First Linux Load

[kilauea]

Welcome to Linux Matt!

Just about any of the distributions (distros) are very easy to load now.
Things have come a long way in the last few years regarding user
friendliness. You may want to visit Cheapbytes, they have just about all
of the distros at very low prices. These are unofficial distros so they
don't provide support (if you don't need it, why pay for it). There are
other low price outlets and I only mention Cheapbytes because I have
used them without troubles. At a few dollars per distro, you can order
several and they all have install scripts that automate the process and
remove most of the guess work.

If you get stuck you can always ask here if you can't find the answers
in the documentation provided (RTFM). O'Reilly has excellent books on
several areas of Linux and GNU software; Running Linux might be a good
first choice. The Linux Documentation Project also has items on just
about every aspect of Linux and they can be read online or downloaded
for free. Documentation can also be found in your /usr/doc directory for
individual software packages. Usenet has several newsgroups devoted to
Linux although it is easy to get lost in the traffic on usenet.

Some of the official distros provide support services as part of the
price. I know that Redhat does but you pay a few dollars more for it
(still way, way, way cheaper than microsloth). With most of the distros,
you need to remember that they provide server software as well as
desktop software. Unless you intend to use the machine for a server you
should turn off unneeded services for security purposes. 

To get a feel for what's going on in the Linux community you might want
to visit Newsforge and the Linux Journal. 


Cheapbytes is at http://www.cheapbytes.com/
O'Reilly is at http://www.ora.com/
Linux Documentation Project is at http://www.linuxdoc.org/
Newsforge is at http://www.newsforge.com/
Linux Journal is at http://www.linuxjournal.com/

Linux Doc Project is not coming up now for me just now (?).

Web pages for the distributions are:

RedHat is at http://www.redhat.com/
Mandrake is at http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/
SuSE is at http://www.suse.com/index_us.html
Debian is at http://www.debian.org/
Slackware is at http://www.slackware.org/
Caldera is at http://www.caldera.com/

I ran RedHat and Caldera so many years ago that my opinion on them by
now would be uninformed. Slackware might not be the best choice for a
new user although I like it.