I started trying Linux distros about three years ago, gave up over and over. Bought "Linux for Dummies", didn't help much. Bought "Blue Screen of Death" didn't help much. Tried Suse, Mandrake, didn't help much. Went back to Win98SE for my serious work. Serviced Win XP for other people, hated it. Found Ubuntu in Feb. 2006. Now it is my system of choice.

I use it for all my personal stuff excepting my WYSIWYG Web editor for which I still use Win98SE (I like Web Studio, Windows based).

You can go to my Web site and see some of my Linux failures before I found success with Ubuntu and the Gnome Desktop, also how to make a Dual Hard Drive Switch to run two hard drives with two distros each independent of the other.

http://imhdd.ms11.net/
Good luck.
imhdd