Which Linux?

[Addanc]

Are you sure you don't have some kind of hardware problem?

WHS.

With regard to graphics openSUSE defaults to using the open source graphics drivers; if you have an nVidia or ATI graphic card there are proprietary drivers available. With the nVidia card it's just a matter of adding the nVidia repository to access the driver (simple); I presume the ATI people do something similar. Intel hardware also has good support since they supply loads of code for their silicon. I purchased my first set of SuSE disk @ 5.3 circa 1998 (still using the 6x CD disk box), consistently good distro.

openSUSE 11.2 (KDE 4.3) tulips all over Windows and MAC

[Addanc]

Prawn and RC highlight important points though, any Linux distro is still a little way from being a stable Desktop OS...

I've got to disagree, I've had it on the desk top for years with no problems. On my dual boot laptop, I haven't got Vista service pack 2 to install successfully yet (comes back with some crappy generic error code); good job that the only thing it gets used for is MS Word for a quick CV format check.

[DimPrawn]

Get a Mac. A big one.

[Spacecadet]

Get a Mac. A big one.

You want fries with that?

[SueEllen]

Linux to me is something to host your server with, any time I have played about with the desktop I think "that is why Gates is rich"

I would use ububtu as that is what I use for my servers. They are all pretty much the same really.

Gates steals his GUI ideas for Windows UI from the windowing software that Unix-based and Linux operating systems use. (Try using KDE )

Also Ubuntu is aiming to capture the netbook market and then the desktop market rather than the server market.

RedHat, SuSe and CentOs are aimed more at the server market.

[Board Game Geek]

Thank you for your valuable input. Call me picky, but I'd like a system which doesn't keep crashing throughout the day, when not doing very much hard work. I didn't buy a quad core system with 8GB of RAM to go through multiple blue screens each day, thanks.

YMMV, but I've had very little trouble with Vista, and virtually no crashes.

If there was a Linux which I could install out of the box, with no need for any configuration, and which would work with all my weird and wonderful hardware, then perhaps, but I somehow doubt it.

Not saying that Windows is perfect, but it's way ahead of the competition, due to resources avaiable.

[NickFitz]

Not saying that Windows is perfect, but it's way ahead of the competition, due to resources avaiable.

Shame Windows doesn't have an integrated spelling checker like OS X - although of course MS wouldn't do that, as it might affect their revenues from Office. Not that the Office spelling checker helps when using non-Office applications.

That's one of the main problems with Windows: MS still see the OS as something to do with the computer rather than the user. As long as they persist in this attitude, their technology will continue to be inferior by design, whatever their intent.

To return to the original question: a friend of mine swears by Ubuntu for everything. However he works for Canonical (who produce Ubuntu) so there's a possibility that he's not entirely unbiased. Still, he'd been using Ubuntu for a number of years before he was hired by Canonical. More to the point, his wife and children have also been using it perfectly happily.

YMMV, IANALG, UART, YHBT, HAND, MSDOS, YWHNB, and all that kind of thing

[TheFaQQer]

As a quick update - I've now been running Ubuntu live CD on this machine for 1 day 11 hours 7 minutes (and counting) with no crashes. There was no way I got that out of Windows 7.

Also, Ubuntu has now automatically recognized two of the three monitors (hasn't picked up graphics card 2 yet), so the worst case scenario seems to be that I'll have to struggle by with 2 monitors rather than 3.

Will leave it running for a few more days before I go for a real install, but from here it seems to be working OK.

[TheFaQQer]

YMMV

Obviously, it does - hence my original post detailing the volume of crashes I get from Windows with my normal and standard hardware.

Not saying that Windows is perfect, but it's way ahead of the competition, due to resources avaiable.

YMMV, but if you have an OS that keeps crashing, then it is somewhat behind the competition, regardless of the resources available.

[Cliphead]

As a quick update - I've now been running Ubuntu live CD on this machine for 1 day 11 hours 7 minutes (and counting) with no crashes. There was no way I got that out of Windows 7.

Also, Ubuntu has now automatically recognized two of the three monitors (hasn't picked up graphics card 2 yet), so the worst case scenario seems to be that I'll have to struggle by with 2 monitors rather than 3.

Will leave it running for a few more days before I go for a real install, but from here it seems to be working OK.

Try out the Mint 8 Live CD before commiting to Ubuntu, as I mentioned before it's Ubuntu based but much better all round.