I recently had upgraded my PC to a P4, but had restrained from going for a newer hard disk. I some how stuck to my old Segate 40 GB hard disk.
I am about to get a new hard disk, most probably a 80 GB. (Finally, I was able to pool some funds for the purpose).

Now, why am I putting it here on the OS section?

Well, the hard disk space is just the premise. Over that, for past couple of weeks, I have been using this OS called Knoppix that runs off the CD. I was quite impressed. Most of my work can be done on the Knoppix or similar Linux flavored OSes. I can work on almost all documents using Open Office, my 2D artwork using GIMP, my 3D work using Blender. I would require the Windows OS only for playing some of my favorite games, that are only available on Windows.

Anyway, this is what I came up with. As, I am going to go for a new, larger, 80 GB hard disk, why should I not setup a dual boot system. I can, by default use a Linux OS, and only when I feel like playing games, I reboot, switch to Windows XP, and go ahead with my games.

In brief, here is my system configuration:
> Intel P4 1.2 GHz
> 256 MB RAM
> 80 GB Hard disk (coming soon, ;-))

I need to install Windows XP on the other boot, so, my question here is, which Linux should I go for, that would serve my puposes?

I'd suggest you check distrowatch.org all the linux distro's plus there ranks are there and all there info

Personaly i'd suggest Ubuntu or Knoppix but many will disagree.
But thats because we all got a diffrent taste.

Like some only like KDE well Ubuntu has Gnome. You could try Kubuntu but that just aint the same.

Going through all these different distributions (as can be seen in www.distrowatch.org), I got a doubt with respect to compatibility. Let us, for matter of this discussion, talk about a image editor I intend to use: GIMP. Now, would I need to ensure that GIMP would run on Linux distribution I would install? I mean, the GIMP that I can download from their site, would I not be able to run in any distribution?

Often gimp is already in de distribution or can be downloaden from the distro's represetorie.
There no linux distro to my knowledge that doesnt support Gimp.

But to be sure, click on a distro (this link is ubuntu http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu)

Look at the list, it sais it has the latest gimp in there distro.

Well, I always suggest SuSE Linux because it's easy and powerful. It doesn't give you restrictions like Ubuntu and other Debian based distributions. It has a traditional Linux superuser facility which requires you to know the root password in order to do system routines as compared to the Ubuntu way where you just enter the user password instead.


www.opensuse.org

xboxrulz

Gimp, I took as an example. I wanted to know if I can get any Linux program work in any Linux distribution.

One more thing: I am thinking about another problem I might face after migration to Linux environment.

Yesterday, I got myself Knoppix, just so I could recover some files from my crashed hard disk. I put my CD-ROM drive as IDE-1 Primary, Combo drive as IDE-1 Secondary, and the crashed hard disk as IDE-2 Secondary. I booted the system with the Knoppix CD in the CD-ROM drive, and the machine came alive.

Luckily, I had partitioned it, and all my data was in the partitions that were untouched. So, I took all my data and burned it on a CD-RW using the combo drive. Now, I am doubtful.

I do not have a internet connection at home, and I visit net-cafes for the purpose. Now say, I have done some work on my Linux machine, burned it onto a CD. If I come to a net-cafe that is running Windows systems, can I use them to read my CD and upload stuff to the net?

Question if put in simpler terms - are (data) CDs written by Linux readable by Windows?

Yes, there all iso's with the same data. Its not like the cdrom is writting in an linux file system.

Ok. That is a relief. So, basically:

> I can install a Linux program on any distribution after downloading it.
> The data CDs written in Linux can be read by a Windows system, because it is written in a cross-platform format (ISO).

All Linux Software will run on All Linux distro's.

The Major differance between distro's, is the package management ( how new programs are installed )

And what porgrams are installed by default.

Any distro can have the same software as any other distro.

Pick a distro that mates your needs.

for example... some distros are aimed at keeping software up to date.. other distros are more interesting in security..

some distros are more aimed at servers, and some desktops.

and some are all round, a litle of everything, like Fedora / redhat.

Experiment with diferant distros... i used redhat, fedora, then slackware before i found the distro that was right for me... Gentoo !

Thanks qwijibow, that made my doubt quite clear.