Well to your first question about what linux distro to chose I'd recomend gentoo, because using gentoo you actually learn how to do things, since the beggining when you are installing it you learn linux. Regarding to your 2nd question I believe that is not true, the windows emulator that your friends says I belive is wine (hmmm and I think it is not even an emulator) or maybe vmware, either of those 2 isn't faster than windows it self, maybe some apps... but in general that is not true, windows programs still run better in windows, what you can do is dual boot between linux and windows, you'll learn that if you are installing gentoo www.gentoo.org

Hope the info helps

BIMBO

Thanks for the help!

Rite now at home i m running a dual-boot winME/winXP system, so i imagine that adding a third OS shuldnt be a problem. My school uses Debian with the windows apps running on VMware, and they don;t seem to run any faster.

Hi, well what I meant by "you learn how to do things" is that you will learn linux, you will learn how things work, why, how to optimize them, how to make a system for your needs, and not a system with everything precompiled (like fedora or mandrake for example). The thing about dual booting... I don't know if the windows boot loader supports linux, the 2 boot loaders used to dual boot linux and windows are lilo and grub, you'll learn that when installing gentoo too (if you choose to, if not, other distros will have it too)

Good luck with your linux install

Hey thanks

Right now I am using Powerquest Bootmagic 8.0, I ll try it out with Gentoo soon.

Another possibility is try out a number of liveCD distros to "get a feel"of what linux is about.

Google "linux livecd" or go to
http://www.linux.org or maybe
http://www.distrowatch.com

StephenW

good point!

thanks