL and SLES. Official use.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

spitfire - how is the support?

[Spitfire]

Novell good. RHEL historically has been ok. This is enterprise level.

[kcnetid]

Started with redhat in 1999.
Was with RH on desktop/laptop till about 3 yrs back. SUSE for about 6 months.

Have used Ubuntu since about 3 yrs on my laptop. Ubuntu is great for avg. joe. i.e. never have to use CLI for anything.

[kala]

Started with Slackware in 1996, moved to Redhat, then Fedora, then to Ubuntu from version 6.06 onwards (2006) till lucid (2010) and now on LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) since the last 2 weeks..

[jassi]

used to be fedora many years ago, but I am on ubuntu for the last 4-5 years and specifically ubuntu maverick (10.10) at the moment.
Only crib is no official xbmc release yet for maverick :-) but can use xbmc lucid ppa to make it all work!

[sanagg1]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Before we all bombard you with our favorite distros, can you please us your requirement? Will you use this as your personal desktop or office desktop or office server for some special purpose, etc.

I shall be using in home desktop
My requirements are stable, efficient and reliable lean OS

thanks
Cheers

[jassi]

Originally Posted by jassi

used to be fedora many years ago, but I am on ubuntu for the last 4-5 years and specifically ubuntu maverick (10.10) at the moment.
Only crib is no official xbmc release yet for maverick :-) but can use xbmc lucid ppa to make it all work!

my usage is on the corporate laptop (yes IT hates me, but then right now they are more concerned about the large apple mac population ) and also on home theatre laptop (with bluray n hdmi into Plasma/HT)

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Jassi, can we have the hardware specifications please?

How do you play autio only files?

[jassi]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Jassi, can we have the hardware specifications please?

How do you play autio only files?

the office laptop is lenovo x201 - ubuntu 10.10 64 bit, everything works perfectly fine except for email (evolution/thunderbird/lightning/davmail nothing works error free), and so I have a corp win 7 image on vmware solely for exchange and ppt stuff.

and the home theatre laptop is samsung r580
Features and Specifications - R580 Notebook | Samsung Office
I was running xbmc on top of ubuntu lucid on the HT laptop for all media files, however now waiting for the official version of xbmc for ubuntu maverick.

[sanagg1]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

Download Ubuntu image from here - Download | Ubuntu and follow the steps. You don't have to install it to try it out, it can run from the CD itself.

Thanks
I have downloaded ubuntu 10.10 and window installer and as suggested planning to try it out from USB pendrive (not CD). Hope things are going on in right direction.

Cheers