Linux Gurus: I am thinking of switching to Linux...what is a good variant/release?

I swore by Ubuntu; no partitioning work then get a second hard drive, dedicate THAT drive (don't make a mistake of using the XP drive) for Ubuntu installation.

It will take care of boot sector automatically by default as long as XP is another bootable OS.

Try Live running for few days before install to HD.

whilst changing from one OS to a distinctive (Linux, MAC), I constantly ask "Is there buddies making use of (Linux,Mac) many times once you run into hardship you ask your acquaintances for help maximum suitable?? you could twin partition/boot Linux for Lerning objective yet i might reccomend a million step added.... Get a detachable hard disk drive equipment (below $20) get yet another hard disk drive (no longer too great) and shipment linux on it. That way, you will nevertheless have a completly secure living house windows XP hard disk drive and a linux hard disk drive you do what you please and no difficulty approximately affecting living house windows XP.. it is acouple of dollars greater, yet you earnings secure practices by making use of understanding you will no longer harm your XP and nevertheless be studying approximately Linux and whilst waiting make the completed leap to linux/Mac.. execs/Cons of linux relies upon on what you purpose to apply it for. whilst making the leap, look at utility available for linux.. does the sport you like are available Linux? applications you employ?? driving force help for units?? do some homework and notice if it suits for you... Anywho desire this facilitates

Did you say total security?! if you want total security I'd highly recommend Open BSD 3.9 instead of Linux it is absolutley the most kick *** secure os you can download on the Internet for free but it's alot of hard work to setup as a desktop because you have to recompile and setup everything yourself. My brother uses it as his primary OS and runs Winxp under vmware on it works great no problems.

http://www.openbsd.org/

It can also be set up as a hardware firewall/router on
a computer with two ethernet cards:

http://sofi-firewall.sourceforge.net/


Another one I'd recommend is DesktopBSD this is way easier
to install for someone who is a novice to unix I like it:

http://www.desktopbsd.net/index.php?id=37

You can't make it dual boot without partitioning because they use different file systems.

Ubuntu Linux is a very popular and easy to use distribution. See link.

For starters. Try Ubuntu. You should NOT have a problem with that. its simple, easy, and fast. There are many variations like, linspire, freespire, gentoo, mandrake, redhat, etc.

ive been asked this question alot and ive suggested Ubuntu (ubuntoo) the most, and received praise for it.

Edit, be careful when dual booting with it. Select a seperate partition, because Ubuntoo (along with 90% of linux dist. use ETC3/ETC4 file systems. windows uses NTFS, so if you overwrite windows, it will be installed, jsut cant access it.)

hope it helps

I would recommend Ubuntu for begginers
also for advanced users that know their way around linux Gentoo is a great choice.

Red Hat