Since reading all of the linux stuff lately on this site and a few others, I decided to give it another try with my new laptop and I'll tell you, after playing for the last 24 hours, I am beginning to love it.

I got ubuntu 8.04 up and running and after playing with compiz-fusion, I might be a convert for good.

I'm using it right now as I type this. The graphics are nicer and it runs just as smooth as my xp pro.

A lot of my friends use linux and they say its pretty good. I may give it a shot cause I heard folding works faster on linux as well.

That's what Windows is for. The best option is dual boot using Windows for games and Linux for everything else.

Im planning on dual booting those 2 very soon, just as soon as I get my other 500 gig harddrive back from my friend.

I have tried Linux but I do not like it

ive never found a computer i thought linux would be better for. i need alot of windows software for engineering work. i also like to game. my server runs windows home server.

i have a HTPC and i think thats the only one that would work well with linux, but i got windows keys to spare so whatever.

i have run linux, i just never keep it.

Yes, I have. No, I did NOT like it.

Fedora 9... On a laptop... And my desktop. It broke windows and renamed every freaking drive after CLEARLY telling it to only touch one blank one, and then I had to spend a day cleaning up after it. Screw that <_<

If you're referring to the drive names going from a single letter (C, D, etc) to a different naming convention (by which my assumption is that you looked at the drive names under Linux and gasped), that's just the way Linux organizes the drives and the name is only valid under the OS you're currently using. Under Windows, if the install hadn't broken (sorry about that), you should still see the same drive letters you originally had. It's unfortunate Windows broke on you, being that it sounds like it was a production machine. You run that risk when trying to dual-boot when Windows is already taking up the entire hard drive, which is why it's better to partition the hard drive first before you install each OS. (I assume this is the case, otherwise the Windows install should be fine.) Technically, you can create a new partition out of an already Windows-controlled partition, but it has potential to cause problems and I would never recommend it, unless you don't care if you have to reinstall Windows, assuming you care if it's still around at all.

I can see why you would have a negative view of Linux after the trouble you had, but is there anything specific you didn't like about Linux otherwise? Was it hard to navigate? Couldn't find/install the programs you needed? Most complaints are simply due to a lack of experience and expecting things to be exactly the same as their current OS. Linux is very different, but I consider that a pro rather than a con.

I've read good things about Fedora 9, but I personally haven't played around with Fedora since my first experience with Linux, with Fedora 4. From what I remember, it was NOT newbie-friendly, in addition to being awfully bulky. I suggest giving Linux another try, but just toy around with a distribution that offers a Live CD (Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, etc), where you run absolutely no risk of affecting a production machine.

Come back and post again if you have any additional problems/questions. :) I made some assumptions when trying to understand your problem, so if I misinterpreted, let me know.

I've tried a few different distros and I like them for what they are. I doubt I'll be replacing my main OS with it anytime soon (I like gaming too much), but it works great for specific tasks (like file server or web hosting). I find it's also a great way to breathe new life into old hardware lying around (like my dad's old compaq laptop). I plan on building a carputer in the near future and would like to use a linux distro for it to keep it as small as possible. But linux is becoming alot more friendly to the average joe with distros like ubuntu making setup as easy as windows. I would recommend giving Gentoo a try if you want a minimalistic distro and want a bit of a challenge setting it up. If you haven't given linux a try, you should test it out in a VM to see if you like it.